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

Chalkboard Teapots with Tobi Crawford

This week’s focus on new stamps from our April Release is our fun Teapot series! Fran has just outdone herself designing regal, elaborate, fun, Fran•táge images fit for inviting the Queen to tea!  Plus, we’ve created Digital Downloads of fantastic phrases, invitations, and all time favorite, classic Stampendous images so you can have tea parties all summer long!  Royal Tea Time 1  and   Royal Tea Time 2  Here, BlogStar Tobi Crawford demonstrates a fun technique to get that trendy chalkboard look with our new teapots. At the bottom you’ll see links to other Teapot images our Design Team have posted on their blogs! Take a look:

Hi there! It’s Blogstar Tobi Crawford here with a quick tutorial on the ever-so-popular

“Chalkboard Technique!”

It’s inspired by the beautiful chalkboard art we now see all over the media, print, and of course Pinterest. What you may not know is that you don’t need stamps that are specifically made for the chalkboard look, and you may not know that it’s super easy!!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Supplies: black cardstock, VersaMark pad, Detail White Embossing Powder, white pigment or hybrid ink, and a stamp. Today I’m using Cling King Teapot and Cling Kettle On. (Not shown: white Sharpie)

1. Step one – stamp teapot with VersaMark and cover with embossing powder. Heat until shiny. Once the embossing powder has cooled doodle a white frame around the teapot with a white Sharpie.

2. Using your finger, smudge some white ink around the image to give the black cardstock that “chalky” look.

3. Cut out the chalkboard you’ve created.

4. Find some fabulous coordinating papers and create a card!

That was easy, right? I just LOVE this chalkboard trend and every time I play around with a new image I wonder if it would look good done with this technique – and this teapot (and sentiment) look fab!  Now check out what other Design Team members have done with these Teapots:

Jamie Martin

(an earlier sneak peek post)

Jamie Martin (new post)

Kristine Reynolds

New Elements and Project Life by Asia King

BlogStar Asia King is back again to introduce this week’s focus – the new Elements stamps in our April Catalog. These 5 images focus on a collage of several elements on a particular theme, the ones she’s chosen to use are the Typing Elements and Phone Elements. These are big stamps, meant to be the focus of most of a card.

W093 Typing Elements

W094 Phone Elements

Since Asia is in the UK, it takes a little longer to get our goodies over to her. So she’s also bringing the Elements into our Project Life event we did a couple weeks ago.  Suzanne Czosek also did a Project Life page that didn’t get included in the original event, so we’d love you to go look at it as well.

Hello Stampendous Friends! It’s time for another inspiration with Asia King . Today I am playing with Becky Higgins’ Project Life. My super talented DT Sisters have recently provided lots of inspirational eye candy for you with their Project Life pages – in case you missed it, be sure to check it out here. Project Life is all about celebrating your every day stuff so I decided to scrap about the thing that ‘happens’ to me every day….(except the weekends! lol) – my job. One of the things I love about crafting is that it’s a way of recharging my batteries after a challenging day. Crafting helps me to ‘leave’ my work behind. So you might say that scrapping about my work would defeat the object lol .

That’s why in my page I wanted to focus on the ‘little’ things I enjoy about my work place, like beautiful aubretias trailing down the wall nearby, sipping coffee from my ‘Best Wife in the World’ mug (given to me by my hubby, just to clarify!) or shopping in the new Polish deli shop at lunch time. But most importantly – all the lovely people I work with whose optimism and sense of humour really brighten my days .

Let’s start with the supply list:

Stamps: Cling Typing Elements, Cling Phone Elements, Cling Blossom Spray, Perfectly Clear Smashing Notes, Perfectly Clear Big Top Type, Perfectly Clear Vintage Lowercase, Perfectly Clear Vintage Uppercase.

Essentials: Aged Wine Embossing Enamel, Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel, Stamp N Bond powder, Sunflower Micro Glitter, White Detail Embossing Powder.

Other: Project Life page protector – Design A, coffee spritzed papers, alcohol ink markers, clear embossing ink, Sepia or Coffee Archival ink, Black Memento ink, ColorBox chalk inks, selection of photos.

1. Spritz some coffee over white card and allow to dry.

2. Cut two panels from the coffee card to the size of your journaling pockets.

3. Stamp the Typing Elements and the Phone Elements onto your journaling cards with brown ink.

4. Stamp Blossom Spray along the edges and in corners with black Memento ink.

5. Stamp the word ‘office’  in Google colours onto scrap coffee papers with a selection of alpha stamps and using ColorBox inks. Add to your photo some additional journaling and a ‘Google maps’ pin.

6. Colour the flowers with the alcohol ink markers.

7. Stamp an accent letter from the Vintage Uppercase set with clear embossing ink and sprinkle the image with Stamp N Bond powder. Warm the heat gun for a few seconds then heat the powder just until it melts.

8. Quickly sprinkle the image with the Sunflower Micro Glitter. Press the glitter with your fingers to aid bonding.

9. Fix the letter to your card with small staples.

10. Sprinkle your cards sparingly with Aged Wine and Aged Ivory embossing enamels. Heat the powders from underneath.

11. Stamp various expressions from the Smashing Notes set directly onto your photos using clear embossing ink. Heat emboss with White Detail embossing powder.

As you can see, these Elements stamps are just perfect for everyday life scrapbooking, especially documenting your office/working endeavours. Their vintage look adds a really quirky contrast against their modern ‘equivalents’ .

Thank you for popping in here today and I hope you enjoyed reading about this project. As always, I’d love to know what  you think!

Happy crafting!

Big hugs

Asia

Flower Power Layout – by Asia King

No need to adjust your computer monitors – yes, I am sharing a scrapbook page again . Hello, Asia here and today I’d like to share two tips with you. First, how to use Fran-tage ‘blinkies’ to embellish your layouts and second, printing your photos on a transparency for a cool 3D effect.

For my layout I stamped several images from the cling Jumbo Spring Bouquet, Violets and Single Butterfly sets. Some were heat embossed with the Gold Detail Embossing Powder and Aged Rose Embossing Enamel. After colouring the images with Inktense pencils I fussy cut them along the flowers from my K&Co patterned papers.

I wanted my photo to have a 3D look, as if ‘blending’ me and my sweet niece amongst all the flowers. To achieve that I printed the photo onto a printable acetate. Printing on transparencies has endless possibilities – just remember to print on the correct, rough side . I then matted my photo with a patterned paper before adhering it to the page on raised foam pads.

On my layout you can see a few different ways of using Fran-tage products for scrapbooking. The Fran-tage beauties do not have to be limited to the encrusted jewel technique. On my page I incorporated them in the following ways:

1. Using Leaf Green Colour Fragments and double sided sticky tape I created a border around one of the paper panels.

2. Next I swiped Boss Gloss sparingly over the green colour fragments and heat embossed it with Aged Rose Embossing Enamel.

3. I sprinkled layers of Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter and Rose Colour Fragments over Beacon’s 3in1 Adhesive  to create a frame for the photo and decorative corners.

Thank you for visiting today and I look forward to seeing you next week!

Big hugs

Asia

Mixed media and Jumbo Daisies by Asia King

April flowers

Greetings! Your favourite Foreign Correspondent Asia here . Guess what? The sun is finally shining and who knows, maybe Spring is finally on its way to the UK? In case Mother Nature is still unsure whether it’s time for Spring, I hope this project will make it absolutely clear – yes, it IS time! LOL.

The project I am sharing today has been inspired by Kate Crane’s all year long challenge of journaled calendars (BTW here you can link up April pages and while you’re at it you might also like to join this fab Journaling challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges). Kate is a very inspirational mixed media artist and her signature style is easily recognisable in her colourful and vibrant art journaling.

For quite some time now I’ve been trying to make a journaled calendar to keep track of all important dates and here’s my April page.

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For my page I reused parts from an old calendar I kept. It was so pretty that I just had to find another use for it.

My background was created with acrylic paints, Inktense pencils, Colour Wash, Glimmer Mist and Cosmic Shimmer Mist sprays. I used a brickwork stencil to add gessoed texture and to add some colour highlights.

Those fabulous flowers are Stampendous Jumbo Daisy with a free (how fabulous is that?) template.

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Jumbo flower templates – helpful tips

And I thought it would be helpful to share a quick tutorial on how I use the free templates from the new Stampendous Jumbo flower stamps.

(Click on the photos to enlarge).

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

I hope you enjoyed my April Daisies . Have a fabulous week!

Big hugs

Asia

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

“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!

Anchors aweigh! Pushing the boat out onto Stampendoulicious waters…by Asia King

Ahoy Stampendous friends! Asia here with a new project to inspire you and to err…. push the boat out so to speak! Today I would like to share a mixed media canvas that features lots of Fran•táge, my beloved napkin art, and a new technique for me – Faux Airbrushing (as featured in the UK’s Craft Stamper magazine March 2013). Let’s cast off and get underway!

Step 1 – supplies:

- blank 8″x8″ canvas

- set of printed napkins with nautical theme

- Decopatch glue, an old brush, fine art sponge (or a regular washing sponge as long as it has fine holes)

- distress inks: Shaded Lilac (not included on the photo), Faded Jeans, Broken China, Pumice Stone

- stencil with various sized circles. I created mine from acetate and die cut Nestabilities circles. You can later use your die cut circles as masks.

You will also need:

- Stampendous Cling Navigateur stamp

- Coffee Archival ink

- Inktense (or water colour) pencils, water brush

- ivory card and a piece of ivory fabric, scissors, paper distresser

Step 2 – covering your canvas:

- peel the top printed ply of your napkin, cut and arrange the pattern on the canvas.

- adhere to the canvas with Decopatch glue, covering all the sides as well. Don’t worry about small creases – let the glue settle for a minute and then smooth the creases gently with your fingers.

- avoid adding any glue on top of the napkins at this stage. You will want to keep the napkin unsealed with the medium.

Now you are ready to add some bubbles!

Step 3 – water bubbles:

- pinch your sponge so you get a nice round tip

- gradually add inks by gentle tapping/dabbing of the sponge through the stencil. Dabbing with the sponge instead of swiping it in a circular motion will create a gradual ‘dotted’ effect, similar to airbrushing (hence the name of the technique)

- to create the ‘bubble look’ keep the centre of the circle uninked. Then depending on your chosen light direction add more ink to opposite sides to create shading

- add layers of overlapping circles. Use your (previously) die cut circles as masks to add more shading. Depending on the location of the shade you can either bring the bubble forward or set it behind another

- work the inks from lightest to the darkest shade

Step 5 – Bling it on!

- swipe Boss Gloss (or an embossing ink pad) along the edges of the canvas> Leave some areas uninked

- cover with Aged Marine Embossing Enamel, tap off the excess, heat set then allow to cool

- swipe embossing ink over the remaining areas overlapping previously embossed parts

- sprinkle with Shabby Blue Embossing Enamel and heat set

- using the technique shown by my fellow BlogStar Tobi in this post randomly add layers of  Champagne, Steel Blue, Royal Blue Crushed Glass Glitter and Powder Blue Colour Fragments

- stamp bunting images onto fabric with a permanent ink. I used a free stamp from July 2012 issue of the Craft Stamper magazine. Alternatively draw several bunting flags with a Sharpie pen and cut out. Adhere to the canvas with hot glue gun and embellish with a string or ribbon.

Step 5: Main panel

- stamp Cling Navigateur onto ivory card with Coffee Archival

- colour the image with Inktense pencils or alcohol markers

- add water bubbles following the same steps as above

- distress the edges of the panel with paper distresser

- using the encrusted jewel technique add Shabby White highlights to the image

Step 6:

- stamp Cling Better Travel sentiment stamp with embossing ink onto acetate

- heat emboss with Black Detail embossing powder

- trim the acetate close to the sentiment

Step 7:

- glue burlap, cheese cloth, buttons and trinkets to the canvas

- crumple the stamped panel slightly and layer over the fabrics

- once in place, seal the image with a layer of Decopatch glue (it will dry clear)

Step 8:

- embellish further with Glossy Accents bubbles

- add highlights to your design with buttons and glass pebbles – can you see my cute ‘ship in a bottle’ below?

Inspiration photo credit

I would love to see your take on the Stampendoulicious ‘Faux Airbrushed’ projects so get crafting and let me know what you create!

Oh, and if you’d like to see more of the close up photos of my project, feel free to hop over to my blog .

I hope you enjoyed today’s inspiration and I look forward to seeing you again next week .

Big hugs

Asia