SSS May 2026 Card Kit Unboxing + Mixed Media Card! | Simon Says Stamp

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:02]Hello, hello my friends. Amy R here with Prairie Paper and Ink. Welcome back to my face and my card making space.

[00:00:08]The unboxing and card making with the Simon Says Stamp May 2026 card kit.

[00:00:15]First off, a few disclaimers.

[00:00:18]One, I'm on the Simon Says Stamp design team. These kits get sent to me early. I don't have to do the unboxing, but they're fun.

[00:00:26]And I get a lot a lot of requests to do them.

[00:00:29]Two, like I said, kits get to me early.

[00:00:33]More recently, a lot of the kits have been shipping out later than they normally do because kits get revealed on the 14th of each month.

[00:00:43]They start shipping out usually a couple days later to the subscribers, people that purchase the kits outright, etc. When there's an exception that it says right with the kit listing like for those that want to purchase it outright.

[00:00:59]Again, I'll have links to everything.

[00:01:00]And it'll say like pre-order and it'll give an estimate of when things are going to ship out and then I assumed for the subscribers, it'll probably say like an email or something.

[00:01:11]Just and I'm saying all this because I get emails and comments and like well why did you get yours, etc. The and I'm speaking for myself cuz I I'm not being told to say this. I just I thought I would explain.

[00:01:23]My assumption is when they put the kits together, they get a very limited amount of certain items to like test out and decide whether or not. And those are what gets put in our kits, those of us that do samples, etc. etc. And it's just it's a limited amount. And then when everything's good to go, they get in all the rest of it for everyone else.

[00:01:48]And then delays happen cuz you know, it happens. You can't control everything. And that's generally what I assume ends up contributing to things taking a bit longer to actually ship out is some unforeseen delay on a main component to the kits. So again, all of that though like the the pre-order or like the dates, times, all that, it's with the the kit cuz I'm saying it cuz this one I know is shipping out I think early May.

[00:02:20]Something like that. So, I will have links. My links are affiliate links.

[00:02:24]That just means that if you click on one of my links and end up placing an order, I get a kickback from that. No extra cost to you. Those would helps pay the bills, keeps lights on, etc. And then yeah, with the kits, there's many options now cuz you can do the subscription which you can skip, you're not like locked in.

[00:02:41]You can do just purchasing it all outright. And then a lot of the items are available individually like at the time like right now or later on. And then there are also sometimes add-ons like add-on die sets like you know coordinating die sets for the stamps or other add-on products. And I generally try to link to all the things with everything else. So I think that explained everything hopefully. Hopefully that'll make sense.

[00:03:09]Let's unbox this and see exactly what's what's in this um what's in this kit.

[00:03:15]So, we have our box.

[00:03:21]You get everything kind of sort of out of the way here.

[00:03:24]So this is the long stem florals kit and there there's a lot.

[00:03:35]Oops.

[00:03:37]Candy got stuck.

[00:03:39]You always get candy. So there's candy.

[00:03:42]And then okay.

[00:03:44]So, there's this 4 by 6 stamp set. This is the long stem florals stamp set. I'm already a fan. It's pretty. There is a coordinating die set for the stamp set that is an add-on. I do have it. Kind of excited cuz if it doesn't get sent to me more often than not, I end up ordering the coordinating dies. You can fussy cut, but who wants to?

[00:04:06]I know I don't. So, there is the stamp set.

[00:04:11]Love it.

[00:04:12]There's this full die set which I was like this is fun. It's the squoval tags.

[00:04:20]There's a ton of dies in here.

[00:04:23]It's such a fun shape, too. I'm ex- I'm kind of excited about that.

[00:04:28]Look over nicely with these like size-wise.

[00:04:31]I like. So there's the that die set.

[00:04:34]There is this long stem florals color block stencil. This is really fun, too.

[00:04:42]You can't really yeah.

[00:04:45]Like very sort of artsy abstract, you know? And I really like that.

[00:04:53]I like that. It's just it's it's just different. It's different. So you get that.

[00:04:58]There is a pack of these uh deco frames. I've talked about this before when it comes to like the Tim Holtz ideology stuff like this. I hoard these things because I just I love them.

