Challenge: Stamp out 2013!

This will be the final challenge of 2013 for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog, and we hope you’ll join us! The challenge is a simple one: use a stamp! We figured what better way to end the year than stamping it out in style! Background, sentiment, big, or small – all stamping is welcome here!

Mona created a holiday card featuring a stamped image as the focal point.

I took this opportunity to create another Christmas card featuring the fun and versatile Snowflake Blueprint from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Christmas Blueprint stamp set. I stamped the snowflake using Tea Dye Distress Ink on Gesso painted tag which was then covered using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. I love this stamp because no matter what ink you use, the image always looks fabulous!

Michelle chose a stamped image to embellish her journal page.

I love the Hero Arts Color The Tree Stamp. It’s simple design can be used so many different ways. Although the stamp looks contemporary, it has this Eames-era quality that works well with retro-type projects as well. When used with Finnley papers, the Color The Tree makes a fun embellishment for my journal page.

This week Dan turned his thoughts to how he might dress his festive table.

Those of you who follow my blog may remember that last year I created some holiday flatware pouches to use when my family were visiting at Christmas. Needless to say, they all wanted to keep them so this year I’ve had to come up with some new ones. Tim Holtz’s pillow box die is my current favourite and it works perfectly as a flatware sleeve for the holidays, brightened up with some festive stamping. The Santa from the Holiday Wishes set is one of the best, so he had to feature here! Other stamps I used included the Letter to Santa and Christmas Time sets.

Sandra Mouwen has never made a more colorful project then this one

My close friend Paula loves bright colors, so I went a bit crazy with the primary colors of distress ink and created lots of different colors by blending them on the tag. To bring some contrast I used some black accents, like the stamping in the background . One of my favorite stamping techniques is randomly and partially stamping, which I did with the Numbers and Script stamps in Archival Jet Black.

Suzz was inspired by the challenge to create a few different Christmas ATC’s with some of her favorite new stamps.

I am part of a group that trades ATC’s and I signed up for a Christmas ATC stamping swap. I have a sweet set of Kelly Purkey Washi Tapes that were perfect to frame the PaperArtsy Santa. I had fun stamping my images and creating mini pieces of art that can be used as tags or traded with others. I also had an opportunity to pull out my dusty iron for a fun technique on my other ATC’s which involved the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist – Silver Sugar and Perfect Pearls Mister.

I (May) am stamping up a holiday storm with my Tim Holtz blueprint stamps.

This might be my favorite holiday card of the season! I do so love silver and blue, and I had a blast stamping with this beloved ornament stamp, the Christmas background stamp, and of course loads of stickles.

Tracy created a Thank You card with a surprising amount of elements added.

I combined Fired Brick, Broken China and a touch of Spiced Marmalade Distress Paint with the quirky Darkroom Door Carved Birds Vol 2. This stamp set really appealed to me as the bird itself has a heart within its body, a lovely detail and as I love hearts in any shape or form it seemed a perfect stamp for me to use for this weeks challenge.

Anna-Karin made a Christmas card using two lovely Hero Arts stamps and lots of stars.

I really like this World Ornament stamp by Hero Arts and though it worked perfectly together with the ‘Joy to the World’ sentiment. The ornament was stamped on Wendy Vecchi’s Clearly For Art Modeling Film and coloured with alcohol inks. The card is full of stars: dry-embossed, mirrored stars, stamped tiny stars and a star border. I also used the pretty Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Mod Tree die.

Candy took this opportunity to create a beautiful stamped collage background on her vintage holiday tag.

Potting Soil Archival Ink is my new favorite permanent brown ink. The richness of the color lends itself perfectly for this very vintage Extra Large Tag. I chose some of my favorite Tim Holtz Christmas stamps to create a collage background. Winter Wonder, Old Fashioned Christmas, Letter To Santa and Holidays Past provide such beautiful vintage images. When distressed with traditional Fired Brick red and Pine Needles green, they definitely exude Christmas.

Ashli used a Simon Says exclusive stamp set to create her embellishments for her layout.

Christmas is in high gear around here, so I can’t resist a little more Christmas crafting! To emphasize the story of this layout, about trimming the tree, I put the Simon Says exclusive Oh Christmas Tree stamp set to use. What I love most about this stamp set is it’s versatility. You can make very realistic Christmas trees by layering your colors, or you can choose to take a more geometric and subtle route, as I have done here. I simply stamped the various triangular shapes using different shades of Distress Ink, cut them out, and adhered them with pop dots. The perfect accent for my Christmas layout!

Meihsia was inspired to create a mixed media canvas wall decor with her favorite sentiments.


I love the sentiments on Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps because they always encourage me to create something unique and be myself. I decided to make a canvas wall decor this week using these stamps with Colorbox Frost White Pigment Ink Pad on one tag, and watermark ink and embossing powder on another tag. All these tags were covered with black chalkboard paint so these white stamped sentiments look awesome with the contrast.

Andrea converted her rubber stamps to “digital stamps” to create this Christmas CD cover.

SSS Stamp Out
I’m a traditional stamper in the sense that I like to have a physical stamp in front of me to use on my projects. I have not used many “digital stamps” (digital images that you can incorporate into your work or print and color like traditionally-stamped images). Be that as it may, I do see how handy it would be to have the ability to hop on the computer and alter your image by changing its size or layering it with other images. So I thought, why not make some of my rubber stamps “digital” this week? And that’s just what I did using some stamps from Inkadinkado, IndigoBlu and Kaiser.
Want more details about these projects? Click the links to their blogs and find out! There you will find full project photos (and full supply lists) for their entries. Leave them a little comment love while you’re there so they know how they’ve inspired you too, if you’re so inclined.

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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 December 22nd 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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  1. Ladies and Dan – this looks great! Love your examples!
    I wish you a wonderful Christmas time and all the the best for 2014! Thanks for all the inspiration and everything you do for us! Edith

  2. I don’t come and praise often enough and we all really should. The depth and variety of samples from the Design Team again this week has me wanting to stamp, stamp, stamp!
    Instead I will be stamping my feet in frustration as I now have a MUST do list!
    Again thank you. Your generosity of inspiration is to enjoy and admire.
    Have a wonderful break, recharge your batteries and bring on 2014.

  3. All I can say is WOW! Awesome year of challenges and creative inspiration! Thanks DT!! You rock!!

  4. these are all so very lovely. i do believe this was my favorite group of DT work all year, i just love every single one of them. Thank you to all of you for inspiring and stretching us. We appreciate you. happy holidays to one and all and SIMON TOO!

  5. One FABULOUS creation after the next! Delightful post, so much inspiration. From Mona’s wonderful layers and details to Dan’s brilliant use of the pillow box as a silver holder to Tracy’s terrific thank you card … love them all! :)

  6. Gorgeous DT creations and inspirations and thanks for another great challenge. Also want to say thank you for all the challenges this year – it makes my crafting a lot of fun xx

  7. Good grief – where did that year go?! Fabulous inspiration from the team, as ever… looking forward to hopping round for a closer look. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!
    Alison x

  8. Fabulous inspirational works wow, and thank you for this very open challenge ! :)
    Also, I wish you a Merry Christmas, everybody !! Coco x

  9. Fun challenge and a lovely job from the Design Team! See you next time!!! Thanks again! :-)

    TTFN,

    CraftyGirl
    craftygirlcardsandcrafts.blogspot.com

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