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.

Feeling Sentimental with Stampendous

Don't you just love to have a stamp that has it all? That says it all? Stampendous has just released several fantastic images for several occasions. Each one can be kept clean and simple (CAS) by simply stamping the image on the card front and adding a bit of color, or taking it a bit further with layers and embellishments. Today's post features the Cling "Anniversary Wish", and became the perfect card to send to my brother and his wife this month.

I've stamped the image on Mixed Media White cardstock, and colored it with Copic markers, adding tiny dots of white Sakura® Gelly Roll ink. The image and it's matted frame of designer paper, were die cut using the Stampendous Fitted Frames "B" set. With a bit of ribbon, the card becomes truly special.

Check out who else is feeling sentimental today...

Stampendous Blog

Alison Heikkila

Pam Bray

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Louise Healy

New Stampendous Stencil Duos with May Arts YUM!

In my opinion, anytime that you want to take a project to the next level, anything May Arts is the line to go with! Both Stampendous and Dreamweaver Stencils have been "Partners in Craft" with May Arts for the past few years, and the reason is simple...WE LOVE MAY ARTS! We're hopping all of this week, and we've got some super prize packages up for grabs...take a look!

See Stampendous Official Contest Rules for details.

My post today features another one of the new Stencil Duo sets designed by Fran Seiford. This one is "Balloon Duo", and as with the other sets, includes one "open" stencil (balloon), and one pattern stencil. Both can be layered and used together, or separately. The sets include a doodling pen, and a small set of notecards.

Beginning with my Creative Palette Rectangle, I placed several drops of Radiant Neon Reinkers in Electric Blue and Electric Green from Tsukineko®, and sprayed with water to mingle the colors. A square panel of the Stampendous Mixed Media White Cardstock was placed on the surface to transfer the swirled ink.

When dry, the same panel was used with the pattern stencil over the surface, and the same ink colors (in inkpad form) were ink-stenciled randomly over the surface, rotating the stencil.

The Balloon stencil was placed over the panel, and I lightly rouged the blue ink around the inside edge of the design, before pasting the balloon design with Translucent Embossing Paste. While wet, the paste was sprinkled with Stampendous Micro Crystal Glitter, and set aside to dry.

Corners were rounded on the panel, before layering it onto a white Fitted Frame Set A, matted with a teal frame. The pretty May Arts Sheer Satin Band ribbon in Seafoam was added to the balloon. The panel was adhered to short flap card created from My Colors Cardstock with Spearmint on the outside, and Caribbean Sea adhered on the inside to match the mat on the square.

A strip of May Arts Adhesive Scallop Border in Robin's Egg Blue was adhered along the flap edge, for feminine detail, and the front of the card was stamped with the Cling Birthday Gorgeous sentiment in Teal Zeal Memento ink from Tsukineko®.

Be sure to leave a comment before moving on to these other talented teammies...

Stampendous Blog

Jamie Martin

Wendy Price

Pam Hornschu (You're here)

Janelle Stollfus

Rhea Weigand

The Ribbon Resource Tuesday Post

The Ribbon Resource Blog

Woodware: Decoupage for a Season of Joy

The Woodware team is playing with the art of decoupage this week, with a Christmas holiday theme, so I thought that I'd share one of my favorite projects featuring Dreamweaver and Stampendous products. The base of this is a plaque made of slate, to which I used a decoupage medium to adhere a torn section of music score paper...

Then I added a wash of blue paint over the top, letting the music show through...

I taped the Dreamweaver Season of Joy stencil on all sides, and used Regular Embossing Paste with my Spreader tool to smooth the paste over the design...

The wet paste was covered with Stampendous Multi Crystal Glitter, and the plaque was set aside to dry...

I added a "snow bank" of dabbed-on paste, and covered this with glitter before drying...

Next I trimmed the back of a craft store tree to make it lay flat, dabbed white paint on it, and sprinkled glitter...

A bit of paint wash on a torn strip of music score before wrapping it around the tree, and adhering it to the plaque...

Paste was dabbed on a pine cone and glittered before adhering to the plaque along with a yummy bow, and a few Mark Richards' Crystals on the star, and here's the result...

Pretty gorgeous, don't you think? And what a wonderful seasonal gift!

Wobbling Again with Stampendous and Action Wobbles

The holiday season has only just begun, and the Stampendous/Dreamweaver team is already feeling wobbly! No...not from too much Christmas "Cheer", but from playing with these cute little Action Wobbles...

They look pretty boring, don't they? But they can make your projects spring into action with the tap of a finger! Suddenly your ho hum project becomes snow fun...like mine...

I used the Cling Snowglobe Gift image (which I'm sorry to admit that I really didn't care for when I first received it) to create a fun sticky note pad cover as a little gifty for friends (or for Santa to keep track of those naughty and nice lists). Stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento, the image was colored with Spectrum Noir Colored Pencils, and blended easily with gamsol and a paper stump.

 The snowglobe portion was stamped and colored twice, with the extra to be used as my Action Wobble element. The bottom of the spring was self-adhered to the main image, and the top was self-adhered to the underneath of the extra globe. So, with a flick of a fingertip, you get this...

I die cut three graduated sizes of Spellbinders® Grand Labels One from tagboard (bottom), aqua Bazzill Basics, and then pink Bazzill Basics (on the top). The pink piece was machine-embossed using the Stampendous/Dreamweaver Christmas Borders Embossing Folder, and Cardinal VersaMark ink was swiped over the embossed surface to highlight the design. A slit was cut across the top of this piece for the next step.

The image was cut around the outside with a bit extra at the top which I scored and folded 1/4 inch apart. A bit of Zip Dry glue was spread across the top before inserting in the slip of the pink piece, leaving that 1/4" gap of fold for the sticky note pad to be adhered underneath.

The tagboard layer was covered with a wash of white acrylic paint, and covered with Crystal Micro Glitter around the edges while still wet. To make sure that the glitter would adhere, I sprayed a mist of Krylon Crystal Clear Finish over the top.

When dry, all the layers were adhered, and the top embellished with a crinkle ribbon bow made from May Arts ribbon. Magnets could be added to the back to attach to a fridge or file cabinet, or the gifty can be left as is to set on the workspace...always at the ready for adding that nice...or naughty...person's name. Oh, and in case you were wondering...I love this Snowglobe Gift stamp image now! How about you?

To shake things up some more, here's our wobblers for today...

Stampendous Blog

Amy Hurley-Purdie (Santa)

Jamie Martin (Wobbles)

Louise Healy (Wobble and Santa)

Pam Hornschu (Santa, Wobble and DW)

Dreamweaver Thursday: Poinsettia Perfection

We are playing with poinsettias all this week, and I saved my favorite for today. I love this delicate Tall Poinsettia stencil from Dreamweaver. Use with Stampendous Micro Glitter in red and pink and green, with the crystal background, the effect is stunning. To offset it, I added a panel of the Dreamweaver Holiday Borders Embossing Folder on pink cardstock, brushed with Pearlescent Orchid Brilliance ink. The May Arts' ribbon is the finishing touch, along with a few Mark Richard's crystals.

Check out the rest of the Dreamweaver posts for today:

Stampendous Blog
Laura Drahozal

Lyn Bernatovich

Kristine Reynolds

Louise Healy

Pam Hornschu

Pretty Poinsettias Week with a Vintage Twist

This week the Stampendous team are featuring Poinsettias, providing you with another opportunity to start planning your holiday cards for this year!

My card features the Dreamweaver Large Poinsettia stencil, done in a modified version of the Double Glitter technique...instead of using all glitter, I've used gorgeous Copper Micro Glitter for the background, and Stampendous Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel for the poinsettia. Going along with the vintage vibe, the base card is a tan Core'dinations cardstock, machine-embossed with the Dreamweaver Damask background stencil, and sanded to reveal the design. The sentiment was also embossed in the Shabby White. Small dots of glue, sprinkled with Stamnpendous Mahogany glitter were added to the center, and the pin holding the May Arts ribbon bow, was also covered with the same glitter.

For more pretty poinsettia inspiration, check out these links:

Stampendous Blog

Pam Hornschu

Kristine Reynolds