Stampendous & STAEDTLER – Color Your World

Hot Air Trio by Kristine Reynolds

We want to welcome you to a colorful week of blog collaboration with the folks at STAEDTLER, the place where fine German craftsmanship meets gorgeous artistry. You’re familiar already with tons of STAEDTLER products, their Mars Eraser is legendary, and Fimo Clay is classic. We have been huge fans of their products for years, and their Karat Aquarelle pencils are Fran’s absolute favorite colored pencil.

This week we’re teaming up with their Design Team to create some gorgeously colored projects featuring Stampendous products as well. And we’re continuing our April Release features, focusing this week on our new Hot Air Balloon stamps! A product combination made in heaven! PLUS there are prizes, of course!

Each day we’ll post the list of all participating Design Team Members. You’ll want to leave a comment EVERY DAY on EVERY BLOG because at the end of the week the STAEDTLERDesigners will each give away one package to someone who commented on their blog this week. Their prize package consists of:

Staedtler Prize Package

Oh yeah!! But wait there’s more! Each day the Stampendous Design Team Members will pool their daily comments and choose one random winner for our prize package – our new Hot Air Scapes and Soaring Sentiments Perfectly Clear Stamps plus a Jumbo Handle to use with them:

Stampendous Prize Package

So get ready for some gorgeously colorful projects! Be sure to leave insightful comments that show you really looked at the projects (which means more than just “that’s cute” or “cool”) and PLEASE share on your Facebook Timeline, Twitter Feed, etc… Tag us in your share with a @Stampendous or #Stampendous and there will be an extra big prize package at the end of the week for one lucky hopper!  Come back every day for a new list of linked artists.

Kristine Reynolds

Tobi Crawford

Lisa Somerville

April Derrick

Kelli Mowat

Teatime Reflections – Layout by Asia King

To bring our fantastic sojourn at Tea Time to a close, we have a terrific tutorial from BlogStar Asia King. She’s here to dwell on her obsession with tea time and it’s accessories, plus she’s got a gorgeous project for you to make!

Hello Stampendous friends! Asia here and today I am inviting you for tea . When I first saw these awesome teapot stamps I squealed with joy, because I immediately knew what I would create with them. I have this thing you see, I just love vintage teapots and tea cups. I have a small collection at home which I am really proud of . So I made a scrapbook page to ‘celebrate’ my little teatime obsession…

As I also happen to have a set of beautiful teatime themed serviettes, I was able to include some napkin art in my layout. Can life get any better than this? lol .

Let’s begin.

Step 1:

- prepare your pattern papers, napkins and photos you’d like to scrap

- arrange your papers in layers and distress the edges

Step 2:

- adhere the papers to the base cardstock with re-positional adhesive. I find it difficult to work on a page when the elements don’t stay in place. With re-positional glue dots I can always rearrange the items if necessary

- cut out elements from your napkins and adhere to the page with Beacon’s Fast Finish medium

Step 3:

- for the banneer choose paper with a subtle background

- stamp cling Royal Teapot and cling Queen Teapot with brown ink

- colour the images

- cut out the teapot flags for the banner

- finish off with ribbons and pearls

Step 4:

- add a sprinkle of Shabby White Embossing Enamel and Vintage Lilac Embossing Powder over the main background paper

- heat from underneath to melt (if the layers are too thick, this is when re-positional glue stuff comes handy!)

Step 5:

- emboss a selection of chipboard shapes with Shabby White, Vintage Lilac and Aged Wine Embossing Enamel

Step 6:

- heat emboss ornate corner embellishments with Shabby White enamel

- make sure to wait until they cool down – it will take a bit longer that you might expect…

Step 7:

- to create a ‘secret’ journaling card you will need: old postcard, Tim Holtz Tag & Bookplates die, Rusty Hinge distress ink and blending tool, Coffee Archival ink, cling King Teapot and Luggage Labels

- die cut the tag from an old postcard

- ink the reverse side with Rusty Hinge ink

- spritz the background with coffee (I know, I know…but coffee works better than tea for this!). The ink will react with water and create a mottled effect

- stamp the King Teapot with Rusty Hinge

- stamp a chosen label from the Luggage Labels set with Coffee Archival

- add a sentiment. I found this sentiment long time ago and I’ve always loved it. Not sure who the author is, sorry. If you don’t have a favourite quote, make sure to check out our collection of the Digital Downloads - lots of WordArt inspiration there!

Step 9:

- stamp the cling Kettle On onto a patterned journaling card with Coffee Archival

- add bling to your photo and the rest of the page. I used Beacon’s Gem Tac to fix the gems in place

Step 10:

- adhere all the elements. Mount the photo onto 3d foam pads allowing sufficient room underneath for the secret journaling tag

- add final embellishments and flowers. For a shabby chic look alter the blooms by swiping Boss Gloss over the flowers and heat embossing them with Frantage enamels

To finish I also added a Ruffled Bloom. The flower centre was embellished with Champagne and Lavender glass glitter and little pearls.

That’s all for now! Thank you for popping in today and I hope you’ve enjoyed this little Tea Party . If you’d like to see more of the close up pictures, please visit my blog .

Big crafty hugs

Asia

Becky Higgins Project Life – Stampendous Style

Ready to HOP??  Until Sunday night you can comment on the blogs of our participating Design Team Members and our blog here. Each comment counts as one entry to win our Project Life/Stampendous prize package! Prize includes 12 assorted Project Life Page Protectors, and BRAND NEW (so new you can’t buy it on our website until Monday) Stampendous Vintage Alphabet Upper Case and Lower Case Perfectly Clear Stamp Sets. This prize is a $50 retail value! And we’ll give 3 of them!! Uh Huh!! So get hopping and commenting!

Stampendous NEW Vintage Alphabet Perfectly Clear™Stamps

If you’re still messing about with stickers for Journaling Titles… well, you’ve got to have this alphabet. A stamped alphabet means never running out of a letter again! You saw them yesterday on Kristine’s layout. Here they are on a layout prepared for us by BlogStar Rhea Weigand:

Squirrel!

This layout also features Stampendous Smashing Notes Perfectly Clear Stamp set.

Now leave a comment below then HOP on over to these other blogs and leave a comment there as well. We’ll be back Monday with the names of the winners!

Janelle Stollfus

Kristine Fossmeyer

Leadonna Kimmel

Kristine Reynolds

Cyndi Bundy

Tobi Crawford

Jamie Martin

Finally – Remember that our April Challenge is still going strong!! Use Micro Glitter on one of your creations and link it to the F.E. Linus link  button in our right side bar! You’ll be entered to win some of our newest Micro Glitter colors! You can read all the details by clicking on the Challenge link at the very, tippy top of the page or HERE!

We’d also love to see what you can do with Project Life (or similar page protectors) and Stampendous Stamps and Essentials! Send your links to submissions@stampendous.com and we’ll do a follow up post linking to everyone who participated!

Project Life – Even more fun with Stampendous!!

Becky Higgins’ Project Life has taken the craft and scrapbooking world by storm. Lots of folks have embraced the commitment to simply scrapbook one single page or a two page layout of ordinary life per week. A way to celebrate all that is normal and right with your world, or even the special occasions or big events that happen with some normal life in between.  Here’s the Project Life Philosophy -

The Project Life system includes divided page protectors, books for them, and little, pre-printed cards you slip into pockets next to your photos. It’s designed to be easy and quick for folks who think they don’t have the time for more “creative” scrapbooking.

But what if you have lots of stamps, glitter, glue, and creativity? What if you love embossing, Fran•táging, and breaking out all those goodies you’ve collected? Yep, you can use the Project Life approach, too! You can embrace the trend, AND use your stash!!

We asked Becky Higgins to send us some Project Life Page Protectors, and we challenged our Design Team to see if they could document real, everyday life using Stampendous stamps and other products in the little compartments of the Project Life system! It was out of their comfort zone a bit, but we think you’ll be amazed as always at what they’ve created!  Pop over today to Janelle Stollfus’ blog and then come back tomorrow for some more inspiration. Be sure to leave comments and we’ll have LOTS of Project Life Page protectors to send to some lucky winners along with some cool Stampendous products for documenting your everydays and special days!

Janelle Stollfus

Mixed Media – NEW Stamps – Tobi Crawford

OK!! Here is something you are going to LOVE – along with a sneak peek at one of our NEWEST Jumbo Flowers, a mixed media canvas treat from the talented BlogStar Tobi Crawford !

Hello Stampendous! fans! It’s Tobi Crawford here with a mixed media project using some new stamps available at your favourite retailer very soon!!

