Friday, May 31, 2013

Coolest Clay Ever!

We have had so much fun this week playing with Environment Technologies Inc. and Nunn Design.  Today I played with the Jewelry Clay.  This has got to be the coolest clay I've ever played with!  I mean it, I LOVE this stuff!!  It's so easy, oh my gosh, I couldn't believe how easy it is.  My first project is a bezel I filled with a small amount of clay and then I inked up a butterfly in the Stampendous Charm Collection Perfectly Clear Stamps with Ranger Archival Ink in black and stamped it into the clay inside the bezel.  I then used a small brush and added a little Dreamweaver Metallic F/X Mica Powders in Kiwi and Sapphire over the inked butterfly and Moonstone around the butterfly.  This gave it a beautiful pearly glow that I love.  To keep it from looking so boxy, I added some Stampendous Crystal Micro Glitter on each side with some Zip Dry glue.  I added my jump ring and chain and it was just that simple!



My second project is a ring.  I had something else in mind when I started this project.  Funny how you can start with one thing in mind and then go in a totally different direction!  I used enough clay to have a decent dome on top.  Using a couple of the flowers from Hand of Friendship Perfectly Clear Stamps (found exclusively at Michaels Stores), I pressed the stamps into the clay leaving a fairly decent impression.  I set it aside and let it dry.  Once dry, I thought about how I was going to add color.  There's a variety of possibilities and originally I was going to paint it with acrylic paint.  Then I started wondering how my Copic markers would work and I gave them a try.  Try it, you'll like it!  And, I did!!  So, I colored it with my Copics and then lightly brushed a little distress ink in tea dye over the whole thing.  It gave it a little slightly aged look that I really like.



We hope you've enjoyed the inspiration this week as our team has been playing with the Resin Crafts Blog featuring EnviroTex Jewelry Resin from ETI and their brand new Jewelry Clay! We've had fun bringing you these terrific projects. Be sure to comment on all the blogs for the best chance to win these terrific products. Our prize package includes BOTH the clay and resin, plus a nice assortment of bezels from Nunn Designs, and, of course, some stamps and Essentials from Stampendous! One of the things we love best are the terrific videos that show you just what to expect from these products. Here's the EnviroTex Resin Video: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whnsO3dsHOk] And this one shows you all the details on Jewelry Clay: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c22EQ-ARn8E] There are also downloadable .pdf's on the Environmental Technologies site, and the directions that come in each package are extremely complete and very helpful. We're creating crazy around here with this too fun resin and clay! You have until Sunday night to comment on the blogs below to be in the running for our prize packages! Here's who made some new inspiration for you today:

Resin Crafts Blog

Asia King

Cyndi Bundy

Janelle Stollfus

Krissy Fossmeyer

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Kimmel

Rhea Weigand

Suzanne Czosek

Tenia Nelson

Tobi Crawford

For more chances to win fun stuff, join us next week for another Blog Hop! (I don't know how we got three in a row either, but hey...more prizes!!) This time we're playing with Core'dinations, and May Arts Ribbon. You know paper and ribbon get us going every time, so don't miss a minute! (you really should just subscribe if you don't already... it's at the very top of the post) PLUS - remember this is the final week of May's Fabulous Floral's Challenge! Be sure to add your project to the linky tool in the right sidebar or on the May Challenge Page.

So that's it for me today.  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!  Hope you have a wonderful day!

Hugs,
Lea

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Resin-ating With Happiness!

I love it when all the little elements of a project come together!  All this week the Stampendous!® Design Team is doing a blog collaboration with Environmental Technologies (ETI) Jewelry Resin and Nunn Design Bezels. Today I've created a fun little necklace that I hope you'll like.



 I used a silver-tone round bezel, a punched circle of Michael's Recollections patterned paper that I stamped my sentiment using Ranger's® Archival Ink on from Hand of Friendship Perfectly Clear™ Stamps that can be found exclusively at Michaels and a few little rhinestones I had in my stash for the main part.  Because my sentiment was a two-part sentiment, I had to decide how I wanted to add the first part.  I looked around my craft room and my eye caught on my shrinky dink paper.  That's right, shrinky dink!  I just like to say shrinky dink, 'cause it's fun to say!  Anyway, I stamped the beginning of my sentiment with the Small Typewriter Alphabet Perfectly Clear™ Stamp set, and a little flower also from Hand of Friendship PCS™ that I colored lightly with Prismacolor Pencils.  I added the little dangling pearl from a set of Tim Holtz™ findings.  I really like how it all pulled together so perfectly!  Here are my teammates that are playing along today, hope you'll leave them some love!


