Merry Christmas

Merry Chrismtas! Stampendous is featuring CAS Christmas cards all month. This one is not only clean and simple, but it's quick and easy to make. I simply stamped the Jumbo Cling Poinsettia on the upper left and lower right corners of my card. As you can see, I stamped them off the page. It adds a more interesting visual effect and also allows more clean "white' space on the card. I used Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol oil to color the petals and leaves and some yellow glitter in the inside. I distressed the other corners just a little to fill in the "white" space. Finally,  I added the sentiment, which was created with the Small Typewriter Perfectly Clear Alphabet. Voila. There you have it. I hope you enJOY this card!

Joyful Poinsettia

I love the Jumbo Poinsettia from Stampendous. I've made a ton of cards with this image this year. You'll see at least one more in the near future.

I recently took a class on coloring with Prismacolor pencils taught by my Stampendous DT member and personal friend, Melinda Gleissner at My Noteworthy Cards. Melinda is a coloring expert, and I am fortunate that she shares some of her knowledge with me. Case and point is this poinsettia. I used Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol oderless mineral spirits to blend the colors. Then I added some yellow glitter glue in the center just for that little hint of bling.

Now for the paper. Did you know there are tons of free printable sheet music on the Internet? I found this gem online, printed it, distressed it, sprayed it with water, crumpled it up, dried it with my heat gun and then uncrumpled it. The result is this very aged, vintage look. It almost looks as though I dug it out of an old piano bench.

I hope your holidays are filled with joy.

Oh, and stay tuned because I have some exciting news to share in the future!

Wee Scapes Blog Hop - Aloha!

 Aloha and mahalo for hopping along today!! Stampendous is partnering with Wee Scapes, a company that makes cute miniatures that you can use to construct models (think trains, school projects). When I first looked at their products and then saw the Stampendous Hula Kiddo, I immediately knew what I was going to do. The bushes and turf just screamed beach to me!

Now that we're in the dead of winter, I think this little wee scape will help us escape to a tropical island. At least in our imaginations.

How did I create this little paradise? First I took an unfinished shadow box, white washed the front to give it that beachy look. I glued some sea shells to it and created the banner using the Small Typewriter Alphabet Clear Stamp Set.

Now for the inside. I covered the shadowbox with a lighter blue paper. I cut the waves with my Silhouette die cutting machine and glued Stampendous Shaved Ice to the tips to add some sparkle. I adhered it to the the box using foam dots because I wanted to give it a little dimension against the lighter blue sky. Then I tore some of the brown turf for the sand and green for grass.

The tiki hut was a little trickier. I painted the roof with copper colored paint and added some moss. Then, created the poles with craft sticks and hemp twine. Before gluing the sticks to the roof, I made a little wedge from cardstock, glued it to the top of the back side of the roof. Why? Because I needed the roof to be at an angle. The wedge, which is hidden, helps prop up the roof.

I adhered the palm trees and bushes and finally, I glued the Hula Kiddo, which I colored with Copics and fussy cut, onto the edge of the roof to make her look like she was dancing in front of the hut.

I really like the outcome. I've had this vision (hula) dancing around in my head for a couple months. I love how it came to fruition.

Several of us have fun projects to share. Please hop along  and enjoy the creativity:

Stampendous Blog

Annette Witherspoon (Hey! That's me!)

Lea Kimmel

Jennifer Dove

Jennifer Ingle (Jingle)

Melinda Gleissner

Wendy Price

Suzanne Czosek

Pink by Design New Release Hop

Today I'm sharing a card I made for Pink by Design's December release. We're hopping along with some inspirational projects using the new releases. If you're hopping along, you probably came from Sabrina's blog. If not, I invite you to join in the fun. The hop starts at Sarah's blog.

My card uses the Joyful Tags set, which is November's Stamp of the Month. This set features sentiments for many special occasions. I used the Merry Christmas sentiment, but the set includes sentiments for New Years, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthday, thank, congratulations and more. It also includes the tag stamp, which is perfectly sized for each sentiment. I finished it off with a nice tidy bow made from 3 Girl Jam crinkle ribbon. Isn't it gorgeous? I used their handy bow maker tool to tie it and I gotta say ... I don't know how I ever lived without it!

