Showing posts with label Dec '14. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dec '14. Show all posts

Friday, December 26, 2014

Stampendous: Tired but Inspired

Wow! The holidays can be so exhausting...and yet, they can also be very inspiring. All the rush of emotions and feelings are also a reminder of what inspires us in whatever we do. Family. Faith. Love. Even hate can be inspiring. It's what we do with these inspirations in our lives that make a difference.

On a more simple scale, just taking the time to demonstrate kindness and empathy toward those who are suffering, mentally and/or physically, to create a gift card that says it all. Stampendous has the perfect sentiment set for just these occasions. The Perfectly Clear Sincere Sentiments set has wonderful encouraging comments for friends, family, and acquaintances. Especially, when highlighted by a soft stamping of the Perfectly Clear Lacy Ovals. Soft green is such a soothing color, so I kept my designs in shades of green...Memento New Sprout and Cottage Ivy inks, soft iridescent May Arts' ribbon, and beautiful WorldWin Treasures cardstock in Cool Mint.

I highly recommend making several of these, using the various sentiments, to have on hand. The perfect thought at the perfect time.


Check the Stampendous blog for more inspiration this week. Be sure to play along and link to the December challenge. You can find the details HERE.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Stampendous: Pen Patterns are Positively Picturesque!

This week the Stampendous team are having a joyful time playing with the Pen Pattern images! They are all so cute, as you can see HERE! One of my faves is this darling Pen Pattern Penguin. Most of the Pen Pattern images are so fun to color, but sometimes you just want to complete a card in a hurry. So, I just stamped him three times on white cardstock with Paris Dusk Memento ink. The first one was on a square panel, with rounded corners. The second one required being cut out around the head, wings, and gift, and adhered over top of the previous one with dimensional tape. The final one was just the scarf, brim, and wings, and adhered on top of the other two. White glue was brushed over the gift ribbon and the fluffy brim, and Medium Multi Crystal Glitter added for sparkle. I added a tinsel pompom as well. (Just a tip...snip a portion of the fluff off the back of the pompom to adhere flat.)

The dark blue panel was machine embossed with my Dreamweaver Christmas Borders Embossing Folder. A few messages from the Stampendous Perfectly Clear Holiday Words were stamped in the blue ink on white cardstock together, and die cut with the Dreamweaver Nesting Frames, and adhered to the card. More messages were stamped inside.


We always love when you share your creations with us, either by emailing them to Stampendous, or posting on the Stampendous Facebook page. If you'd like more info on playing with the monthly challenges, click HERE.

Head over to the Stampendous blog to see who else is playing today, and check back there again tomorrow!

Friday, December 12, 2014

Stampendous and Art Anthology: Sprayin' and Playin' Finale


Everyone knows that Mixed Media is the HUGE thing in the art world right now, and Stampendous has been happily mixing it up as well. For the past three days, we've also been mixing it up with Art Anthology, with their amazing line of Dimensional Paints and water-based Colorations Spray Mists. Hopefully, you've been following us December 10 - 12, leaving comments along the way, for a chance to win the awesome products featured in the banner above. For more details, check the Stampendous blog.

Here's my mixed media decor project that I created for today's post:


Mixed media is sooo much fun, a chance to build layers of color, texture, and design, and this piece was no exception.

The base is a section of canvas cloth, cut and taped down on the clipboard with removable painter's tape on all sides to prevent shrinking and warping. Gesso was brushed over the piece and allowed to dry. A torn section of an old Longfellow poem was adhered to the panel with an underbrushing of Beacon Fast Finish Decoupagé, and an over-brushing as well. When dry, the surface was spritzed with Art Anthology Colorations Mist in Timeless. While this dried, I stamped the Stampendous Winter Cottage on white  tissue paper, and colored from behind with Copic markers. Fast Finish tended to dilute the Colorations Mist, and the result was a soft yellow color which was perfect for the antique feel I was going for. Using a palette knife and the Art Anthology Cotton Velvet Dimensional Paint, I embossed the Art Anthology Stars stencil up in the right corner, and sprinkled this with Stampendous Multi Crystal Glitter. This same paint was applied over the "JOY" letters with glitter as well and set aside to dry. More of the paint was applied to the snowy hills of the cottage scene, as well as the twig and cone frame around it, with more glitter of course! I used the Brick Red Art Anthology Stone Dimensional Paint for the holly berries as it provides great dimension and texture.
The edges were torn, and the piece was decoupagéd onto the surface, adding another layer. The

Finally, the frame was a plain unfinished one from Michael's, which I'd dry brushed white Gesso over the surface. The Art Anthology Brick Stone Effects paint was painted around the inside and outside edges of the frame. The Stampendous border was stamped in  brown ink. Dreamweaver's Holly and Swirls was stenciled using a large brush and the Tsukineko Splendor pad in Antique. A bit more dry brushing over the top, and a wet brushing of Fast Finish over all provided a nice base to adhere sprinkles of Stampendous Shabby White and Aged Silver Embossing Enamels. The finish held the powders in place so that I could apply the heat tool without them blowing away. The finishing  touch was inserting the canvas in the frame, and adding a few red rhinestones as berries on the frame.



Let me know what you think of my project, before hopping to the next on the list:

(Please note: the Art Anthology team will be posting frequently throughout the days, so be sure to keep checking back for more fun inspiration!)

Don't forget...the Stampendous December blog challenge info can be found and linked to HERE

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Stampendous and Core'dinations: More Sandy Options!


Yes, the Stampendous team are breaking out their sanding blocks once again as they get to the Core of their creativity with wonderful Core'dinations' cardstock. Three days of awesomeness, and yes, there will be prizes. 

 
Check the Stampendous blog for all the details. Meanwhile, here's my creation for day one:

You can't be sad when Santa is involved! Especially when using the Stampendous Jumbo Cling Dear Santa. This set comes with a great border stamp and template/stencils to use as well. Santa was stamped in Cocoa Memento ink on kraft cardstock, and colored with Prismacolor Pencils. I placed the Santa mask over him, and while he was covered, I stamped the border stamp in white ink and embossed in white, as well as stenciling the chevron design stencil/template with Rhubarb Memento ink. No cutting your own mask to protect your coloring while stamping something else in the background. Love that!


As for the Core'dinations cardstock...I used the new Chalk Core on the left panel by machine-embossing it with the Dreamweaver Flourish stencil, and sanding to reveal the "chalk" design. On the right is a panel of red Core Essentials, machine embossed with the chevron border from the stamp set, and sanded to reveal the pattern. This became a bit more distressed than I was going for as the stencil in the set is quite thin, but it does work, especially if you add an extra piece of thick cardstock as a shim.

Santa was asking for some bling, so he received a healthy dose of it by using Beacon GemTac to adhere Stampendous Spoonful of Snow. This was heated as well to melt the bits of white embossing powder in this mix, giving it a nice bit of sparkle and texture at the same time.


Be sure to leave me a comment before moving on the team members that are playing today:




We'd love for you to play with our challenge for December. You can find all of the info HERE.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Woodware: Sketch 40 and Pretty in Pink

If you are here for the Dreamweaver post, please scroll down, but enjoy this along the way!

The Woodware team are playing with Sketch 40 this week, and you can check out the other creations by heading over to the Woodware blog. Apparently, I was in a pink mood for this challenge, and most likely this card will go to someone with more feminine inclinations for obvious reasons. Lol. I used the Clear Magic Nordic Dove and Branch set, embossing the elements in Stampendous Shabby Pink Embossing Enamel. Sparkly tulle, sheer pink ribbon, and pink crystals are enough to make your teeth hurt from over-sweetness, but that's the direction my creative brain wanted to go this week. Who knows what it will want to do next week? Check back and see!