Let's get Distressed with Stampendous!

Creating with a distressed look can still have happy and fun results as I've shown with my card today. Happy bright colors, with torn edges, smeared inks, piles of texture is so interesting...don't you think?

I've used my Stampendous Creative Palette, and added several drops of various Dreamweaver Color Solutions Alcohol inks, with several drops of blender solution, and let the colors swirl. I grabbed a few panels of Stampendous Mixed Media White cardstock, and placed them over the surface to grab the beautiful colors. A few more drops of blender between each panel keeps the solution wet enough, while the colors become more pastel.

Obviously, the panel I used for this card was my first, and the most saturated. When the ink was dry, I stamped the Cling Blossom Bunch in Black StazOn ink. The edges were torn and ink was smudged. A heavy sprinkling of Powder Blue and Purple Color Fragments with Shabby Blue Embossing Enamel over the top of them was heated from underneath for the Fran•tagé Encrusted Jewel Technique that is perfect with the distressed look. This panel overlaps a second panel which had been stamped with the Cling Vintage Note, smudged with gray inks, and ink-stenciled with the Dreamweaver Small Cathedral Window. This same stencil is used to add pattern to the purple card base, along with more ink-distressing around the edges.

For a bit of juxtaposition, bright yellow is added here and there, including on the clip with the sentiment from the Perfectly Clear Life Words...oh, and of course, a bright and happy silk ribbon bow from May Arts! Not the usual depressing distressing, eh?

Check out more...

Stampendous Blog

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Janelle Stollfus

A Very "Distressing" Week with Stampendous

Who says that distressing your creations has to be stressful? Stampendous carries a perfect line of products, and fifteen amazingly talented team members, to help you create whatever look you want. From CAS (clean and simple), to distressed, to OMGeee over-the-top, we've got it all!

One of the industry's favorite artists, Andy Skinner, has designed some über-cool Cling Stamp images for Stampendous, and the distressed look is pretty much a given when using his designs. Below is a video where he shares his love of mixed media design:

I created the above mixed media piece using Andy Skinner's Cling Industrial and Nature sets. See the crackle edging all around the "frame"? It's just the crackle image from the Industrial set stamped in Rich Cocoa Memento ink on sage green cardstock. Period. How cool is that? What appears to be an artist's canvas is simply Core'dinations Vintage cardstock, sanded a bit here and there, and inked around the edges. The barn, fence, trees, and birds are all elements from Andy's Nature set, and were stamped in black ink, as well as a second tree on another piece of cardstock. All were colored with a wash of a wet paintbrush and Inktense Watercolor Pencils from Derwent, with more Inktense coloring and shading here and there.

Spoonfuls of Stampendous' Fran•tagé Spoonful of Rust mixture were added at the bottom, and heated from underneath to save all the yummy texture and color from blowing all over the workspace! All the essential elements for Fran•tagé-style distressing comes in just that one cool container...various sizes and colors of embossing enamels, Color Fragments, Mica chips, etc. You seriously NEED to have this product...well, and so many other products under the "Fran•tagé" category on the website. They're a distressing extravaganza! Oh, and all of those strange bits of ephemera that you've been saving for the perfect mixed media project? Just throw some Essentials over the top, and heat from underneath, and your ephemera becomes one with your project, just as you envisioned.

So, head on over to the other team members links, check them out, leave some love, order the cool stuff HERE, and begin to DE-STRESS yourself with a bit of DISTRESSING!

Stampendous Blog

Pam Hornschu (you're here)

Kristine Reynolds

Louise Healy

Tombow Hop Days Finale

We've been having a fun blog hop mixing Stampendous, Dreamweaver, and one of our favorite craft partners, Tombow, for the last few days. Today's the finale, but I have a distinct feeling that you'll be seeing more of Tombow's wonderful art products in the months to come from our team.

You know there will be prizes for this hop, so leave your kind comments as you go. Be sure to check previous days that you may have missed. All the rules and prizes, etc. will be found on the Stampendous Blog!

Tombow was generous (as usual) with each of us, and my new toys came in the form of their Recycled Colored Pencils. I was really surprised with these. I expected...ho hum...another set of pencils with so much wax in them that you can't get a good vibrant color, and can't layer color, and blend nicely. I was SOOOO wrong! Here's my project:

Check out the beautiful color on this darling House Mouse Carrying Mints image from Stampendous! You really feel like you can steal one of his mints from the pile! I added just a hint of Micro Crystal Glitter to them, but they were yummy all on their own.