 Thanks for hopping. Your next stop is Dawn. Below is the entire lineup. Oh, and if I don't "see" you again, have a Merry Christmas and blessings to you and your family.


Sarah www.pinkcricut.com
Meriah www.twoscraptasticgals.blogspot.com
Paula http://morethanfavors.blogspot.com/
Bryan http://scrapguy.blogspot.com/
Liz www.217creations.com
Gloria http://gloriasgoofycraftspot.blogspot.com/
Julie http://jk-littlebitofbling.blogspot.com/
Rebekah http://craftyteachermom.blogspot.com
Sabrina http://sabrinaalery.blogspot.com/
Annette http://www.aspoonfullofsugarcrafts.blogspot.com/
Dawn http://dawnmercedes.blogspot.com
Melisa www.MelisasCraftyCreations.blogspot.com

Spring Clothespin Wreath

This week Stampendous has been playing with DIY Bangles, but don't let the name fool you. They sell more than just bangles. You can buy beads, various shaped pendants, floral craft rings and other wood products. Today I am showcasing the floral craft ring. You can't really see the ring, but it's there!

I just started off with the wooden craft ring, a 12x12 sheet of paper, designer paper cut into strips, clothespins and Zip Dry glue. I covered the ring with the 12x12 paper, then covered the clothespins with the strips of paper. I couldn't resist embossing the edges of the clothespin for a distressed look. I really like the effect. I just used my VersaMark pen on the edges of the clothespins, added embossing powder and heated it with my heat gun. Last, I sealed everything with Fast Finish.

Next, I affixed the clothespins onto the ring. I can't remember exactly how many I used, but it was a little more than 50. I bought two 50 packs at Target for less than $2 apiece. Clothespins are cheap!! I put another coat of Fast Finish on it just for good measure.

Now, the real fun began! I embellished it with paper medallions, flowers a butterfly and a banner. The flowers are from the Jumbo Cling Tiger Lily. I stamped two lilies with Memento Tuxedo Black, colored them with Copic markers, and used embossing powder, mica fragments and glitter to embellish them. I also used a little embossing enamel and fran·táged the edges of the yellow flower. The butterfly is from the Jumbo Cling Butterfly Trio. Again, I stamped with Memento, colored with Copics and embossed it. Likewise, I sealed it with Fast Finish. (Can this just be a given?)

The banner also uses the Stampendous Small Typewriter Alphabet set. I cut out canvas with pinking shears, stamped SPRING, dried the ink with my heat gun and sealed with Fast Finish. Then I  punched eyelets and ran some twine through them before tying it to the wreath.

This is my first wreath and I gotta say, I kinda love it!!

The gang is all here with terrific projects to astonish you. Sit back, get a
cup of something warm, a fuzzy sweater, a friendly kitten and be ready to be
amazed. At each blog (or just the ones you want) leave an insightful
comment that lets us know you actually looked at the project and we'll enter
you once for each comment in a chance to win some DIY Bangles, beads, or
circles plus some Stampendous goodies with which to embellish them.

Annette Witherspoon

April
Derrick

Barb Turpin

Jennifer Ingle (Jingle)

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Kimmel

Mary Dawn Quirindongo

Melinda Gleissner

Tenia Nelson

Wendy Price

We sure hope you've had some serious fun with
our collaboration this week! Thanks for joining us. Would you mind sharing
our hop on your Facebook page? We'd sure love to grow our audience a bit
more to be able to keep bringing you all these great prizes.

Join us as well for our new December Challenge
- CAS (Clean and Simple) Christmas Cards. We'll be doing our best to give
you last minute card ideas you can complete quickly to fill out your card
sending list. We'll be providing simple Christmas card inspiration all the
way up until Christmas day, so stick with us. This will be our last
challenge of the year and we're mulling over what to do next year, so stay
tuned for that as well!

Stick around and we'll announce November Prize
winners and the Winners from this hop early next week (once we've recovered
from our Warehouse Sale and Holiday Party this weekend!)