Friday, November 7, 2025

Fall Cards with Distress Oxides

 Maybe because as someone born and raised in California, I never really get a typical fall or winter, I tend to like to celebrate the beauty of each of those seasons in their glorified forms. I never have to rake leaves or shovel snow, but I don't get to enjoy the wonder that each brings either. So today's card celebrate the wonderful colors and beauty of fall.
 
Begin by gathering some supplies, stamps, watercolor and Kradt cardstocks, blending tools and foams, a Distress sprayer, and scissors to start. I have the products I used listed below and I will name them as I go through this tutorial. 
We are going to start by blending some backgrounds. I like using the Distress Mini Tool and the flat roumd foam, but many people prefer the domed foam for blending. Others like those long handled brushes. You use what works best for you, and like I said, the round flat foams work for me. 
Begin with a piece of Distress White Heavystock. Start blending from one end toward the center with Wild Honey Distress Oxide.
Rotate the paper and begin blending the other end with Crackling Campfire toward the center. Where the two colors overlap will be like a third color. Go over the center area with both colors a couple of times to make the blended center extra smooth.
I made a second back ground the same way but with three colors, Peeled Paint, Wild Honey and Crackling Campfire. 
Pick a background stamp. This is one of the Tiny Prints CMS460. 
Put it on a stamping platform of some sort. Spray it with water a couple of times and then stamp directly onto the Oxide blended background and lift.
The water will cause the Oxide to react and once it is dry you will get a ghost print of the stamp on the blended background.
 

Next I took two of the leaf stamps from the Sketchy Leaves CMS467 and inked them with several colors of oxides. I started with Wild Honey, added Crushed Olive, Crackling Campfire, Aged Mahogany, and a little Vintage Photo. Just add what feels right. Then spray with water and stamp.

 You will be able to stamp this several times. I stamped these leaves twice on Kraft Heavystock.

And I stamped it once on Distress Watercolor Cardstock. 

Here you can see how it really stood up well for the three stamps. I sprayed the stamps once before each stamping but didn't add any more Oxide. 

Once the images are dry, fussy cut them out. I use Tim Holtz Tonic Recoil Scissors for my Fussy Cutting, but you use whatever scissors work best for you.

Trim the tri-color band the bi-color background,s to 4 x 5.25 . Then smoosh some Walnut Stain Oxide onto a media mat. Spray with a little water, and using a Waterbrush, pick up some Oxide and flick it onto the background. Dry Completely.

Around the bi-color background, either machine stitch in brown, or using a sharp Scorched Timber Watercolor Pencil and ruler, draw lines around the outside of the trimmed card front. Do the same on the tri-color background but with a white gel pen. 

Stamp two sentiments from Noteworthy. Stamp one on Kraftstock and one on Watercolor Cardstock with Walnut Stain Oxide.

Assemble the bi-color background on an A2 Kraft Cardbase. Ink around the edges with Walnut Stain Oxide. Attach the sentiment and leaf with foam squares for dimentsion, and you are finished.
Here is a close up look at some of the details of the watercolor stamping on Kraftstock.
Here you can see the Walnut Stain flicks and the sentiment. 
The tri-color background is made the same way, but the cardbase is made from Distress White Heavystock, and the outlining on the card front can be made with a white gel pen or machine stitch around the outside of the card with white thread.
Pop the leaf and sentiment with foram squares and in no time you have two fall cards, or two embellishments for a Gratitude Journal.

Thank you so much for getting all they way to the end of this tutorial. I hope you found something of interest or something that inspired you.

Wishing you a creative day,

Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp. If you wish to purchase something and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this channel, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop - Festive Collage Wood Slice Place Tags or Gift Tags

 

Hello Makers and welcome to the Simon Says Stamp blog hop for the release of the Holiday 2025 release of coordinating dies to match Tim Holtz stamps.  

Today several of us have inspiration to share with you. At the end of the post will be the full list of participants. I also have a list of links to the products I used and to all of the newly released dies and stamps. Have fun and enjoy the inspiration!

I made some Woodslice Gift Tags or Name Placeholders using Festive Collage and Forest Floor 2 from the 2024 die release.

Gather your supplies - Forest Floor 2, Festive Collage, Mixed Media Heavystock, Kraft Heavystock, Watercolor pencils, Rock Candy Glitter, Glossy Accents, Water Sprayer, Ground Espresso Archival Ink.
 
Stamp two of the wood slices from Forest Floor 2 onto two pieces of Kraft Heavystock in Distress Archival Ink Ground Espresso.

 Cut out four wood slices with the Exclusive Simon Says Stamp coordinating dies -- 

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Two stamped wood slices for the fronts, and two plain wood slices for the backs. 

