Altered Alice Time

Have you heard? 
Stampendous is partnering with The Altered Alice blog for the month of April using the new and cool Wonderland Perfectly Clear Stamp Set.  This is fun collaboration as the Stampendous Design Team plays along with the Altered Alice Design Team to see what fun and cool projects we can come with for this set.

I didn't do a card or a box, I decided to do a couple of jewelry pieces.  The first is a necklace using the white rabbit, watch and playing card stamps.  It was one of those ideas that just popped into my noggin the minute I looked at the set.  I saw how the rabbit's paws were poised and I knew they were just screaming to hold something!  I stamped each piece with VersaFine and embossed with the clear powder.  I cut out each piece, ran it over the VersaMark pad and then embossed the edges and back with the aged taupe embossing enamel.  Using my 1/16 hole punch, I punched a small hole in each piece and attached the jump rings.  I did add a small amount of shading with my Copic markers W00 and W0. 


Next I did a piece with Cheshire Cat as he is truly my favorite character!  I stamped the Cat image on Neenah and colored it with Copics BG13, BG15 & G07.  I cut it out and set it aside.  I found a page in the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and photo copied it.  I cut the section down to size and added the distress ink all over.  I backed it onto a square of Bazzill I had cut to fit and attached the cat image on top.  I sandwiched the whole thing between two pieces of Memory Glass and placed it inside a Memory Frame to wear as a necklace.  I added my jump ring and chain.  As a side note, I colored my cat in the same manner as the Tim Burton version of the Cheshire Cat rather than the Disney version.  Have a look!  I hope you like the two pieces I've created.  They were a lot of fun to make and will be even more fun to wear!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you'll stop back by again soon.  Until then...

Hugs,
Lea

Dreampendous and Challenge time!

Get ready to be inked, pasted, encrusted, stenciled and stamped! This week, the Dreamweaver Stencils' Dream Team and the Stampendous Design Teams have had so much fun sharing "Dream-pendous" inspiration with you, and today we wrap things up with a terrific blog hop! You'll see how to mix and mingle your creativity...if you are a stenciler, you will be fascinated at combining stamps with your first love. If you are a stamper, you will be wowed at how stencils can add to your impressions.

And since this hop falls on a Saturday, some of the Stampendous team members are combining their amazing Dreamweaver Stencils projects with the monthly Stampendous challenge. This month, in honor of Earth Day, we are challenging ourselves (and you) to make something that uses product(s) that are recycled, re-purposed, or reused in some way.

Here's what I found for recycling.  This came off of a filter on a truck.  I could see a lot of possibilities as soon as I picked it up!  Of course one of the things I thought of was chicken wire.  It has that look to it.  Well the more I looked at it, the more I realized that what it really made me think of is fish scales.  Well, in my world, fish scales = mermaid.  I pulled out my Stampendous Cling Mermaid and set out to create this card.

I stamped my image on Neenah with Memento and colored it with my Copics.  I cut it out with a Spellbinders Nestie and set it aside.  Next I started on my base of Bazzill, Echo Park Splash patterned paper, wire mesh, twine, shells, gilded mica fragments and powder blue fragments.  I really do enjoy the whole Fran•táge look.  It's so fun to play with and mix up.  I love it!

Here's a pic of just the card:

I really like the way it turned out.  It was almost exactly what I had in mind!  I hope you like it too!

 

Be sure to leave comments as you tour the blogs (with your email addy!) for a chance to win one of these sets:

Here's the entire Dreamweaver Stencils/Stampendous party train for the hop today:

Dream It Up!

Stampendous Impressions!

Kristine Reynolds

Cherylynn Moser

Lynn Mercurio

Laura Drahozal

Pam Hornschu

Wendy Price

Liz Martin

Taylor Usry

Jessie Hurley

Krissy Fossmeyer

Cyndi Bundy

Jennifer Ingle

Georgia Sommers

Kristi Van Doren

Stephanie Lee

Wendy Jordan

Suzanne Czosek

Terrece Siddoway

Lee Kellogg

Janelle Stollfus

Louise Healy

Jennifer Dove

Stampendous Monthly Challenge only:

Lea Kimmel (that's me!)

Tenia Nelson

Don't forget - we want YOU to play along in our monthly challenge! You have until Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 11:59 PM EST to add your direct link to our collection at the end of this post (or on the Stampendous blog). You do not have to use Stampendous products, but we sure love it when you do! As an extra incentive for playing along, one lucky crafter (drawn at random) will receive this fabulous Mother's Love Perfectly Clear Stamp Set. Available in stores now, it will be on the website for purchase soon!

