Hello Dahlia! by Lea Kimmel

Red Dahlia by Lea Kimmel

This bold Dahlia by Lea Kimmel is so cheerful against the pretty plaid paper and diaphanous blue bow. It definitely speaks to us, and it says HELLO! in the grandest, prettiest way!

A New May Challenge – and a Winner for April!

A new month brings a new challenge with our design teams.  This month, we’re challenging ourselves (and all of you) to get a head start on Mother’s Day, end-of-school-year Teacher Gifts, and Father’s Day by creating gifts!  Anything goes…gift sets, altered items, gift card holders, gift tags – whatever you can think of!

Design team member Taylor Usry used the new Cottage Rose jumbo stamp, paired with several sentiments form the Perfectly Clear Orchid Greetings set, to create a clean and simple set of six notecards for her mother-in-law, as part of her Mother’s Day gift (you can see the other cards in the set on her blog).  Be sure to check out what a few of other our design team members have created for the challenge today!

Janelle Stollfus

Melinda Gleissner

Stephanie Lee

Susie Moore

Taylor Usry

Tenia Nelson

Wendy Price

And we want YOU to play along with us!  Simply make a gift, gift set (could be cards, could be an altered item), or a gift card holder of some sort and add the direct link for your project to our collection at the end of this post (or on the Stampendous blog) no later than Thursday, May 31 at 11:59 PM EST .  You do not have to use Stampendous products, but we sure love it when you do!  As an extra incentive for playing along, one lucky crafter (drawn at random) will receive this fabulous new Cling Jumbo Tropical Garden stamp set:

Due to shipping restrictions, the winner must have a US address.  And of course we need a winner for last month’s recycled/repurposed challenge!  A big congratulations to Tammy Hobbs – please contact us at info@ stampendous.com to claim your Mother’s Love Perfectly Clear Stamp Set!  We hope you have a chance to play along with us (you can enter as many times as you’d like!) this month…Happy Crafting!

It’s National Scrapbooking Day/Month

Watch us all month long for some fantastic ideas on incorporating stamping into your scrapbooks!  Check out our Design Team blogs at left for some wonderful scrapbooking inspiration today!! Plus our website banners all month will feature terrific examples of scrapbook layouts and techniques to get you preserving those memories!

April Saturday Challenge – Final Week

In honor of Earth Day we’ve been challenging you to recycle, reuse, or just upcycle things around your house to make a fantastic project. We’re sure loving what you’ve come up with, too! This is the last week for you to add your link to our linky tool to qualify to win a fantastic set for your Mother’s Day crafting, the Perfectly Clear Stamp Set Mother’s Love.

What a beautiful way to celebrate all Mom does for us, or even just a new baby in your life! We’d love you to be the lucky winner!

Our Design Team has some fantastic inspiration for you today!

We have to start with one of our favorite projects of ALL TIME – That Suzanne Czosek… wow…you just can’t believe the things this girl makes. She found THIS small box at Claire’s for around $2 in the Clearance bin.

Ok… I loved Gnomeo and Juliet, but this box has nowhere to go but UP!!  Well Suzanne got out her Washi Tissue Tape and started covering this box. Our DT has had a blast lately making their own tape by stamping on Masking Tape and Medical Tape, but Suzanne had some pre-made tape kicking around. So here’s where she went:

THEN things started to get interesting. By adding several of our new Steampunk images from the April 2012 Catalog, embossing some of our new Steampunk Gears on acetate and cutting them out, and then using Fran’s Encrusted Jewel Technique to add Aged Black and Aged Gold Embossing Enamel to the exterior and metal bits of this box… well…. va va vooooom!

Steampunk Trinket Box by Suzanne Czosek

I admit it… I begged!!! She sent it to me, and it now occupies the place of honor next to my computer screen where I sigh over its beauty every day! I had to tell the Sales Department that the only way it was going to any shows was handcuffed to my wrist! It is twenty times more fabulous in real life. What a showpiece! And crafted from something I would have thrown in the Goodwill bag in a heartbeat.

How about this beauty from Melinda Gleissner? She made a pillow box gift wrap by stamping our Steamboat Map on some kraft paper then wrapping it with some recycled tulle! But what a stunner of a topper she’s created. Our Cling Jumbo Zinnia carefully colored, cut, and layered then embossed in the center with our Kaleidoscope Embossing Powder for that coooool blue/green/purple/brown look (if you haven’t tried that powder you’ve been missing out). She finished it off with some Glossy Accents. You can get all the details here on Melinda’s Blog. Please go visit her and comment – she says no one reads her blog except us, and we say, “their loss!!”.

Zinnia Pillow Box by Melinda Gleissner

Playing along on their blogs today, several of our Design Team have created recycled/upcycled love that will leave you astonished again. Be sure to visit them and give them some love on their comment sections! Here’s who is playing today!

Janelle Stollfus

Jennifer Dove Bonner

Jennifer Ingle

Lea Kimmel

Susie Moore

Taylor Usry

Tenia Nelson

Wendy Jordan

Pam Hornshcu

Here’s the tool to link your own project! Winners will be drawn next Friday and announced on next Saturday’s Challenge Blog.

Last Chance for Altered Alice!!

Well, all good things must come to an end, and our collaboration this April with the Altered Alice Blog is one of them. What a fantastic journey through Wonderland this has been! Even our always jaw-dropping Design Team has succeeded in astonishing us by taking our Wonderland Perfectly Clear Stamp Set to lengths even we didn’t expect.  We have seen some amazing art, and we’re not done! We’ve got one more installment here for you of “thud” inducing beauties from those talented ladies with whom we are lucky enough to associate.

First up is the supremely talented Jennifer Ingle – Just Jingle to you folks – She’s making Alice related Jewelry again with some simple shrink plastic and colored pencils. Poke a hole, shrinky dink, and thread a jump ring through and you’ve shrunk Alice to pendant size without even using a potion in a bottle.

A shrink plastic Alice pendant by Jingle

Next we have a Splendidly Dressed Alice on a fancy but simple card by Wendy Jordan. A die cut doily frame really makes Alice pop against a background of Elegant Borders embossed in Aged Gold Embossing Enamel.

Ok…putting socks back on here… but wait!! Too soon.. you won’t believe what Janelle Stollfus has come up with! She has actually used Fran’s Encrusted Jewel Technique and stamped ON A TEA CUP AND SAUCER AND SPOON!! Wow… the ultimate in Alice blingware… You ARE sending that to me, aren’t you, Janelle? My office just wouldn’t be complete without it! You could use our 5-Jar Fran•táge Embossing Enamel kit for this!!

Two Lumps, Of Course - Janelle Stollfus

She even stamped the inside!!

Really, Janelle, now you're just making us look bad!

Gotcha, huh!? It’s really a Paper Sculpt Sensations  by Marion Elliot teacup! Guess who I’m chasing for a blog collaboration next!

And last, but OH SO NOT least, Melinda Gleissner joins us with an amazing Alice Triptych that I must talk her out of for my office!! It’s simply Splendid and features the most delicious red ruffles, the Opto Checkerboard Stencil from Dreamweavers, and our Poppy Bottles stamps trimmed and disguised as bottles of potion with straws. Soooo clever!!! Her little Drink Me tag featuring the Altered Alphabet and her splattering of Aged Gold and Chunky Clear Embossing Enamels makes this piece just swoony!! Alice in red has never looked so good!

Melinda Gleissner's Splendidly Dressed Alice Triptych

We sure hope you’ve had as much fun with our Altered Alice Adventures with Wonderland as we have. This has been such a romp! We hope we’ve inspired you with some terrific ideas, and that you’ll create something quick and link it up to the linky tool over at Altered Alice.  Remember, it doesn’t have to be Alice themed to win one of our Wonderland Perfectly Clear Stamp Sets, but Alice themed entries count double.  And if you don’t need this stamp set now, well, I’m afraid there’s just no hope for you at all!

If you decide to play, here is your last chance to snag our blinky for your blog! (PS… someone asked this week if you can make them “not” blink… sure, just resave it as a .jpg)

A Wonderland Blinkie for your Blog - by Lisa Hindsley of Stampendous

Won’t You Wonderland With Us?

We’re walking in an Alice Wonderland this month, all month long – celebrating with the folks over at the Altered Alice Blog and creating fantastic works of art with our Wonderland Perfectly Clear Stamps Set.

Our theme is Splendidly Dressed, and that certainly sums up the gorgeous inspiration we have for you today!  Our own Design Team Member Lynn Mercurio created this incredible card that anyone would be thrilled to receive on their birthday… or their unbirthday!

Splendidly Dressed for Your Birthday by Lynn Mercurio

Lynn has used the art of embellishment in a positively Victorian way on this fantastic greeting card. The die cut layer, the sponging, the ribbons, roses, doily, hearts! Wow! It all speaks to the amazing spirit of Victoriana that is so Alice!

Hopefully your own creation is just about Splendidly Dressed because time is running out! Link your art to the linky tool at the Altered Alice Blog for a chance to win this fun Wonderland stamp set! Before you go, though, be sure to grab our blinkie for your blog!

