Simon Says........Let's Have a Laugh

If you're here to see my cards for the Hero Hostess Blog Hop, please scroll down 1 post, or click HERE.

It's time for a new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog!

With these cold grey days of January, we'd like you to make us something funny and lift our spirits.  The design team were all treated to our choice of Paper Smooches stamps by the generous owner Kim!  Thanks, Kim!

I chose this darling punny set called Needle Little Love !  I paired it with a BoBunny paper pad Pincushion - love the fresh peaches and greens; just what we need to brighten up these dull days.

I started by stamping the sentiment, and then surrounded it with repeated stamping of one of the hearts in this set.  That was die-cut into a circle and then I paper-pieced the hearts.  Can you see how they form an 8-pointed star around the sentiment?  I wanted this little motif to be the focal point, so I put it onto a 4 1/4" square card base, and just added the fun stitches and hearts around the edges.  

My next card uses more of the faux stitches and another sentiment and some flowers and leaves from the set.

I used the x stitches to make a little crazy quilt panel behind my doily, onto which I place the flowers and leaves. To enhance the quilt-look, I embossed the card front (Hero Arts Carnation layering paper) with a Sizzix Flowers folder.  And to finish I added tiny buttons to the centers of the flowers and tied my little bouquet with a bow.

And 1 more, this time with a stamped background - I just had to show you this adorable little cross-stitched heart.  I stamped it in soft cantaloupe and green hills inks, then added a couple more paper-pieced elements from the set.

Once again, Heidi has provided another $50.00 gift voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store for one lucky random winner of this week's challenge!

The challenge over at the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge blog is Anything Goes, so I'll be entering these there this week!