[00:05:12]I love them and they're so they're nice like they're all Oh yes, they're very much packaged very nicely like but these are like they're metal.

[00:05:27]Pretty or says it's like resin coated something.

[00:05:30]Anyway, they're fun.

[00:05:33]They're fun. So you get a whole pack of those and like the details and everything.

[00:05:41]That would be also why you get the collage medium.

[00:05:43]This is a really good adhesive. I haven't used this stuff in a really long time. I have so many bottles of it. It is really nice. Like this is a really strong adhesive and it is it is matte like collage medium matte. This stuff also dries really quickly. That's another reason why I don't work with it like all the time. Like it dries quite quickly, but it is also really good for adhering stuff like this.

[00:06:06]So, you got all these fabulous little frames. You get a bottle of the collage medium matte. This is also really nice.

[00:06:15]I just use my like craft tacky now for this, but this is also really nice when you have things like a little fibers, twine, etc. and you've tied things in a knot especially like metallic twine. You try to do a bow and it will not stay, you know, it always wants to unravel.

[00:06:28]Little tiny dabs of collage medium matte and then you let it dry and it will hold knots in place or if you know you have a little piece of ribbon or whatever and you want it in a certain spot, this is a good like a little bottle of this you get in your kit. It's nice to have on hand. It's good for stuff like that.

[00:06:44]Um you get a distress crayon. Is it walnut stain for all of them or is it going to be a variety? I think you get the walnut stain which if you watch Tim's stuff, that's this is his like go-to you know, grunge stuff up. So you get one of those.

[00:06:59]And then the heirloom roses, they must have stocked up. Do you all include these? That makes me happy.

[00:07:05]You're supposed to get a whole yeah, package of the heirloom roses. I'm going to hoard these, too, y'all cuz I really like these little these little guys.

[00:07:16]They're so pretty.

[00:07:18]There is a technique out there and I think I think you used I yeah, cuz you also get a container of um distress embossing glaze. I think this is one that it's a Yeah, the color is going to vary. This one's abandoned coral. But I'm pretty sure you take the collage medium matte with a brush and you apply it to these and then you can pour over the embossing glaze color and then melt it. And that's how you can color these. I'm I'm just I'm off the top of my head I think that's how Tim has shown the technique. There's going to be like a video etc. But I've never done it, but it's really cool. And then you can use this and you can actually make it so you can make them look like grungy, you know, vintage, all that kind of stuff.

[00:08:09]Like fun fun stuff. So you get a pack of those.

[00:08:14]And then the paper is do do do do Simple Stories. Oh, I'm going to flip that over cuz that's going to reflect onto the screen. Simple Stories vintage junk drawer.

[00:08:27]That's fun. Double-sided.

[00:08:31]Oh, these are pretty.

[00:08:34]These are pretty paper. That's fun.

[00:08:38]Oh, these are pretty papers, you guys.

[00:08:41]I like. I like these.

[00:08:44]I like the like more basic like sort of plain patterns. I mean those are fun.

[00:08:49]Yeah.

[00:08:51]I like that.

[00:08:53]I'm Those that have watched my content for a long time know I have a very much soft spot for pattern paper. But a big thing I do cuz I don't use pattern paper a lot anymore, but I'll get like inspired by stuff like this like how this is layered. I really like that. And just like ideas just from the pattern paper. Don't end up using the pattern paper, but it's like oh, I like this this this or I like this color combo or you know, whatever.

[00:09:21]And yeah.

[00:09:22]These are fun.

[00:09:24]Oh, those are pretty, too.

[00:09:26]These are really really pretty papers.

[00:09:34]Love them. Okay. So you got all those. You get some of the uh ideology rose gold metallic craft cardstock which I'm trying not to overly show because the reflection like makes my camera freak out.

[00:09:53]FYI, the Tim Holtz metallic craft stock, the majority of it is discontinued.

[00:10:00]Cuz if you're aware, there's the like the jewel tones pack There's like two different packs with a ton of colors.

[00:10:06]I've been hoarding that stuff for years.

[00:10:08]I've used it in a few videos. Um but yeah, Tim discussed that in a recent live stream that because of the cost of it all, um most of it's getting discontinued and there's only going to be like a pack of metallics, like the gold and silver, I think.

