May24 announcements: [top 3, winner of challenge, and a call...]

 I want to take a minute to thank you for being such a great part of the community here! From amazing entries each week to supportive comments - this is such a great place to create and share. So thank you for being a part of it! There is a lot going on here behind the scenes here at Simon Says Stamp and Show, and I think you're going to like what you see!

Before I go spilling secrets - let me take a minute and thank Simon Says Stamp for another chance to win a $50 voucher!!

Last week's challenge was just a little paper - and as always the entries were fantastic. The lucky (randomly drawn) winner for the little paper challenge is...

 

112  paper profusion

Please claim your prize within the next two weeks by emailing May.

From added inspiration and tutorials, to a call for some new design team members this summer promises to be inspiring here at Simon Says Stamp and Show! Yes, I did say we're looking to add a few new creative faces to the team so if you are interested - now would be the time to let me know. See the blog side-bar for details if you'd like to enter!

  Now let's talk about the top 3 projects as chosen by the Stamp & Show design team. Oh was it hard to narrow this down!! Let me give you a hint and say soon we'll be changing up how we do the top honors here so you may find even more projects being singled out... more on that next month! For this week the honors go to three incredible projects, all such different takes on the challenge this week:
 

3  Elly
141  asia king
166  Andrea Ockey Parr

Be sure to visit their blogs and check out their amazing entries. So inspiring! Congratulations to each of you on a challenge well done! Please email May for the Top 3 Blinkie.
 

I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the challenge. It is always a joy to see what you create. I'd also like to say thank you again to Simon Says Stamp for their generosity - each week we give away a $50 gift voucher to the shop that you can use to buy all kinds of fabulous stamps, inks, and paper crafting supplies.

Remember - you just need to enter the challenge each week to be entered into the drawing!

Navy ink with May Flaum

Hey everybody! It's just me, May Flaum here, and you know I just am so in love with the color Navy in my ink lately. In fact, you might say it is one of my favorite colors of ink! This is relevant because this week here at Simon Says Stamp & Show we're sharing projects with our favorite inks.

Card made with Hero Arts Navy ink, She Art Stencil, and Basic Grey embellishment

 

I blame the Tim Holtz Chipped Sapphire distress paint for this recent navy obsession, because ever since I got that paint I have been really inspired by this color in general. To show you how I made the card above, and talk about my favorite navy colored inks as well as color combinations and more possibilities, I've created a video to share with you here today.

 
Products shown in video include Hero Arts Navy ink, She Art Stencil, and Basic Grey embellishment, Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink, heat tool, clear embossing powder, foam blending tool, and Hero Arts bird stamp.

 

 Now I leave it to you! Whether I've inspired you to run wild with the rich blue hues or you're feeling nautical, or of course if you want to share your own personal favorite ink be sure  to enter this week's challenge! The prize (randomly drawn) is a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp shop! It's full of inky goodness always of course.

For the full challenge rules check out the information in the side bar, and to be entered just check out the post just below this for the inky challenge. We'll be back next week with an all new challenge of course - we're always up to something! 
(and there's loads of new fun stuff in store too!) 

Challenge: Favorite Ink

 While it’s true that it depends on what kind of project you’re crafting and what you’re trying to make, we all have our own favorite ink pads. This week the challenge is to create something using your favorite ink pad, your #1 most used pad, or otherwise to create with a favorite ink.

Candy's favorite ink pad of all time is Tim Holtz' Gathered Twig Distress Ink and she has used it in detailing and distressing this vintage skewer card with a gift card pocket on the inside.

My favorite ink pad was Vintage Photo Distress Ink until the introduction of Gathered Twigs. It has got to be the deepest most beautiful brown ever!  It is perfect in vintage work; especially when distressing and aging the edges of paper. Coupled with Black Soot, you can instantly give paper the appearance of being old and worn. It seems like the gorgeous images on Tim's stamps; in this case, Classics #5 for the face, Artful Tools for the paint brushes and measuring tape, Papillon for the dimensional butterfly and Simple Sayings for the sentiment are even more enhanced when Gathered Twigs provides the rich warm tones surrounding them.

Suzz has a love of color and picking one ink pad as a favorite was tough but she decided that today her favorite was Memento Sweet Plum.

 Asking me to pick a favorite ink pad is like asking me to pick a favorite child. I love all types of inks and colors as they allow so much flexibility. I selected the Tsukeniko Memento Sweet Plum for the challenge this week because I wanted to create a birthday card for my Mother-in-Law. I used the Stampendous Hollyhocks because she is a fantastic gardener and I know she will love the flowers. I added a tissue paper butterfly cut with the Memory Box Darla  die. I added a few lovely Maya Road Trinket Pins to my ribbon for an additional detail.

This proved to be such a difficult challenge for Anita, so she is leaving her choice of #1 Ink Pad up to you.

You've read it correctly everyone... the choice is yours. I sure couldn't make up my mind between three inks. I love Tim's Distress Ink in Aged Mahogany because it's my favorite color and I am always drawn to reds. I also love Ranger's Jet Black Archival, and use it more than any other ink I own for it's permanent bold self. Then again, I love Tim's Rusty Hinge Distress Ink for it's fun, bold liveliness and versatility for making something look vintage and antiqued, plus it's my second favorite color. So, I've made three identical cards from Ranger's Giant #12 Manila Tags using only each of the three inks I love. I need help picking my favorite, so I am leaving the winning choice up to you!

