Simon Says (Monday) - Have a Heart

Hi everyone,

I can scarcely believe it, but January is almost over and today is my 4th and final week as Guest Designer for the  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. As they say, time really does fly when you’re enjoying yourself!

This week’s theme is

Have a Heart

The lovely folks over at Simon Says Stamp are generously giving away a FABULOUS $25 voucher to shop at the  Simon Says Stamp Store! All you have to do is take out your crafty supplies, make something following this week’s prompt, and add a link in the Inlinkz  on the challenge blog post!  You can enter 5 times so that's 5 possible chances to win! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance - good luck everyone!

Here’s my final Designer Spotlight card for this week’s challenge (links to my supplies are below the description). 

I was delighted to discover that Simon Says Stamp stocks products by one of my favourite UK designers, Tracy Evans Boutique Designs, so I just had to use them for this make which was inspired by some techniques used by Tracy herself in recent designs.

I cut a 5 1/2” square of stamping card, drew round the heart mask from Tracy Evans Snippet Stencil SS12 “Heart” onto masking paper to create an adhesive mask, then spritzed the card with water and daubed Distress Oxide inks around the mask with a fine paintbrush. I continued to daub and spritz until I was happy with the colour distribution, then I flicked water droplets onto it using my Tim Holtz distress splatter brush and dabbed with kitchen roll to create a mottled effect. I dried the panel and removed the mask, then stamped the large and small flowers from TE5 Clematis using Twilight Versafine Clair. 

I coloured the flowers using watered down Distress Oxide inks and added highlights with a fine white Posca pen. I then added some 2nd generation background stamping using TE16 Artsy Alphas/Numbers in Very Peri VFC and TE11 Background Elements in Twilight. I stamped some hanging hearts in the top left corner from TE6 Branched Heart and some teeny hearts in shades of purple from TE10 Quirky Birds, then added more white Posca highlights and also drew around the heart with a grey pencil and blended out with a water brush to add a bit more depth.

 I stamped a sentiment frame from TE32 Alpha Florals onto a separate snippet of white card and stamped part of a sentiment from TE5 Clematis inside the frame, then attached with 2 little birds from TE30 Garden Elements sitting on top. To finish I added some white Posca spatters and matted onto black and lavender card stock and a 7” square card blank.

Here are links to what I used:

Stamps: Tracy Evans Boutique Designs TE5 Clematis, TE6 Branched Heart, TE10 Quirky Birds, TE11 Background Elements, TE16 Artsy Alphas/Numbers, TE30 Garden Elements, TE32 Alpha Florals;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Villainous Potion, Wilted Violet, Shaded Lilac, Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean); Versafine Clair (Twilight, Very Peri, Lilac Bloom, Monarch, Nocturne); Posca pen PC1M (white);

Tools: Tracy Evans Boutique Designs Snippet Stencil SS12 - Heart; Tim Holtz Distress splatter brush.

Don’t forget to visit the challenge blog to see the amazing inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.

You have until Monday 8am Ohio time (EST), 1pm UK time (GMT), 2 pm CET to join in.

Challenges I would like to enter: 

613 Avenue Create (January) - Anything Goes

Beautiful Blossoms #25 - Anything Floral Goes

Classic Design Challenge #1 2025 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #285 - Anything Goes with option Love Is In the Air

Festive Friday (January) - Use Blue (3rd entry)

Love to Craft #84 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Paper Funday #72 - Anything Goes with option Monochrome

Snippets Playground #498 - Use Snippets with option Love Is In the Air

(Sentiment stamped onto small snippet of white card, and larger snippets used for black  (my last large snippet!!) and lavender matting)

We Love 2 Create #2 2025 - Anything Mixed Media/Papercrafting Goes

Word Art Wednesday #683/684 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

I’d like to finish off today by saying a huge thankyou to Lols and all on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for having me in the Designer Spotlight for January - it’s been amazing and a huge amount of fun!

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,