Christmas time can be joyous and wonderful, and also exhausting, especially for moms. Moms often end up being the chief planner, cook, maid, gift buyer, decorator, hostess, and peace maker during the holiday season. Spellbinders new Merry Mayhem collection reflects this kind of exhaustion that many of us feel, sometimes before December has even begun. 

I used the Snow Done die set along with the Joy-ish stamp set to make a simple shaker card. All my cardstock is from Spellbinders ColorWheel cardstock pack of 48. 

I doubled the foam tape I used behind my front panel, die cut using Essential Arches die set, to make room for the thickness of my penguin and iceberg die cuts as well as my sequin mix. 

I experimented with several techniques to get a tie dye look. Using just the edges of a rainbow of Distress Ink cubes, I made concentric rectangles on a 4.5 x 6.25” (that’s A6 size) piece of Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor paper. I added water to the very center and hoped it would give a tie dye look as the water spread. It almost worked, but left a distinctly rectangle shape of ink swipes on the paper. I abandoned that one and then just tried to use my Distress Ink Sprays on wet watercolor paper. I used Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, and a very small amount of Shabby Shutters (barely visible). That worked better, but I still lacked the concentric circles I was looking for. I took this panel and simply added big concentric circles with a paintbrush dipped in clean water. That got closer to what I wanted, and I stopped there to dry the panel and flatten it under some books for a little while.

Next, I stamped the peace-hand sign in black VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink in the middle of the panel. I did the same with the 2 sentiments. I die cut this with one die from the Spellbinders Essential Modern Ovals die set. I cut a larger oval from Taylored Expressions Lollipop Cardstock.

I really wanted a sunburst in the background of my oval, but I ran into a problem (and found a workaround). I had a great 6x6” Sunburst Stencil from Waffle Flower but it didn’t cover an A6 panel. I ink blended with Altenew’s Maple Yellow ink from the center outwards with a large blending brush. On the left and right, I could go to the edge of the paper before I ran into the edge of the stencil. However, on the top and bottom, I had to make sure I didn’t touch the frame edge of the stencil with my blending brush. I removed the stencil and then extended the sunburst ray edges with Post It tape and kept blending to the edge of my paper. It worked great. (See photos for details)

I trimmed about 1/8” from each side of my yellow sunburst panel and used foam adhesive to mat it on an A6 piece of black cardstock. Next I glued on my oval. I added just a couple gems in the center of the largest flowers for a bit of sparkle.

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I cut 3 pieces of white cardstock to 4.5” x 6.25”. I took my first panel and dry embossed it with the Simon Says Stamp Dotty Diamonds Embossing Folder. I then cut it down to 3.5” x 5.25” and distressed the edge of this. I cut my second panel to 4” x 5.75”. I left my third panel as is.

I stamped the peace-sign hand three times. First, using Concord & 9th’s Harbor ink, then using Taylored Expressions Lavender Glaze ink, and finally using a retired Stampin’ Up! colored called Soft Seafoam. An ideal substitute for the Stampin’ Up! color is Altenew’s Pistachio Fresh Dye Ink. I fussy cut all three hands and adhered them to the front of the embossed panel as shown, with the blue one on top.

Now for the die cutting trick. I stamped the sentiment “You don’t have to carry it all alone” with black VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink on a piece of white cardstock. I used the smallest tag die from Simon Says Stamps Rounded Tags die set, and by making sure the bottom edge of the tag was always hanging off my cutting mat (thereby not getting cut), I was able to cut the label in the shape you see, after it was stamped. I first put the die to the left of the sentiment and cut the top and sides, then switched it to the right side of the sentiment, cutting the top and sides of the tag shape. It was a little tricky, but it worked perfectly. And using the tag holes, I threaded some Simon Says Stamp Metallic Silver Cord through the holes and around the back of the embossed decorated panel.

I layered all three of these panels on top of one another, using thin foam adhesive under the embossed panel.

I finished by adding some clear, iridescent sequins in 2 sizes.

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I decided on a tag. I used the largest tag die in the Simon Says Stamp Rounded Tags die set. I cut 2 tags, one from dark brown cardstock and 1 from a sheet of 8 x 8” Neutral Tim Holtz Palette Paper. I so love working with all the Palette Paper sets. I inked the edges of the tag with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.

I stamped the hand using Gina K Designs Chocolate Truffle Amalgam Ink onto Lawn Fawn’s Vanilla Malt cardstock and fussy cut it leaving a thin border. Next, I took my Copic markers in B21, B41, B45 and B97 and colored in the floral design.

I took a piece of heavyweight vellum, tore one side, and stamped the “take care” sentiment from the Still Here stamp set on the right hand side using VersaFine Clair ink in Pinecone, an ink color that’s a little more red than the Gina K. Next, I heat embossed that with Brutus Monroe Icicle clear embossing powder.

I used the Hero Arts Nesting Tags die set to make both a small tag from a sheet of Tim Holtz Backdrops Vol 4 paper, as well as a hole reinforcer from Tim Holtz 8 x 8” Palette Paper in Blue. I inked the edge of the smaller tag with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. Using the same blue Palette Paper, I die cut 2 sizes of butterflies using the Simon Says Stamp Artful Palette dies. I assembled everything and added a thread nest with beige thread between the smaller tag and the piece of vellum.

I took Tim Holtz Mummy Cloth to make the tie that goes through the hole.

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I decided to use a rainbow effect on the hand, and Distress Oxides were the perfect medium. I used a different Tim Holtz Tiny Ink Blender for each color, and diffused the ink before I stamped each time. So, it went like this: I inked the top of the hand, using a tiny blender, with Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide. Then I diffused that color at the bottom edge with the same ink blender. Then I stamped. Then I took a different ink blender and added Carved Pumpkin right below where the Abandoned Coral ink had been (never cleaning the stamp as I went) and diffused it at the top and bottom. I continued this process moving down the hand and using Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feather, and Wilted Violet. I went back a couple times to add more ink in some spots, being careful to feather it out on the edges. I was very happy with my results.

I used VersaFine Clair black ink to stamp the Sending Peace sentiment, part of the Still Here stamp set, on the right side of the index finger.

For the white background of the card, I decided to use a favorite background stamp of mine. It is the Simon Hurley Typewriter stamp from Ranger. I stamped with black VersaFine Clair ink to get a crisp image.

I trimmed my rainbow-stamped white panel and torn the bottom edge. I used Spellbinders Colorwheel cardstock in Peridot, Teal Topaz and Lilac and tore pieces of these, in the same width as my white cardstock, to layer underneath. I glued all these pieces together and then matted them onto a black piece of cardstock. I centered all this onto my white typewriter stamped background. I glued all this onto a white A2 cardbase. 

I finished the card with some color coordinated epoxy dots I had in my stash.

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    Inspired by the September 14, 2026 Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the theme of Transport It, I am posting this card with the ever-popular Tim Holtz Road Trip die. I cut it from a variety of miscellaneous textured blue cardstock along with some grey and black. I got the blue cardstock from a friend and have no idea who manufactured it. 

    The trees shown here are from the Poppystamps Evergreen Trio die set. The clouds are from a Honey Bee Stamps die set called Whispy Clouds that is now retired. 

    I used a sentiment strip for the Happy Birthday sentiment. I don't know who made it. The background paper is from Joann's (#RIP), I believe. Designed by Maggie Holmes as part of her Forever Fields collection. 

If you shop from the product links above, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. It is much appreciated and helps fund my crafting. Also, any item first marked with an asterisk * was provided by an online store. Otherwise, I bought my supplies.