Use various brown inks to color the fronts and edges of the wood slices.
Color two pieces of Distress Mixed Media Heavystock with Water and Old Paper Distress Stain. Dry.
 We will be using the two smallest stamps from the Festive Collage Stamp Set. Put one piece of the paper and the stamps in the stamping tool of your choice. 
Using Distress Water Color Pencils, wet the pencils in a bit of water, then color the stamps with various colors. Once the stamp is colored, spray once with water from the Distress Sprayer and stamp onto the paper. You can usually get several stamps from one coloring so if you want to stain multiple pieces of paper before you start, to be able to stamp multiple generations, that would be a great idea!

 Align the coordinating Simon Says Stamp dies over the juniper and pine portions of the stamps and die cut them out.

Once they are cut, add a little Glossy Accents and Distress Rock Candy Glitter over the images to add a bit of festive sparkle. 

 
Depending on your purpose for these, you have a choice here. If it is a gift tag, you can just find a sentiment you like. I chose Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas from the Tattered Christmas stamps, stamped them in Ground Espresso Distress Archival on some of the Old Paper scraps from the Festive Collage pieces, and then cut them out with the coordinating Simon Says Stamp dies.
 Match up one stamped slice and one plain slice. Choose a side for the bottom that you feel is the most "flat" in case you want to stand them up later on as placecards. At the top of the slice, add some glue along the top 1/4" and glue them together.
Leave the rest of the slice open so you can write a To: From: message to the recipient, or you can stand it up as a placecard.

 Poke two holes at the top where you glued the slices together.

 Tie some twine through the holes in a bow. Attach the juniper and pine sprigs to the wood slice. Attach the sentiment with dimensional adhesive like foam squares. 

 And there you have some fairly quick and woodsy gift tags or place settings if you put guests' names in place of the sentiment and stand them up on the bottom. 
 
Thanks so much for stopping by! Your Next stop on the hop is Tina Smith.

 

HOP ORDER:

I hope you have a very creative day! 😃

Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp. If you wish to purchase something and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this channel, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Friday, October 31, 2025

Scary - Whimsy Stamps

Happy Halloween! Today is my last card for the 2025 Whimsy Stamps Halloweeners Design Team. I've had such a fun time making Halloween cards with some of the fabulous Whimsy Stamps products. Today's card can be made two ways, one simple version using just the Terrific Tickets Halloween Layering stencil with the Terrific Tickets dies, or one that adds a little more dimension with a couple of other Whimsy Stamps products. 

Here is the link to my process video.

 

I love all the detail in Frank's Face. 

Having different colors for the small sentiments in the stamp is great! 

 The vellum from Cardstock Warehouse really help make the Scary word die stand out on the busy layered stencil background and it was very quick to fussy cut around the word die.

I covered up the stenciled bats with my large sentiment, but the jack-olantern still shows through.
 The half-pearl embellishments in the corners tie the whole card together with the browns and blacks.

The dark frame really brings out the details in the stenciled areas and adds some fantastic texture. 

Thank you so much for following along with me as I made with the Whimsy Stamps Halloweeners this season. 

Whimsy has some festive Christmas products being released and then they have amazing stamps, dies and papers for every occasion throughout the year. I plan to share some things I have made and will be making for the Christmas season as well as some non seasonal, everyday cards as well, so if you are a fan of Whimsy Stamps products, stay tuned! 

Happy Halloween, Tami 

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Whimsy Stamps. The links below send you to one of those stores. If you wish to purchase something and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this channel, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Let's Get Spooky - Whimsy Stamps

I still have Halloween inspiration to share!This was a quick card that focused on fussy cutting. I made it on Satruday October 25th for World Fussy Cutting Day in honor of Sharon Klima (who I did not know but who was a craft store owner and friend to many in the craft industry)  who passed away in Jan of 2025 from a heart attack, and to bring awareness to heart disease in women. Since I have faced heart issues the last few years, I wanted to participate and say that if you don't feel right, there is no shame in seeking out a cardiologist. I put it off for too long because I was afraid of having a cardiologist on my list of doctors. I should have been seen years before I finally met with one. You matter and your health is important, so if you don't feel well, please see a doctor. Any doctor. The world is a better place with you in it! 

Now on with the make! 

Here is my short video tutorial. 

I used the Gothic Glow paper and Let's Get Spooky stamps from Whimsy Stamps.
This little bat is so cute hanging upside down.
I stamped the moon image on the moon on the paper, and the sentiment is colored with Crushed Olive Distress Ink to match the Charteuse Cardstock Warehouse Cardbase.
The bats are popped up on foam squares.
This bat was placed to look like he is flying down the street in front of the houses. 

This bat is standing in the middle of the street with his wings positioned like Dracula holds his cape. I love it!

Now let’s go have a creative day! 😃

Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp, Whimsy Stamps, and Scrapbook.com. The links below send you to one of those stores. If you wish to purchase something and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this channel, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you