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.

Boxing Up My Frou Frou for the Month!

Those of you who are here for my Dreamweaver post, sit back and enjoy some additional fun...a mix of Dreamweaver, Stampendous, and Eileen Hull Artist Trading Blocks!

 We are having a “Block Party” and everyone’s invited!

We know this form of crafting will spark your interest and give your mojo a serious boost! That’s why we have prizes!!!  We’ll choose three winners at random from the comments on all blogs in the hop. Then from those three we’ll randomly pick a GRAND PRIZE winner! Two of the winners will receive Stampendous PenPattern Petal and PenPattern Flutter cling stamps, just like you’ll see on Kristine Reynolds amazing ATB sample. They’ll also receive enough pre-cut, premium matboard from Sizzix to make two boxes of your own, plus some extra pieces for fiddly bits! The Grand Prize winner will receive the stamps as above, a whole package of matboard, AND the Sizzix die to cut your own ATB boxes! Uh, WOW! If that weren’t enough, eligibility for these amazing prize packages has expanded to include our international fans too!

Creativity has many dimensions.  Artist trading blocks provide a multi-dimensional canvas for your artistic expression.  It’s never been easier to create, collect and share your style with Stampendous stamps and Essentials, and in the case of my project today...some Dreamweaver products as well!

I created this wedding favor box with one of my die cut ATBs, keeping it fairly simple for multiples. The sides were stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento using the Stampendous Cling Music Score stamp. I used sticky notes to mask off for each square.Then I cut smaller squares of ivory cardstock, and die cut each with the Dreamweaver Leafy Branch Die, and adhered squares of vellum behind each one to soften the look.

Obviously, when you die cut that many squares, you also have that many of the positive image from the die. I used these to layer on top of the box, along with May Arts Lace and Leaf Trim. Previous to this, I used an X-acto knife to cut an "x" in the center of the lid to insert a flameless tealite from underneath. The final touch was a layering of two die cut butterflies from the Stampendous set, along with a layered framed sentiment from the Perfectly Clear Royal Heart Quotes. A few crystals were the only bling necessary. The end result is a very elegant box for candies, or a little gift, or even a cupcake!

Here are today’s participating designers - (Available at 3 AM Pacific Time)

Stampendous Blog

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Lea Kimmel

Pam Hornschu (you're here)

Eileen Hull

Amy Bowerman

Tracy Evans

Lisa Hoel

Stampendous Links:

Shop Stampendous

Stampendous Blog
Follow Stampendous:  Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest * Instagram

Eileen Hull Links:  

Eileen Hull Blog

Shop Eileen Hull Sizzix Dies
Follow Eileen Hull: Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest * Google +* Instagram

The Artists on the Block Links:

The Artists on the Block Blog
Follow The Artists on the Block: Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest

 

For today's Dreamweaver team posts, check out the "B" team here. (Available at 1 AM):

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson

Cindy Groh

 

 

Stampendous Challenges You With a Flourish!

Looking for a gift idea with a bit of a flourish? This portfolio is the perfect one for you, and for the females on your gifty list. For that matter, with a change-up of colors and images, would make a great masculine gift as well!

Using a mix of Stampendous images, Die Cuts, and Fran•tagé accessories, each item from the outside cover, to the inside pockets, to the simple notes and envelope sets is created with a pretty and cohesive feel.

The papers are predominantly Authentique "Harmony" 12 X 12, cut and folded to create the portfolio. The top flap was created using the scalloped die from Stampendous' new Popup Die set. While flat, several flourishes from the new Cling Filigree Set were stamped in VersaMark and embossed with elements from the Encrusted Jewel Kit in purple. A hummingbird was die cut from chipboard, covered in VersaMark and jewel encrusted as well before being adhered to the flap with a craft glue dot. A Velcro Dot set was adhered under the flap and to the folder underneath as a closure.

The notes were simply stamped in Memento inks, with hummingbirds die cut from more Authentique paper. The notes are perfect for everyday use...birthday, get well, thinking of you, etc. Change them up to suit yourself or your recipient.

Be sure to visit the Stampendous blog for a list to those who are posting with this challenge.

Feeling Tangled?

Entering that last minute zone of holiday insanity? Whatever you do, "Don't get your tinsel in a tangle"! I thought I'd post this cute and amusing framed mantra for this week, featuring the Stampendous Cling Tangled Tinsel sentiment, stamped and highlighted with a bit of Stampendous purple Micro Glitter. The focal panel was matted with mirror lime, white, and black cardstock, with a larger mat of Core'dinations' textured cardstock.

The frame was one of those cheap $1 frames from Michaels which I gave one coat of black acrylic paint,
and when dry the edges were sanded a bit. I had picked up a bag of these glitter-covered styrofoam balls there as well, so I used an old serrated-blade knife to cut some in half and adhere them to the frame with Beacon Zip Dry as bright spots of color. Hope this is an extra bit of inspiration and laughter to round off the season!

Remember, the Stampendous team have been posting soothing inspirational creations for you this week. Pull up to your computer with a spiked or unspiked mug of cocoa, and enjoy the small bit of time to yourself.

Don't forget to squeeze in some time before January to post a creation for the December challenge. You can find the info HERE.

Happy holidays!

Stampendous: Adding a Bit of Holiday Dazzle!

This week we're playing with the wonderful Add a Little Dazzle Craft Metal Sheets and all of our terrific Stampendous products. We hope you're enjoying the inspiration so far! If you missed yesterday's post, here's a link for you. MONDAY The team over at Add a Little Dazzle has created a special featuring the metals from this blog hop for those of you who have already realized you're going to need these products. You can find it here - Add A Little Dazzle Stampendous Hop Special. Of course you might win some, too! We're giving away three prize packages this week for comments on the blogs. A nice package of Metal Sheets, Stamps and Cutting Dies!

Here's my creation for today:

My little holiday gift box is a base of unfinished wood box from the local big box store for one dollar, which I've swiped Tsukineko Toffee VersaFine ink over, and sealed with a brushed coat of Beacon Fast Finish Decoupage medium. During the very few minutes this took to dry, I quickly stamped out the Stampendous Cardinal Elements onto thin white tissue paper. I tore around the edges before decoupaging it onto my box. Do this by brushing one coat of the Fast Finish onto the box, and while wet, place the tissue as desired. Then brush more of the medium over the top and let dry.

Meanwhile, I stamped the image again onto a piece of the gold-color of aluminum from Add a Little Dazzle with Tsukineko Jet Black StazOn ink. The only portion I wished to work with now was the bird. I used some of my metalwork tools...a paper stump to begin manipulating the metal over a piece of suede, then a teflon-tipped tool to define the stamped design more, and a ball-tipped stylus to push the metal some more, creating more indented areas. I turned it over, and from the back on the hard surface of my desk, I traced the outside again with the Teflon tool to refine a bit more. I used a cotton swab with isopropyl alcohol to remove color from the areas that I intended to add color to. I used a sponged with some Black StazOn refill ink to push black color into the surface, and quickly used a damp paper towel to wipe away the excess, going for an antiqued look. Then I placed drops of Dreamweaver Stencils' Color Solutions Alcohol Inks in Winter Red and Mojito Green to fill in the indented design work and set it aside to dry. Once I cut it out, I smoothed the edges with a sanding block before adhering it to the box that I'd decorated. Embellished with a lush May Arts ribbon bow, a stained wood button, a twig with a sprinkling of Stampendous Shaved Ice, my gift box was ready to fill with whatever treat I chose...in this case, leftover candy canes from last year! Lol. Hey, I had to add something for the photograph!

We love to hop and here are today’s featured blogs with Stampendous and Add A Little Dazzle

Stampendous

Lea Kimmel

Add a Little Dazzle

Pam Hornschu

Cathy Parlitsis

Vicki Dutcher

Kate Capper

Amy Hurley-Purdie

PS. If you get to a blog and it says something like "that post isn't here", just click on the blog header or look for a link that says Home near the top. That will take you to the blog home, and the blog hop post should be somewhere near the top. Thanks for your patience!

Woodware UK: Paper Piecing a Perfect Present!

We're paper-piecing for our Woodware challenge this week! Anyone who follows my blog, knows that I love to do paper-piecing, especially with my Dreamweaver Stencils. Their more open designs lend themselves perfectly to this technique, and the large Open Owl is perfect for this. I created a small gifty for teachers, students, kids, friends. By folding a long strip of border punched cardstock, and creating a hill and valley fold in the center, it is easy to tuck a small treat bag inside, staple both at the top, and cover with a folded topper.

