Mixing the Media with Stampendous and Imagine Crafts!

Does your stamping and stenciling "Go to eleven"*? After this week it sure will! All this week the Stampendous/Dreamweaver team are "amping" up their projects with products from Imagine Crafts®...specifically the new Radiant Neon Amplify inks, and their counterpart, the Radiant Neon inks. The first are wonderful colors that soften and grow when heated, adding incredible dimension to all your creations! You can learn about them HERE. And the second are a brighter, more vivid version of the colors. 

As usual there will be fantastic prizes as shown below. All you need to do is visit the Stampendous Blog each day this week, following the links, and leaving comments about what YOU love best! 

See Official Contest Rules for details.

Here is what I've created using the Radiant Neon inks along with the Stampendous Round Creative Palette, and "The Look" Cling Rubber Stamp Set, and one of my favorite sentiments from Stampendous..."Color Outside the Lines". Oh, and bright Color Fragments as well.

The base canvas is a 12 inch pre-gessoed one. I started by squirting Electric Pink, Coral, Orange, and Yellow Radiant Neon inks onto the surface of my ROUND Creative Palette. (If you have one, and it's not been used yet, soak it in warm water for several minutes before using.) I sprayed the surface with a bit of water (using one of my handy-dandy Spatter/Spray bottles from Stampendous), and let the colors swirl a bit. Then I placed the canvas on the surface of the Creative Palette, pressing from behind, but NOT moving it, to transfer all the color and the round shape to the canvas. This was set aside to dry for a while, and encouraged to dry faster with quick passes of a heat tool over the surface. Once dry, I stamped the "bubble wrap" image that comes with the palette randomly over the canvas with Rich Cocoa Memento ink, and stamped the sentiment as well.

Meanwhile, I took a page of poetry from an old (and beat up book), and lightly brushed over it with a bit of thinned gesso. You notice that parts of the poetry can be seen through the image, yes? When dry, I stamped the main image in Rich Cocoa Memento ink by Tsukineko®, and broke out my alcohol markers to color and shade as desired. The image was torn around the edge and ink-distressed before adhering to the canvas with Fast Finish Decoupage medium from Beacon Adhesives®. I love this product, and use it A LOT! It's thin, and is easy to lay down a coat on the surface before placing the item to be decoupaged onto the wet surface, and brushing on another coat. If you want extra shine, brush on more coats, but just one is perfect in this case, and dries SO FAST! I brushed more on the canvas, and sprinkled liberally with the Stampendous Color Fragments in the "Party" colors, which perfectly match the colors of the Radiant Neon inks.

The flower was created by stamping the floral images from the stamp set on a clear piece of mold-able plastic and cutting them out. I added the Radiant Neon inks on back, and heated each piece to make it mold-able, creating ruffles and dimension in the flowers and leaves. All were layered and adhered together and to the canvas using Beacon Adhesives "Quick Grip".

Go check out how "bright" the rest of the team can be, after leaving me a comment, please!

Stampendous Blog

Jamie Martin

Wendy Price

Janelle Stollfus

Pam Hornschu

Stampendous and Patty PopOns...Creating Magic from Puzzle Pieces

The Stampendous team is playing with Patty PopOns Puzzle Pieces all of this week, in a challenge to put a new spin on an originally child-oriented product. And we are up for the challenge! Lol. I have to admit, these foam puzzle pieces stumped me a bit in the beginning, but I'm loving the end result. A bit "childlike", but not at all "childish".

I had this wood banner/plaque that I'd purchased from a "big box store". Originally, the hanger was stapled on the back to hang horizontally, not vertically. So I pulled it loose on one side, brushed it with white paint, and stapled it to hang vertically.

I also gave it a few light washes of paint, using Ranger Distress Paints (Cracked Pistachio, Weathered Wood, and Picket Fence). I stamped the Stampendous Cling Delicate Snow set in Versamark ink randomly over the plaque, and embossed them in the new Stampendous Sparkle Puff embossing powder.

While the Sparkle Puff and Versamark were out, I used them to cover my three PopOns pieces in sparkly white textural goodness. I only wish you could see the end result...sooooo much sparkle! I noticed as I heated the embossing powder, that the foam puzzle pieces tended to curve a bit, which was perfect for what I wanted! Each piece was also stamped with the snowflake designs using Black VersaCraft ink, and heated slightly to set the ink. I tried other inks on a sample piece, but none would be crisp and dark enough over the embossed base. The fact that the pieces were curved presented a challenge for adhering them to the board. I didn't want to flatten them. So I broke out my favorite glue for projects like this...Quick Grip by Beacon Adhesives! I only needed to add a small dab where each piece would touch the board and/or each

other. Instant perfection!

I found some of these Chip Chatter chipboard letters, and spelled the word "SNOW". Each was painted in the same wash of colors. Micro teal glitter was sprinkled over the wet paint, and a light spray of cheap hairspray set it so that it couldn't be wiped off. Each of the letters was adhered with Quick Grip as well, as I knew that the self-adhesive pieces on the back of the letters would not adhere over the Sparkle Puff embossed pieces.

For a bit of fun, I stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento, and colored with Copics, the House Mouse Designs® Sledding Santa. I dabbed Dreamweaver Regular Embossing Paste for snow at the base, and sprinkled it with Fran•tagé Spoonful of Snow, a wonderful combination of various sizes of crystal glitter, white embossing powder, and Shaved Ice. Once again, I only wish you could see how much sparkle achieved! Obviously, it was necessary to heat this, which caused it to puff up even more, and heating the Shaved Ice produces a gorgeous iridescence.

The image was cut out, and adhered to the PopOns with Quick Grip again, adding his flying knit cap to the "O" on the design. The end result is sparkly, sweet, light weight for shipping, and a wonderful bit of decor for the whole magical winter season.

For more magical fun, visit the Stampendous Blog HERE.