Tando Creative Blog Hop--and Now, a Little Christmas Fun

Welcome to the final day of the Mixed Media Blog Hop with Stampendous and Tando Creative! This is the last day for this fun collaboration, and there are tons of blogs to visit, so I will make my info as short and sweet as possible.  Of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention the prizes.

To be eligible, leave a comment and where you live on the Stampendous blog, Tando Creative blog and each designer's blog. Every comment is an entry to win one of THREE terrific prize packages. This is open to commenters with either a US or UK mailing address.

Each prize package includes a Tando Creative Mini Heart Printer Tray plusStampendous NK Studio Fiesta Stamp Set.

My post today is a little Christmas project.  Here it is:

I used the Tando Creative Mini Printer Tray, Penguins Stencil, Three Deer Stencil, Small Chickadees Stencil, Snowflake Stencil, Regular Embossing Paste, Matte Black Embossing Paste, Build a Wreath Die Set, Santa Words Rubber Stamp, Holly Background Rubber Stamp, Opaque White Embossing Powder, Winter Wonderland Sparkly Embossing Powder and Micro Glitter in Red and Silver.  I also used some Deco Art Fluid Acrylics in Silver and Graphic 45 paper.  I pasted quite a bit and used the layers of the chipboard to place layers in the project.

Thanks for stopping by.  There are plenty of wonderful posts to look at today.  Be sure to comment on all of them for your chance to win!

Stampendous Blog

Dee Adams

Kristine Reynolds

Karen

Kaz

Wendy Price

Carol

Jamie Martin

Irit

Louise Healy

Lisa

Laura Drahozal

Dana

Janelle Stollfus

Gez

Katy Leitch

Di

Alison Heikkila

Tenia Nelson

Lea Fritts

Pam Bray

Tando Creative Blog

Tombow fun!

Welcome to our Tombow pre-hop event!  I just love the Tombow coloring products.  On today's post, I used a couple of really fun techniques.

For the background, I used the Snowflake Sky rubber stamp.  I stamped it twice with Versamark Ink on watercolor paper.  I then embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder, using my heat tool.  I colored with my Tombow Dual Brush Markers colors 743, 703 and 665 directly onto the color blending palette.  I then used a water brush to pick up the colors and paint them over the embossed surface.  This created that pink snowflake background.
The tree was created by using the Double Glitter Technique with Heidi Swapp Minc foils.  I soaped up the back of my Ornate Christmas Tree Stencil.  You can use any natural soap, but I used the Handmade Hawaiian Soap.  I made sure that the entire stencil back was cloudy looking, and then I brushed off the excess soap bits with my stencil brush.   Then, I placed the stencil on one side of the Double Sided Mounting Paper.  I pressed the foils into the wells of the stencil using my fingers and my small embossing tool.  I used pink, mint green, and gold foils.  When I felt that I had used all the foil I could, I covered the entire project with Micro Silver Glitter.   I brushed off the excess.  Then, I put the project stencil side down on a flat surface.  I carefully peeled the paper off of the stencil, while leaving the stencil flat.  Then, I covered the entire project with Crystal Glitter.  After that, I just assembled the card.
I hope you enjoyed the post today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Check out the other posts for tday:

Stampendous Blog

Laura Drahozal

Lyn Bernatovich

Jamie Martin

Kristine Reynolds

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Christmas in August Blog Hop with Woodware

 

Yes! It's that time of year again! The time when we inspire crafters on both sides of the "pond" with a mix of both Dreamweaver and Woodware UK* products for the holidays! Six days, SIX, of beautiful, elegant, merry, cute, artsy, and craftsy projects to have you heading out to your local stores or internet sites to buy these goodies immediately!

Of course, there will be prizes as well. Three prize packages will be given to three commenters during this week's posts on the team's blogs, including five stencils and one nested die set. You can have an opportunity to win these goodies by leaving some holiday sweetness for each team member posting each day, to be one of the three winners for the week. Here are the team members that are inspiring you today:

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Laura Drahozal

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren

Kristine Reynolds 

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Gill Wilson

Lea Kimmel

Crafty Debs

Debs Frost

Alison Heikkila

Here's my creation: (or shall I say creations)

 

 

 

This is one stamp, two stencils, two Memory Mist Sprays, two Archival Inks, Stickles and crayons four ways..........

 

The stamp is from Woodware.

 

The stencils are Dreamweaver LJ 867 and LX 7002. 

 

 The tree is easy to see.  On the first one, I just sprayed through the opening.  On the second and last cards, I sprayed the stencil first and ran it through my die cut machine with the Rubber Embossing Mat.  It worked like a letterpress.  The third card used both of those techniques, first being run through the machine and then being sprayed through the opening.

 You say you can't see where I used the Plaid stencil?  Well, I embossed a piece of white velvet paper through the die cut machine with the stencil and the Rubber Embossing Mat and used it on the second and third cards. Here is a closer look:

 

I used the Memory Mists in Strawberry Daiquiri and Wheatgrass. The Archival Inks are Black and Olive.  I stamped the image first before making the letterpress effect.  The stickles are gold, silver, diamond, eucalyptus and mystery. The crayons added a little extra color here and there. 

 

So there you have it, one card four ways....

*For a stockist near you contact Woodware Craft Collection in the UK and Notions Marketing in the USA.

A Simple Connie Crystal Ornament

This is a busy time of year for all of us, so when it came to my Connie Crystal post, I decided to make something simple.  Does it look simple?  Well, it is!  The secret is the ruffle yarn.  I spent less than an hour making it, including coming up with the idea!  If you would like to know to make it, check out the post HERE, on the Connie Crystal Blog.  Hope to see you there!

Snow Much Fun!

