Video summary
The video introduces the August card kit from Simon Says Stamp, designed to inspire creativity with its extensive array of crafting supplies. The host begins by showcasing the comprehensive contents of the box, which include four distinct containers for floral elements, a variety of sentiments, and matching dye inks suitable for both stamping and die-cutting projects. Key components highlighted are dies that allow users to cut out branches, flowers, vases, pots, and container shapes, alongside a 3D embossing folder specifically crafted to create lovely flower textures. The kit also features an embellishment pack containing double-sided floral icons in various styles, watercolor-printed card bases on high-quality paper, foam squares for adding dimension, twine, prefolded standard cards, three Tim Holtz crayons, a specialized brush with a refillable barrel, and a full sheet of watercolor paper. Additionally, the package includes a die set by Tim Holtz intended for assembling beautiful flower compositions, offering crafters everything needed to create intricate designs without needing external purchases.
The creator demonstrates ten unique card projects that explore different techniques using these materials. For the first five cards, the focus is on utilizing the embellishment pack in various ways; one method involves framing images with twine and foam tape for a dimensional effect against golden or green backgrounds, while another uses stencils to create subtle vignettes around the edges without overpowering the main floral elements. The host also shows how to align multiple flower images from the ephemera pack on burgundy cardstock, using fussy cutting and layered foam squares to add depth and interest. These examples illustrate that by simply changing background colors or arranging the flowers in different orientations—whether vertical, horizontal, or scattered—one can generate endless variations of elegant cards suitable for any occasion with minimal effort.
The latter half of the video shifts focus to working directly with the watercolor panels included in the kit through advanced coloring and lifting techniques. One demonstrated method involves applying dark distress oxide ink over a printed panel and then using a brush dipped in water to lift color from specific areas like leaves and petals, creating a soft, blended effect that highlights the design's elegance without heavy coverage. Another approach uses the Tim Holtz crayons mixed with water to add vibrant colors such as yellow-green for foliage and orange-yellow for flowers, encouraging artists to mix hues rather than using single flat tones for greater visual interest. The host also combines stamped images of vases and branches cut out from dye ink layers, assembling them into complex compositions that are further enhanced by white splatters or black accents to break up clean lines and add texture.
Finally, the video concludes with innovative uses of the 3D embossing folder beyond simple background texturing. The host shows how to emboss individual scraps of paper for flowers and leaves before sanding down the raised details with a file to reveal crisp textures without messy ink application. These sanded pieces are then fussy cut and layered onto card bases, sometimes offset slightly or paired with stamped panels to create custom flower arrangements that pop against gray or colored backgrounds. Throughout the demonstration, the emphasis remains on simplicity and versatility, proving that even flat cards can look stunning when enhanced with thoughtful layering, dimension from foam squares, and strategic use of splatters or gems. The host wraps up by directing viewers to links in the description for all supplies used and expressing hope that these ideas will inspire creativity during the summer break, promising more content soon despite a reduced posting schedule.
Read the full video transcript
Hi and welcome to another one kit 10
cards. And today I'm playing with the
August card kit by Simon Says Stamp.
Just like always, let's take a look on
what's included in the kit. I'm starting
with a stamp set. You will find four
different containers for flowers that
you can uh put inside as well as lots
and lots of sentiments. Now, in the kit,
you do get the matching dyes and these
are tons of dyes. It is going to give
you dies to cut out not only the
branches and the flowers, the sentiments
as well as the vases and all the
containers, the pots and whatnot. You do
get a 3D embossing folder and it's going
to give you this lovely flower. I'm
going to show you a couple of ways to
use it. Today,
a fun product that you do get is a pack
of all these embellishments. So, these
are little icons of different flowers. I
absolutely love the style and I'm going
to show you many ways on how you can use
those and you will find that you do get
the same image twice.
Then there is a pack of these watercolor
printed cards. These are great as bases.
All you need to do is just color them
and then add a sentiment on top. So you
do get these lovely designs of uh
flowers and branches. And again this is
watercolor paper.
You also get these foam squares or
always handy to pop your images on top
of your cards. Then some twine and uh
you do get a couple of um prefolded
cards. So these are the standard size
cards. You just need to fold them and
you have your bases ready. And the
variety in this kit is absolutely
amazing. You do get three uh crayons by
Tim Holtz in those three colors. I will
be using those to color my images. And
uh you do get a brush as well, one that
has that barrel that you can fill in
with water.
Then you do get a full page of
watercolor paper, your lollipop, and
then as if these all were not enough,
you do get this die set by Tim Holtz to
put together beautiful flower
compositions.
As always, today I'm going to share 10
cards. And for the first five cards, I'm
going to show you different ways on how
you can use those embellishments. For
the first one, I'm just going to place
that on top of a golden card stock just
to create a lovely frame. To connect
those two, I'm just using foam tape at
the back so that I get some dimension.
And remember, in the kit, we did get
this piece of twine. So, why not? Let's
use it on the first card. I'm just going
to tie it around. And uh just because I
do have that foam tape at the back, it's
going to hold it in place. I'm going to
stick that on top of my golden card
stock. And then just tie a bow.