Due to shipping restrictions, the winner must have a US address. We hope you have a chance to play along with us (you an enter as many times as you'd like!) this month...Happy Crafting!

Hugs,
Lea

Stampendous April Challenge has begun!

Woohoo! It's the first Saturday in April, and that means the Stampendous team has a brand new challenge for you. This month, in honor of Earth Day, we are challengeing ourselves (and you) to make something that uses product(s) that are recycled, repurposed, or reused in some way. The possibilities are endless! Snazz up a household item and turn it into something beautiful, use something unexpected on your card, or even just use up some scraps you've had in your stash forever (that's recycling, right?!?)

When I was young, my aunt and uncle would take me "antiquing" with them and we would find an assortment of treasures along the way.  I loved finding something cool that had been discarded.  I'm a firm believe in "one man's trash is another man's treasure."  Recently, a friend borrowed our trailer to remove some old junk from his basement.  I had the opportunity to do a little digging through his "trash" on the hunt for some treasures.  Of course, I had this challenge in mind and I was so hoping to find something I could use.  I was not to be disappointed! In fact, you'll see a few more items I found over the course of this month. 

For this week I have this nifty little "hanging basket" I found.  It's really just lightweight fencing of some sort that someone creatively put together with wire.  I didn't change the hanger or how it was pieced together as I loved it just the way I found it.  I thought it was pretty cool!  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it the minute I picked it up!  Have a little look!

I stamped Cling Lone Bird with my VersaMark pad to do a little embossing.  I like to play around and mix powders.  I combined aged copper, aged gold, and aged taupe embossing enamels and focused that mix primarily on the bird.  I added aged green embossing enamel to the foliage around the bird.  I colored the bird in with my Copics but it really didn't need much at all.  I only used E42, E43 and E44.  Next I distressed the edges of my image and added some Tim Holtz distress ink in gathered twigs.  I decided to back my image with a small piece of My Mind's Eye paper from the Lost & Found Two Breeze 6x6 paper pad.  Of course it needed a little work over in the form of "Fran•táge!"   I took the rest of my powders I had mixed for the bird and added some sage color fragments to the mix and did each edge one at a time.  Once complete I layered the two pieces together with double-sided tape

Prior to adhering my paper to the basket, I filled it with an assortment of eggs, twigs and feathers.  I then added my stamped and layered image as well as a small bow at the top of the hanger.  I plan on hanging this on the wall in my den close to a collection of other bird items.  I love how sweet it looks!  Can you believe someone would throw away something so cute!?  Here's another view with subdued lighting to really show you the shine of the embossing powders.

Ready to see some more?  Here is the whole list of my fantastic teammates, who are sharing some fabulous inspiration with you today:

Stampendous Impressions

Janelle Stollfus

Jennifer Ingle

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Kimmel (Me!)

Pam Hornschu

Steph Lee

Susie Moore

Suzanne Czosek

Taylor Usry

Tenia Nelson

Wendy Jordan

Don't forget - we want YOU to play along with us!  That means you have until Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 11:59 PM EST to add your direct link to our collection at the end of this post (or on the Stampendous blog).  You do not have to use Stampendous products, but we sure love it when you do!  As an extra incentive for playing along, one lucky crafter (drawn at random) will receive this fabulous Mother's Love Perfectly Clear Stamp Set.  Available in stores now, it will be on the website for purchase soon!

Due to shipping restrictions, the winner must have a US address.  We hope you have a chance to play along with us (you can enter as many times as you'd like!) this month...Happy Crafting!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look.  I hope you enjoyed my project, I sure had fun creating it for your viewing pleasure!

Hugs,
Lea

Who gives a Hoot?

Haunting Hannah, that's who!  Meet Haunting Hannah and Hoot, the latest in the Spunky Spooks collection from Simply B Stamps by Alicia Bell.  These are such fun images and I can hardly wait for Halloween to get here so I can make even more cards with them.  These have got to be some of the prettiest spooks out there!  And, let's not forget how cute Hoot is! 

I colored her skin like I normally would with my Copics and then I decided she looked a little too alive and not really ghost-like.  Well that an easy enough fix!  I simply went over all her skin with my 0, Colorless Blender, and then added in a little C00 and C0.  Spooked her up rather nicely!  If I had her to do over again, I must admit I would have used a lighter spica pen than the black.  I might have only used clear or possibly silver.  The next time I color her, one of those will be my pick. 