That's it for today, be sure to drop by tomorrow for the big blog hop as we'll have lots more inspiration for you.  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon.

Hugs,
Lea

Friday, May 24, 2013

Guess Who's Come To Play?

STAEDTLER!  And we're so happy to have them play along with us!  I hope you've enjoyed viewing our various projects and found a little inspiration along the way.  Today I have two projects for you, both are pretty simple.


For my first card, I pulled out my watercolor crayons.  I have used a few other brands of these and I have to say, these are the absolute best!  They go on so smooth and creamy and they just blend beautifully.







I love the color vibrancy of  the crayons, look at how bright and happy the colors look!  Aren't they great!  For this card I used the Stampendous Steaming On Balloon stamped with Archival Ink on Strathmore Mixed Media paper.  The patterned papers are Fancy Pants Designs Childish Things and My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary's Jack and Jill.  The card base is Bazzill, the buttons are from my stash and the ribbon is May Arts.




For the second card, I used the watercolor pencils.  Yep!  I love those, too!  I used the new Air Scapes Perfectly Clear™ Stamps.  I love this set, such a sweet vintage feel!  Like the other card, I used Archival Ink on Strathmore Mixed Media paper.  My card base is green cardstock of unknown origin, the patterned paper is My Mind's Eye Vanity Fair.  The ribbon is May Arts.

This is the final day of our blog collaboration and I've really enjoyed our time together!  There are prizes, too!  That's right, you heard me!  Prizes!!


The Stampendous! prize package will include one prize package per day (total of 5 packages) from those folks commenting on Stampendous bloggers that day. The Stampendous package will include SSC1171 Hot Air Scapes Perfectly Clear Stamps and SSC1170 Soaring Sentiments Perfectly Clear Stamps plus a Jumbo acrylic handle for use with them.



STAEDTLER'S prize package will be awarded at the end of the week, one for each of their bloggers from all commenters on that blog that week.
Their prize photo is below. So for best chances folks should comment on every blog every day.
1 Set of 6 Triplus fineliners, pastel assortment
4 blocks of FIMO soft oven-bake clay in vanilla, peach, lilac and mint
1 Mars plastic eraser
1 Double hole metal pencil sharpener
1 Mars Lumograph sketch pencil
1 Pigment liner sketch pen
2 Creative idea brochures


Package includes:




Here's the list of players for today.  Remember, to be eligible to win, you have to leave a comment on each blog.





Thanks for stopping by!  I'll see you again soon!

Hugs,
Lea

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Rubber Ducky You're The One!

Not only do you make bath time so fun but you make cute little packages look pretty darn cute, too!  This particular package is cool because it's recycled or repurposed, whichever way you wish to call it!  This cute little coral box is from James Avery, some of my favorite jewelry of all time, I love it!


I have several of their empty boxes just sitting in a drawer.  They're such a pretty color, I thought it would be nice to find a way to repurpose some.  Along came this cute little stencil from Dreamweaver Stencils and I knew what I wanted to do!


This paper from Basic Grey's What's Up collection was just right for this little project.  I trimmed down two pieces left over from a previous project and using the rubber duck stencil, I added my white paste.


Once the paste was dry, I drizzled a little Beacon Adhesive Zip Dry on the the puddle and sprinkled on some of the light blue glitter from this kit from Stampendous!  


After the blue glitter dried, I put a drop of  Zip Dry on the duck and added some of the multi crystal (white) glitter on the duck. Once the duck was dry, I adhered both layers to the top of the box.  


Pretty darn cute!  All it needed was a little a little twine to finish it off!


Now I have a cute little box waiting for a small trinket to share!


I hope you like my "Tiny Treat" box!  Here's some more inspiration waiting for you!  

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel (That's me!)


Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!

Hugs, 
Lea

Up, Up and Away...

...in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon! Some of you just might remember that song from The 5th Dimension and some of you aren't old enough.  It's an old favorite of mine and one that I used to love to sing along with!    Speaking of favorites, this week two of my favorite companies have come together to bring you a little creative inspiration, Stampendous! and STAEDTLER.  Pretty cool, huh!?  We've loved playing together and each day this week members from both design teams have posted projects on their blogs to share with you.  If you haven't been checking them out, please go back and take a look, you won't be disappointed.  There's a blog hop on Friday and, of course, there will be prizes!  Yay! for prizes!  More info on that below!  Here's my card:


We're celebrating our newest balloon-inspired stamps this week and here I've used our new Hot Air Trio along with Soaring Sentiments Perfectly Clear Stamps Set.  I have always had a thing for hot air balloons so this stamp is right up my alley.  If you know me, you know I love my Copic markers and that's usually my medium of choice, however, this time I've stepped out of my comfort zone and I colored this image with  STAEDTLER'S ergosoft aquarell (watercolor) pencils.  I love how you can layer the colors to achieve just the right shade!  Because I was using watercolor pencils, I stamped the image and my sentiment with Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black.  My papers are Bazzill, Strathmore Mixed Media paper and Basic Grey's What's Up 6x6 Paper Pad.  Here's a closer look at the image:

                                                
And here's a close-up of the sentiment, this is one of my favs:



The Stampendous! prize package will include one prize package per day (total of 5 packages) from those folks commenting on Stampendous bloggers that day. The Stampendous package will include SSC1171 Hot Air Scapes Perfectly Clear Stamps and SSC1170 Soaring Sentiments Perfectly Clear Stamps plus a Jumbo acrylic handle for use with them.



STAEDTLER'S prize package will be awarded at the end of the week, one for each of their bloggers from all commenters on that blog that week.
Their prize photo is below. So for best chances folks should comment on every blog every day.
1 Set of 6 Triplus fineliners, pastel assortment
4 blocks of FIMO soft oven-bake clay in vanilla, peach, lilac and mint
1 Mars plastic eraser
1 Double hole metal pencil sharpener
1 Mars Lumograph sketch pencil
1 Pigment liner sketch pen
2 Creative idea brochures

Package includes:




So, here are the designers bringing you a little inspiration today, be sure to leave some love:

Lea Kimmel (Me!) 

Don't forget to leave some love if you want to be eligible to win a prize!  That's it for me today, I'll see you back here again tomorrow for the blog hop!  Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,
Lea

Friday, May 17, 2013

It's Time for Tea!

Put the kettle on, Sweetheart, it's time for tea!  Stampendous! is celebrating the art of tea and I've created this card using the new King Teapot stamp and Kettle On.  I love the Victorian feel of this stamp!  I find myself thinking of Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice!


For this card I used a pretty green Bazzill for my card base, Bo Bunny's Little Miss Collection for the patterned papers and Neenah Classic Crest for my stamped images.  I stamped both images with Memento Rich Cocoa and colored with Copic markers.  I inked around my images with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Pumice Stone.  My ribbon is from May Arts and I've put it all together with Beacon Adhesive Zip Dry and a few pop dots! 

Be sure to visit the Stampendous Blog for more Tea Time inspiration!  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!

Hugs,
Lea

Friday, May 10, 2013

May the Force Be With You!

It's that time again! Time for a little Movie Magic Monthly! This month the challenge is Star Wars vs Star Trek. I happen to prefer Star Wars so I created this card with my favorite little green guy in mind. This is actually an image from an on-line coloring page for kids! Well I'm just a big kid so why not, right!? I hope you like my card and that it inspires you to join us in our monthly challenge.




Don't forget to check out the rest of the team's inspiration here that we created just for you!  Let's play!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!  

Hugs,
Lea

Thursday, May 9, 2013

A Little Bit of Beach!


Hey there, welcome back!  The theme for the Dreamweaver Challenge this month is Tiny Treats and today I have a little treat for you!  This is a 4" x 4" canvas (that's the tiny part) and I've created a little beach scene (that's the treat part) just for you!  If you love the beach as much as I do you know what a treat this new stencil from Dreamweaver Stencils is!  This Sandcastle Stencil is LL 3033 and it's just the cutest!  Yes, I know, I just did a canvas a couple of weeks ago but I had this idea and I wanted to play and here it is!  I have really been bitten by the mixed media bug and stencils are a huge part of creating in mixed media.  Originally I had something else in mind for this post but then we received new stencils and my first thought flew right out of my head and this one flew right in instead!  That's just the way it goes sometimes!



So, for this little canvas I did something a little different than normal for me, I colored directly onto the canvas with Copics.  I didn't gesso it either!  Yeah, I'm such a rebel!!  LOL!  I colored my sand, added my water and then colored my sky leaving part of it white for clouds.  Next I added some VersaMark ink through the stencil to hold my Stampendous!® Golden Sand embossing powder, shook off the excess and embossed it.  To give it more depth, I went back over the embossed  Sandcastle with Translucent Paste.  I then went in with a sepia Copic® Multiliner SP pen to add more dimension and I used a couple of reds to add my flags, I decided against adding the shovel I had taped off earlier as I loved it without it.  For a final touch, I added a little white gel pen for my ocean foam and white caps! I hope you like it, I kinda fell in love with it myself! 

Here's the list for those of us that are playing along today:

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel (That's me!)