1. I covered the 8.5×11 canvas with vintage dictionary paper and added some yellow orange paint on top. The blue paint splatters were done with a metallic paint by Lumiere (and the splatters are actually a stencil. Random but not!). Once the paint dried I stamped the images (Jumbo Calla Lilly) with Black Archival Ink.

2.   Paint in the image with watered-down acrylic paints. FYI, I watered down the paints so I could still see the stamped lines.

3.   Once the paint has dried, draw over the stamped lines with a black pen.

4.   Cover the images with the masks. (Templates are included FREE with the newest Jumbo Cling stamps!)

5.   Using a sponge dauber, go around the outside of the mask. This will add a shadow to the images.

Done! Doesn’t that look great with the shading??

My mind is reeling with ideas with the other jumbo stamps and I’ve got some fresh canvases ready and waiting! Thanks for joining me today!

[Just a quick Stampendous Note: You could also use the outside of the template and paint your flowers first. then stamp your flowers over the dry paint, and then mask them with the inside template before applying the background. This would save you having to trace the lines]

Tree Poem and Alcohol Inks by Rhea Weigand

Hi, Rhea here again, and today I am bringing you another tutorial with Stampendous. we are going to use CRR164 Tree Poem and Adirondack Alcohol Inks to make your background paper.

The Tree Poem stamp was designed by Fran Seiford of Stampendous using a poem by Lisa Hindsley,  and it is lovely.  The stamp is great for a little note card like I’ve done today or a beautiful tag or better yet mixed media.

Today’s project is quick and easy, taking about 30 minutes.

This is a simple clean note card with a finished inside as well. The background is done with Ranger alcohol inks on glossy cardstock and that’s about it.  The stamp is so lovely I didn’t want to add anything else to it.

You will need a blending tool with pad, you can see it in the the photo.  I prefer to use Krylon 18K Gold Leafing Pen vs. the metallic mixatives from the ink collection.  I get my pen from Jo~Ann Fabric and Craft Stores.

These inks can be purchased in most large craft chains and smaller stamp stores.  The colors I used for this project are Sunset Orange, Sunshine Yellow, Stream, and Bottle. Slate is in the photo but I didn’t use it.  I always have Slate out in case I want to tone the colors down or deepen them.  It is a must have color.

I worked one color at a time with this project going from top to bottom overlapping just a bit as you can see.  You want to change your pads with each color sorry…keep your colors true on this project.

Now that the first coat is done we are ready to move to the 2nd coat.  This coat you will have to move fast when applying…

Get your yellow ready on your tool and pad.  With the Gold pen dot a couple of places far apart with the gold pen.  Only a couple.   Now quickly work the yellow ink.  See how the gold leaf pen reacts with the alcohol ink? Pretty cool, huh?  It makes it look like marble.  Especially when you get into the darker colors.  Repeat this process for all the colors.

Apply a third coat if you want to deepen your colors, the gold pen will still react.  I did a third coat.

When you are happy let it dry.  You can heat set it if you like.

Now we are going to emboss our image.  But we have to make sure it is really dry.   It can take a little bit because of the leafing pen.  I heat set mine and let set for a while or let it set over night just to be safe.

I used Stampendous Clear Bark Embossing Powder.  You do want to use a fine detailed powder because of the words on this image and all the fine details.

For the inside of the card, using Toffee Crunch Memento ink by Tsukineko,  stamp only the leaves.  I used kraft paper.

Cut to fit inside of card for note.

Finish with a little twine or ribbon.

I hope you enjoyed today’s little tutorial on the Tree Poem.  I would love to read your thoughts and comments.  See you next time!!!  - Rhea

Here is a list of Products

Clear Bark Embossing Powder	CRR164 Tree Poem	Versamark Embossing Ink	Super Smooth Classic Crest from Neenah
Adirondack Alcohol Inks	Large Rectangle Acrylic Handle

InLinkz.com

Ombre is the New Black – by Tobi Crawford

Ombre is the new black.

It is.

It’s everywhere: fashion, hair, home decor, and of course: crafts!It’s Blogstar Tobi Crawford here showing you how I’ve interpreted this latest trend.

First off, I have to admit to always being a fan of ombre. I have always organized my supplies in ROY G BIV order AND light-to-dark so I guess you could say that I’m ahead of the trend. hahaha.. But really, this is a trend I feel like I can do!

