Color Blocking with Woodware

This week on this side of the "pond", the USA have been celebrating our "Independence" from YOUR side of the "pond". Lol. Good naturedly, of course. Our theme this week on the Woodware blog is "Colorblocking", which is always an effective way to highlight an image in a different way. For my Fourth of July/Independence Day card, I used three colors of core paper, designed to be embossed and then sanded to reveal the design. The design that I chose was the Dreamweaver Fireworks Embossing Folder, but can easily be done with the stencil version as well. I had one large panel of each color to run through my embossing machine with the folder. Once embossed, they were sanded lightly to reveal the design, and cut into thirds to be adhered on three cards.

The sentiment uses images from a few Stampendous Perfectly Clear sets, including the Vintage Alphabet set. This same design would work well for several occasions, including Christmas, as it's a quick way to complete three cards at once! For more color-blocking ideas, visit the Woodware Witterings blog.

Woodware/Crafty Cardmakers Challenge

The Woodware team are playing along with the challenge at Crafty Cardmakers once again. This time the theme is "Shabby Chic". I thought this canvas would be perfect for this.

Featuring the Stampendous Birds with Blossoms Stamp set and matching set of dies, along with Andy Skinner's crackle background stamp from the Stampendous Industrial set, the Vintage Decor stencil from Dreamweaver, a bit of embossing paste, a bit of acrylic paint, a sprinkling of Stampendous Color Fragments, patterned paper, and a large 12 inch square canvas, this was layers of shabby chic fun!

Shown here, the Vintage Decor stencil is pasted in Glossy White, and when dry, given a wash of light blue thinned paint. The Dreamweaver Faux Cross Stitch screen was used with a dauber and ink to add textural interest over the various sections of the canvas.

Here, the Vintage Decor was stenciled with Frisket, a resist medium, and when a wash of pink went over the top, the frisket could be rubbed off having resisted the paint.

The matching die set for the Birds with Blossoms stamp set makes it easy to add additional shapes for more interest. Finally, the washed panel was torn to reveal a pretty paper underneath.

The canvas itself had been washed with blue paint, and stamped with the crackle design using black ink.

Hip, Hip, Hooray! It's Janelle's Birthday!

The Stampendous team is having a surprise party today! It's Janelle Stollfus' birthday, and we want her to have an extra-special one...filled with lots of friends, family, food and fun as the sentiment on my card suggests. Janelle is the team "wrangler", "cat herder", and uber-patient assistant to Laura Weed (who is our Grand Pooh-bah). She deals with most of the social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest), writes the blog posts for the Stampendous Impressions blog, gathers all of our links for each weekly challenge as well as the plethora of blog hops that we have with our crafting buddies. Oh, and so many little things, that most of us are unaware of, to promote the Stampendous team and products. She is one really busy girl. And all of this while planning fabulous birthday parties for her kids, family fun, and the ho-hum-everyday-household-stuff as well! She's pretty amazing! Please wish her a happy birthday in your comments! Head over to the Stampendous blog for more birthday links!

The card above features the Stampendous Balloon Duo stencil set and the Perfectly Clear Birthday Assortment set, plus Glossy Black Embossing Paste, and a background inside created with the Creative Palette. All items can be found on the Stampendous website HERE.

Woodware: A Flower Free-for-all!

Over on the Woodware Witterings blog, the team has been challenge this week to a "Flower Free-for-all". Can I just say that I have hundreds of stamps, stencils, and paper that qualify? It was really hard to narrow it down to just one card. I love this one. 

 

This card features the Dreamweaver Large Orchids stencil design, pasted first in Matte Black, and then in Crackle Paste. The Crackle Paste dries white, so I replaced the cleaned stencil over the design, and proceeded to stencil on pigment ink. With the ink still wet, I sprinkled on Stampendous Crystal Embossing Powder for added sparkle. I ink-stenciled a soft background on the focal panel and the purple panel using the Dreamweaver Quatrefoil stencil, and added a sweet sentiment from Stampendous.

Be sure to visit the Woodware blog for more floral inspiration!

Gifts from the Sea

Today is my birthday, and there is no place I'd rather be for it than the seaside, which I fully plan to be (as I'm writing this post). I love all of the treasures of the sea, so I created this mixed media bottle of shells and sand using oodles of fun products from Stampendous and their crafty partners.

First of all, I mixed a bit of Dreamweaver Pearlescent and Translucent Pastes on my craft mat, and brushed the surface of the bottle with this, leaving space for the seahorse to be added. A heavy sprinkling (more like coating) of Teal Micro Glitter was added over the wet paste, and the bottle was set aside to dry.

I taped the Seahorse stencil to the bottle, and pasted it in Metallic Gold. While wet, the paste was sprinkled with Stampendous' Golden Sand Embossing Enamel, and heated it until puffy and set. I followed a similar process on the sides of the bottle with the Waves and Dots stencil, and embossed with Aged Teal Embossing Enamel. Little bits of sprinkles were added to the warmed bottle and melted to mimic bubbles, etc. A bit of Regular Embossing Paste was added to the bottom edge of the bottle, sprinkled with more Golden Sand, and heated for more dimension.

