It’s September. September, first, to be more precise. This can only mean one thing: it’s STAMPtember! One thing I absolutely adore doing is creating handmade cards using stamps – and Simon Says Stamp has been a huge inspiration to that passion. Sadly, I have not crafted as much as I would like in the past year. However, every time I feel the urge to do something, I always seem to reach for a stamp and some watercolour paper. It is definitely my go to craft! So I wanted to tell you a little about STAMPtember, in case you haven’t heard of it. Hopefully it will inspire you to give the art of papercrafting a go!
What is STAMPtember?
STAMPtember is a month long event hosted by Simon Says Stamp, which runs in September. It’s dedicated to celebrating the every growing community of stampers. It’s been an annual event for several years now – and it always appears to be getting bigger and bigger. So I think it’s safe to say, that this year will be even better!
While celebrating the art of stamping is fun, what is even more fun is that with STAMPtember, you always get extra exclusive stamp sets on sale! When I say exclusive, I mean it. Some of the most popular ones sold out within a week one year and I never had a chance to get my hands on them! The ones I did purchase during the month sit amongst my favourite stamp sets. So honestly, if there is a single product that you love – get it before it sells out!
What are these exclusive products?
Today, the company have officially released their new collection! This year, they’ve designed a huge variety of products. There are many different types of stamps – from just images that you can colour to sentiment stamp sets that feature some fun greetings and sentiments. Simon Says Stamp have also released coordinating dies with the stamps or extra dies that work really well with stamps. There are some great Christmas and Halloween sets that I am loving, as well as some for more general use. There are even new sequin collections that go very well with shaker cards!
Previously, they tend to release more products throughout the month, featuring collaborations with other brands. They may do the same again this year – who knows?
What are my favourite products so far?
Since they’ve only been released earlier today, I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet. However, looking through the new collection, a few of them have definitely caught my eye.
These first four stamp sets are absolutely great for many occasions. The “Birthday Borders” has some really cute and funny sentiments on it. The “Beautiful Flowers” stamp set has gorgeous stamps that are great for colouring in. I love the huge flower stamp. Place that on a card with a sentiment and it’s ready to go without anything else! The third one is the “Tiny Words” stamp set, which features so many different sentiments. There is one for most occasions! I love how versatile this one set is – you can use it for gratitude cards, wishing someone a happy birthday, sending condolences or just telling them you love them. “Spiritual Sentiments” is not full of very cute quotes, it is also written so beautifully. These sentiments would be perfect on the front – or the inside – of a card. They are truly adorable quotes!
Top Occasion Stamp Sets
There is a lot of lovely occasion stamp sets in the new collection, in particular a huge variety of Christmas themed ones. These three are my personal favourites. I love “Bwahaha” because I think it would make some great backgrounds for Halloween cards. Personally, I would add little people or monsters from other stamp sets on the card too but I think this would be lovely in the background. It also has a great little sentiment that I think would be great for the inside of the card; “Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!!” which I think is so fun.
Now I am a little biased as I love making Christmas cards but these two stamp sets really spoke out to me. I love the “Holiday Icons” stamp set as I think it would be great as a background. I often do this to my own Christmas cards but have to use lots of little icons and stamps to get the same effort. This would save a lot of time. However, the main reason for choosing to feature this one is because it has a multiple sections that can be taken out. You can stamp the background image without the inner circles, giving you a space for the sentiment or another image. Another idea is stamping the inner circles on their own too. For example, the middle one would make a wreath shaped design, which I think is great.
Other Top Products
But it’s not all about stamps. The sequin packets have some beautiful colours in them and there’s plenty of dies that go very well with the rest of the products. The two dies that I really like are the Sentiment Labels die and this Thank You die. I think the sentiment labels work so well for any card. They allow you to add another layer to it so easily and can be used in so many different ways. The “Thank You” die is not only beautiful but it’s also the perfect size to go straight onto a card. You could place it directly on some patterned paper or on a watercoloured background and you’ll have a simple but beautiful gratitude card within minutes!
Get involved~
Find out more about STAMPtember over on Simon Says Stamps’ website. You can also find all of the products in the release under this category, which makes it super easy to find them all. Over the month, I will slowly be reviving all of my social media accounts and blog too. As it’s STAMPtember, I will attempt to do some more cardmaking related posts for everyone to see how I get crafty.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Simon Says Stamp or STAMPtember, I am simply a huge fan of the occasion. All of the pictures in this blog post belong to Simon Says Stamp.
Thank you! I will give it a go! Where can I go to buy my first Stamp set? Do you recommend any set / water colour set for beginners as I tend to only draw rather then use water colours.