Anna-Karin has many favourite inks, but picked the most versatile for this project, Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black.

Archival Ink Jet Black is such a versatile ink and is the pad that I reach for most often. I love that it is waterproof and can be stamped on many different surfaces. I also used three favourite Distress Inks: Gathered Twigs, Salty Ocean and Antique Linen. The card is a double high accordion card made with the Sizzix Accordion Flip die. The gentlemen from Tim Holtz Time Travelers set were stamped with Archival Jet Black on watercolour paper and watercoloured with the three Distress Inks. The same inks were used to colour the canvas panels and I stamped on the canvas with both the black and the coloured inks. More Jet Black stamping, a ticket and some Idea-ology pieces finished the card.

This week Dan decided to use his favorite ink pad to make a page for the art journal he made last week.

Asking me what my favourite ink pad is is like asking me what my favourite food is  - there's more than one answer and it changes regularly!  Having said that, thinking back through my crafting life it came down to a choice of two - Gathered Twigs and Fired Brick Distress Ink Pads.  I use Gathered Twigs most of all, but as an accent and distressing colour.  Fired Brick is the one that I actually use when I want a blast of rich colour in a composition so it won out here.  I decided to challenge myself and use only that inkpad for the whole piece, apart from some black for stamping.  I used several stamp sets on this page, including Valentine Blueprint, Around the Edge, Mona's Sketchbook and Rockstar.

Tracy showcased her favourite ink pad, brushed corduroy Distress Ink in a steampunk dimensional canvas.

This weeks challenge was an easy one for me as I absolutely love brushed corduroy Distress Ink; perfect in my opinion for ageing any project or item, it adds that subtle aged colour without over powering the focal image. Tim Holtz Top Hats image takes center stage in my dimension pocket watch cut using the Pocket Watch Frame die. The Idea-ology Pocket Watch embellishment echoes the main large focal pocket watch to give further interest and dimension to my canvas.

 

Ashli agrees with Anna-Karin this week - Jet Black Archival Ink is THE BEST!

I know, I know... all the many ink pads that are out there to choose from and I am going with Black Archival? Yep! Just like Anna-Karin said, it is endlessly versatile. For this layout, I wanted to play with lots of fun colors and a whimsical design to document our last little moments before leaving Disney World. I used one of my all-time favorite stamps - Ranunculus by Stampendous, along with some Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Stamps to scatter my background images about. Since the Archival Ink that I used is waterproof, I was then able to paint with Watercolors in and around all of my stamped images to create my colorful background.

Sandra Mouwen fell in love with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink the moment she saw it on Tim's announcement video last spring.

My favorite ink pad is Peacock Feathers for sure. I love the color of it! And that it's Distress Ink makes it even better. I covered the whole tag with my #1 ink, then stamped the in the same color with the background stamp of the Paris Memoir set. I distressed the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I love the Eiffel Tower Sizzix die and it love the matching Eiffel Tower Embossing folder too. It gives it so much texture!

Trace's three Versamark Ink pads are never far from her reach.

I decided my favorite ink is the one I use the most and couldn't craft without! I think I use Versamark Ink on almost every project. Versamark must stand for versatility, for you can use it as a watermark, embossing, and emboss resist just to name a few! My favorite way to use it is to stamp an image with it, and then emboss this image in white WOW embossing powder; like I did with this gorgeous Hero Arts Ruffled Flower stamp. I like to do this because then I can easily colour with my Tim Holtz Distress Markers, and it always looks like perfect colouring!

Sarah always seems to be reaching for her Salty Ocean Distress Ink these days and it was still on her table from the last project, it was the perfect choice for this week. Somehow you just can't go wrong with white and blue!

Many years ago I started out my crafting journey by making a few Christmas cards and today I still love to create cards. When I'm not up to my eyes in a complex project I really enjoy working on one layer cards. I still get a lot of pleasure from seeing the imprint of fresh ink on white paper. I was also wondering how I could play around with lots of my Tim stamps to create interesting designs. I love how the eye fits inside the frame and I never get tired of playing around with the Papillion set which I teamed with the smaller  butterflies from Attic Treasures.

I (May) will be sharing my pick and a tutorial later this week.

Come back by on Wednesday when I'll be sharing a video as well as project featuring my current favorite inks here on the Stamp & Show blog for even more inspiration!

 

Now it is your turn! We can't wait to see what you make, and what your favorite ink pads are! Also don't forget, for more project details and supply lists be sure to click on our design team's blog links. 

 

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 May 26th EST.

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

 

 

 

winners: inspired by challenge

I'd like to thank Simon Says Stamp for another great chance to win a $50 voucher!!

The lucky (randomly drawn) winner for the inspired by challenge is...
 

69  ellie Knol

Please claim your prize within the next two weeks by emailing May. Now let's talk about the top 3 projects as chosen by the Stamp & Show design team.  This week the honors go to:


31  Paula W
99  Kirsten
110  Stacy 

Be sure to visit their blogs and check out their amazing entries. So inspiring! Congratulations to each of you on a challenge well done! Please email May for the Top 3 Blinkie.

 

I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the challenge. It is always a joy to see what you create. I'd also like to say thank you again to Simon Says Stamp for their generosity - each week we give away a $50 gift voucher to the shop that you can use to buy all kinds of fabulous stamps, inks, and paper crafting supplies. Remember - you just need to enter the challenge each week to be entered into the drawing!