The card base was created from a panel of Bazzill Dotted Swiss in white, to which I swiped some Tsukineko® Aegean Sea VersaMagic ink over the surface and around the edges.

I used the Dreamweaver Nested Frames Dies to cut the mat panels for the focal image, and ran them, as well as two more panels of red and green cardstock, through my Big Shot Pro with the Dreamweaver Christmas Borders Embossing Folder. These were all layered, and flipped to be opposite of the other. I swiped some VersaMagic Cloud White ink over the raised designs to highlight them.

Because the House Mouse Designs® image was too large for the die, I ended up with an extra mint, which I turned into a decorative button, and tied with twine over loops of May Art's Chevron Ribbon.

Don't forget to check out the other players links listed here, and in case there have been changes, double-check them on the Stampendous Blog as well! I hope you win, 'cuz you'll love playing with this great mix of Stampendous and Tombow product!

Stampendous Blog

Louise Healy

Latrice Murphy

Pam Hornschu

Lea Fritts

Tombow Blog

Stampendous, Dreamweaver, and Tombow Go Shabby and Chic!

The Stampendous team are hopping with Tombow all this weekend, playing with all of the fun goodies that Tombow has so generously sent to us, and mixing them up with our Stampendous and Dreamweaver products...and boy, has it been fun! Remember to leave comments along the way to be entered into a chance to win one of the prizes. You can find all the rules and details on the Stampendous Blog! Meanwhile, here's some shabby fun with the Zero Drawing technique...

For this card, I started with a panel of Bazzill Dotted Swiss white cardstock for fun texture. I daubed graphite dust over the paper before placing the Dreamweaver Mittens stencil on top. This was taped with removable tape, and then the magic happens! Using one of the Tombow Mono Erasers (I have the Non PVC eraser as well as the Zero Mono with it's small, pen-like tip), I erased the graphite from the stencil design. I also used the Dreamweaver Snowflakes background to erase and add those designs in the graphite as well. This same stencil was used to create the background of the pink card base by inking the design with Versamark ink, and embossing it with Stampendous Shabby Pink Embossing Enamel .

Using the Dreamweaver Southwest Snowflake, I used the Tombow Recycled Colored Pencils to color pink flakes on the mittens. These, as well as another flake, were paste-embossed in Translucent Paste over the top, and one of them was also sprinkled with Crystal Micro Glitter while wet.

The cuffs of the mittens were daubed with Regular Embossing Paste, and sprinkled with the Shabby Pink enamel, and heated until puffy and shiny.
I also covered a decorative pearl corsage pin with Versamark ink and coated it in the Shabby Pink as well, before melting it, and inserting it through a looped and crinkled pink organza bow.

All edges were inked and distressed, and a perfect sentiment from the Perfectly Clear Holiday Expressions was stamped and matted on pink ovals to finish this card.

Now, here's the list of today's team players...

Stampendous Blog

Pam Bray

Lyn Bernatovich

Jennifer Priest

Janelle Stollfus

Pam Hornschu (you're here)

Daniella Hayes

Alison Heikkila

Wendy Price

Tombow Blog

Cool Products, Cool Techniques, More Fun with Tombow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb01fGtd0FE

As we approach our exciting hops days with Tombow, we're hoping to get YOU as excited as we are! So we're sharing a very interesting and cool technique that artist Marie Browning has been teaching with Tombow products for a few years now...called, "Zero Drawing". I've shared Fran Seiford's tutorial above on her mix of Dreamweaver stencils with this technique. This is something Marie has done for several years as she and Dreamweaver's original owner, Lynell Harlow are friends, and had collaborated on this before. 

My version of this technique features the Dreamweaver Corner Flowers stencil. As shown in the video, I've sanded my Tombow Graphite Pencil a bit to create some "dust", and pounced this over my chosen paper (Canson textured). Placing the stencil on top, and taping it down with removable tape, I began to "Zero out", or erase the areas of the design using Tombow's Mono Zero and Non PVC Mono eraser. You can also use a kneadable eraser, as Fran demonstrates in the video, however I couldn't find mine, so I went with what Tombow so kindly provided for us.

Once I had erased the design areas, I stamped the Cling Dance in the Rain image in black ink on the panel. I loved the look of the pattern on her dress, so I only erased the pattern from her back and arms. Thinking that this very "grayscale" look need a pop, I used my Tombow Recycled Color Pencils to color the flower and her shoes in red, and added a bit of outlining with the black pencil.

For the card base, I used a panel of Core'dinations cardstock which I machine-embossed with the Corner Flowers stencil, and sanded to reveal the design. Once again, I added the pop of red to a flower, and outlined it as well. The focal panel was matted in red, and a black and white chevron ribbon from May Arts was the finishing touch.

I can hardly wait to see how my team members have been playing with these products. Let's go see...

Stampendous Blog

Laura Drahozal

Lyn Bernatovich

Jamie Martin

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Bray

Pam Hornschu

Woodware: One Colour Wonder!

Well...mostly one color anyway! This was an interesting experiment using the Stampendous Blossom Bunch stamped over the top of the Cling Floral Tapestry. On its own, the focal image would be lost (kind of like not seeing the forest for the trees...or in this case, flowers). Instead, I used several shades of purple markers to shade around the image, and the end result was the Blossom Bunch popping off from the card. Super simple, and super effective. With the addition of the Stampendous Lavender Glass Glitter added to the flower centers, and a simple sentiment from the Perfectly Clear Life Words, this monochromatic creation is a bit of purple perfection!

Be sure to view the team's posts with this challenge by checking out the Woodware Blog daily.

"Popping Up" to Create Some Christmas Fun!

Have you learned a bazillion ways to Create Christmas with the new Jumbo Stamps and Dies from Stampendous? We have a few more for you today!

I've created a Pop Up Christmas card using the Pop Up Dies set. This enabled me to add more dimension and fun to the card. The images were stamped and die cut. I used the edge of my palette knife to dab some Dreamweaver Regular Embossing Paste along each layer of the tree. I sprinkled the wet paste heavily with Stampendous' new Sparkle Puff Embossing Powder, and heated the whole thing. Now it's puffy and sparkly and snowy! For the inside base I ink stenciled the Dreamweaver Holiday Greetings design. Then I paste-embossed just sentiment portion on contrasting cardstock, and sprinkled it with the Sparkle Puff as well. A stamped and die cut star was layered using green and glitter white cardstock from Core'dinations, and adhered to the very top pop up tab of my pretty plaid paper. I stamped words and ink distressed a section of flag trim with the Stampendous Perfectly Clear Joyful Phrases. All of the same images, sentiments, embossing powders, and stencils were used to decorate the front of the card as well. The Pop Up cards make such an impact and display for the holidays...or any time of the year.

More creative Christmas fun coming your way...

Stampendous Blog

Louise Healy

Lyn Bernatovich

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Lea Fritts

Dreamweaver Thursday: Creating Christmas with Dreamweaver

 

Mixing up some fun for Dreamweaver Thursday by adding the new Stampendous Create Christmas stamp set and dies, and jazzing it up a bit with the Dreamweaver Christmas Borders Embossing Folder.

The large tree was stamped in black on Core'dinations White Glitter Silk cardstock, and die cut, along with one cardinal on red cardstock and die cut as well.

I ran a panel of Chalk Core blue from Core'dinations through my Big Shot pro machine with the Christmas Borders Embossing Folder, and used their sanding block to highlight the embossed design for my background pattern.

I swiped Cyan VersaColor ink from Tsukineko® over the inside of the same embossing folder, and placed the tree inside, and embossed this as well. This presses the ink into the surface, highlighting the embossed design.

I used one of the Joyful Phrases sentiments stamped on the card, matted the Chalk Core panel in white, and using a Cyan VersaColor cube, I colored the black and white Chevron ribbon from May Arts to match. This was adhered behind the tree. The final touch was the bright pop of my red cardinal.

Any of these new Jumbo designs can be stenciled or embossed with the Dreamweaver designs, either in stencil form or embossing folders. A quick way to create something special.

Here's some more Christmas creations featuring Dreamweaver by Stampendous:

Stampendous Blog

Louise Healy

Lyn Bernatovich

Laura Drahozal

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu (you're here)

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Create a Little Vintage Christmas

Here's a quickie post for this week's "Create Christmas" challenge on the Stampendous blog. If you follow both the Stampendous team and the Woodware UK team, you'll see this twice.

I used a basic manila tag which I ink-distressed with Vintage Sepia Versafine and Toffee Memento inks from Tsukineko. I stamped the crackle background from Andy Skinner's Cling Industrial set by Stampendous randomly around the edges. I ink-stenciled the Dreamweaver Large Flourish design using a large stencil brush. A sentiment from the Perfectly Clear Joyful Phrases set was stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento.

The tree from the Stampendous Cling Create Christmas set was stamped in black on green cardstock, and die cut with it's matching set of dies. Some ink-distressing was added before running it through my Big Shot Pro with the Large Flourish stencil. I swiped a bit of brown ink over it to highlight the embossed surface. I  cut off a portion of the tree before adhering it to the tag along with a tartan ribbon bow.

Who else is playing today?

Stampendous Blog

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Louise Healy

Pam Hornschu

Woodware: The Best Things Come in Threes

This was a fun challenge for this week! I had a mad bit of panic realizing that I needed to get these done in order to get the pictures off to Dorothy for the Woodware blog.  A Trio of Tags challenge sounds like a bit much to do quickly, but I seem to do my best work under pressure. Lol. I'll breathe later!

All three tags were created with a vintage and distressed look. (Works well when you're in a hurry as mistakes can instantly become a reason for more distressing.)

The first tag features the new Stampendous Create Christmas Jumbo Cling set, along with its matching set of dies. The tree was stamped on green and die cut. The tree was run through my embossing machine to emboss the Dreamweaver Large Flourish design into it. Brown ink was brushed over it and around the edges. Part of the tree was cut off on the side, and the tree was adhered to a tag which had been ink-distressed and ink-stenciled with the Flourish design as well. A stamped sentiment from the Stampendous Perfectly Clear Holiday Expressions, a hemp tie, self-adhesive lace, Card Candi, and a tartan ribbon bow finished off this tag.

Tag number two has a winter theme, create by a wash of pale blue-gray paint over a manila tag. The tag was run through my embossing machine with the Dreamweaver Christmas Borders Embossing Folder. The ClearSnap Denim Mixed Media inkpad was swiped over the embossed surface to highlight the design. A square of white canvas cardstock was washed with a bit of paint as well, and a  Stampendous Snowflakes die was used to punch out the opening. This square was popped up with foam tape about a square stamped with one of the Stampendous Holiday Expressions sentiments. Another piece of self-adhesive lace was added to this tag as well, and Mark Richard's Crystals were added to define the points of the snowflake. Finally, an organza ribbon tie was heat-crinkled slightly to add to the vintage look.

For the final tag, I used a kraft base tag, distressed around the edges with some brown and black inks. The Stampendous Cling Christmas Love was stamped in black. The bottom portion of the tag was covered in strips of Woodware's Self-Adhesive Damask ribbon, with a Red Fine Glitter covered panel of double-sided adhesive on red cardstock, which had been die cut with the Dreamweaver Holly die for the opening. Self-adhesive pearls were added as berries, and a hemp tie, tartan ribbon bow, and more Damask ribbon tape was added to embellish this tag.

All in One...It's in the Bag!

Hasn't this week been so much fun? Don't you just LOVE the new "All in One" designs from Stampendous? Perfect for simplifying your cardmaking and giftgiving through the fall and winter holidays!

Here's a cute idea that will have your Halloween treat-giving/party-goodie-bag "in the bag". The Eek a Boo square image was simply stamped on our Mixed Media White cardstock, colored with my Chameleon* markers, cut out, adhered to a black square, and all of it distressed with a mix of white and gray inks.

A panel of black/kraft Chalk Core cardstock from Core'dinations was run through my embossing machine with my Dreamweaver Spider Web stencil, and sanded to reveal the design, before adhering to the kraft bag. At this point, I adhered the All in One square to the bag around the bottom and sides only, leaving it open at the top for a pocket. I stenciled black Stripes on a strip of purple cardstock, stamped some Halloween images from the Tricky Words Perfectly Clear set, created two folds for the strip to be adhered to the back of the bag, and slipped the other end into the pocket. 

Of course, I HAD to add a cute gingham taffeta bow and an orange stringy pompom from May Arts to finish it off...oh, and wiggle eyes. Hee hee.

