My Favorite Stamp

That's the theme of our newest challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  And this is, at least my current favorite stamp. I think the whole design team wrestled with this one.  I mean, how on earth do you choose a favorite stamp?  It's like trying to choose your favorite child - LOL!!

Anyway, I do love this Tim Holtz Papillion set. I've used it several times already and keep coming back to it.  For this challenge, I made a little desk art piece.  It sits nicely on my desk.  I cut a 12" x 8" piece of cardboard and folded it down the middle for a 6"x8" "canvas".  The front panel was covered with card stock from Tim Holtz Kraft Resist Paper Stash and the back panel and inside panels were covered with a plain vanilla card stock.  A strip of Tissue Tape was run across the top to cover where it folded and the papers joined.  From an 8"x8" cream doily, I cut a diagonal pice and glued it down with Claudine Hellmuth Multi Medium Matte.  (I love that stuff because all of it that oozed out from the doily dried clear and you can't see it AT ALL).  Then I swiped some gesso across it and when dry stamped the weed stamp from the Flights of Fancy Set in Broken China that I misted before stamping. 

For the main butterfly panel, I cut a piece of watercolor paper and clear embossed the butterfly stamp, than ran Vintage Photo Distress Stain over it and roughed up the edges with scissors.  I happened to have a scrap of mocha dyed lace and a safety pin on my desk - humm, wonder what I can do with that?  Got it - out came the beads and two glass pearls and a clear crystal rondel fit perfectly.  The teal color was added with a Copic - gotta love that alcohol ink, you can alter almost anything with it!

I found that piece of beveled glass last week at the food pantry that I manage.  It was just laying around, must have come off something that was donated.  It didn't seem to belong to anything so it went into my pocket and also ended up on my desk.  It was the perfect piece for the butterfly specimen to be under glass.  See the itty bitty copper butterfly landed on the glass.  I loved the contrast of the butterfly under the glass and the one that was flying free.  It perfectly fit the freedom theme I had in the back of my mind.  

I had also stamped the text stamp from this set onto vellum, ripped it out and coated the back of it with Vintage Photo Distress Stain.  It promptly rolled up on its own.  So I tied a ribbon around it and it became my freedom document.  My chipboard heart was cut with a Spellbinders heart die, but it's actually several thin pieces of cardboard cut and then glued together because Spellbinders can't handle much thickness.  I made a little ruffle out of kraft paper twist for the heart, added some vintage snaps which I altered to black with alcohol ink and added the clear star rhinestones then altered them with a Copic. I used the "freedom" page from a vintage dictionary, photo copying it several times to use for the butterflies and Tim Holtz Vintage Market letters also.  The seam binding was hand dyed to match using Broken China distress ink.  

Oh, and that flowery trim at the bottom of the butterfly panel - someone gave it to me.  I have no idea what it is, but it worked great here.  I added the pearls with my Viva Pearl Pen.  

Well, that's it for another Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  Now it's up to you to stop by the challenge blog to see what the other design team members have been up to.  Week after week, they produce some amazing art.  And don't forget, our very generous sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, always gives a random winner a $50 shopping spree in their store.  So what's your favorite stamp?

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  And always, I so appreciate your comments and encouragement.  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.