I decided to go with a green card stock
as my base, but you can go with red or
with any other color that you find is on
top of that little flower.
I want to get that vignette look. So,
I'm using a darker shade of green to add
some inking around the edges. And then I
repeated the same thing with brown this
time. Now, you can leave this card base
as it is, or if you want to add some
interest, you can definitely go with any
of your stencils. Here, I'm just using a
stencil that is um available as an
add-on. It is a new set of stencils by
Simon Says Stamp.
And I'm going uh tone on tone with uh
the green that I used for the edges. I
don't want this to be uh very vibrant. I
want to keep the background quite
subtle. And although you do see the dots
a lot at this stage, they are going to
dry and be even more paler uh later on.
So let's put the card together. I'm
going to place my panel on top of my
prefolded card. Then on top my
embellishment at the center. And then I
do have a sentiment that I created using
the stamp set and the dyes in the kit.
You can finish off the card by adding
some splatters. I love them so that's
why I add them. But you can definitely
go with gems or pearls or even add some
dots with contour liner. Now, I
absolutely love how elegant this card
looks, and you can recreate the exact
same style with the rest of the little
flower images. Just pick up a color for
your background, and you will end up
with gorgeous cards.
And here are some close-up photos on the
first card for today.
For my second card, I'm going to use the
3D embossing folder and I'm going to
partially emboss my card base by placing
it in different areas so that I end up
embossing only the leaves. I just want
to have a subtle background without the
flower. So, you can see how I rotate it.
I run it through my die cutting machine.
And if you want to have an even more
vibrant background, uh you can just rub
your uh pigment inking over it. I did
use white pigmented here ink here. And
then for the top, I'm just going to
create a little cluster by using two of
the flower images.
Uh overlapping one on top of the other.
I'm going to add a sentiment again from
uh the kit. And uh you can finish it off
by adding gems or splatters just like I
did. Very simple card to put together,
but it is really special. Now for the
next one, I just went through the images
and I found three that they do have the
same background. So you see here they do
all three of them have kind of a
burgundy and brownish background. So
they match beautifully together. And if
you look you will find the exact same
images one more time. So, what I'm going
to do is to use the second ones uh and
fuzzy cut the flowers. This is going to
give me the opportunity to pop some
images on top of what I already have and
add some dimension, which I always love
for my cards.
So, just a little bit of fuzzy cutting
here. And then I'm going to use the foam
squares at the back. And I will stick
each flower on top of itself. This is
going to give it dimension. It does look
flat at the moment since the camera is
on top, but in real life it does make a
difference. And you can definitely uh do
the same with the leaves if you want to
take it a step further. But uh I didn't
really bother fussy cutting the leaves,
which is something that you can
definitely do, especially if you're
using only one of those images on top of
your card. So at the bottom, I do have
some space where I can stamp my
sentiment. I'm going to add some uh
golden dots with my contour liner. And
you can definitely use sequins or gems
just to add a special touch on the card.
And you can see here some close-up
photos.
Now, with this fmera, you can make tons
of cards just by aligning those images
differently. And here are some ideas
that I'm showing you. Anyway, for this
card, I went with a burgundy background.
And I did leave some space in between
those images that I chose to stick down.
I did use this die set for my
sentiments, but you can definitely use
any of uh the sentiments that are
included in the kit. This is just an
add-on if you want to check it out. So,
really quick and simple card, but
definitely gorgeous with all those
beautiful flowers. And now, here is one
more idea on how you can align them. I'm
using four of them in a landscape
orientation. You can have them h up and
down like I have them laying uh here or
you can have them in a row. So many
different ways. You can definitely use
those to cope their up completely your
card base and just have a sentiment on
top. Uh I'm going to stick them with
glue, but you can definitely go ahead
and use foam tape at the back to add
some dimension. And then all I have to
do is to add a sentiment on top and
maybe some embellishments like gems or
pearls here and there. Now I'm going to
stop with this ephemera pack and I'm
going to share some other ideas uh using
the products included in the kit. So
here I'm working on the printed
watercolor panel that you get in the
kit. I'm just applying some distress
oxide ink all over the background. I'm
not going to cover it up completely. I
leave h a little bit of white space on
one corner. I'm bringing in a darker
shade of color. And for the technique
that I'm going to show you today, it is
best to go uh darker. The darker you go,
the better this effect is going to show.
I'm going to have a little bit of water
or my glass mat. I have a paper towel on
hand. And then I'm going to use my brush
and lift some color from different areas
of my panel. I'm I just go over the
leaves and over some of the petals from
the flowers. And then what that does is
just uh applying water over different
areas. It lifts color and you can dab it
either with your clean paper towel or
just remove it like I'm doing here with
my watercolor brush. Now, keep in mind
that this watercolor brush has a barrel,
so you can definitely fill it in with uh
water instead of using it like I'm doing
here. But I like to uh control the
amount of water that my brush has. So, I
prefer it this way.
