Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge -Circles!

June 04, 2017

Hi y'all!

I'm back with a card for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Circles.

I struggled with this challenge. To be honest, I had way too many ideas and none of them seemed to work out. When I create for a challenge, I try to draw out some ideas with the stamps and dies I have. I had a bunch of ideas for this one. But when I went to make them, the reality was definitely not as exciting as the fantasy. My final attempt (which consisted of me huffing and puffing because NOTHING was going my way) turned to to be this card, which I love! Perfect for my male co-workers birthday.

So, as every stamp set I have has a story behind it, these circles are part of a larger geometric set put out by Stampin' Up in like 2002. That is the date on the wooden stamp at least. This is my first Stampin' Up set, so I don't know if the dates hold true. Anyway, I found this set, all BRAND spankin' new at the used bookstore I frequent, Bookmans. (shout out to Bookmans - holla!)

It was $4.00 folks. What a deal, I say! And I buy it.

Here is the funny part. I go to make this card. Prep my 140 lb watercolor paper with anti-static so I can heat emboss the circles with some white embossing powder. Standard Operating Procedure, right? There is supposed to be a solid circle, a circle outline, a smaller of each, and 3 dots. But when I stamp the circle outline with my Versamark ink and put that embossing powder on there, the center of the stamp makes an imprint. Do you see the circle within the circle? That's the "belly" of the outline touching. Sigh. Well, it was only $4.00. And for this challenge, it actually works. But gone are the visions of clear, crisp circle outlines I had in mind. Unless anyone knows how to remedy this?

So, I stamp and emboss like I said. Then pull out my....wait for it....brand new watercolors! Wahoo,! I bought this awesome set of White Knight watercolors - 24 half pans of the most gorgeous highly pigmented color I have ever had the privilege to work with. But I digress, I will do a separate post on the research that went into my new paints.

I used different blues and greens and even a spot of violet. These paints are so different than the El Cheapo set that I had to very slowly TAKE OFF the color that I accidentally slapped on in the beginning. This involved a few hours of letting it dry then going in with a wet brush to strip off another layer. This is 4 layers down! And see how bright it still is!

I stamped the sentiment from Concord & 9th with SSS black ink on a piece of vellum that I die cut a circle out of. I used clear double sided take to adhere the vellum. I finished it with some Nuvo silver pearl drops to give it even more texture. I think this picture shows that: