Elements – NEW for April 2013

Our newest Fran•táge images for Spring 2013 are our wonderful new Elements images.  These are terrific collages of various images on one theme. And our Design Team really had a great time with these! Our Phone Elements can create anything from a terrific card to say “miss you! call me!” to a stylish phone message center! This would make a terrific Mother’s Day image as well for those of you with moms who love their phones!

Phone Elements by Kristine Reynolds

Phone Elements by Cyndi Bundy

Phone Elements by Suzanne Czosek

Check out the cool Elements projects our Design Team Members have posted so far this week:

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Kimmel

Jamie Martin

Kristine Reynolds(2)

Cyndi Bundy

Check back tomorrow for more fabulousness with our new Elements! AND – Be sure to check out our May Challenge – we’d love to see you participate! The prizes are amazing!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We’re Celebrating Flowers this Week!

Our April Catalog is just bursting with new blossoms of so many varieties for your Mother’s Day, Birthday, Get Well, Sympathy, and All Occasion stamping! Get ready to scrapbook your Spring Garden, or just enjoy a bouquet of gorgeous blooms. Our Design Team LOVES to stamp and color flowers, so you’ll see lots of terrific samples on their blogs this week! You can get yourself a whole garden full with our FREE Shipping offer! Add some of our new Digital Downloads, too! There’s a terrific set of sentiments perfect for all our new floral stamps – Flowery Phrases Digital Download

Among our new flowers are three brand new Jumbo Cling Flowers. We’re very excited to be able to continue to offer these with the FREE templates so that you can mask off the flower or it’s surroundings for all sorts of terrific effects. Here our own National Sales Manager  (and Decorative Painting guru) Tammie Wilson has created a fantastic wooden frame featuring the new Jumbo Bird of Paradise!

Jumbo Bird of Paradise Frame by Tammie Wilson

Jumbo Calla Lily Pail by Janelle Stollfuss

Jumbo Cling Rubber Peruvian Lily Scrapbook Page by Suzanne Czosek

BlogStar Tobi Crawford has created a fantastic tutorial today demonstrating a great use of the free template in each Jumbo Cling Rubber Flower set.  Check it out here:

Tobi Crawford

Then take a gander at these other great floral projects using new flowers from our April Catalog Release (be sure to leave some sweet comments on their blogs!)

Arty Carty 1

Arty Carty 2

Jennifer Dove

Kristine Reynolds

A bit of Housekeeping -

Did we mention FREE shipping? Enjoy FREE shipping on our website at www.stampendous.com on retail orders over $50 shipping to U.S. addresses until July 31! We can’t wait to see what you make with our products!! (be sure to share on our Facebook Page, Flickr Group, or email us at submissions@stampendous.com)

Winners – we’re still waiting for some winners of the Project Life event to contact us with mailing info. Hint: if you don’t want your prize, we know Barb Macaskill wants it!  Email your mailing info to submissions@stampendous.com so we can get your prizes on their way!

Remember tonight is the deadline to link to your Micro Glitter projects for our April Challenge. May’s Challenge is Fabulous Florals and starts Friday!

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

We Are Soooo Excited!!!

We have so much new goodness for you at www.stampendous.com!!

First, we’re going to OZ!!! So excited to be visiting this magical land! Look for lots of fun with our Design Team using these new images!

Overlooking Oz by Kristine Reynolds

We’re introducing The Lisa Hindsley Collection!! Our fantastic Art Director Lisa Hindsley has started designing stamps for Stampendous, and we couldn’t be more excited!! Look at her fantastic Jazz Cats!

Pajama Cat by Cyndi Bundy

And we’re introducing Digital Downloads! We wanted so many new sentiments for our Oz characters, our new Elements line, our tons of gorgeous new florals… we created downloadable digital files for you to add to your cards! Print them out on cardstock, cut them out, and attach them to cards and scrapbook pages. You can print them right on your project or you can use them with digital layouts and your normal digital scrapbooking solutions! We’ll have lots more info, but they’re available on our website now!!

Lion Reader by Rhea Weigand and Lisa Hindsley

Of course from Fran Seiford there are new Jumbo Flowers with FREE Template, Kiddos for Summer, New Encrusted Jewel Technique Kits, heaps of Mother’s Day flowers, even some great Safari animals and a Fran•táge Motorcycle Elements stamp for Dad.

April 2013 Catalog

Our April Catalog is now available to download as a pdf, print, purchase, or view as a flippy book online! All the April products are available on our website and our retailers around the country are ready to ship your orders placed on our website! YAY!! Stay tuned for lots and lots of inspiration!

Best of all FREE shipping on orders over $50 beginning May 1! So make your wish list today, and get ready to shop and stamp!

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

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]

Quick and Easy Glitter Tip by Rhea Weigand

Hello, BlogStar Rhea here to bring you another quick and easy tip for Stampendous!  Use your 3D Glue Dots or regular Glue Dots to make glittery flower centers and embellishments.  This inspiration came from my “Bestie” Jennifer Dove who taught this card and oh so simple technique in a class.

This fun, classic flower image is Fresh Bloom, a Stampendous favorite.  You can find it at JoAnn’s and Hobby Lobby.  The sentiment is Beautiful Life.

Most folks buy and use the 3D Glue Dots in a roll.  I prefer to use them as Zots Singles from ThermoWeb.  For this flower center I used Teal Micro Glitter.

Pour out a little glitter and dab your glue dot.  I worked it around to really cover it.

For the smaller detailed dots I used the mini glue dots.

And there you have it!  Not only can you use them for flower centers but try using them for any type of embellishments.  Maybe instead of buttons.  Maybe do the mini’s on a ribbon to make it a sparkly polka-dot.  You can even take thin double sided tape and make a glitter strip instead of ribbon.

Thanks so much for visiting today!  Hugs – Rhea

Rhea Weigand – Stampendous Violets

Hello, Rhea here today to share a fun Copic Marker technique my dear friend and amazing Copic Instructor, Jennifer Dove taught me. It has become one of my go to techniques when I want a “Water Color” look or I don’t have a lot of time to spend coloring.

Because we will be working with Copic Markers you will need to stamp your CRP179 Violets  with Memento Ink.

We will not be coloring but using a water brush filled with 99% Isopropyl Alcohol.  Next you will need a piece of acetate or plastic of any kind to use as your pallet. You can even use your acrylic stamp handles for this. The Stampendous Jumbo Perfectly Clear Handle is a great size and works fantastically for any stamp!

Color your markers onto the plastic sheet or acrylic handle.  Now take the water brush filled with alcohol an touch the tip of the brush into the color needed.

Starting with the background place the tip of the brush next to the line with you want your darkest color, then smush and drag outward.  The lighter the color the less you will see the color until the alcohol dries.  I added the contrast purple after the blue.

Want to put a little personality into your background?  Fill a spritz bottle with the same alcohol you put in your brush.  Make sure to label so you know  Also make sure to check the sprayer is away from your face.  Oh sure, you are thinking….”Duh”….but I promise you will spray yourself only once and then you will check every time after that.

Spray a small area of burlap.  Gently lay it on the background for only a few seconds.  You will see it start to work right away.  As it dries you will see the texture of the burlap.

Double click on the photo to enlarge and see the texture from the burlap.

You can do any type of layout with any type of paper.  So I am going to move to another tip!

for this we are going to use Stampendous Micro Glitter and a thin glue or glossy accent type product and a tulle knot bow.  I put the adhesive on my fingers and rubbed it on both sides of the tulle.  Then I lightly dusted the bow with the glitter.  Oh my is it cool.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t show in the photo very well.

Add the following elements.  You can see the card before adding Stampendous Elements…they sure do make a big difference.  I used the following attached with Aleene’s Paper Glaze and in this order:

Aleene’s Paper Glaze

Shaved Ice

Purple Color Fragments

Canary Color Fragments

Silver Glass Glitter

Thanks for spending time with me today, see you next week.  Happy Coloring  Rhea

Hop Along with our New October Products

At Stampendous it’s time to get ready for Spring! Our new October 2012 Catalog has a gorgeous selection of new images for  your stamping pleasure.

We hope you’ll take a few moments to flip through our new catalog and savor the images for  yourself. You can download it to your computer or print it as well, just by clicking on the cover below.

Then visit our Design Team Blogs and see some of the fantastic projects they’ve made using these delightful stamps!

 Annette Witherspoon 

Asia King 

Barb Turpin 

Cyndi Bundy

Janelle Stollfus  

Jennifer Ingle 

Jennifer Dove 

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Kimmel 

Mary Dawn Quirindongo 

Melinda Gleissner  

Pam Hornschu 

Rhea Weigard

Suzanne Czosek

Taylor Usry

Tenia Nelson

Tobi Crawford

Wenday Jordan

Wendy Price 

Yana Smakula 

We’ll choose three of the above blogs at random to each choose a winner from their comments section. These lucky stampers will each receive a brand new stamp set from our October Catalog images! (Sorry, due to laws and customs regulations, prizes to U.S. Mailing Addresses Only – but we’d love everyone to comment)

Also remember this is the last week for our October Saturday Challenge – Fabulous Florals. Load your floral themed card to our linky tool by Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 11:59 pm for  your chance to win some great NEW flower stamps!  Remember if your floral card features a flower from Stampendous Stamps your entry counts double.

New Products Now Available on our Website

We’ve had so much fun this week showing you some of our new products.

They are all now available on our website in addition to your local scrapbooking and stamping stores and favorite online stamping retailers.

We know you’re going to love creating with these new images as much as our Design Team has.

Several of our team members have created fun projects to inspire you for today. Be sure to join us tomorrow as well when everyone will return with additional fantastic projects to get you excited about our newest offerings!

Annette Witherspoon

Barb Turpin

Jennifer Dove

Kristine Reynolds

Wendy Price

Tenia Nelson

One group of images in our new selection has us particularly excited. Big, beautiful florals are here, just in time for Spring stamping. We’ve always said that when you combine some great flowers and just the right greeting you can have a card for any occasion. We think this catalog has both. These Stampendous flowers have been designed to make a dramatic statement on your card front, giving you lots to color if you love coloring, and some terrific options for paper piecing, embossing, Encrusted Jewel Technique, etc.,  if you want to try something new. Two new Perfectly Clear Stamp greeting sets give you the choice of dozens of card greeting options. Be sure to collect some of these beauties for your stamping garden! (we especially love the way Pam and Suzanne brought the Halloween Background stamps forward to make amazingly gorgeous backgrounds for these flowers!)

Violets by Pam Hornschu

Rose by Suzanne Czosek

Rose Thoughts by Kristine Reynolds