Saturday, December 17, 2011

Jolly Old St. Nick

The Saturday Color Challenge is still going on over at the Stampendous Impressions Blog. The challenge is to make a card/project using brown, gold, cream and pink (you can use three of the colors if not all four).

My card uses another amazing stamp, St. Nick R128 by Stampendous. I colored the image using distress inks and an aquaflow brush and then decided to be adventuresome. Have you seen the great You Tube videos Fran Seiford has created about Fran’taging? I love how she adds a bit of this embossing powder and a bit of that mica fragments and comes up with something glorious. You know how much I love the Stampendous line of embossing powder so it was time to give fran’taging a try.

Guess what, fran’taging is easy! I swiped some VersaMark ink directly onto the edges of my card and then sprinkled different parts with either the Aged Gold Embossing Enamel or the Shabby Pink Embossing Enamel and then melted it with my heat tool. I was having so much fun playing with this technique I decided to take it a step further. When the Age Gold Embossing Enamel is melted it is a luscious, shiny gold but to give it texture I inked an embossing folder with VersaMark, reheated a gold area and then pressed it onto the folder. Pretty Cool, huh?

If you haven’t seen Fran’s videos, you can check them out here, and of course you can buy everything you need to fran’tage here at the Stampendous online store.

Please check out all of the inspiration at the following design team member’s blogs (a few have blog candy to give away today).

Taylor Usry
Pam Hornschu
Suzanne Czosek
Kristine Reynolds
Janelle Stollfus
Jennifer Ingle
Wendy Price

Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

A Very Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Laura!

Our Stampendous Graphic Manager and Design Team Coordinator is celebrating a special birthday today! Always supportive and patient, Laura Weed is truly the best.

Please join me by hopping along with fellow Stampendous Design Team members in wishing Laura a fantastic birthday. While you're hopping, please stop by the Stampendous facebook page and send Laura your personal wishes.

Birthday Wishes from:
Wendy Price
Janelle
Taylor
Trudee
Jennie
Pam
Lynn
Krissy
Stephanie
Kristine
Wendy J
Jingle
Jennifer Dove
Rachel
Cyndi


My card uses the following Stampendous products: Birthday Assortment SSC1115 (sentiment); Birch Buddies SSC1055 (image); Cling Full Fluffles CRV079 (balloon)

Thanks for visiting! Have a super day!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Stampendous Saturday Color Challenge

Have you had a chance to play along yet with the monthly Stampendous Saturday Challenge? A new theme is posted on the first Saturday and you have all month to play along and enter as many projects as you like. This month’s theme is a color challenge and runs through Thursday, January 5th @ 11:59 PM EST. Make a card or project with at least three of these four colors: pink, cream, gold and/or brown. This month’s prize is the Stampendous Amore Frame Perfectly Clear set.


For all of the challenge rules, please visit the Stampendous Impressions blog.
Please visit the following Design Team member blogs for more inspiration:

Taylor Usry
Pam Hornschu
WendyJordan
Jennifer Dove
Suzanne Czosek
Cyndi Bundy
Kristine Reynolds
Janelle Stollfus
Jennifer Ingle
Jennie Black
Wendy Price

For my card, I used both the Stampendous Pine Candle stamp (V212) and the flourish from the Stampendous Cling Jumbo Rose Set (CRS5006). After stamping and coloring the pine candle image, I distressed the edges of the image then covered the whole image with VersaMark watermark ink and Stampendous Kaleidoscope embossing powder (EP030). I absolutely love this sparkly, translucent embossing powder. It’s so perfect for holiday cards. I stamped the flourish on a cream background panel using VersaMark ink and again the Kaleidoscope embossing powder. Don't you just love how it picks up the colors of the card?

Thanks for visiting! I hope to see your Stampendous Color Challenge projects soon.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Wise Men Seek Him

It’s the first Saturday of the month so a new challenge has just been posted on the Stampendous Blog. This month’s challenge is a color challenge and the colors Stampendous has chosen are fabulous!

Here are the details:

Make a card or project with pink, cream, gold, and brown. Please use at least three of the four colors. The challenge will run through Thursday, January 5 @ 11:59 PM EST.



This month’s prize (US winners only) is the beautiful Stampendous Amore Frame Perfectly Clear set.

So please grab your Stampendous supplies and start creating. You can enter as many times as you like before January 5, 2012 and the complete list of rules for this challenge is on the Stampendous Blog.

The following links will take you to Stampendous Design Team member blogs for some absolutely amazing inspiration. Enjoy!

Stampendous Impressions
Taylor Usry
Pam Hornschu
WendyJordan
Jenn Dove
Suzanne Czosek
Krissy Fossmeyer
Lynn Mercurio
Stephanie Lee
Cyndi Bundy
Kristine Reynolds
Janelle Stollfus
Jennie Black
Jingle


I was listening to the TV while trying to come up with an idea for this challenge and as I was pulling out all of my supplies, I heard… “23 days ‘til Christmas.” REALLY? Only 23 days? I have made only a handful of Christmas cards so this news was a little unsettling. That’s when I decided to turn this Stampendous Challenge into an opportunity to do some serious mass producing.

The stamp I selected, the Stampendous Cling Wisemen is so ornate, so beautiful in itself, that it was the perfect choice for a CAS, easy to mass produce card. So I pulled out my Stampendous Chocolate Brown embossing powder and voila, Christmas card #1. Don’t ask me how many more I really should make. Seriously, this is a stunning image and the superb quality of the Stampendous cling stamps gives a great impression of the intricate detail in the wisemen’s robes. With a little more time, those robes would be beautiful paper pieced.

Here are the details for my card:

Stampendous Supplies
Stamps: Cling Wisemen CRR095; Cling Christ of Christmas CRF129
Embossing Powder: Chocolate Brown EP117 (included in the Coastal Express Embossing Kit)

Other Supplies
Paper: Bazzill Suede Brown Dark; Echo Park Season’s Greeting Red/Cream; cream cardstock (unknown)
Ink: Tsukineko VersaMark Watermark Ink; pink color wash

Card Notes
• Create an A2 card base from the cream cardstock
• Cut a 5 ¼” x 4” brown mat and adhere to the card base
• Cut a 5 1/8” x 3 7/8” mat from the Echo Park Red/Cream paper (cream side)
• Paint a pink color wash over the cream panel; Be sure to leave areas of cream showing through; Set aside to dry completely
• Stamp the image using VersaMark ink on the cream/pink panel; Cover with embossing powder and heat set with heat tool
• Adhere the completed panel to the card base
• Stamp sentiment on the inside of card with VersaMark Ink; Emboss, using the embossing powder and heat tool

Thanks for visiting! Hope to see your creations over on the Stampendous blog.