April Flowers bring….

Our April catalog is just chock full of gorgeous florals for spring, and our Design Team just loves to color flowers! But then we’ve always said, get yourself some good flowers and some great greetings, and you can make cards for any occasion.

First up today, then incomparable Suzanne Czosek made this fantastic card for our April Catalog using our Vase Bouquet, Seed Background, and Soaring Sentiments :

Bouquet Vase by Suzanne Czosek

This Vase with its spring bouquet proved to be one of the favorite items to color!  Here it is by Jennifer Dove:

Vase Bouquet by Jennifer Dove

and Kristine Reynolds made a fantastic project with it as well!

Vase Bouquet by Kristine Reynolds

You can see there are a lot of ways to go with this terrific stamp. Several of our Design Team will be  posting terrific florals all week this week. Fabulous Florals is also our May Challenge, so grab your flowers and wow us with your creations. Remember, if your flower images are Stampendous your entry will count twice. You can begin submitting your challenge projects on Friday.

Meanwhile, check out the additional, terrific flower creations on these team members’ blogs and leave them some love!

Suzanne Czosek

Jennifer Dove

Jamie Martin

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

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

“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!

Four seasons of Stampendous by Asia King – part 2

Hello Stampendous Friends, your favourite Foreign Correspondent Asia King here. Are you ready for part 2 of my Four Seasons concerto? If you missed part 1 with the close up pictures of my project, you can check it out here.

Well then, let’s begin. All my pages were made in the same way, I just used different stamps and embossing powders. For the purpose of this tutorial I will show you the steps for one of the pages – and it only seems right to feature my Spring page here .

Step 1 – here’s what you need:

- Fresh Bloom and Ruffled Bloom cling rubber stamps

- White and Black detail embossing powders – these can be found in the Detail Embossing Kit

- DCWV 8″x8″ Luxury Paper Stack – or any other pearlised papers

- clear embossing ink, water brush, Inktense pencils (Crimson & Cherry)/water colour pencils, Tim Holtz Vintage Cabinet Card die, heat gun

Step 2:

- die cut a Vintage Cabinet Card panel from the pearlised patterned paper, choosing the colour theme accordingly to the season

- using clear embossing ink stamp 3 flowers onto the die cut panel and 3 flowers onto scrap pieces of the same colour theme paper

- heat emboss with white and black detail powders

Step 3:

- using a waterbrush pick up some pigment directly from the pencil and colour in the black embossed flowers

Pearlised paper works great when colouring with Inktense pencils – the colour with ‘travel’ and blend beautifully without losing the ‘shine’ from the pearlised paper. It dries quite quickly but it will stay wet for long enough to blend it more if needed. And if you go over the line – no worries. Just use your waterbrush to lift off the excess colour.

Step 4:

- repeat the process to build layers of colour as desired.

Step 5:

- fussy cut the flowers

- add a blob of Beacon’s 3 in 1 craft glue in the centres of the flowers

- embellish the centres with pearls, Champagne Glass Glitter and Pearlised Mica Fragments (these can be found in the Pink Encrusted Jewel kit)

Step 6:

- swipe the edges of the card panel with clear embossing ink

- heat emboss with Aged Rose Embossing Enamel

- add accents with Pearlised Mica and Rose Fragments - you can use 3 in 1 glue as adhesive

Step 7:

- I like to seal my encrusted jewels with a drop of Beacon’s Fast Finish – it dries clear and it smells lovely, too!

Step 8:

- die cut 4 Cabinet Card panels from black cardstock and 4 panels from chipboard (or cereal box)

- glue black panels and chipboard ones using and old glue brush and Claudine Hellmuth’s Multimedium Matte. Make sure to immediately put your brush in water to avoid hardening – unless you don’t mind it becoming an embellishment .

Step 9:

- cut a length of white strong ribbon. Use mists, ink sprays and distress stains to colour the ribbon. Add water with a mini mister so the colours blend in easily.

Step 10:

- layer your base chipboard panels about an inch apart. Decide which way your book should fold, depending on any dimensional elements

- using Matte Multimedium adhere the coloured ribbon across the chipboard panels about 1/3 down from the top.

- adhere your Fran-taged pearlised panels to the chipboard panels using Multimedium. Use large paper clips to hold the panels over the ribbon until the glue sets

- add some calendar rub-ons (Prima) in the bottom right corners of the panels. You can easily add rub-ons over the enamelled areas

- layer your embellishments and sentiment panels over your seasons pages. Complete your project with additional trinkets as desired.

I hope you enjoyed the second part of my Seasonal Concerto and I can’t wait to see your seasonal beauties! If you have any questions – let me know in the comment below .

Big hugs

Asia

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.

Four seasons of Stampendous by Asia King – Part 1

Hello Friends! Your Foreign Correspondent Asia here. Last week I finally felt that Spring was on its way to the UK. Blankets of snowdrops and first shy daffodils were trying very hard to send Winter home . And whilst talking about seasons, I thought I would share this little beauty with you today. Just like the famous composer Antonio Vivaldi, I wanted to compose a concerto of the four seasons – in my own way .

I didn’t want this post to be too picture heavy, so I am going to break it down into two parts. Today I will share the individual pages of my Four Seasons accordion book and next week I will show you the ‘technical’ steps.

So let’s start with… Winter!

I started by waving my baton, errr… the heat gun that is, got the orchestra of Fran-tage powders to tune their instruments, and before I knew it, the music was filling in my craft room…

For my frosty season I used the cling Old World Map and the Suitcase World sentiment stamp. The map was first heat embossed with Silver Detail embossing powder and coloured with Inktense pencils. The sentiment was heat embossed with Black Detail embossing powder. The snowflakes were adorned with Teal Mica fragments and Sky Blue embossing powder. Then I ‘framed’ the sentiment panel with Detail Capri embossing powder and the background panel was Fran-taged with the Aged Teal Embossing Enamel. All these beauties can be found in one magical place – Fran-tage Encrusted Jewel Kit in Teal. (available soon in the US)

Now… let’s cheer for Spring!

And with Spring I bring you a handful of Fresh and Ruffled Blooms, heat embossed with Black (for the foreground) and White Detail (for the background) embossing powders.

The flower centres are all bathed in Champagne Glass glitter and Pearlized Mica Fragments. The background panel has been embellished with the same Mica Fragments and a generous sprinkle of Aged Rose Embossing Enamel. These gorgeous jewels can be found in the Pink Encrusted Jewel Kit.

Now, let’s get ready for…Summer!

Oh, I so love Summer evenings in a garden full of wonderful flowers. Sadly my garden is not very inspiring, so perhaps this gorgeous Seed Catalogue stamp will inspire me to fill my garden with beautiful blooms. Just so I can see the world that will be Beautiful . With the Summer season in mind, I ‘seasoned’ my page with Aged Hunter and Aged Rose embossing enamels and added Champagne glass glitter and Rose Colour Fragments.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you… Autumn! Or Fall, depending on your point of view .

My Autumnal page is swept with a gentle brush of the Ruffled Butterfly‘s wings and the leaves falling off the trees, dancing in the wind. Can you see all those golds, coppers and bronzes sparkling in the Autumnal sun? That’s the sparkle of the Vintage Mahogany embossing tinsel, Bronze Glass Glitter, Golden Sand embossing powder and Aged Copper embossing enamel – from the Bronze Encrusted Kit. (also available soon in the US)

I hope you enjoyed my Stampendoulicious seasonal symphony . Stay tuned for the 2nd part with the step by step assembling  instructions for the accordion book.

Until then…

Big hugs

Asia

Copic Coloring Cowlik – Tobi Crawford

Hi there! It’s Blogstar Tobi Crawford here with a Copic marker colouring project with a few step-out photos to help show my process. A lot of people who colour with Copics use the standard light-to-dark method, but I go against the grain! I like to colour dark-to-light for a few reasons:

1. I am only using each marker ONCE. I don’t have to go back and colour over everything with light markers and this helps to keep the ink in the marker and not in the paper.
2. By colouring the “shadows” first I can plan out the light-source and make sure I have all of the shadows placed appropriately.
3. I have found this method to be easiest for me! I enjoy using various methods of blending techniques when colouring, but my go-to method is dark-to-light.

There are a lot of different ways to add colour to your stamped images and I am just one of those crazy people who loves her Copic markers!! Now onto to the demo:

For each coloured area, choose 3 markers (a dark, medium and light). (note – see the numbers – make your markers 2-3 numbers apart or so for best blending)

As you can see, I pooled the darkest colour (E18) where I felt the shadows would occur. Next I added E15 and pulled the colour a little higher, and finally E13. Start each new color a bit overlapping the previous color to blend the edges.

For each colour group I repeat this process. Here’s the next colour:

Even though the colours I used were quite pale, I still went dark-to-light! The last frame shows the completed image including some shading with a black pastel-chalk pencil.

And here she is in all her cow-glory! Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!

Stamp used:

Cling Cowlick-Butterfly (Available at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores and Stampendous!)

My Dream Day layout – by Asia King

Hello Stampendous fans! Time for another inspiration from your favourite Foreign Correspondent Asia King . Today is quite special because not only I’m sharing a scrapbook page but it’s a layout of my Dream Day – my Wedding Day that is .

Let’s start the creative process, shall we?

For the first stage you will need: kraft and patterned papers, mini mister, sanding file, Martha Stewart decorative punch, Vintage Photo distress ink, blending tool.

First, we are going to distress the edges using a technique I first saw in the UK’s Scrap365 magazine.

1. Your kraft card will be your base – you can distress it or leave it unchanged, as I did here.

2. Punch a decorative border all around the patterned page that will be your first background layer. Keep changing the angle of the punch to get an uneven pattern – this will add to a ‘tattered’, vintage look.

3. For the other papers spray some water with a mini mister around all the edges and leave it for a minute or so. This will soften the papers ready for the next step.

4. Working your way all along the edges pinch, crunch and wrinkle the papers. Then leave the papers to dry.

5. When dry, smooth the creases slightly and distress with the sanding file. Distress further with the distress ink. Once you’re happy with the look, adhere the layers together except the top patterned paper (we will come back to it in step 11).

For this step you will need: Cling Ruffled Corset stamp (UK peeps click here), stamping handle, Coffee Archival ink, White Opal Liquid Pearls, Viva Decor Transparent Croco, spatula, Inktense pencils (or alcohol markers), water brush, decorative card from leftover packaging, 3d foam pads and ivory card. Oh – and you also need a photo to scrap!

6. Stamp the Ruffled Corset with Coffee ink onto the cream card twice. The ink will react with the Croco medium and fade slightly adding to a vintage distressed look. If you want a sharper image use StazOn or Memento  ink instead.

7. Colour the corsets with your pencils/pens. Cover with Croco medium and leave to dry.

8. When dry, cut the stamped images into 3/4 width, one from the left and the other one from the right. Cut three matts from the decorative packaging card. Mount the corsets and the photo onto them with 3d foam pads.

9. Embellish the panels with Liquid Pearls as shown.

For this step you will need: Shabby White Embossing Enamel (UK crafters click here), Beacon’s 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue, Lettuce Colour Wash, Gold Cosmic Shimmer Mist, selection of lace, ribbons and fabric flowers, burlap, eyelets and eyelet setting tool.

10. Randomly spray the colour wash and the shimmer mist over the lace, ribbons and flowers.

11. Sprinkle the Shabby White enamel in the bottom right corner of the remaining patterned paper. Heat from underneath with a heat gun and watch the shabby magic happen. Repeat in the opposite corner.

12. Punch 8 holes in the enamelled areas and embellish with eyelets. Thread ribbons through the eyelets to mirror the lace up corsets. Finish the lace ups with bows and previously died flowers.

13. Adhere the last layer to the rest of the background papers.

14. Arrange the burlap, lace and images over the page and when you’re happy with the layout, fix them in place with the 3 in 1 glue.

Now onto my favourite part. You will need Champagne and Fresh Green glitters from the Glass Glitter kit, 3 in 1 glue, Shabby White moulded flowers, selection of additional pearl brads, sparklies and flowers.

15. Add pearls/brads and jewels as accents around the main photo panel.

16. Trace around the main photo with a generous layer of 3 in 1 glue, add some glue partially over the brads too.

17. Sprinkle the glass glitters over the glue.

18. Arrange a flower cluster below the photo from the fabric and moulded enamel flowers (you can watch my moulded flowers tutorial here).

For the final part you will need: Shabby White EE, embossing ink, die cut alphas, Lettuce Colour Wash, additional alpha stickers and die cuts.

19. Spray the die cut alphas with the colour wash and allow to dry.

20. Swipe the embossing ink over the letters leaving some areas dry. Sprinkle the Shabby White powder over the letter and heat with a heat tool.

21. Arrange all alphas and die cuts over the page and adhere with the 3 in 1 glue.

If you’d like to see additional close up photos of this layout, be sure to visit my blog!

I hope you enjoyed sharing my Dream Day with me! What would be/has been your dream day? Let me know in the comment below .

Big hugs

Asia

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