There's more fun to be found with All in Ones on these team links:

Stampendous Blog

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Bray

Jamie Martin

Amy Hurley-Purdie

*Be sure to check out the Chameleon Pens on their website HERE! And their Facebook page HERE.

We're All In with Dreamweaver All in Ones!

This week the Stampendous team have been sharing the newly-released "All in One" stamps for the fall and holiday season. Today, you may see a few of those mixed in with Dreamweaver backgrounds, along with Embossing Paste, etc., but for Dreamweaver Thursday, we'd also like to remind you that Dreamweaver by Stampendous has a great selection of "all in ones" as well.

My post today features, once again, the Season of Joy stencil, but this time I've paste-embossed the design in Matte Black. Once dry, I replaced the clean stencil over the surface, and daubed VersaMark ink over the surface to act as a fixative for the next step...applying beautiful mica Metallic F/X* powders in yummy colors like Sapphire, Wedgewood, Ivy Garden, Cocoa, Red Kimono, Goldfinch, Pewter, and Moonlight.

The top of the panel was torn, and VersaMark brushed over the edges before applying more Goldfinch over the edge. Sprinkles of Stampendous Shabby White Embossing Enamel was sprinkled over the panel, as well as the blue card base, and heated from underneath to melt into beautiful snowy magic.

Now, if you are thinking that the purpose of using an "all in one" image is to save time, you are totally correct. But nothing says that you can't created something extra special for that special someone in your life. Many of the stencil designs also come in an embossing folder for a super-quick "all in one". Just emboss the design into nice cardstock, brush with a soft ink (like Tsukineko's Gold or Silver Delicata), or if embossed into Core'dinations cardstock, just sand over the embossed areas to highlight the design, or ink through the stencil onto a richly colored cardstock, sprinkle with one of the Stampendous beautiful Fran•tagé Embossing Enamels, and heat, or....well you get the picture...all in one!

Let's see how our other Dreamweaver Thursday posters interpret this challenge...

Stampendous Blog

Lyn Bernatovich

Pam Hornschu (you're here)

Louise Healy
Pam Bray

Kristine Reynolds

Alison Heikkila
Wendy Price
Laura Drahozal
Lea Fritts 

*Note: the Metallic F/X powders are not on the Stampendous website, however, they can be purchased through the site. Just add them into the comment section of your order. Or, you can purchase them at one of the local stores listed on the website, as well as the Stencil with Style site.

Woodware: Sketch 45 Goes Masculine

Woodware Sketch 45

We're up to number 45 on the Woodware Sketch Challenge parade. The visual is shown above. When you play along, be sure to follow the info on the Woodware Blog to upload your creation for a chance to win.

My card today is so simple. Unusual for me. Lol. I broke out my Andy Skinner designs from Stampendous, including his Industrial set and his Nature set.

The border at the top of the design was stamped in black on a kraft card using his crackle design. The green panel was stamped using the tree and birds from the Nature set. Finally, the barn and fence from the Nature set were stamped in black on the burnt orange square. All edges were distressed with ink and the sharper edges of the Dreamweaver Picasso tool!

The sentiment seemed appropriate, and finishes off this perfect-for-any-occasion greeting card.

All in One Fall Harvest

As we head into the fall and holiday seasons, we suddenly seem to be crunched for time. All those fabulous ideas that we've "pinned", and copied, now need time to create. This is the reason that Stampendous has released several new designs for fall and holiday card and craftmaking that are "All in Ones", meaning that they have a background, a focal point, and a sentiment all in one. They can  be simply stamped onto a card, tag, or gift bag...add a little color...and you're done! So simple that you could do this as a family night project, involving the kids, and the designs are so cute that everyone will love them.

One of these designs is this cute Harvest Owl. I just love his menswear-look plaid background, the fun shape, the doodles on him/her and the simple saying for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and fall harvest.

For this card I went a bit further than CAS (clean and simple), and added a stenciled I Beams  background on the golden yellow card. I sanded a panel of Core'dinations Vintage cardstock, and stamped the Stampendous Ornate Border in black, and adhered it as a pocket on the front. The stamped, colored (with Chameleon markers), and cut out image was tucked in the top, and the ribbon was added to finish it off.

We have several team members posting with these fun new designs today...check them out!

Stampendous Blog

Pam Hornschu (you're here)

Louise Healy

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Bray

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Alison Keikkila