Welcome to STAMPtember®, the most magical month of the year here at Simon Says Stamp! Every stamper I know has at least one stamping all-star in his or her stash. Whether it is the background stamp that works with everything or the ink pad you could never create without, this week we want to highlight your personal all-stars!

Candy’s inspiration for this vintage Pocket Envelope comes from her all time favorite Tim Holtz release of stamps. My bank account too a huge hit when Tim released his winter CHA stamp lines; particularly that sweet little gentleman from Paris to London. He just speaks to me and I never get tired of him. Here I have combined several of those beautiful images with another of my favorite background stamps from Artful Tools; the measuring tape and paint brush heads.

Michelle was inspired by a quilt pattern to showcase her favorite Vintage Photo ink.

I use Ranger’s Vintage Photo Distress ink on 99% of my projects. Not only is it the perfect ink for distressing and inking the edges of stamped images, it’s also great for regular stamping, as seen in this Cathedral Window project. I completed this project with three of my favorite ALL Star products: Vintage Photo Ink, Avery Elle Texture Tiles Stamp Set, and a Circle Punch.

For Andrea, who majored in English and is an eternal librarian, there is nothing that beats a set of alphabet letter stamps.

If I were stranded on a deserted island and could only use one stamp set for the rest of my existence (hey- it could happen, right?) I would pick a set of alphabet letter stamps. Letters are freedom to say whatever you want to say, however you want to say it. I could spell out “Help!” or “SOS” or “Bring me lemonade!” or any other survival-ish message I wanted to write. And in the art world? The possibilities are endless!! For this project, I wanted to show off the simple beauty of letters by using my beloved set of Hero Arts alphabet letter stamps. I used them with one of my favorite inks, too, which is Ranger Black Archival ink.

A piece of corrugated card was Tracy’s 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. This piece now hangs in pride of place in my craft room.

Ashli was inspired by the adorable cloud stamp in the Exclusive For The Record Stamp Set to create a layout all about the things her 2 year old is saying:

I couldn’t resist the adorable cloud stamp in the Exclusive For The Record Stamp Set and used that as my inspiration for this page. Not only is this stamp the perfect all-purpose cloud shape, but I just love those polka dots and the whimsy they give! Rainbows are all the rage these days so I thought I would try my hand at a little rainbow-stamped cloud background. I put that little cloud stamp to work and created a fun base for my photo and layers of Mayberry Stickers and Kelly Purkey Labels.

Sandra Mouwen was really inspired by her trip a few weeks back to create this London themed card.

I almost use my stamping All Star, the Script stamp from Kaiser Craft, in every project. It’s such a great and versatile background stamp that I just love to use with my favorite black ink Archival Jet Black. Those two together on Manilla Cardstock with Gathered Twiggs Distress Ink makes me very happy!

I (May) was inspired to use a stamp that shows up in different forms on my projects every season.

This leaf stamp from Dylusions is one of my all time most used stamps. From spring to fall, layouts to home décor I love what it adds to my projects! Combining it with new Memento Luxe inks and just a few other details made this letter a quick project that is now ready to decorate my fall mantle.

Suzz feels like her project today is an awards show because she used so many of her favorite all-stars.

When I heard all-stars I pulled out all of my favorites and placed them on my craft desk. Tags is one of my favorite projects to create because it is a smaller design space and allows me the freedom to try out different techniques or stamps. I used the beautiful Graphic 45 tag book to showcase all my favorites. I started with a whitewash of white paint on the tags to create a surface to stamp and color on. On my cover tag I stamped the beautiful dragonfly from the Stampers Anonymous Classics #1.

Mona was inspired to create this mixed media wall hanging using her all-time favorite Jet Black ink pad.

I love to use Jet Black ink especially when creating mixed media projects because it is non-water based which allows me to stamp crisp images then layer with various mediums. Using a Grand Oval die, I die cut a piece of patterned paper then stamped many images from Attic Treasures using Jet Black ink then layered various mediums including: Color Shine, Color Wash and Distress ink.

Anna-Karin always has a hard time trying to pick favorite stamps, wanting to choose too many.

When I sat down to pick some favorite stamps, I knew I had to limit myself somehow, and went for my Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous stamps. I pulled out some of my favorites: wood background, School Desk, Tiny Textures, Tiny Things, sentiment stamps, and the birds in the Mini Ornates set. As a base, I used my favourite stamping paper, manila cardstock and made a pop-up tag.

Like Anna-Karin, Dan has too many favourite stamps to pick just one, so he’s chosen his favourite type of stamp instead.

What do you mean “But Dan, Tim Holtz’s David is your favourite stamp”? Okay, you’re probably right, but I just used him a couple of week’s back so I’m giving him a well earned rest this week. Really though, It’s probably truer to say that large face stamps are my favourites and he’s just one of the ones I have. Without doubt, my favourite distress colour is Fired Brick so I had to squeeze that in somewhere here too. Among the stamps I’ve used are the Artful Artifacts and Mixed Media sets and the skull and phrenology head from Stampers Anonymous.

Meihsia was inspired to create a beautiful project using her stamping all-star.

Please be sure to check back on Wednesday to see her step by step tutorial using her all-stars – Faber-Castell Gelatos and Stamper’s Big Brush Pens.

For more inspiration click on our design team’s blog links so you can see more photos (and full supply lists) for their projects. Leave them a little comment love while you’re there so they know how they’ve inspired you too, if you’re so inclined.

As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by random generator. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here. This challenge will end at 11:59pm on Sunday September 8th Eastern time. We will also be choosing some of our entries to put in the spotlight – a special honor where we talk about why we loved that entry in particular and award a special badge too! For the full rules, read the “challenge rules” posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

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