Welcome to December at Dreamweaver, otherwise known as "Frosty Fun" month!  This card, however, would have worked perfectly with last month's CAS challenge.  Here is the easy way that it was done:

MATERIALS:
Dreamweaver Stencil LJ 819 Snowflakes
Dreamweaver Stencil LL 396 Gothic Snowflake
Mercart Metal in Medium Blue
Stamping Details Rubber Embossing Mat
Manual Die Cut Machine (I used the Cuttlebug)
White Card
White Brad
Ribbon
We R Memory Keepers Big Bite
Adhesive
Sanding Block
Detail Scissors

DIRECTIONS:
1)  Run stencils and metal through the manual die cut machine.  This is the sandwich for the Cuttlebug:  A Plate, stencil face down, metal blue side down, rubber embossing mat, two B Plates.
2)  Remove metal from stencil.  Sand.  This will expose the silver of the aluminum underneath.
3)  Fancy cut around the snowflake.  Any small scissors will do.
4)  Position ribbon around the metal. Place snowflake on top.
5)  Use Big Bite to punch a hole through the snowflake and ribbon.
6)  Add brad to secure snowflake and ribbon.
7)  Adhere to card.

That is it, folks.  This is definitely one of the easiest cards that I have ever posted.  You could make an easy "Frosty Fun" project, too.  If you photograph it and send the picture to Lynell@Dreamweaverstencils.com, you could be featured on their blog and possibly win a prize!  Looking for a little more inspiration before you begin?  Check out the blogs on the left side of mine.  I look forward to seeing your creations soon!

Christmas in August!

Welcome to Christmas in August!  For this new challenge, I am using a brand new stencil.  First released at this Summer CHA, this stencil is bound to become a hit.  Here, I used it with a modified Double Glitter Technique, which I call "Triple Glitter" because it uses different kinds of glitter in the same stencil wells.  Here is a video on the basics of double glitter, by our stencil queen, Lynell.  I soaped up the back of Stencil LJ 921 and Stencil LS 92 Merry Christmas.  I brushed off all the excess soap crumbles.  Then, I placed them soap side down on the Double Sided Adhesive Paper.  For the hearts, I used an Art Glitter Dazzler called D4 Jackpot Funky.  It has a combination of very chunky pieces and ultrafine pieces.  If I had only used this, I would not have super sharp and crispy edges that I wanted. I can get that crispness with Microfine Glitters, so I added #516 Gold Tone Microfine Opaque to the hearts.  I put it on the stencil and pushed it into the wells all around the sides. Since the other openings are so small, I used Microfine on most of the card.  The ornament hangers are #508 Silver Moon Microfine Opaque.  The needles are a combination of #519 Reed Microfine Opaque and #514 Bavarian Forest.  The Bavarian Forest is also used in the words.  I didn't need the branches to be sharp and crispy, so I used Ultrafine Opaque #58 Brown.  Now here is the best tip in this post:  to get the colors of glitter where you want them, put a pinch of glitter on the metal stencil next to the area where you want the color.  Then, gently shove it into place with your finger.  This works especially well with the Microfine glitters, as they need to be "burnished" (rubbed in) anyway.  When the colors are in place, brush the excess off and remove the adhesive paper from the stencil.  The stencil needs to remain flat on a hard surface as you peel the paper off of the it.  After the paper is off, the background adhesive is exposed.  Cover that with a layer of glitter.  I used Ultrafine Transparent Crystal #85.  Then, I just assembled the card.

So, now it is your turn!  Our challenge is Christmas in August, so get a head start on some special cards.  Put them online and link them to the Dreamweaver Blog or just email a picture to Lynell with some brief directions.  Find her email address on the blog.  You could be featured and even win a prize!  Give it a shot.  In the meantime, check out all the blogs (linked on the left) and get inspired with Dreamweaver Stencils.  Merry Christmas in August--see you next week!

Connie Crystal Ornaments

This is an ornament that I made for the Connie Crystal CHA booth.  It was extremely easy to do.  First, I purchased a plastic ornament from my local Michael's.  I bought the smallest size for this ornament, although I made one of each size.

First, I removed the top of the ornament. I used Connie Crystal suncatchers in blue.  I clipped off the top above the crystal and pulled out the clear line that it was threaded on.  You could easily use a heavy duty fishing line for this.  I threaded the teardrop first and left even tails on both sides.  I then just threaded the rest of my crystals on that, using both ends of the thread.  I measured it into the ball occasionally so that I could make sure I didn't make it too long.  When I was done, I threaded each end of the thread through the holes that the wire comes out of and tied them together a few times. I dropped the crystal into the ornament and then reattached the top. 

Next, I started on the exterior.  I used some inexpensive beads that I already had, a heavy duty thread and a regular smallish hand sewing needle.  I first made a ring of enough beads to make a collar around the top.  This is trial and error because your top and your beads might be a little differently sized.  Make sure to really tie the string around your starting bead so that it doesn't slide off.  Also, when the ring is done, go back through a couple of beads to make it secure.  Then comes the fun part.  I first counted how many of the showy drip beads I had, which was three.  Then, I counted the number of beads I had around the collar, which was 24.  I divided 24 by 3 and came up with an extension every 8 beads.  I simply started stringing beads and crystals until I thought it was pretty and repeated that three times.  You may notice that I used a single bead above and below the main drop crystal.  I found that passing through that bead above again made the prettiest drop for me.  You might also notice that my ornament has the same patterns all the way around.  I tend to be a very symmetrical person, so that works for me.  Use your sparkle any way that makes you happy. 

Here is another picture of the finished project.  It hung against white in the Connie Crystal booth, but I am sure that it will be a fixture on my tree for years to come. 

So make it your own style and Sparkle On!