Say What?

It's Monday! There's a new challenge going on at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog. Phrases, sentiments and alphabets are important assets to a stampers art cache.  So let’s not leave the words out of our STAMPtember® celebration! The Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge design team is embracing the written word and sharing our creations with you this week. This week I chose to focus on positive words. The Simon Says DIE & STAMPS SET SENTIMENTS OF BE set was perfect for what I had in mind.  I wanted the words to be the focus and I wanted them to be seen and felt, so I created these Altered Affirmation Clips.

Chip clips, paper clips, and even scrapbook embellishments will now be replaced with Affirmation Clips.  Common, household clothespins were given a make-over with Wild Honey Distress Paint.  The words were stamped with permanent ink so they wouldn't smear and smudge.  Some Distress Inks added a bit of character.  And I coated the clips with Diamond Glaze to seal and protect.  Distress Paint was added to vintage keys and then topped with a game number.

Simon Says Stamp was founded in 2002 with an interest in exclusively selling rubber stamps. It didn’t take long until we realized we couldn’t stop there. During the past 11 years we celebrate rubber stamping in its full glory by giving access to people around the world to a one stop shop. Rubber stamps still remain the heart of our business and we are celebrating by hosting a STAMPtember® event intended to inspire, educate, and celebrate the greatness of rubber stamping. Part of the enticement of rubber stamping is that stamps can be used in creating or complementing ANYTHING! From stamping dates on bank documents and postage parcels in the early 18th century, rubber stamping has dramatically expanded to include card making, scrapbooking, mixed media, life documenting, art journaling, and many forms of altering and expressing art.

Be sure to upload your wordy project to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog for a random chance to win a $50.00 gift voucher to Simon Says Stamp!  Your project could also be chosen to be featured in our designer spotlight.

  

Chin Up and Aim High!

This week's sketch at RetroSketches was fun to work with.  I paired it with a stamp set from Avery Elle to create a card suitable for a guy in need of a bit of encouragement.

This is about as clean and simple as I've ever been.  I'm not sure it works for me or not.  Here's the sketch for this week:

I do like the fringe though. :)

This is the last card that I've made as the September Headliner at Retro Sketches.  It's been a fun month and I'd like to thank the ladies there for letting me share my card-making endeavors with them.

My other card is for the Avery Elle September AEI♥U Challenge.  I tried to keep it simple as well.

That tag die is one of my all-time favorites.

The challenge was to create a project based on this picture. Isn't it a cheery and fun image?

Happy Stamping!

 

Simon Says Stamp Kit Hop

Welcome to the blog hop! I am so excited to be a part of the STAMPtember® celebrations at Simon Says Stamp!  They have released an exclusive mixed-media kit to help celebrate.  The talented Shari Carroll has handpicked all of the items included in this kit.  It is loaded with product!

I have never used an art journal before, so I was thrilled to receive a Dyan Reavely journal in the kit.  I'm not much of a journal-er, but I'm planning on using it as a "play book" to try out new products and techniques.  For instance, I discovered that the Claudine Hellmuth Altered Orange paint looks fabulous with the new BasicGrey Persimmon papers. The paint comes in the kit!

And for every kit purchased during STAMPtember® Simon Says Stamp is including two complimentary Indigoblu cling stamps! No two kits will be alike, it’s a total surprise as to which stamps you will get.

The center of the flowers was created by using a portion of the waxed paper bag that the embellishments came in. The rest of the little bag was used to create this vintage inspired treat bag.  (Because grown-ups like treats too!)  I love those white Kelly Purkey labels that came in the kit. 

Don't journal? Yeah....I didn't journal much either, but the kit makes it easy to start. :)

This is the end of the hop, so now you can head back towards the store.

 

 

 

Simon Says Stamp was founded in 2002 with an interest in exclusively selling rubber stamps. It didn’t take long until we realized we couldn’t stop there. During the past 11 years we celebrate rubber stamping in its full glory by giving access to people around the world to a one stop shop. Rubber stamps still remain the heart of our business and we are celebrating by hosting a STAMPtember® event intended to inspire, educate, and celebrate the greatness of rubber stamping. Part of the enticement of rubber stamping is that stamps can be used in creating or complementing ANYTHING! From stamping dates on bank documents and postage parcels in the early 18th century, rubber stamping has dramatically expanded to include card making, scrapbooking, mixed media, life documenting, art journaling, and many forms of altering and expressing art.

Each week a $50 gift voucher is awarded to a random participant in the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge.  This weeks challenge is to use any "Simon Exclusive" item.  This included stamps, stencils and dies.  Your project could also be chosen to be featured in our designer spotlight!

 

Need more info about the kit?  Check out this video!

 

Hello! Sketch Cards

A big "Hello!" from me to you!
This week I had a lot of fun with the sketch from RetroSketches.  My card was created with one of my favorite Artistic Outpost stamps.  I started out trying the bokah effect, but I wasn't happy with where that was going so I added some distress inks, roughed it up with a sanding block, and distressed more  and inked again until I said, "Okay, I'm done now."  :)   Sometimes, the process is so much fun!  This was one of those times.

My original idea was to incorporate the fence as the horizontal stripe in the sketch.  It's still there, but not as prominent as I had originally planned.  The "Hello" bubble is a chipboard sticker from the new Crate Paper Close Knit collection.  Isn't it fun? I am also linking this to the Artistic Outpost Monthly Referral Program.  Which, by the way, you should check out even if you don't plan on participating.  The have a new gallery every month full of awesome submissions.  There's some really talented stampers there. I hope you have the opportunity to use the sketch this week.

Have a wonderful weekend.  And Happy Stamping!

Stamping On!

This week, The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is to "Stamp On".  We know you can stamp on plain, white paper.  But what about patterned paper, wood, plastic, or fabric?  The challenge is to stamp on anything but plain paper.  For my project, I chose to stamp on fabric and I created my own fabric covered buttons.  These are so fun to make.  So fun, that I created several sets!

I dug through my old sewing stash and found some plain, cream-colored muslin. I used Distress Paint to cover the fabric. (Note: The paint will seep through the fabric so be sure to cover your work surface)  I stamped some fun, script text and then added my focal image stamped in StazOn ink.

Here are some additional buttons that I made with the same 7 Gypsies stamps.

And look at how fun they are to use!

 

Join in the fun as we continue to celebrate STAMPtember®!!

 Simon Says Stamp was founded in 2002 with an interest in exclusively selling rubber stamps. It didn’t take long until we realized we couldn’t stop there. During the past 11 years we celebrate rubber stamping in its full glory by giving access to people around the world to a one stop shop. Rubber stamps still remain the heart of our business and we are celebrating by hosting a STAMPtember® event intended to inspire, educate, and celebrate the greatness of rubber stamping. Part of the enticement of rubber stamping is that stamps can be used in creating or complementing ANYTHING! From stamping dates on bank documents and postage parcels in the early 18th century, rubber stamping has dramatically expanded to include card making, scrapbooking, mixed media, life documenting, art journaling, and many forms of altering and expressing art.

Join the fun and show us what YOU can stamp on.  By linking your project, you are automatically entered for the chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp online store.  Your project could also be chosen as a featured designer and you could earn a cool badge for your blog.

Happy Stamping!

 

Want to create something similar?  These products can help: