Fabulous Florals Galore!

Our new April Catalog is chock full of gorgeous flowers for you to use for any occasion! Birthday? – Flowers are great! Get Well? – Of course you’ll send flowers. Mom? – Yup! Flowers are her fave! Anniversary? – Of course! Flowers just say it all for every occasion! And our Design Team did an amazing job on the flowers in this catalog, too! (Plus, yeah, there’s FREE shipping on orders over $50 on our website! Get a whole garden full while you can!)

Jumbo Peruvian Lily by Cyndi Bundy

Spring Bouquet by Jennifer Dove

Fuschia by Kristine Reynolds

Snapdragons by Suzanne Czosek

The potential for gorgeous flowers is just unlimited! Our botanical fruit images are fantastic for any occasion as well. Check out the things our terrific Design Team have posted so far this week!

Jennifer Dove

Rhea Weigand

Kristine Reynolds

Cyndi Bundy

Easy Scrapbooking with Project Life and Stampendous Stamps!

Our Design Team has been having fun all week with Becky Higgins, LLC Project Life page protectors. The good folks over there were nice enough to send us some so that we could show you how Stampendous Stamps can really enhance this easy scrapbooking method that’s absolutely on fire right now.

Our newest team member is celebrating Spring planting in Oklahoma with her darling page! Be sure to check out (and welcome to the team!):

Jamie Martin

Also check out a terrific wedding layout from our very own

Lea Kimmel

She used some of our newest Perfectly Clear Stamps to be featured in Michaels Stores on her layout.

And our Design Team Member

Kristine Reynolds

is back today with an adorable page celebrating some really cool chicks in her life! You’ve gotta see this page, it’s toooo cute!

Tomorrow, everyone will be back with more of Project Life together with Stampendous! We’re hoping some of you are getting excited about stamping the Project that is your Life! We’ll have some really cool prize packages with some of our best scrapbooking products and LOTS of Project Life page protectors to get you going. And we’ll keep going as well…who knows what we might scrap in the future…we’ve gotta admit, it’s pretty addicting!

Spring Fun – Coloring Skin with Copics – Rhea Weigand

Hello, Rhea here today bringing you quick tips on coloring hair and skin with copic markers and an even easier tip on making an ordinary A2 card a little more special.

Today I chose to play with V270 Kiddo Hop.  I thought she would be great to practice hair and face.  We will be using Copic Markers in the following colors

HAIR = YR27 YR21 YR24

SKIN = E50 E51 E53

Start with the darkest color YR27.  Lightly flick your color “away” from your shadows out or your darkest areas out.  For instance, where the pony tales gather out towards the ends.  Or, from the roots out.  Flicking does take practice, practice, practice!  I hold my marker very differently than when normally coloring.  I find holding it straight up and down and barely touching the paper helps.  Also flicking it away from me helps.  Practice on scrap paper and do it over and over until you get the feel.  Practice doing it different ways.  You will find your flicking groove…I promise.  Flicking is a very important technique with Copic coloring.  I use this technique in many different things such as flower details, folds in dresses even general coloring….all the time!!!!  So do practice

Next with the middle color, YR24, extend your darkest color but only a little bit.  Start well within your dark area and flick a little past the end of the dark marker. You want to leave lots of white at this point.  White will be your end highlight color.

Finally, use the lightest color YR 21 to extend color even more…but remember to leave white for your final highlight.  I could go into light source but I will leave that for another day.

Coloring skin is easy to learn on Kiddo’s, Fran has left such delightful areas in them to get really creative.  With E50 color the entire face. This lays a basis for the other markers to blend smoothly.  Ok, so I have to talk a little about light source.  Imagine the sun is coming from the side of the basket of flowers.  So this is going to be the brightest part of her face.

Now that we have established where the sun is coming and where the brightest part of her face will be. We can now add the shadow.  With E53 add or flick from the outside in just a bit as shown.

With E51 blend by flicking or in circles … I prefer to flick.  You will still see a little line.

Finally with E50 do a final blend where the marker lines are gently tapering to the lightest part of the face.   If you want to deepen shadows you can return to beginning of the steps and repeating process.

To make an ordinary A2 card a little more special I love to use the new Spellbinders A2 Bracket Borders.  So easy and you can use them from any angle of the card.  They also work on a 5×5

Thanks for visiting today and I will see you again next Thursday for another tutorial.  Happy Crafting  -Rhea

Summer of Love

Ok, Carmi Cimicata got me again. You’d think after the fish leather I would have said “no” to her next challenge. “But surely,” I thought, “she couldn’t stump me quite that badly again!”.  Heh heh… I swear that girl is chuckling to herself every time she does this.

Even though I wore bell bottoms and even hip huggers and mini skirts, I’m pretty over the 60′s. But I guess the good folks at Dazzle-It are expecting a revival. So Summer of Love it is. Most everyone else in the hop made jewelry, but cardmaking is what we do.

My box included some GORGEOUS, colorful hemp from Dazzle-It. The colors are fantastic, my only sadnesses were that it doesn’t fit through the holes in the beads and you CANNOT find the end of the hemp to save your life. I had to rip the card to get it off. But it’s perfect for scrapbooking and card making.  So here are my creations! Leave some love and hop on to see what everyone else has made with these fun products! Dazzle It Summer Love Hop

All my Stampendous products used are available at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores or on our website at the links!

Here’s what came in my box!

Assembling my card supplies: Fresh Bloom Wood Stamp; Dream Text Wood Stamp; VersaFine Ink, Bazzill Cardstocks

Stamped my Dream Text background. Stamped flower over the top. Colored with colored pencil. Added Micro Glitters in Orange, Teal, Lime, Sunflower with Glue Pen.

I wrapped hemp around the top layer of my card and tied it. Then added beads on narrower hemp string. I secured them with glue dots so they won’t bounce.

My finished cards! They’re very sparkly!

Check out all the Jewelry made with exactly the same products on the Dazzle-It Blog!

“Mist Media” Card with Tobi Crawford

Hello everyone! It’s Tobi Crawford here and I’m sharing a quick, quasi mixed media card with you today.

I started my foray into the mixed media world with various brands of glimmer mists and ink mists. I’m an organic crafter, and I NEVER know how my project is going to end up. I like to “go with it”, and I think that’s the most important lesson I can teach when dealing with mixed media… Why? Because when you’re dealing with paints and sprays and liquids you can’t predict or control how they are going to interact with each other – and that’s what makes it fun!

Today’s card is CAS (clean and simple) and I was able to do that with die cuts… You’ll see.

Step 1: Gather your mists and a mister with just water:

Step 2: Mist and drip (I unscrew the mist mechanism from the bottle and shake) colours onto white cardstock.

Step 3: Mist with water. This will help colours mix and mingle.

Step 4: Dry with heat tool (or let it air dry… I’m impatient)

Step 5: This is a luxury step. I have an old hair flat-iron and I use it to smooth out my papers after I mist them. The warping really bugs me.

Step 6: Cut out desired shape from the cardstock with a die cut:

Step 7: Assemble card:

What’s great about using just a *little* bit of the sprayed cardstock is it’s colourful and bright without being overpowering! I love the Faith Character Stamp and it paired perfectly with this design. You can pick up this stamp at Jo~Ann Fabric and Craft Stores along with lots of mists and all the supplies you’ll need!

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

Tobi Crawford – Happy Couple

Hi there. It’s Tobi Crawford here again with a Blogstar post starring these fab products available at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores and here:

• Happy Couple
• Sending Wishes

To make the focal image really stand out I pulled out my Copic airbrush system and a circle die cut and added a special touch..

First, die cut the image. Keep the die on the image and grab your airbrushing tool. (If you don’t have an airbrush, or don’t want to use it, use distress inks and a foam applicator. I do that all the time and it works just as well!) Use a light color and concentrate on the outer edge of the shape.

Remove the die cut and you have a beautiful rim around the edge. It’s kind of like matting your image, but easier!

One last tip. If you have a smaller area for your sentiment than you anticipated, why not snip (carefully) the stamp apart?

Initially I was going to stamp the sentiment as shown above, but it was just a bit too wide. So now I have all of these other options with this ONE sentiment stamp!

(Stampendous Note: Tobi’s stamp was one of our Cling Mounted stamps, so she didn’t have any trouble snipping it. Jo Ann Fabric and Crafts carries this stamp in the Wood Mounted version. If you’d like the Cling Version visit our website HERE

Check Out These Cool Projects!

Some of our Design Team have posted terrific projects this week featuring our new products!

Take a look at Janelle Stollfus‘ terrific visit to the farm:

Suzanne Czosek has been holding out on us… this terrific birdhouse has been waiting for the world to see it!

Cyndi Bundy has been playing along with our Love is in the Air challenge with some romantic embossing!

Kristine Reynolds has been getting a head start on our March 2013 Challenge – Template Fun with our Jumbo Poppy!

Lea Kimmel is getting sparkly all over with our fantastic Cling Jumbo Butterfly Trio and some Royal Blue Embossing Tinsel!

Ex-team member (and we cry every time we say that) Wendy Price has been playing with our Kiddos Birthday Perfectly Clear Stamps. She felt like coloring…we hope she often feels like coloring!

Design Team Alumni Pam Hornschu (that sounds better, but not much) played with her friends in the UK this week in a little Fantasy using our Medieval Unicorn and our Calligraphy Sampler Background stamps.

Visit them all and leave some love for them! And we’re off into another month and a new challenge!

Check out our February Challenge

A quick reminder that you can find our monthly challenges on our Challenge Page (there’s also a link at the VERY tip top of our blog).

Kissing Kiddos by Kristine Reynolds

Our February Challenge – Love is in the Air – celebrating Valentines, Weddings, Anniversaries, and LOVE is in full swing.

And check out our January Winner – Larissa Heskett!

New Inspiration! New Products! New Year!

As promised our Design Team has been sneak peeking our new products this week, all from the amazing mind of Fran Seiford, Stampendous Owner and Designer. Have you been checking out their blogs?

This product is all available on our WHOLESALE website for our customers already. You’ll see them on our our retail site very soon, and in your local scrapbook or stamp store. To locate a store, check out our Dealer Locator!  You can find retailers in countries all around the world there as well as online shops! We’re already shipping!

Here are some great peeks at what we’ve got for you in this realease:

Jennifer Dove

Kristine Reynolds

Melinda Gleissner

Suzanne Czosek

Wendy Price

Cyndi Bundy