{"id":1767,"date":"2014-07-21T00:00:51","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T04:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.simonsaysstampblog.com\/mondaychallenge\/?p=1767"},"modified":"2014-07-20T22:39:27","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T02:39:27","slug":"a-mid-summers-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simonsaysstampblog.com\/mondaychallenge\/?p=1767","title":{"rendered":"A mid-summer’s challenge…"},"content":{"rendered":"

A challenge to me this time of year would be to brave getting a heat tool involved when my crafting space is nearly hot enough to melt embossing powder on its own! Well perhaps not quite that hot, but mid-summer is a time of hot temperatures, long days, longing for more time spent by the water, and vacation. Whether your creative mind wants to take a vacation or be inspired by Shakespeare; play with a Farmer\u2019s Market inspired paper line or stamp into a starry night frenzy – we challenge you to create and share with us.<\/p>\n

Meihsia<\/a> created an altered anchor to display in her son’s ocean themed bedroom.<\/p>\n

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Summer reminds me of ocean, and ocean reminds me of an anchor. My son, Christopher, loves everything about ocean. So for this week’s challenge, I decided to alter a chipboard anchor to display in his room. I gethered different inks in blue shades such as Distress Stain<\/a>, Izink<\/a> ink and Distress Ink<\/a>, then colored them on the chipboard anchor that’s already covered with Gesso<\/a> and stenciled with Modeling Paste<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Emma<\/a> was inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream and the beauty of a summer garden in full bloom.<\/p>\n

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For me, there is nothing better than the beauty of a summer garden bursting to life with the wonderful colours of summer and for my project, I wanted to combine this, with the magic of Shakespeare’s play. I filled my wallhanging with bursts of colour using Tattered Florals<\/a> die cuts, inked with Picked Raspberry<\/a>, Shaded Lilac<\/a> and Squeezed Lemonade<\/a> Distress Inks and added a Prima Resin Angel to a die cut Ornate frame<\/a>, which I surrounded with Garden Green<\/a>s die cut foliage.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mona<\/a> was inspired to create a layout documenting a summer vacation.<\/p>\n

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\nEvery year, I look forward to a fun family summer beach vacation. My daughter Meredith loves to surf so I scrapped a layout featuring a photograph of her that was taken while on a summer beach vacation. I surrounded her with Nautical Blueprint <\/a>images as well as Mini Sand & Sea<\/a> Grungeboard<\/a> embellishments.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Sandra Mouwen<\/a> thinks of mid-summer, she thinks of really bright colors.<\/p>\n

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I’m starting to like bright colors more and more. But often with lots of contrast, like with a bit of black. I think that makes the colors pop even more. I made this bright bold background with a piece of Specialty Stamping Paper<\/a>, one drip of Raspberry<\/a>, Sunshine Yellow<\/a> and Gold Mixative<\/a> Alcohol inks and some Bleding Solution<\/a>. The yellow got a bit lost, so I applied Mustard Seed<\/a> Distress Ink, to get that color back in.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Ashli <\/a>was inspired to scrapbook a picture of her baby in her first swimsuit:<\/p>\n

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Yes, it is somewhat silly to put a five week old in a swimsuit! I confess, I purchased it solely for the photo op as I knew it would be scrap worthy. After all, nothing says summer like an infant in a bathing suit, right? Using the Simon Says Stamp Best Mom Ever<\/a> and the Dear Lizzy Daydreamer<\/a> stamp sets I created some custom embellishments to place around my layered papers from the Dear Lizzy Daydreamer<\/a> collection. A few Studio Calico Hearts<\/a> finish off this page of my summery girl.<\/em><\/p>\n

Suzz<\/a> had Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night Dream on her mind when she saw the challenge.<\/p>\n

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Immediately I thought of Shakespeare and fairies dancing around and glowing in the night. I created the scene for the fairies to come visit with a little table salt, Dylusions – Lemon Zest<\/a>, and water. Of course you have to have a field of wildflowers to attract the fairies and the Hero Arts With Sympathy<\/a> set had the perfect flowers. Now I have the perfect background to create several projects with.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dan<\/a> channeled his thoughts towards an English summer garden for this piece.<\/p>\n

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Quite a change of style from me this week – I really love this sentiment stamp from Tim’s Random Quotes<\/a> set and it spoke to me very clearly, saying “give me lots of white space”. I’ve tried to bring in some of the colours of the English summer countryside into my card, in the inks I used and in the shattered core cardstock<\/a> used for the card itself and the leaves. I love how the shattered pattern on the cardstock works so well as veins on the leaves. The other stamp set I used for the branches and stitching was Spring Sprung<\/a>. Those of you who know me well will know that I rarely “do” flowers, so it was a fun change to make one for this piece!<\/em><\/p>\n

Andrea<\/a>, a huge Shakespeare fan, made a banner featuring the words of her favorite sonnet.<\/p>\n

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\nIs this my dream challenge week or what? I’m a complete literary nerd and I was thrilled to see a challenge come up that I could tie into the Great Bard himself. I decided to make a banner with the words of his epic Sonnet 29. I used everything but the kitchen sink on this banner, including the Mini Paint Lids stencil<\/a>, Paper Artsy stamps<\/a>, and a href=”http:\/\/www.simonsaysstamp.com\/product.aspx?id=100442&c=0″ target=”_blank”>Tim Holtz Urban Grunge stamp<\/a> or two.<\/em><\/p>\n

The lush foliage of vintage photo inspired Michelle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I love using vintage photos. Tim Holtz Mirrored Stars <\/a>and flowers<\/a> stamped on vellum<\/a> enhanced the photo and transformed it into a card fit for Shakespearean lovers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anna-Karin<\/a> had a beach photo on her desk waiting to be find its way onto a layout.
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\nI took this photo quite a few years ago and came across it when thinking of what to do for this challenge. I decided to extend the scenery in the photo with watercolours<\/a>, not aiming to copy it completely. The layout was embellished with a stamped sentiment<\/a>, two small seahorses<\/a>, mini blueprint stamps <\/a>and Linen Ribbon<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I (May<\/a>) used a quote to add into my art journal this week.<\/p>\n

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Using the falling stars stencil<\/a>, my watercolor pencils<\/a>, and a Dina Wakley stamp <\/a>to name a few things I journaled a quote that inspired me this week. My art journal is quickly becoming my favorite escape and place to store inspiring and interesting quotes and thoughts and notes.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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As always, Simon Says Stamp<\/a> 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 July 27th 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.<\/p>\n

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