simon says stamp: sunny days ahead blog hop day 1

Hi there crafty friends! It's time for another Simon Says Stamp release – Sunny Days Ahead. Sounds like something we could all use right about now. These stamps and dies are all about the moms and grads…and anyone who could use a fun congrats. There are so many great stamps and dies to choose from and you can see the entire new release HERE. Please note the banner above – if you place your order anytime between now and 4/26 at 11:59 EDT and use the code SSSINK, a free Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink will be included with your order while supplies last 🙂 This is the first day of the hop and there are SO many amazing designers hopping today with tons of inspiration. Be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 2 of the hop, with another round of awesome designers.

Simon Says stamp is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop randomly selected from the comments, so be sure to live a little love below for your chance to win. The winners will be announced on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday, the 29th of April. You should have arrived here today from the blog of the wonderfully talented Barb Engler….

Today I have made a few different cards for you. I love playing around with different styles of cards using new products. For my 3 cards today, I have used the new CZ Design Extra Large Congrats on all of my cards in 3 different ways.

For the first card, I combined the Extra Large Congrats with a graduation cap patterned background that I stamped using the caps from the Hats off Grad set. I stamped the caps in a pattern with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink and then outlined them with a Cool Grey 2 Copic Marker. I cut the words out with white cardstock and Simon Says Stamp Black Glitter Cardstock. Super easy!

For the second card, I used the tulip background to make a more generic Congrats card by embossing the Tulip Background with gold embossing powder and coloring them in with watercolors from the Prima Pastel Dreams watercolor set. I cut the Extra Large Congrats from white and Gold Glitter cardstock on this one to give it a more elegant look.

I couldn't NOT make a rainbow card. For this card I paired the Extra Large Congrats with a rainbow background. To make this background, I created a rainbow panel with some Distress Oxide Blending in all my favorite rainbow colors, then stamped over it with the Diagonal Stripes background. For this card, I cut the sentiment out of black and white cardstock.

The next stop on the hop is the blog of the amazing Lea Lawson, please hop on over to see what she has created for you today!