First off, I decided on a colour (in this case, orange), and I gathered my cardstock and found tones that worked with each other and obviously went light-to-dark.

To “jazz up” the layers a little bit I cut a fringe into the papers AND I added some Aged Gold Embossing Enamel to just the ends. How did I do it? It was easy, I just dragged the Boss Gloss dabber over the fringe and dunked it into the embossing enamel. Heat. Done. And so pretty, right?

The cardstock looked a little plain to me, so I stamped a background pattern onto the layers with VersaMark and the Cling Dream Text background stamp. I’m not usually a just cardstock person, so this helped me let that go a little..

And here is the completed card! I added a little sentiment from Agapanthus Thank You Perfectly Clear Set and tied a pretty gold bow and that was it. I think a pretty ombre background like this doesn’t need much else!   By the way, all these products are available at Michaels Stores! You could be embossing ombre by tonight!

By the way, my inspiration for this card was  Here on Julia Stainton’s Blog!

Meet Jennifer Dove – Copic Genius!

Yep…we mean it! Attending Jennifer Dove’s Copic Marker Retreat is sort of like going to a military boot camp where vast amounts of coloring knowledge are squeezed into your brain, but fun! You come home both exhausted and completely energized.

A member of the Stampendous Design Team since almost the beginning, Jennifer Dove has long wowed us with her amazing coloring skill and artistic style. Her projects are always favorites with the entire Design Team and all of us at Stampendous. She’s been published many times, and now her Copic coloring skills can be yours. Her famous class is now offered online, and it includes some fun Stampendous images for you to use when practicing!

You can read more about the class on Jennifer’s Blog Post.  Here are some of the cards and techniques you’ll learn in her class!

Monochromatic coloring featuring Stampendous Snow Bird

Gorgeous Watercolor effect featuring Stampendous Hydrangea Bunch.

And  a couple of favorites she’s done for our projects:

Stampendous Sir Toad

Stampendous Nestled Bird

If you sign up for Jennifer’s class, be sure to send us a photo of your work. You can always submit projects to our Flickr group or email them to us at submissions@stampendous.com! Happy Coloring.

Jumbo Sunflower by Rhea Weigand

Hello, Rhea here again this week to share another Stampendous tutorial with you!  This week is packed with tips!  Learn how to use the new Jumbos Flowers with Template from Stampendous, Dry Brush with Distress Inks, a little tip Fran•táge, and I even included a card pattern.  You can visit my blog to join in to share favorite patterns as well…click here for more details.

I was inspired by a video posted by Scrapbooking Made Simple.  It was fun to watch Stacy and her giggles were contagious.  So here you go with my version.

You will need the Jumbo Sunflower by Stampendous which comes with it’s own templates.  Great tip from Stacey, and in Fran’s Video from CHA was to mark the templates this side up!!!

I also used Aged Gold, Clear Lemon and Nutmeg embossing powders with Crystal Micro Glitter.

I forgot to take a picture of using the sunflower frame template, so I will explain.  It’s easy, position the template and with VersaMark pat the area.  You can see it in the picture.  Then with my fingers I sprinkle a little of each of the above listed embossing powders AND micro glitter.  Then heat set with my heat tool. 

Next, take the inner template that is the shape of the sunflower and position it.  With a finger dauber and Walnut Stain and Mustard Seed lightly work the colors off all the edges of the template.  I started with Walnut stain and then mustard seed taking the mustard seed out farther to give depth.

Stamp the sunflower into the empty shape.  It’s easy to line up but don’t worry about being perfect!  Art isn’t perfect  Color wash the sunflower peddles  with Mustard seed first.  Next with wild honey.  For the flower centers I used Walnut Stain, Forest Moss and Wild Honey.

To apply the color you will lightly load your applicator with color.  Barely touch your image and brush from the inside of the petal out.  Do not go all the way to the tip of the pedal.  You just want to add a hint of color.  Next you will go to your wild honey.  With this color you will add just a smidge of color from the inside of the pedal out.  This is your shading color.  For the center of the flower do 3/4 with Walnut Stain then a circle with Forest Moss and then a smaller circle with Wild Honey leaving a small white circle as a highlight.

Remember, this is just like chalking and is only meant to add hints of color.