[00:10:22]From basically this point on. Um but yeah.

[00:10:26]It's nice stuff and it's all craft base.

[00:10:29]You can emboss with it, die cut, all the things. So you get that.

[00:10:33]Um there's some rub-ons, which I have not used in ages. Like rub-ons have really upped the game from what they used to be.

[00:10:42]Like I was never a fan you know, years and years and years ago, I found rub-ons to be really, really annoying and they just weren't that good, but a lot of people are saying now like they've just improved so much in the quality and they just apply better.

[00:11:00]These are pretty.

[00:11:03]These are really pretty.

[00:11:04]So you get a sheet of these rub-ons and these are also Simple Stories. Yeah, vintage junk drawer rub-ons.

[00:11:11]And then you get some apricot, ivory, and steel cardstock from Simon and these are all heavyweight, high quality. I love Simon's cardstock. Been using it forever. Ivory is a good one. They're all good ones. Like they're gorgeous.

[00:11:27]They're gorgeous. So those are This is the kit in a nutshell.

[00:11:36]I did all the disclaimers there at the at the beginning.

[00:11:41]I have no idea right now where I'm going to go with all this. No idea. I'm going to figure it out. But thanks to the magic of video editing, you guys are not going to have to wait. I will immediately get into making a card or two. So we'll just see.

[00:11:58]We'll just see.

[00:12:01]So I started with the long stem florals stamp set that comes in the kit. I have a panel of white cardstock here and I lined up most of the images from the set just because they fit on here.

[00:12:14]Um in the end I made one card for today's video. I'll probably make more in like future videos, but y'all life has been life-ing. Anyway.

[00:12:22]I made sure there's enough space between the images cuz I'm going to use the coordinating wafer dies to die cut everything.

[00:12:28]And then what I want to show is how you can get like embossed images in any color you want.

[00:12:35]So I used antistatic powder first. This just keeps the embossing powder from clinging to anything but the stamp image.

[00:12:42]And then I'm going to ink these stamps with um mocha positively saturated inks, which is brown ink, but you could do this in whatever color you want.

[00:12:50]And instead of the embossing powder I'm going to use, you could just use clear embossing powder. So any any color ink you want to use will work for this.

[00:13:03]I went with brown cuz that just kind of went with the pattern paper and the color combo I wanted to do.

[00:13:08]So dye inks like this, you in theory, you can kind of emboss with them if you move really fast, but even then it's generally not going to work cuz these inks don't stay wet long enough. They're dye inks, they dry very quickly. Again, if you move super fast, but who's got the time or patience or just you're going to make a mess. So what you do is like you stamp it with your color of choice, clean off the stamps. This is where you need a stamp positioner. I then inked up the stamps with clear embossing ink, stamped it directly on top, and then you can just add clear embossing powder.

[00:13:42]However, I do have a lot of distress embossing glazes, so I pulled out walnut stain.

[00:13:48]This just intensifies it having it stamped in brown versus just stamping in clear and then using the walnut glaze.

[00:13:54]If you've never worked with embossing glaze, it is somewhat transparent. There's tons of different techniques you can do with it, but it's not like opaque. So whatever's underneath it will generally show through, hence me stamping it with the mocha ink and then the walnut stain embossing glaze just intensified that.

[00:14:14]So now I have dark brown embossing.

[00:14:17]But again, you could just use clear. It just won't be quite as intense, but it still works. So options options.

[00:14:27]So after I melted it, I die cut them with the coordinating wafer dies.

[00:14:31]Another thing I don't do when I normally don't like I tell you all not to I'm using alcohol markers.

[00:14:37]I have been told for years and years and years. Like Copic themselves have said this, all of it. There's something about heat embossed images that can interact with the alcohol markers and ruin your nibs over time. So I never do this, but this is really basic coloring and I'm not super concerned and it's just not something I do very often. So I'm just using my alcohol markers. Any markers will work for this. Um I just wanted to mention that though because from what I've been told for the last like 20 years, we're not supposed to do this cuz yeah, there's something about the alcohol marker nibs that will like start to eat away at heat embossing over time.

[00:15:18]Anyway, I also don't like it because like say if I had white heat embosses, the alcohol marker would show over the white heat embossing.

