A happy accident! Simon Says Stamp Guest Design

Hi everyone. Today is my final post in the 'Designer Spotlight' at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. A huge thanks to Lols and the team for the invitation and their wonderful support throughout the month.

This week the challenge theme is Thinking of You.

I have recently purchased Tim Holtz Ornate Frame 2 and wanted to get this out of it's packaging (!) so decided to make a card featuring the frame and the leaf from an older set - Tim Holtz Sizzix Framelits LEAF BLUEPRINT Wafer Thin Die & Stamp Set.

I had an idea that went completely wrong but ended up quite well! I started with some autumnal colours of distress inks on some card - completely covering it with random patches of colour. I then intended to add some versamark through a stencil and heat emboss with clear powder to retain the multi colours under the embossed surface. However I failed to fully fry the distress inks so when adding my clear embossing powder I completely covered the card. I heated it anyway and ended with a mostly sealed surface - no stencil pattern visible!

Not wanting to waste what I had done I reached for my distress paints and began marbling the surface with different colours - drying each colour before adding the next. With the heat, the paint adhered to the sealed surface but retained quite a glossy finish and I loved it! The paints are more vibrant than when doing the same effect directly onto card ( I know - I tried it!).

I die cut my ornate frame twice - once in black card and once in white card - I painted the latter with Tarnished Brass distress paint before quickly sprinkling some embossing powder ( a mix of gold, dark red and brown) over it - not covering - just a light sprinkle. I then heat dried.

I stamped the leaf and cut one whole and 2 halves. I added my autumnal distress inks randomly over them - adding darker colours to the edges before taking Distress Crackle Paint and covering the leaves. Once dry I created the dimension using glossy accents.

The greeting from Tim Holtz Simple Sayings completed my card.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Nikki

xxx