For the owl, I machine embossed the image onto white cardstock. Then I traced all of the pieces onto patterned paper, cut them out, and adhered them over the embossed areas. I used a circle cutter for most of the opening, and a craft knife for the rest. A little ink distressing, some fun buttons for eyes, and textured ribbon were all the embellishment needed. The topper was stamped using the Stampendous Retro Alphabet set, but really any sentiment could be added for the occasion, or personalize using the alphabet to create the name.

For more fun paper-piecing projects, visit the Woodware blog, and our very creative team!

Dreamweaver Stencils: Festively Distressed with Ranger Hop!

Ready to be festively distressed once again? The Dream Team have been playing with Ranger's Distress Paints, and are ready to inspire you to be distressed as well...paint distressed that is! Dreamweaver Stencils are the perfect choice to mix with all things festively distressed, as nothing shows off color and texture better than great designs. By following our hop and leaving love along the way, you have the opportunity to win a great prize package including five Ranger Distress Paints and five Dreamweaver Stencils! Here's the lineup for today, including our November Guest Designer:

Dream It Up!

Linda Neff (GD)

Cyndi Bundy

Lyn Bernatovich

Terrece Siddoway

Wendy Jordan

Heidi Erickson

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Louise Healy

Stacey Rumsby

Pam Hornschu

Lea Kimmel

This is also our first posting day featuring our new monthly challenge, "Holiday Celebrations", and for the entire month we will be demonstrating ways to use Beacon Adhesives' entire line of products with Dreamweaver to create special projects in home decor and gifts of love. Here's mine:

I purchased a plaque made from a slice of black slate at a local craft store, and adhered a torn sheet of music with Beacon Fast Finish over the surface. When dry, I used the dabber bottle of Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Paint in Broken China over the surface as a wash, with some softer swipes of Frayed Burlap around the edges to soften them. When dry, I paste-embossed the Dreamweaver Season of Joy in white and covered it with ultra fine crystal glitter. Once dry, I added a sculpted paste "snowbank" at the bottom and covered it with chunkier glitter. I had purchased a small tree, and applied Picket Fence Distress Paint over the branches, and sprinkled more glitter. (Notice a sparkly theme going here?) I trimmed the back of the tree to make it fit against the plaque better. A skinny strip of music was distressed with more paint and wrapped around the tree before adhering to the plaque with Beacon FabriTac. A few crystals on the star, a luscious bow from May Arts was almost the finale...but no, I had to add paste to a pine cone with, yes, more glitter!

Woodware UK: No Paper? No Problem!

The Woodware UK team had a little different challenge for this week, and from a different source...Jill Tuck from The Stampman. The theme for this week is, "No Paper? No Problem!"...in other words, starting from scratch without the patterned papers and pre-made embellishments.

I chose this opportunity to post this creation that I had done for a Stampendous catalog. The base of it was a plain white chipboard frame. I created an easel card base for it from plain black cardstock, with a border punched edge.

I covered the entire frame with Versamark ink, and embossed it with Stampendous White Embossing Enamel, adding a couple of coats. Then I wiped talcum powder over the surface as an anti-static medium so that I could stamp and emboss the designs over the top without having spatters of embossing powder everywhere else.

Using the Stampendous Perfectly Clear Vases set, I created a montage of heights, textures, and shades in black and white embossing enamels, that crossed over and contrasted with the center design. I call this my Beatnik Jugs frame, as it reminds me of the decor from the late fifties/early sixties. I did add a stamped clear tag and ribbon for this to be given as a gift. I have to admit, it is a bit of a challenge, and yet fun to create with only the basics of paper crafting. The entire team are playing with Jill's challenge this week, so visit the Woodware UK blog to see how everyone goes back to the basics.

Dreamweaver Stencils: A Cameo Appearance!

This week I'm multi-tasking once again, and mixing both my Dream Team challenge (Tiny Treats) with my tutorial on Paper Craft Planet. I'm not going to provide many details in this post, because I really want you to go over to the Planet Blog and check out the tutorial. Bonus...those that go over there have the opportunity to win a Dreamweaver stencil just by following the directions on that post. Of course, those of you that play with the Dreamweaver monthly challenge and link their own creations on the Dream It Up! blog, or email pics of their "Tiny Treats" to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com, have yet another opportunity to win, as well as be featured on the Dream It Up! blog and the Dreamweaver Stencils Facebook Page!

Below this post is a picture of all the supplies used for this project, which looks like quite a lot, but seriously...you probably have most of these items in your craft bins now, and if you haven't, I highly recommend that you purchase them all. These are all products that I personally use all the time and LOVE!

