lauralooloo: The Latest Holiday Inspiration from Simon Says Stamp . . .And Everything Nice!

Sometimes it just feels good to get ink on your hands...and maybe a few splashes of watercolor...a spritz of shimmer, and maybe even a splatter of paint. Today's holiday cards got a little artsy, but the good news is that whether it's your style or not, today's products lend themselves to every style from clean and simple to layered and messy, and it's all brand new (and SUPER CUTE) from Simon Says Stamp. Let's take a look at this new holiday collection, called And Everything Nice!

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Both of today's cards begin with the same background, the Leafy Double Garland Embossing Folder. This is a great background for holiday and winter card making. I went BOLD for these backgrounds, but this would also be beautiful as a subtle texture behind a clean and simple holiday card. After embossing a piece of watercolor paper, I used watercolor paints as well as Simon Hurley Solar Spray, and Spellbinders Splatter White to add all kinds of messy color to this background.

Here's a TIP: When working with watery paints, keep your heat gun or a hair dryer handy to quickly dry sections if paint starts running or blending where you don't want it to! Sometimes even a quick dab with a tissue is helpful if it your artsy gets a little too fartsy. ;)

To finish this card, I added the new Brilliant Cardinal die, as well as a heat embossed sentiment from Stacked Holiday Sentiments.

This closeup photo shows the pearly shimmer of the Solar Sprays nicely! Such a fun fancy detail!

Next up, same background, and same colors but I started out a little different. For this card, I actually put some watercolor straight onto the embossing folder, sandwiched my watercolor paper in, and carefully put it through my die-cutting machine. This presses the color right into the paper. It wasn't quite enough color, so then I went back and added more paint, water, and then Solar Spray, plus another sentiment from Stacked Holiday Sentiments. This time I added the sentiment onto vellum.

Here's a TIP! If there's a bit too much background showing through, add a second layer of vellum to make the words pop. Another vellum tip - staples are a great way to adhere vellum to a card, with no pesky adhesive to hide!

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you're feeling inspired to get your hands a little messy and embrace the spritzy, splattery, shimmery side of the holidays!