A Wonderland Blinkie for your Blog - by Lisa Hindsley of Stampendous

Time Corrections for Create and Craft TV Shows

So sorry… we had quite a week last week and our nifty chart of viewing times had the wrong time conversion on it! 
I used Greenwich Mean Time for the conversion, and I should have used BST (British Standard Time). I hope you checked the Create and Craft TV site to see when the shows are, but in case you didn’t, here is the correction in a NOT so nifty chart!

Shows are on BST Monday at 10am, 2pm, 9pm which means that PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) they are on at 2 am, 6am and 1pm (rerun of show #1). For Central Daylight time that’s 4am, 8am, 3pm (rerun of show #1) and for Eastern Daylight Time that’s 5am, 9am, and 4pm (rerun of show #1)

Tuesday BST shows are at 2pm, 7pm, 10pm with the first two shows being the Dawn Bibby show and its rerun and the third show being the rerun of show #2 (from Monday). Pacific Daylight time this is 6am, 11am and 2pm. Central Daylight 8am, 1:00pm and 4pm. Eastern Daylight is 9am, 2pm 5pm.

So sorry for the mix up…hope you can catch Fran on TV!!

Stampendous on UK Create and Craft TV

We’re so excited to announce that our very own Fran Seiford will be appearing on the United Kingdom’s ONLY dedicated Craft Channel – Create and Craft TV! Fortunately for us here in the U.S. we can watch online as she shows all of Britain her fantastic Encrusted Jewel Technique using our new Fran•táge Embossing Enamels to create dazzling and elegant cards with a simple sprinkle and heat!

We’d love you to watch Fran live from the UK, so we’ve made a chart of the times her shows will air. There are three different shows, so don’t miss a minute of this exciting event! For one of the shows she’ll be joining the UK’s famous Craft Diva Dawn Bibby. Please be aware that times can change at the last minute, so check the TV Schedule tab on the Create and Craft website for the latest scheduling.

You can watch Create and Craft TV at http://www.createandcraft.tv

We know you can’t purchase these items from the show (unless you are lucky enough to live in the UK), so we’ve put them in a special category on our Website for you to purchase there. You’ll find all the products she’s demonstrating in the Create and Craft TV Category. Look for it on our home page at http://www.stampendous.com.  Once the shows have aired, you’ll be able to access videos of her project creation from this location as well.

Join us in cheering Fran on in this new adventure!

April Challenge RECYCLE

The stupendous Stampendous gals are at it again this week…recycling, repurposing, and reusing for the month of April! Nothing hits the “round file” this month, and everything is fair game to be stamped, cut, encrusted, and Fran•táged!

Check out what the players for this week have been up to:

Lea Kimmel
Pam Hornschu
Suzanne Czosek
Melinda Gleissner
Tenia Nelson
Wendy Jordan
Wendy Price
Taylor Usry

You have until Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 11:59 PM EST to add your direct link to our collection at the end of this post.  You do not have to use Stampendous products, but we sure love it when you do!  As an extra incentive for playing along, one lucky crafter (drawn at random) will receive this fabulous newly released Mother’s Love Perfectly Clear Stamp Set .

Due to shipping restrictions, the winner must have a US address.  We hope you have a chance to play along with us (you may enter as many times as you’d like!) this month…Happy Crafting! Here’s the place to link your creation:

Stampendous on UK Create and Craft TV

We’re so excited to announce that our very own Fran Seiford will be appearing on the United Kingdom’s ONLY dedicated Craft Channel – Create and Craft TV! Fortunately for us here in the U.S. we can watch online as she shows all of Britain her fantastic Encrusted Jewel Technique using our new Fran•táge Embossing Enamels to create dazzling and elegant cards with a simple sprinkle and heat!

We’d love you to watch Fran live from the UK, so we’ve made a chart of the times her shows will air. There are three different shows, so don’t miss a minute of this exciting event! For one of the shows she’ll be joining the UK’s famous Craft Diva Dawn Bibby. Please be aware that times can change at the last minute, so check the TV Schedule tab on the Create and Craft website for the latest scheduling.

You can watch Create and Craft TV at http://www.createandcraft.tv

We know you can’t purchase these items from the show (unless you are lucky enough to live in the UK), so we’ve put them in a special category on our Website for you to purchase there. You’ll find all the products she’s demonstrating in the Create and Craft TV Category. Look for it on our home page at http://www.stampendous.com.  Once the shows have aired, you’ll be able to access videos of her project creation from this location as well.

Join us in cheering Fran on in this new adventure!