Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge
We’re Going Around In Circles
Good day, fellow crafters. I am so very very excited to show you this card. This is my entry for this week’s Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, the theme of which is circles. When I found this die set from Hero Arts I just knew I had to find a way to incorporate it into a card build. I found the perfect opportunity with this challenge. I hope that my work inspires you to create something of your own, and I hope to see it in the challenge too.
This card is made by combining the die sets pictured on the left. They are the Hero Arts Porthole Die (DI778), the Tim Holtz 3D Texture Fades Embossing Folder by Sizzix (662717), and the Hero Arts Sea Creatures Fancy Dies (DF134). I wanted a completely undersea look so I thought immediately of a submarine so I went with a silverish or perhaps a bit more battleship gray-like cardstock I had in my collection as the basis of the main color for the card. I ran the porthole die through the embossing machine and then used the embossing folder to create the bulkhead wall behind it. This embossing folder gave me some ideas so you may see me use it in the near future for other projects.
Once that was completed I then had to decide the best way to make it look more like a realistic porthole even though the card was going to be a bit more cartoonish once I added the sea creatures. Then it came to me, why not make the porthole itself into a shaker? I searched through my collection of round dies and sure enough I had one the right size to cut a piece of acetate which I glued to the inside of the porthole to act as the “glass”. I then used a thin single layer of foam tape to ensure it remained low profile but thick enough that I could add my shaker pieces.
The next step was that I used the piece of cardstock that I cut the porthole from, which I felt was very clever, to align where the underwater area needed to be placed and taped it down. Using the same round die as for cutting the acetate, I cut out a circle from a piece of a previously created alcohol-inked Yupo paper that looked like an underwater scene. To this, I added the die-cut sea creatures and then fussy cut the edges so the whole background was still circular and fit inside the porthole cut out. At this stage, I adhered the circle in place, added my shaker bits, and then adhered the porthole in place using the foam tape and just a little bit of liquid glue for added strength.
The next step I tackled was the belly band-like sentiment. I wanted something light and airy so I decided to use a piece of vellum. Since vellum doesn’t play well with a lot of the inks on the market I went with some StazOn in Timber Brown to stamp my sentiment.
Lastly came the assembly. I trimmed the background to its final dimensions, created a black mat to accentuate all of the silver gray, wrapped the sentiment around the background, and then adhered it all to a pre-cut A2 white card base. All in all this card came out fabulous and I sincerely hope you found inspiration to create something of your own.
