Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Inspired By A Song

Hi Everyone! It's that time again....time to have FUN with the Simon Says Monday Challenge. This week you're going to have a blast because the challenge is to create something that is inspired by a song. For this project, I wanted to get out some bright colored paints and cheery stamps and create a canvas because that's what I thought of when I chose my inspiration song - "Beautiful Day" by U2. I'm using mostly Paper Artsy products this week and if you aren't familiar with them, you will want to try them after you see what I created with their awesome paints and stamps. But first, don't forget you could win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp just for entering.

Here is my "Beautiful Day" canvas:

I prepared an 8x8 canvas with gesso and let that completely dry before painting.

I used Ranger Cut & Dry Foam to blend the paints. It's a great way to blend the Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paints. The paints I used for the grass were Hyde Park and Guacamole and for the sky I used China, Glass Blue and Mermaid.

I blended in some lighter tones of blue to make it look as though the sky had wispy clouds. I am going for a whimsical look for this project.

My grass and sky are complete and it is at this point that I add stencils and stamps to give it depth.

After completing the canvas, I began creating the flowers for my project. To get beautiful flowers with darker and lighter blended petals and centers, I brushed some Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints in Tango, London Bus and Yellow Submarine on cardstock in a circular motion before stamping. (Make sure your paint is completely dry before stamping.) These paints dry very quickly so if you don't have a lot of patience, you're going to LOVE these paints.

The next step is to position your stamp so the center of the flower is in the lighter area.  (Paper Artsy stamps are foam mounted rubber stamps and very high quality.) After centering my flower, I'm ready to stamp. I use my Misti for stamping just in case the stamping lines aren't complete. If I need to re-ink and re-stamp I have no worries when using the Misti.

My stamping looks great and my flower is ready to cut out. (I used Archival Jet Black Ink. When using this ink, just run over it with a heat tool to make sure it's completely dry otherwise when you begin cutting out the image your ink will smear.)

You can see how pretty it will be with the yellow center and blended orange petals. (After the image is cut out, I went over the cut edge with a Copic BV29 marker so the white edges of the cut paper wouldn't show.)

Here are a few more examples of how you can paint your cardstock pieces before stamping. I was going for a whimsical look.

For my next flower, Instead of using a circular motion to paint, I brushed across and blended the colors just slightly so the flower would be a bit whimsy.

When the paint was completely dry, I went ahead and stamped my image.

I forgot to take a photo of the completed stamped flower but here is a close-up of it from my finished canvas.

If your flowers have a stem and petals, blend the colors onto cardstock in the size and shape of your stamp where you want particular colors to appear. I used back and forth strokes for this flower and then when it was completely dry I placed my stamp onto the painted cardstock before picking it up with my Misti.

Now it's time to create my butterfly. I blended three paints together on cardstock and after they were completely dry I stamped a butterfly using my Misti again.

I painted the inside of the wings with two lighter paints using a tiny paint brush.

This stamp is already whimsical but to accentuate the whimsy a bit more, I went over some of the black lines with a Uni-Ball Signo white gel pen.

I wanted to do some additional stamping onto my canvas. One of the problems that may occur when stamping onto a canvas is that the lines on the image may not be complete. Sometimes you want this effect but sometime you don't. In this case I wanted the lines to be complete and this is a case where I can't use my Misti (sigh), but have no fear. I can use a Ranger Fude Ball 1.5mm Black Pen. What I love about this pen is that it is a deep black and the 1.5mm size is perfect for this particular stamp. (Be sure to let this ink completely dry or it will smudge.) 

Often times, I will put highlights inside stamped images. Here, I add Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Snowflake paint with my fingertips. (When I was putting on the final touches for this project, I changed my mind and wanted to go with a yellow highlight center of the stamped image and around the corner so I mixed Yellow Submarine with Snowflake and used my fingertips to paint inside the image as well as around the image. You will see that in my final project.)

Here is another tip for adding some interest to a canvas. I took an old gift card and slid an edge in Black Soot Distress Paint and touched it onto the canvas to create some vertical and horizontal lines. (Distress Paint is excellent for this because of its fluidity.)

All I have left to do is adhere my flowers, butterfly and other stamped images onto the canvas with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

Now for my sentiment, which is part of the lyrics from the song "Beautiful Day" by U2. I printed it on my laser jet printer using a font called......can you guess.....yep, you guessed it, "Beautiful Day" by artist Allyson Hirst. This font even has the same whimsical look I was going for, how amazing is that? This font is available free for personal use and you can get it here.

After printing the sentiment on white cardstock with my laser jet printer, I tore the sentiment out and inked it with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink and inked the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the process I went through in creating my "Beautiful Day" canvas. If you haven't already, I would love for you to try Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paints and Stamps because I know you will fall in love with them. I can't wait to see what you create!

For more inspiration, tips and tricks for all types of papercraft creations follow Simon Says Stamp on:

        

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