Oh my it’s a day for hops as this is my second one today! However, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to send some birthday hugs and wishes to the awesome Stephanie Leykauf of Simon Says Stamp! The hop started over at Simon’s blog and then hopefully you’ve hopped along via Jo Nevill to get to me, but if you get lost along the way or want to start at the beginning then pop on over to Simon :D

Stephanie is Simon’s Marketing Director as well as managing the blog, DT and challenges – she’s a busy girl for sure! I was delighted to get the chance to meet Stephanie in London last month and she is just as fabulous as I thought she would be :D

To celebrate Stephanie’s birthday Simon has bought out a new stamp (Celebrate) and die set (Celebration Time). Fun balloons accompany sentiments in two fabulous fonts; one tall and skinny all caps and to contrast a cute script one too. For my card I stamped some of the balloons in the new ink colours from Simon. I love these colours together; fun but with a subtle fall feel to them. I used Hot Lips, Teal and Fossil. I think I need to stamp that Fossil colour out and take it to our local paint shop as that is the perfect colour for our hall! But I’m getting distracted LOL, the balloons were cut out with their matching dies and then given a good dose of Star Dust Stickles – it wouldn’t be a celebration without a little sparkle ;)

While the stickles dried and I tried (unsuccessfully) to leave it alone, I concentrated on stamping the balloon strings and sentiment – I do love those tall skinny ones! When I’d planned where the balloons were going to sit I added the little dot stamp a few times in Fossil ink. I also stamped and die cut the little celebrate banner in Sparrow ink and then started adding all the elements with foam adhesive. I did look to dress this up slightly with patterned paper, by the way Lawn Fawn Sweater Weather is a really good match for these ink colours, however, in the end I preferred the balloons to take centre stage and added just a few sequins to embellish :D

Of course a hop wouldn’t be a hop without prizes! There will be a Simon Says Stamp grab bag up for grabs on each stop on the hop! Comments are open until Sunday 09th at 12 midday EST :D Best of luck!

Now it’s time to hop on over to the wonderful

Mandy Stacey

Have fun!

Supplies

InLinkz.com

Stamps – Simon Says Stamp celebrate; Dies – Simon Says Stamp celebration time; Inks – Simon Says Stamp hot lips, teal, fossil, sparrow; Card – Neenah solar white 80lb, 110b; Accents – Ranger star dust stickles, Simon Says Stamp fall festival sequins, Pretty Pink Posh pink peonies sequins; Twine – Hemptique