Stamping All Stars

Welcome to STAMPtember®, a wonderful creative month with Simon Says Stamp!  Simon Says Stamp are celebrating for the whole month of September by hosting a STAMPtember® event inteded to inspire, educate, and celebrate the greatness of rubber stamping. 

All stampers, scrapbookers, mixed media artists all have at least one stamping all-star in his or her stash. Whether it is a background stamp that works with everything or an ink pad that you rarely create without, this week Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog would like you to highlight your personal creative all-stars!

 

A piece of corrugated card was my inspiration this week, developing into a rustic hanging. I love brushed corduroy and gathered twigs Distress Inks and rarely create without them. However, my newest all-star is gathered twigs as it adds wonderful warmth, age and a vintage feel to any project. I have combined my all-star with an old favourite of mine, Tim Holtz Papillon stamp set.

I began my piece with the moths and butterflies stamp, applying VersaMark ink to the stamp and stamping onto a piece of white card.

Once the image has been stamped sprinkle with white embossing powder and heat with a heat tool to melt.

The image is now embossed and will act as a resist against the ink I apply in the next step. I aged and tore the edges using a paper distresser.

Apply gathered twigs Distress Ink over the embossed image using an ink blending tool, working on a non-stick craft sheet.

Once the stamped piece has been coloured take a piece of damp kitchen towel and remove any excess colour from the embossed areas, this makes the images pop against the background.

Gathered twigs adds wonderful warmth and age to my piece, I love it.

Spritz water into your hand and then flick the droplets of water onto the coloured piece.

Distress Ink is reactive with water and will leave blotches/bleached out areas in the background, adding further interest to the stamping.

Dab up the excess water with a piece of kitchen towel and then heat dry with a heat tool.

The water droplets also add to the aged feel of this piece, just like old stained paper from many years ago.

I stamped the background stamp onto white card and repeated the same process to age and add water blotches to the background. For further interest I also added a touch of machine stitching.

A touch of dimension has been added to one of the butterflies, stamping with gathered twigs Distress Ink and adding a pen nib coloured with ginger Alcohol Ink for further interest.

I have added FLY using Alpha Cards, attached using the tiny attacher and colouring with gathered twigs Distress Ink. To echo FLY I also added FLY to jump rings adhered with Glossy Accents.

An ornate plate has been added for further dimension and texture, colouring with olive bronze Treasure Gold metallic wax adding FLY to the centre.  I have also included an enamel tag, adding label letters to add fly to the tag and colouring with a touch of frayed burlap Distress Paint and attaching with rusty wire.

I have added FLY to the bottom corner to echo FLY in the top corner again attached with the tiny attacher. I have also included two SOAR Adage Tickets, which I crumpled to age and then coloured with gathered twigs Distress Ink.

I added touches of Gesso to the corrugated card to lift the colour a little and to add more interest to the backdrop. A Prima Flower Typo Bulb has been added to the bottom corner coloured with ginger Alcohol Ink.

Two wooden butterflies have been added stamped with the background stamp from the Papillon set using gathered twigs Distress Ink. I added rusty wire to hang my hanging attached with hitch fasteners.

For more great ideas please pop over to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog and take a look at my fellow team members they have created some inspirational projects. Remember there is also the chance to win a $50 prize from Simon Says Stamp.  I always look forward to seeing your creations each week.

 Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x

Products Used:

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Papillon Stamp Set
Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Pen Nibs, Alpha Cards, Jump Rings, Ornate Plates, Enameled Tags, Label Letters, Adage Tickets, Hitch Fasteners
Distress Inks - Gathered Twigs
Distress Paint - Frayed Burlap
Ginger Alcohol Ink
VersaMark Watermark Stamp Pad
White Embossing Powder
Heat Tool
Paper Distresser
Ink Blending Tool
Non-Stick Craft Sheet
Tiny Attacher
Glossy Accents
PaperArtsy Olive Bronze Treasure Gold Metallic Wax
Claudine Hellmuth Gesso
Prima Flowers Typo Bulbs
Studio Calico Butterflies Wood Veneers