Now comes the really fun part! I adhered some May Arts® webby ribbon, an Aged Teal embossed starfish, some gold tinsel, shells which I embossed in gold, around the neck of the bottle with Beacon Quick Grip adhesive.

I brushed a bit of Beacon® Fast Finish™ over the surface, and sprinkled it with Teal Color Fragments, and adhered a flat glass marble using the Quick Grip again.

To "top this off", I used an interesting wine cork which I inked a bit on, and embossed partly in the Aged Teal EE. I had a cool shanked button for the top, so I dug a small indentation in the cork, and Quick Gripped that frosted button onto the top. This was just the kind of project that I loooooove to make! How about some more seaside inspiration? Here you go...
You can find all the details on the Stampendous! Impressions blog.

By the Seaside Mini Canvases

Three mini canvases to brighten up your decor for the summer! All created using Dreamweaver stencils by Stampendous (Sea Turtle, Sandcastle, and OiOi Fish) with Matte Black Embossing Paste, and Aged Spice and Golden Sand embossing enamels.

The base of each canvas was painted with a mixture of Dreamweaver Pearlescent Paste and Translucent Paste and sprinkled with Color Fragments.

I love the chunky sides on these canvases!

Each canvas also features one of the sentiments from the new Perfectly Clear Ocean Wisdom stamp set, which has been doodled around for more substance.

A bit of Beacon® Fast Finish was brushed over the surface and sprinkled with Stampendous Teal Micro Glitter.

Make these as gifts, or as a fun addition to the beach cottage in your dreams! But wait, there's more. Visit my teammates posts on the link list from the Stampendous Impressions blog.

It's Raining Cats and Dogs (and Hummingbirds and Frogs)!

Rebel that I am, when challenged to a theme of "Raining Cats and Dogs", I took the raining literally, but skipped the cats and dogs and went with "Hummingbirds and Frogs". Mainly, I just wanted to post this fun card. Using the Stampendous Pop Up Die Set, I cut the insert from their Mixed Media White cardstock, and proceeded to Dreamweaver it up! I used the "Rain" stencil and the scalloped edge of the Picasso tool to ink-stencil a cloudy and rainy background using a light blue ink. The foreground was inked in lime green before ink-stenciling the "Petals" Background over it in teal blue. This was folded and adhered inside the card base.

I paper-pieced from turquoise pre-embossed paper the Umbrella stencil onto a cutout of the umbrella in black. Bright pink pompoms were added along the edge and top before curving it, and adhering it to an inked bamboo "skewer", which was inserted into the center pop-up slit. I stamped, colored, and cut out the Stampendous "Pen Pattern Frog" and "Pen Pattern Hummingbird". These were adhered to the base bump-out and one of the upper die cut flaps. To complete the card, I die cut blue and white "Nested Frames" (also ink-stenciled with the Petals background), stamped a sentiment from the Stampendous Perfectly Clear "Life Words" set (and its tiny border additions), and adhered this to the bottom of the card. A strip of web ribbon from May Arts with some sprinkles of Stampendous Color Fragments, was adhered for more textural interest.

If you'd rather go back to "Raining Cats and Dogs" now, I totally understand. I love cats and dogs. We have two floofy freeloaders, and a new puppy ( 5 months) that has stolen our hearts! 

Be sure to check out the C & D creations over on the Woodware Witterings blog.

Be Happy! Life is a Picnic!

The Woodware team are celebrating "happy days" this week. There are so many to choose from! Birthdays, weddings, baby showers, anniversaries, etc. My card celebrates the happy times of summer...especially picnics! I have great memories of picnics with family and friends.

This card features the Stampendous Cling "Life Picnic" sentiment, the Cling "Lunch Line" (yum), and the Cling "Picnic Ants". This last was stamped as a border along the bottom of the white card. The food bandits were stamped on white cardstock and colored with markers, edged with red ink, and adhered to a ClearScraps® acrylic banner. The checkerboard pattern was done with Glossy Red Embossing Paste using the Dreamweaver OpArt Checkerboard. This piece was adhered to the card with Foam Mounting Tape, and ribbons were attached for fun.

Hope your days are filled with happy!

A Sunshine Sentiment from Stampendous

If you weren't sentimental before, you have to be now! The Stampendous team have provided oodles of ideas using the new Sentimental all-in-one images. My post today features the new Cling "Create Sunshine" image. The perfect combo of a floral and sentiment that works for so many occasions, or none at all! I used an inexpensive bare wood frame from the big box craft store near me, and gave it a wash of pale yellow paint. I wiped a bit of distress stain over the surface, removing the excess for an antiqued look.

Using the Dreamweaver Black Eyed Susans stencil, I used a sponge dauber to ink the design with Walnut Distress ink. I used the Diagonal Panes stencil and a second dauber to ink with Vintage Photo in a few areas. When dry once again, I lightly sanded over the surface around the edges to distress it further.

