Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge

I managed to finish gardening early today and went off in search of tiles as a backsplash for our kitchen. I really want some plain white beveled tiles in a small size (150cm x 70cm) but they are $69 per metre compared to the 200cm x 100cm which are $35 per metre, which seems crazy as they are bigger! I also found some hexagon ones too, so will get our tiler to price them all up and see what I can squeeze out of the budget!!

I've been trying to fit in colouring as much as I can this month for The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge. Unfortunately I haven't been able to colour every day but have been fitting it in wherever possible. I managed to squeeze in some watercolouring, die-cutting and heat embossing to create a card for the current Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes':

This 'Stitched Maple Circle Frame die' is from Memory Box. They are one of our Sponsors at Time Out Challenges and they recently sent all the Design Team a surprise die in the mail. I was so excited to get this one as I don't have any leaf dies and I only have plain circle dies, so these ones are extra gorgeous!!

The die set comes with the die that cuts the largest circle with a stitch detail. You then have another one that cuts a circle with the leaves attached and then there is a larger leaf die for the middle. I decided to keep all the dies still attached to each other and die-cut them all from black CS and then from Strathmore Bristol Smooth CS.

Using my Kuretake Zig Real Color Brush Pens and a water brush, I coloured each leaf, drying them in-between layers so I could try to get a really vivid effect. Once they were dry I took the black CS pieces that fit between the leaves and put them in place. I also added it to the middle circle. I took the large leaf die, stamped it with Versamark Ink and heat embossed twice with Ranger Gold Embossing Powder. This was then put back in the middle space.

I found a circle die from Couture Creations that was similar in size to the leaf circle and die-cut a piece of black foam. I glued this to the back of the leaves with Gina K Connect Glue and then to the card front. I then used the same glue to adhere the large black circle die-cut.

The sentiment (from Poppy Stamps 'Little Kindness') was stamped in Versafine black ink on a strip of white CS and put on foam tape, along with some sequins from Neat and Tangled. I also added lots of Wink of Stella to the leaves for a bit more shine.

Its 9.30pm Thursday night here and might be time to go to bed. As I got home a bit earlier today I finished off trimming my hedges around the house and by the garage. It takes so long and I don't use any electric trimmers as I find they don't do a good job, so I was very hot and sweaty afterwards but they look fantastic. I've also been checking the peach tree every five minutes as there are peaches EVERYWHERE and they are ripening before my eyes. I want to make sure they make it in my tummy before the birds and brown rot get to them first!!

Take care
Shona