Obviously, I've used the Dreamweaver Cameo stencil, and the Damask stencil as well. I've also used some tiny charm size images from Stampendous, luscious ribbon from May Arts, some Mercart colored aluminum and tools, and lots and lots of products from Beacon Adhesives!

What qualifies this project as a "Tiny Treat", is that the focal point is actually a brooch that can be removed from the card and worn, or even turned into an ornament for the holiday season.

Hop around and check out Dream Team "A" for some amazingly bright and fabulous ideas, play along with us this month, oh...and don't forget to check out my tutorial for this project on the Paper Craft Planet!

Dream It Up!
Laura Drahozal
Lyn Bernatovich
Pam Hornschu
Heidi Erickson
Louise Healy
Cyndi Bundy
Jessica Griffin

 

Fall into Fall with Flair: Cherish Family Frame

 

The Super Novas at Paper Craft Planet are playing with new toys this week...specifically Zva Creative embellishments. These are the perfect elements to take any project from a card to home decor to the next level. We are especially excited to show how well their new colors work with our "Fall into Fall with Flair" theme!

For this frame, I used a plethora of Ranger Distress Stains on the unfinished base frame (purchased at Michael's for $1), and then embossed the new Stampendous Cling Decorative Grate with Aged Green Embossing Enamel over the surface.


To add to the fall theme, I copper paste-embossed the Dreamweaver Stencils' Maple Branch on the frame, and sprinkled with a few shades of Metallic F/X, also from Dreamweaver. Using the new DW Molten Magic technique, I applied my heat tool over the surface until all of the pasted leaves were bubbling up. Once cooled, I pressed with my fingertips to get just the texture that I wanted.

I attempted to ink stencil the Maple Branch on the ivory watercolor paper to match where the leaves left off on the frame. I stamped and embossed in Aged Wine Embossing Enamel the new Stampendous Cling Cherish Family sentiment.

At this point, my frame was pretty, but still needed that something...extra. Just a touch of bling. Zva Creative was just what the frame needed. I used the Champagne/Chocolate Flourish. I did add a touch of purple Sharpie on the few of the champagne colored crystals to go with the violet mica powders on the leaves. I added the smaller Chocolate Crystal Flourishes to the framed panel in the center. Oh, yeah. This is what I'm talking about...love those Flourishes!

Zva Creative produces many beautiful color groupings of high quality pearls, flowers and crystal embellishments that can be used on scrapbooking, card making and mixed media projects. Visit Zva’s gallery or blog for great project ideas and to find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva click HERE.

Want to win some Zva Creative  goodies of your own?  You can win the product featured here by leaving a comment on the Paper Craft Planet post, and we will pick one lucky winner at the end of the week. 

3D Challenge Tuesday...Stenciling Elegance for the Holidays

Looking for some last minute hand-made gift ideas still? How about a fun treat jar, beautifully stenciled? As my first posting as a Paper Craft Planet Supernova, I thought I'd share a fun stenciling technique with definite WOW appeal!

The supplies needed are shown above and include: metal stencils (Dreamweaver Stencils' Swirl Tree and Antler Snowflake), Translucent Embossing Paste (Dreamweaver Stencils), palette knife/spreader, glitter (Stampendous Multi Crystal), removable tape, and a candy jar (with flat sides).

Step 1: Tape stencil onto flat surface on all four sides using removable tape.

Step 2: Spread Translucent Embossing Paste over surface of stencil with palette knife at slight angle.
Step 3: Holding palette knife at 90 degree angle, scrape off excess paste and return to container.
Step 4: Remove tape from three sides of stencil. Using fourth side as hinge, lift and remove the stencil. Clean stencil and palette knife immediately in warm, soapy water with a soft scrub brush. Dry with soft towel.

Step 5: Pour glitter over surface. Pour off excess and return to container. Set aside jar to dry for 20 minutes.
Step 6: Repeat on other three sides.

Step 7: Follow the same steps to stencil the snowflake on the lid as well.

Since you are probably now thinking, "I'd hardly call this a quick and easy project!", that would probably be the case if you were only creating one. However, if you were to follow the same instructions to create several projects at the same time (gift bags, cards, tags, ornaments, etc.), then you can complete quite a few in the same crafting session. While one is drying and waiting for the next step, you can be working on the next...sort of a round robin of creative fun!
For more creative stenciling ideas, please visit the Dream It Up! blog for Dreamweaver Stencils.