[00:15:25]It's annoying and it's a mess, but because this was dark brown, you can't see the alcohol marker on top.

[00:15:31]So I just did really quick simple coloring showing the colors on screen. I just went with colors that went with those pattern papers cuz that's what inspired me.

[00:15:39]And just slop the color on. I'm not doing any special blending. I layered a couple of colors over top of each other for funsies and that was it.

[00:15:48]So this took all of like 2 minutes to color in. Really simple.

[00:15:52]And then I die cut more white cardstock using one of the squoval tags wafer dies.

[00:16:00]It's always weird saying squoval.

[00:16:03]Anyway.

[00:16:04]And then one of the rub-ons.

[00:16:06]And that rub-on pack is interesting cuz you can kind of pick and choose. Like they're not um How do you say it? Like they're not separated. Does Does that make sense?

[00:16:17]Like you can kind of trim them down how you want and because it's got the little like spottery effects, things like that.

[00:16:23]Like yeah.

[00:16:25]So I just trimmed off this part. I just used my Teflon bone folder. You just add all that pressure.

[00:16:30]And then if I miss a spot, I can put it back and then just peel it away.

[00:16:35]And you're good to go.

[00:16:36]So that added all of that pattern to my tag.

[00:16:40]And then to grunge it up a bit, I used that same mocha ink that I stamped with and just a little um tiny tiny blending brush. Is that how they Yeah, tiny tiny blending foam. Is that a brush? It's a foam.

[00:16:56]And added that to the perimeter, went around the edges, and then as per usual, once I start, I can't stop. So then I also added it to my little flower die cut.

[00:17:07]And then I ended up off camera um using another one of the rub-ons on a piece of white cardstock. I applied the rub-on and then I die cut it with a circle wafer die and then added the same brown ink. I'll kind of hold that up here like basically right now.

[00:17:25]So I've got my little floral die cut, my tag, this little brown piece. It was the rub-on, white cardstock, ink, and I die cut it with just a circle wafer die.

[00:17:36]And then pattern paper from the kit that I trimmed down for my background.

[00:17:40]This little this little piece I'm going to show I trimmed off from one of the one of the pattern papers. So I just trimmed that down.

[00:17:47]I'm going to add that mocha ink to it as well.

[00:17:50]And then I'm also going to just rough up the edges of this with my with my fingernail.

[00:17:55]You can do this in many ways. I've shown it in different videos too using like the edges of scissors.

[00:18:00]With lightweight pattern paper, my fingernail just works.

[00:18:04]And then I pulled out some twine from my stash.

[00:18:08]Um yeah. Doubled it up.

[00:18:12]Put it through the the hole there of the tag. And one of the few times I didn't need to use my reverse tweezers. I think because this twine was doubled up, it just the knot kind of held. Usually I use my reverse tweezers, but didn't need to this time. So tied it in a bow. And then this is where I start pulling like extra.

[00:18:31]I was you know, I was digging through when I was digging through for my circle dies, I came across a vellum die cut and I was like, "Ooh, I'm going to use that.

[00:18:39]It's It's just meant to be." So I had a piece of vellum that I had die cut with one of the petal tipped labels wafer dies.

[00:18:47]And then I ran it through my die cut machine with this uh Swiss dot rainbow splash Swiss dot embossing folder cuz you can't go wrong with a good Swiss dot. And with the rainbow splash embossing folders in the Anna Griffin Empress, at least for this one with vellum, I just used two cutting plates as my sandwich.

[00:19:05]Specifically with the Anna Griffin Empress.

[00:19:07]And that added that Swiss dot texture to that vellum die cut. And that just kind of gave a little extra.

[00:19:14]And then more extras. I've had this tray of die cuts sitting behind me for a while from a previous project. And when I was digging through things, I was looking at it and I was like, "Ooh, that would work with this card as well." So I used I had used the windswept leaves.

[00:19:29]That was the with uh Simon's green leaf cardstock. So it was the green die cuts.

[00:19:35]The little vellum die cut was the fiddly leaf and I'll have links with all the supplies for all of this, but these are all oldie but goodie favorites that I've used a million times in videos.

