simon says blog hop...with a giveaway

Hello and welcome to Simon Says Stamp's Blog Hop!! I am so excited to be participating with all of Simons's talented friends and showcasing the beautiful  new collection of exclusive dies from Simon Says Stamp!!  I have two cards to share and a mini tutorial for you today. You may be arriving from Lisa Spangler's blog here. (Lisa is so creative... I love hanging out with her...she even more fun than her cards!!) OR If you want to start at the beginning of the hop go here to Simon Says Stamp's BLOG  (if you get lost there will be a complete list of the designers participating in this fun hop)

EACH designer will be giving away one of their favorite dies soooooo lots of opportunities to win thanks to Simon Says Stamp !!! I will be giving away this die below to a random winner next Wednesday. All you have to do is leave a comment on my blog.
If you purchase a die and win the same one you will be fully reimbursed. 

I am in love with the these die cut words and the endless possibilites so I wanted to create a background by embossing just the word "brilliant" several times. The gradient color on the background was created with distress ink, water and some shimmer mist. I used this thick water color paper, die cut my shape with a Spellbinder die then TAPED THE BACK so my words wouldn't fall out after "die cutting" the words. (note: I lined up the die several times in a line on the center of the card.) 

I sprayed my birdcage (love these wood die cuts from Kaiser) & the background with my favorite shimmer mist. I like it because it dries clear on my project...not hazy. Die cut the word Brilliant again and apply it to the background with a dot of glossy accents in a few spots on the back of the word. Dot the "I"'s  with Enamel Accents.

I used Rusty Hinge, Ripe Persimmon and Aged Mahogany to achieve the gradient look on my background. After saturating my paper I blotted some of the color off with a paper towel and the end result was a beautiful blended background.  

I used the same technique that I use on the word "Brilliant" with these beautiful corner dies called, "Allegro" (die cut, flip carefully and tape down so the flourish doesn't fall out, distress) I wanted matching twine so I used my distress ink to color this neutral twine. 

Using Scrap Dots is essential since my Penny Black butterfly sits between the background and the birdcage. 

READY FOR CARD NUMBER TWO???

I wanted to show you that using the die cut as your background  on plain white is so pretty and a great way to make a fast card. The dotted boarder die was a left over from this card. 

I love flowers so I just had to use this die called, "Delicate Dahlia" for the blog hop and there is a  "Outline Dahlia" to go underneath. You can see it to the right of my Dahlia. I cut petals on the outline to give my flower more dimension. I colored them both with Copic markers. You might notice that I left some of the center parts of the die intack in my dahlia. I used super thick watercolor paper so the petals wound't fall out easily. 

Just had to share a close up. My wonderful friend and neighbor picks me up buttons from her estate sale visits. This yummy purple button is one of her finds. Yes..I know I am a lucky girl :)

One last tip..I colored my word, distressed the top half ONLY. I proceeded to dip my word in embossing ink then embossed with clear powder. If you read all the way to the bottom I am impressed...and thank you. Thanks for your visit and I hope you will be back. Hugs, Kathy 
Now ... It's time to hop on over to the talented Linda Trace's blog here.

Card SUPPLIES :

InLinkz.com