Now, uh keep in mind the darker the
background, the more this effect is
going to show. This is going to be a
very clean and simple uh card. uh one of
the flat ones that I normally don't do
but uh I absolutely love the design. I
find that it is very elegant, so pretty
and uh just by adding any sentiment, it
is the perfect card, perfect quick card
for any occasion. You can recreate this
look with the other panels and you can
definitely choose any colors that you
like for the background. Now we get
another idea is to use the crayons that
are included in the kit to color those
panels. So I'm just creating a palette
here. There are three colors included
and I will use uh water with these
crayons to color the areas. Now for each
one of those areas I'm going to do a
little bit of mixing. So you see here I
don't color completely all the leaves
with green because I will go back again
and mix a little bit of yellow for the
tips of the leaves. Uh you can
definitely use just one color per area
for a flatter look, but if you want to
make it look more interesting, you can
definitely do some mixing. So for the
leaves, I'm going with yellow and green.
And for the flowers, I'm going with
orange and yellow.
Again, this is going to be a flat card.
I'm not going to do anything extra on
top of that. I'm going to stamp the
sentiment at the center of uh the blank
space there. And then I'm going to
finish it off by adding some splattering
just because I love it. I do have all
those black uh designs at the back. So,
I thought that using the black
splattering medium would be perfect.
Notice that I always like to add the
first blobs of splatters on a scrap
piece of paper or somewhere else and
then I know that it's going to add only
fine droplets
and that's what I'm going for. So, here
are some close-up photos on this card.
And for the next one, let's play with
the images from the stamp set. After
all, we do have the matching dies for
all of these. So, I'm going to stamp one
of the vases. And I want to have some
branches uh to add on top inside. So, I
am going to choose which ones I want.
I'm going to stamp those separately so
that I can later use the dye to cut them
out, but I really want to have a stem
for each one of those branches stamped
inside my vase. So, that's what I'm
going to do. The top I'm going to cut it
off with that vase dye. So it doesn't
really matter.
So here is one more branch. I'm going to
stamp it separately. And then in order
to have that stem inside my vase, I'm
going to stamp it one more time. Now for
all those images, I'm going to use the
matching dyes that are included in the
kit. And I will use my alcohol markers
to color everything. That's why I
stamped all of those images with dye
ink. So here are the matching dies. And
you can see how this uh vase dye is
going to chop off any branches at this
stage. But I do have them separately. So
I colored really quickly all the flowers
and the leaves. I'm chopping off the
stem. And that's how I'm going to stick
everything
to create my little embellishment. And
then I will use foam squares at the back
of this and use it as my focal point.
So, I'm working on my card base here,
and I did cut out um frame for my panel
just to make it look more interesting. I
do have foam squares at the back of this
panel. And this is just two rectangle
dyes that I had, one inside the other to
create this frame. Super quick and
simple. I am going to place uh at the
center my little embellishment. And you
can have even three or more vases with
branches for this card design. And you
have enough space underneath to stamp or
stick a sentiment. You can definitely
stop here. Now, this uh looks too clean
for me, so I just have to add some white
splatters. And here are some close-up
photos.
For my next card, I'm going to play with
the dyes from the Tim Holtz and Cizzix
uh die set that was included in the kit.
I didn't show you how I cut out and put
together everything because it would
take this video forever, but all I did
here was to use different uh colored
cards stock to cut out all the pieces
and put one on top of the other. I
didn't do any um ink blending or
anything else or coloring. This is just
card stock. And to tell you the truth, I
did use card stock that we got from the
previous kit last month uh by Simon Says
Stamp.
So for this composition, some of uh the
images have foam squares at the back and
the big leaves, for example, have glue
at the back. So I have different layers
and dimensions. And I think that it
looks stunning. I also love that I went
with the gray background instead of
white. I think it really complements the
colors and help everything really pop.
And now for the last card for today, I'm
going to show you a different way on how
you can use this uh 3D embossing folder.
So, what I'm going to do is to use uh
different scraps of paper for the flower
and the leaves. I just embossed all
those pieces. And now I'm going to use a
file and just sand off the top. You can
use a sanding block for that.
This is going to bring all the details
into life. And you can definitely just
uh swipe your white pigment ink over
that. But um the pigment ink is going to
always give you a more messy look. This
is cleaner, I believe. So once that's
done, and you can see how beautiful it
brings everything to life.
Anyway, once that's done, I'm just going
to use my scissors and fuzzy cut around
those leaves and the flowers. This way,
I will be able to put together on top of
my card my very own flower composition.
And also keep in mind that you can
definitely introduce some inking on this
uh uh card where uh both of the flowers
and the leaves are going to look even
more stunning uh than just having the
embossed detail on top of them. So I do
have a panel which I decided to uh stick
on top of my card base uh a little bit
offset just to add some extra interest.
And then on top of that, I'm just going
to stick the flower and the petals. Add
a sentiment and you are good to go. For
all those uh images, I just use foam
squares at the back just to add some
dimension. And you can see here some
close-up photos on this card.
So, these were all the cards for today.
Down below in the description, you can
find just like always links on
everything that I used. I hope that you
had fun today, that you got inspired.
Keep in mind that these days I don't
post as much because I'm on a summer
break, but I still have a couple more uh
YouTube videos pres.
I hope you're all having a wonderful
summer, and I'll see you all next time.