The focal point on the inside was a rounded corner panel of kraft cardstock. The image was stamped in the Walnut Distress ink, and the design was painted with DecoArt Media Fluid paints. After I'd painted the "banner" portion of the design with white paint, I'd lost the stamped image of the sentiment. So, I re-inked the image and carefully stamped over the first image. The image was sprinkled with Chunky White Embossing Enamel and heated from underneath for little speckles of white texture. The panel was inked around the edges and adhered over a yellow cardstock mat, and adhered to the front of the glass panel of the frame. The back of the glass was adhered over a piece of designer paper.

We hope that you've enjoyed our "sentimental journey" this week, and here's a few more...

Stampendous Blog

Pam Bray

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Woodware: Let's Hear it for the Boys!

I know that the last time the Woodware team had a challenge regarding boys/men, I posted the Stampendous "Motorcycle Elements" card that I'd made for my younger son's 25th birthday...because he loves track-racing on his motorcycles. (I know you mums are cringing at the thought, but let's face it, we can't make every decision for them. We can just hope they'll be safe while doing it. At least on a track he's wearing really heavy duty safety gear...leather suit, racing helmet, etc. Much better than the idiots who zip through cars on the freeways here in California, wearing nothing more than a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops!)

Getting back on track now (haha...I made a punny!). My post for today features a card that I created for my son, Bryan, who actually helped me to make it, though he didn't know it at the time. I had this Stampendous "Acoustic Sounds" image stamped and ready to color with markers. He was bored (no...he's not eight. At the time he was twenty-eight!) so I handed it to him and told him to color it for me. This young man is very creative and artistic (wonder who he gets THAT from?), so this was no punishment for him. He worked hard trying to color the guitar PERFECTLY to match a guitar of his. (Did I mention that he's just a bit of a perfectionist? So much that if he can't do something perfectly, he won't do it at all...which is a huge list all on it's own.) It took him quite a long time to finish it, before I was able to use it to complete my catalog sample (sssshhh) birthday card for him.

The background of the card was ChalkCore cardstock from Core'dinations, which I machine-embossed with the Dreamweaver Waves and Dots stencil, and sanded to reveal the pattern. I added a scrap of guitar music which I'd stamped one of the Perfectly Clear "Happy Greetings". The focal panel was also sprinkled with Stampendous' Fran•tagé "Spoonful of Rust" and heated. All parts of the card were distressed with ink. I had an old guitar string of his which I wrapped around the card, and added a "guitar pick" stamped with "#1" from the same sentiment set.

So you see that this card was a work of love and inspiration from my gifted son, of whom I'm very proud of...most of the time!

A Sentimental Birthday with Stampendous

Has the Stampendous team got you feeling sentimental this week? It's super easy to do with our newly released all-in-one image-and-sentiment designs. Just stamp color and you're done...or, take it a step further. For this card I just did a colorwash over the balloons in the Cling Birthday Balloons image. When dry, I ran the panel through my Big Shot with the Dreamweaver Flourishes design (also on the card base), and swiped Cantaloupe Memento ink over the embossed surface to highlight the design.

To add more dimension, I turned over the colored panel a top a piece of soft suede, and used a couple of my metalworking tools (a paper stump and large ball stylus) to "puff" out the blue balloon a bit. Edges were distressed. The panel was adhered askew, and a strip of rainbow rick rack finishes this birthday celebration!

Head on over to the team links here...

Stampendous Blog

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Louise Healy

A Woodware Window on the World

The Woodware team are taking a look at dies and punches in a different way, you might say as a window to creativity. The team have been sharing projects where the negative space from a die or punch cut is used as a window for something special. In my case, I've used the Stampendous Jumbo Bird set of stamps and its matching dies.

I started with a brown base card, which I've ink-stenciled the Dreamweaver I Beams background in black ink with a large sponge dauber. I've stamped and die cut the bird from an old music sheet, aged it with ink, and adhered it to the card base.

Finally, I've die cut the bird from this light blue panel. I stamped the branch and the wonderful Stampendous sentiment by Emily Dickinson. A stamped and die cut leaf was added for more dimension. This panel was popped up off of the card over the stamped bird for more depth using foam tape.

If you've missed any of our "window" posts this week, head back over to the Woodware Witterings blog for previous links.

Are You Passionate About Coloring?

We are having a busy week on the Stampendous team! In addition to our hop with Nathalie Kalbach's new designs for Stampendous, we are sharing some of our favorite colored House Mouse Designs® critters as well. If you've never checked out the Passionate Paper Creations and Friends page on Facebook, I highly recommend that you do so immediately! So much inspiration for coloring your favorite images with your favorite mediums. Here's one of my favorites...

This image called "Bouncing Bunnies" always reminds me of the children's song about monkeys jumping on the bed. They look like they are having a wonderful time, and you know that MOM will not be happy when she catches them in the act, but meanwhile...

I've colored this image with Copic Sketch Markers, and I'd love to share the colors that I've used, but that would require more organization than I seem to handle lately.

For the background of this card, I've used the Dreamweaver I Beam stencil from Stampendous to machine emboss a deep mint cardstock panel. The card itself was created with pre-embossed patterned cardstock from Bazzill which I've sanded to reveal the pattern. I love the sentiment that I added, 'cuz you know these bunnies will remember this day forever!

Here's the link list for today:

Jamie Martin

Laura Drahozal

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu