It's a DieCember Blog Hop With Simon Says Stamp!

Hey Guys!

Welcome to my stop on the Simon Says Stamp, DieCember Blog Hop!

If you're following along, you should've arrived here from the amazing, Heather Hoffman and her blog, Houses Built of Cards. If you'd like to start at the beginning of the hop, click here to go to Simon's blog.

I'm so glad DieCember is here! It's an awesome month, filled with inspiration, fabulous fun and lots of brand new dies from Simon Says Stamp!

I was sent some new dies to play with and I'm excited to share my cards with you but first, we need to take care of some important stuff! 

Right now, through December 29th, 11:59pm EST, and while supplies last, Simon is giving away this adorable stamp set FREE with ANY purchase! Whoop! Just use code: DCMBR27 at checkout.

Also, did you know Simon has card galleries on their blog where you can link up your cards for everyone to see? There is so much inspiration in each gallery and there's a new one just for DieCember products! You can find that one here. If you've used any Simon brand product on your creations, head over to the galleries and choose the one that coincides with the products you've used, then link it up! You can link to your blog, Instagram, Flickr or even Facebook, as long as your post is set to "public."

 Simon Brand Galleries

And one more thing. Simon is giving away a $25 gift card from the comment sections of every stop along the hop! Just leave a comment to enter! They'll announce the winners on their blog December 12th!

Whew! Now that all the business is taken care of, let's get to some inspiration! By the way, I recently realized, I've totally become a clean and simple cardmaker. Or maybe I always was? Lol! You'll see what I mean when ya start scrolling down.

All products used are listed below in the affiliate links at no cost to you.

For my first card, I used the adorable new, Big Picture Book Otter. He is just the cutest! I first tried coloring him with Copics but didn't love it, so I made another one, using the same design but with sparkly cardstock instead.

My next card uses the beautiful die called, Ice Skating Girl. I love her! I die cut her three different times, in neutral cardstocks and offset them just a bit to give her some motion. And do you see that pretty edge on the right? That's another new die called, Bixby Border. I thought it was perfect for the skater.

 
Here's another Big Picture Book die - the Cinnamon Bun. Gah! Isn't it fun?! I left this one really simple too, just adding some embossed lines on the bottom and a large sentiment at the top. I did a bit of coloring with Zig Markers and used Glossy Accents for some shine on the frosting.

 
I love how this next one turned out! Very CAS again. The Bixby Background die is so pretty! And blue and purple always look beautiful together, don't ya think?

 
Okay, last one. This die is called, Mod Leaf Oval and it's a beauty! I used two Distress Oxide Inks for the background - Tumbled Glass and Bundled Sage - love how pretty they look together! Once again, I offset two dies, one cut in white and one cut in a light blue cardstock.

That's it for me - I hope I've given you some inspiration for DieCember! Next up on the hop is the very talented, Laurie Willison and her blog, Soapbox Creations.

Thanks so much for stopping by! ♥

DieCember Products:

  Other products used:

SSS Fun and Festive Release!

Hey guys!

I'm back with another release from Simon Says Stamp and it's fantastic! It's called, Fun and Festive and it really is just that! 

This release is filled with so many awesome products for your holiday cardmaking! You can click here to check out all the new goodies, or click the products listed below, in the affiliate links.

I've got lots of cards to share with you today, created with some of the new release products, which were so generously sent to me.

My first card uses the adorable, Big Picture Book Puppy Die and a new stencil called, Lined Circles.

I cut the puppy from white cardstock and colored him using Copic Markers. I love his sweet, little tongue sticking out! I used some coordinating colors of Distress Inks to ink up the stencil for a fun background.

And since I had some ink left over on the stencil, I added a little more, then spritzed it with a bit of water, placed it carefully over another white panel and pressed gently all around. The results of this technique are always cool!

The sentiment on the card above is from another new die called, You're So Kind. I love that it cuts out a perfect strip so you can use the negative or positive die cuts, by themselves, or use both, like I did.

My next card uses a beautiful set called, Mele Kalikimaka. In case you couldn't guess, that's Hawaiian for Merry Christmas. This set has a gorgeous wreath image, filled with shells and a big bow.

I wanted to keep this one soft and pretty so I used very light-colored Copic markers with just a hint of shading and some added sparkle for the bow. There are so many other techniques you could use with this stamp set!

There's also a delightful new stamp set called Winter Scene and it is so fun to play with!

I added an extra, snowy hill so I could fit more of the adorable images onto my card and colored everything with Copics.

And this, Snowflake Tags die is a must for quick and easy gift tags for your smaller packages! These dies cut out a snowflake, which you can use separately, so of course I wanted to use them on a card too.

Two simple tags on the right but I used Alcohol Inks for the background of my card, adding some beautiful shimmer here and there, by just rubbing a small piece of foil onto the still sticky portions of the Alcohol Inked panel. I then cut the snowflakes from vellum and adhered them, adding coordinating sequins for a finishing touch. I love how it turned out!

I hope I've given you some inspiration on how to use some of the products from this fabulous new release! 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I really appreciate it! ♥