[00:19:47]So that was the fiddly leaf and then the dragonfly is one of my most used, the etched dragonfly wafer die, that I had cut the wings from vellum and the body from black. And they were all sitting in that tray. I was like, it was meant to be. It was meant to be.

[00:20:02]So, I assembled my little dragonflies.

[00:20:04]Just adhered the wings to the little black die cuts.

[00:20:08]And then started figuring out how I was going to layer all of this onto this card front.

[00:20:15]And once I started getting kind of happy with things, I'm just going to start gluing stuff down. So, I am going to glue everything down with just Craft Tacky Glue. So, started adhering the die cuts and that little pattern paper piece to my tag. Very tiny little amounts on that little vellum piece cuz glue does show through vellum. But, once I add all the other bits, you won't see it.

[00:20:38]So, then for that floral, I put a little bit of Big Mama Foam Tape behind the flower itself and then just glued down the stem.

[00:20:46]Pop that into place. And then that little round element, pop that up with some Big Mama Foam Tape as well.

[00:20:53]And then the the vellum panel there, I'm going to put just liquid glue in the center cuz again, glue shows through vellum. So, the tag will cover that part up, so I'm not worried about it.

[00:21:03]And then tuck in those little extra leaf die cuts.

[00:21:08]This makes like when I was making this, I was like, man, these came in so handy having them. I was like, I need to just I usually don't I use what I'm, you know, what I make. Um, I usually don't have leftovers. But, now I'm like, I need to just keep making extras and throwing them in trays like this cuz it's nice to kind of dig through and add, you know, leaves and leaves and dragonflies and all the things. So, pop that tag into place with the Big Mama Foam Tape. Adhered my little dragonfly. And then, of course, I'm going to add splatter.

[00:21:39]So, Positively Perfect white and black splatter, which need to be stirred up.

[00:21:45]All that pigment settles to the bottom of these jars.

[00:21:48]So, I put the card front into my splat box, stirred up the white splatter, splattered that all over the card front with my fan brush, let that dry, repeat with the black.

[00:22:00]Black, you need to be very, very careful with. It is insanely pigmented. It will stain everything it comes in contact with.

[00:22:06]So, stirred that up. And then also splattered this onto the card front. And while this is drying, I ended up stamping doing the same thing I did at the beginning, like stamping and heat embossing another floral um, stamp from that long stem set. You can see it there. And colored it the exact same way cuz I was like, oh, that'll be perfect for the inside.

[00:22:27]So, the sentiment, I popped up with a bit of glue and a little bit of Big Mama Foam Tape. I had adhered the card front to my card base, which is a top folding A2 white note card, 4 and 1/4 by 5 and 1/2 inches.

[00:22:40]I had a bit of pattern paper left over from the front of the card, so I trimmed that down to add to the inside.

[00:22:46]And then I trimmed another little piece of that pattern paper.

[00:22:51]Added that as well. Then my little floral bit and then that remaining little dragonfly.

[00:22:57]And once I get these glued to the inside of my card, that's going to finish it off.

[00:23:03]So, a little bit of mixed media.

[00:23:06]All my fun little die cuts. You can't go wrong with vellum.

[00:23:10]And yeah, this was fun. This was fun. And again, I got more ideas. I need I just need more time. I just need more time.

[00:23:17]But, like I mentioned in the like unboxing and intro, I'll have links to all of the things, including all the extras, in the description box below the video.

[00:23:26]There will also be a link to a visual supply list, my blog post, all of that is down below. And as always, thank you all so very much for hanging out with me, for thumbs upping and commenting, letting them robot overlords know you like what you see.

[00:23:40]It does help. I do appreciate it.

[00:23:43]Subscribe if you haven't. I'd love to have you. And I will see you all very soon in another video.

[00:23:49]Bye.

[00:23:52]Thank you so much to my amazing Patreon supporters. For anyone that might be interested in joining my Patreon community and supporting me, the link to my Patreon is in the description box below the video.

[00:24:04]For everyone else, as always, thank you all so much for taking the time to watch my videos, [music] for thumbs upping, commenting. Subscribe if you haven't. I'd love to have you.

[00:24:14]And here's a couple other videos for you to check out in case you missed them.

[00:24:18]Bye.

[00:24:24]>> [music]