For the dry brushing/color washing I use mini sponge applicators and I feel these very important.  It looks like an eye make up applicator and there are 2 kinds that are perfect.  They can be found at JoAnn’s and Soft Art Sponges online.  These applicators have the same sponge tip as a finger dauber which allows the color washing to glide smoothly.  If you use a cheaper version such as one from the dollar store brand you will not be happy with your results as the color will skip and be uneven.  They are also the most cost effective applicators as well as I like to dedicate 1 per color.  I want to keep my colors “True.”

Here is the pattern.  If you double click on the picture you can enlarge it.

Cut a piece of patterned paper 6″x10″

With one long side at the top of the Scor-Pal

score @ 2″ and make it 2″ long

score @ 4″ and make it 4″ long

flip the card 180 degrees so the other long side is at the top

score @ 2″ and make it 2″ long

score @ 4″ and make it 4″ long

flip the card 90 degrees so one short side is at the top

make cut from the 2″ score line and make it a total of 4″ long

Flip the card 180 degrees so the other short side is at the top

make cut from the 2″ score line and make it a total of 4″ long

All top folds are mountains and all bottom folds are valley

The finished card will be a 6×6

Almost done….

Now, take the template that has then center cut out and position it around the stamped colored image. Cover it with Versa Mark then detailed clear embossing powder and heat.  Repeat with the other sunflower.

With Aleene’s paper glaze or glossy accents it time to make your centers.  I smeared my paper glaze where I wanted my centers.  Added my Fragments and crushed glass glitter with a dusting of crystal micro glitter.

Fragments and Elements used: Bronzed Mica Fragments, Hunter Fragment, Bronze Crushed Glass, Champagne Crushed Glass

Ok, now I decided to I wanted to add aged gold embossing powder.  I sprinkled it over my crusty goodness and heated it from underneath!  It bubbled and popped and the powder melted and it was AWESOME!!!!  The best part when it cooled the paper glaze was dry!  For Reals!!!  I was so excited I think I squealed.  I loved the effect of having just a dab of embossing aged gold on the top of all the elements.  I am going to have to do that again.

So there you have it my friends.  A long tutorial,  I know,  but I think it was worth it.  And I hope you did, too.

Stampendous Note:  Whew, Rhea and WOW!  If our readers have questions, please put them in the comments so that we can all learn. We’ll answer them right away. Also remember that using templates is the theme of this month’s stamping challenge!

Rhea Weigand – Fresh Bloom Card

Hello, Rhea here and this weeks tutorial uses Stampendous Fresh Bloom.  This stamp is available at Hobby Lobby and JoAnn Fabric and Crafts stores nationwide. Who doesn’t like Hobby Lobby!  Seriously, where else can you get your favorite Stampendous stamp and a canister set for your kitchen. And JoAnn will let you find the products for a table cloth and napkins to match. Both are such creative, inspiring places to shop.

I decided to keep today’s card quick and simple and I even timed myself.  If you know me, you know quick and simple is NOT in my vocabulary.  This card took a little under 30 minutes!  Yeah, I finally made something in 30 minutes.

All products I used can be found at your local Hobby Lobby Store, JoAnn Fabric and Crafts Store, on HobbyLobby.com, or at JoAnn.com

The card size is A2.  I used black and red card stock from PaperStudio.  The card base is black card stock with red card stock cut 1/8″ smaller.  Final card stock is once again black and cut 1/8″ smaller than the red.  Each layered with Zots pop up dots.

Using Fresh Bloom First stamp the background of the black piece of card stock with VersaMark and then emboss it with Detailed Silver Embossing Powder as shown above.

Next stamp and emboss Fresh Bloom on red cardstock with Detailed Black Embossing powder.  Make sure to stamp  and emboss on the smooth side of each of your card stocks so you get a nice finish.

Time to finish up.  Put a large silver brad in the center of each silver flower and dot details with Silver Halo Glitter.

For the Red Flower you will fussy cut this flower.  But a black brad in the center but still put the Silver Halo Glitter in the details.

Finally, using red tulle which can also be found at Hobby Lobby or JoAnn, wrap and tie a knot bow around the top layer of card stock.  Dot your glue here and there and sprinkle with Silver Halo Glitter. 

I hope you Enjoyed today’s quick and easy card.  It would be beautiful as white on white or in any color combo. Perfect for any occasion from birthday to wedding to get well wishes.  I will see you next week!!!  Happy Crafting, Rhea