Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge

Its a gorgeous Saturday morning here and the sunshine has finally returned!! After a sweltering Monday/Tuesday, the temperature dropped significantly Wednesday and Thursday. I even slept in my Winter pjs!! Yesterday the sun started heating up again and we are just back from Max's tennis game looking all sweaty. I'm definitely a Summertime person, it has given me back a spring in my step!!

The current theme at the Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge is 'Add some red'. I don't use the colour red on my cards very often but I recently purchased some Catherine Pooler 'Rockin Red' ink and I'm blown away by how good it is. Its so lovely and sticky and inking up a brand new rubber stamp it stamped perfectly on the very first try (something I've never seen an ink do before.....). So I guess this means I will have more red on my cards and will have to buy all the CP inks!

I couldn't let the stamping of my new rubber stamp go to waste so turned it into a card that would be perfect for Valentines Day:
 

Isn't this pattern amazing??!! This stamp is also from Catherine Pooler 'Angled Squares Background Stamp'. There are so many ways to use it and its also gorgeous just on its own. 

The stamp itself is actually bigger than this but I wanted to use the square pattern as the central image so cut it down a bit. I wanted to cut out the middle square but realised that I still don't have a set of square dies, however, the square die from my recently purchased Concord and 9th 'Turnabout Toolkit' was absolutely perfect. I worked out where the opening would sit over the white card front and stamped the sentiment (with the same CP red ink) from a CP stamp set I completely forgot I had. Its called the 'Wild Bloom' stamp set and I purchased it second-hand AGES ago from Trade Me.

I cut two strips of red CS and glued to the top and bottom of the card front. The stamped panel was then popped over-top on foam tape. I added clear jewels from Studio Katia to the triangle points in the pattern for a subtle touch. And I also added two red sequins from Neat and Tangled, tucked up under the corners of the square to highlight the sentiment.

Better go put my washing out to make the most of the sunshine. I've got a lot of my own gardening to do this weekend, even though it hasn't rained for like 6-7 weeks, everything is growing at such a rapid rate I can't keep up with it all. I do enjoying pruning though, very satisfying chopping everything off and making things tidy!! Need to do the same with my craft area......

Take care
Shona