My papers are simple, Bazzill, Neenah and Echo Park's Apothecary Emporium pad.  I did add some May Arts ribbon that has a cool spider web effect and I used a Tim Holtz muse token.  I liked it because it said Haunted with a large "H" punched out of the middle.  I thought it was quite appropriate.  I attached it with a sparkly brad from my stash but I think it was originally from SU!.  I put it at the end of her chain with hopes that it would look like her chain was holding it.

I hope you like her and will check out the creations the rest of the Design Team put together.  Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back tomorrow.  Something seems a little fishy!

Hugs,

Lea

How now brown cow?

Guess what?  Today, I'm a star!  Not just any star, a Stampendous BlogStar!  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to play along with such a talented design team.  You know how much I love stamping and creating and to be able to do so with a company I love is just beyond wonderful.  In honor of this awesome opportunity, I've decided to "Milk it for all it's worth!" 

 I'm not sure if you've met Cowlik yet or not but isn't he adorable?  Cowlik is one of the new characters from Stampendous that has joined Fluffles and Changito.  I'm just in love with this little guy!  I've made him brown since we all know the brown cows are where chocolate milk comes from, right!?  I'm not sure where the strawberry milk comes from and I don't think I want to know! 

I colored these images with my Copics after stamping them on Neenah with VersaFine ink.  I kept the papers to a minimum since I knew I was using three different images.  My papers are Bazzill for the base and background layers and the patterned paper is from a Cosmo Cricket Mini Deck named Garden Variety.



Here's a close up of Cowlick and a close up of the milk bottles.







Even though it's hard to tell in my pictures, I colored the sky with Copic B0000 and colored around the milk bottles and the sentiment with the same.  It's hard for me to leave white space!  I love how this card came out and the simplicity of it.  All I had to do to polish it off was add a lovely bow. 


Here's what the entire set looks like and the link to the site should you want to purchase this very versatile set.  Say hello, happy birthday or, like me, milk it for all it's worth and just have fun!  Cowlik Birthday Perfectly Clear™ Stamps

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'm really looking forward to my time as a Stampendous BlogStar.  There are three other BlogStars I'm sharing the spotlight with and I hope you will check out their blogs and say hello to them as well. 

Tenia Nelson
 http://jazzypaper.blogspot.com

April Derrick
http://memoryvilla.com/blog

Susie Moore
http://www.thedieshaveit.com

I'm sure they're just as excited as I am!
 I hope you'll check back often to see what I've come up with next.  There's all sorts of cards rolling around in my head just waiting to be stamped, colored and created!

Big BlogStar Hugs!
Lea

Sweet, Sassy, Saucy...

...and Spunky Spooks!  Today we are previewing the first of a new Simply B Stamps collection of images by the very talented Alica Bell called "Spunky Spooks."  As the name suggests, they've got a sassy attitude with a side helping of spooky!  Meet Betty Bolts and her sidekick Baxter.  Looks like they have a little trouble keeping all their parts together!

I colored this cutie with my Copics on Neenah and inked the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink in pumice stone.    I layered the image on Bazzill.  I cut out a piece of Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers paper pad and layered it on Bazzill as well.  The base of my card is Bazzill with a layer of Basic Grey's Oliver paper pad.  I used glazed brads from Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers collection as my accents.  I'm an animal lover so I really wanted to play up the doggie sidekick.  After all, he's just so cute and cuddly.  Who could resist?  I hope you will check out the creations from the rest of the design team.  We even have a guest designer with us so be sure to take a peak and leave her some love in the way of nice comments.  A few kind words can go a long way to making someones day!  Be sure to check back tomorrow for a sneak peak of the second image.  You'll find her to be hauntingly beautiful for sure.  Take care and thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs,

Lea

Who remembers the Bunny Hop?

In grade school the Bunny Hop was one of my favorite dances to do.  I loved it!  Also, when I was in my early teens one of my best friends, Totsy, and I dressed up as Easter bunnies and delivered little Easter baskets around our neighborhood to the elderly neighbors.  We had such a good time together and even to this day I have a collection of bunnies that remind me of our fun.  That why I chose to preview Cotton Tail Sally from the Simply B Stamps Sweet Gothic Kids Easter collection.  Originally this was supposed to be the last day these adorable stamps would be available.  Well, they have been such a hit that Betty has decided to make them available through Easter.  So, if you haven't purchased your digis yet, now is the time to get hoppin'!