I hope you'll check out all the inspiration they've left for your enjoyment and don't forget to leave them some love.  Be sure to play along, too!  You might just win a prize!  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!

Hugs,
Lea

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Are You My Type?

If you're into Stampendous!® stamps, you're my type!  This is one of the new Elements stamps in the April catalog and I must say, I LOVE this line of stamps!  They're so cool and easy to create with!  I have a thing for old typewriters and I have one I was recently given that I'm going to clean up and display in my craft room.  When I first joined the Army and went to my school for my job specialty, Administrative Specialist, we had electric typewriters in our classroom.  As we progressed, we would go into what they called Central Testing where they would test our skills.  If you made a perfect score every test, at the end of the school your name would go on a plaque in their "Hall of Fame."  We tested on old, and I mean old, typewriters.  They were not electric and they looked a lot like the one I was given.  It may sound silly, but, to this day, I'm proud of my perfect testing and making it into their "Hall of Fame."  Here's my "new" typewriter:


Isn't it cool!  I love it!  I still need to clean it up and when I do, I'll post a pic of it in it's new home!  So here's my card for today:


I adore the vintage feel of the stamp, Typing Elements!  It takes me back to a fun and challenging time in my life and makes me happy.  I stamped my image on Neenah® Classic Crest Natural White cardstock with Memento™ Espresso Truffle.  Next I trimmed it down very closely, distressed the edges just a little and brushed the edges with Tim Holtz® Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap.  I made my card base with Bazzill® and cut it to make a 5x5 card base.  I trimmed my patterned papers from My Mind's Eye™ Lost and Found Two Rosy 6x6 pad, distressed their edges a little with inks and adhered them to the base.  I adhered my main image as well with Beacon Adhesive Zip Dry.  I set this aside and stamped my words using the Stampendous!® Small Typewriter Alphabet Perfectly Clear™ Stamps set.  I cut the words out, layered and adhered them on patterned paper and added a little ink around their edges.  Using pop dots, I placed them on the card.  For a final touch, I mixed Bronze Crushed Glass Glitter with Sage Color Fragments and adhered it with Zip Dry.

That's it!  Pretty darn easy and very cool with a vintage twist!  Be sure to check out the Stampendous!® blog for more inspiration!  Don't forget about the free shipping through July 31 on orders over $50.00 if you're in the U.S.  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!

Hugs,
Lea

Friday, May 3, 2013

Vase Bouquet in May!

One of my favorite things about May is all the flowers in bloom.  They're everywhere here in Winston-Salem and they are stunning!  May puts on a radiant show in my neck of the woods!  Well, Stampendous!® has put on quite a show with new floral stamps, too!  This is Vase Bouquet and is one of my new favorites!  I love, love, love this stamp!  The versatility is awesome as this stamp can be used for Mother's Day, which is right around the corner (hint, hint!), birthdays, get well, happy anniversary, thinking of you, congratulations, the list could just go on.  Most of the floral stamps from Stampendous!® could be used in the same manner, you really get a lot of bang for your buck!  Isn't this image just gorgeous!?


So here's what I did to create this card.  For starters, I stamped my image with Memento® Tuxedo Black on Neenah® Classic Crest and colored with Copic® markers.  I trimmed the image down and added Tim Holtz™ Distress Ink in Antique Linen all around the edges and close to the image.  One of the reasons I like to do this is because it really finishes the look and makes the image pop.  This is a good sized image so I wanted to make the card a 6x6.  I could have gone smaller but sometimes I prefer a bigger card!  Anyway, the card base is Bazzill® and my patterned papers are from Bo Bunny's® Little Miss Collection.  I just trimmed them to fit and adhered them with Beacon Adhesive's Zip Dry™.  My ribbon is from May Arts and my pearls are from Queen & Co.  I think the ribbon and pearls are just the right touch for this image!

Stampendous!® is showing off all the new flowers from the April catalog this week so be sure to go to the blog and check them out.  While you're there, you'll notice two awesome things, one is Stampendous!® is offering free shipping on all retail orders over $50 to U.S. addresses.  This awesome offer is going on through July 31st!  The second cool thing you'll notice is a link to our new digital downloads.  We have one called Flowery Phrases Digital Download that is just perfect for our new floral stamps!  There are several other awesome digital downloads available for a very reasonable price so be sure to check them all out, some even have art and not just sentiments; now that's a bargain! Today I'm posting with Cyndi and Jamie, here's their links:  


 Here's a recap of my teammates that have posted lovely floral creations designed to inspire you earlier this week; I hope you'll check them out if you haven't already!


That's it for today, I'll have another new creation for you soon so be sure to check back!  Have a great day!

Hugs,
Lea