Our Family Stay-cation . . . Boring!

Greetings All!  Summer is here, and vacations are on the rise.  Here is a card to celebrate "staying at home" instead of "hitting the road" this year!

A friend of mine had to inform her kids today, that there would be no vacation trip this year, and they would have to enjoy staying home this summer!  Of course, the reply was "Boring"!  School has only been out less than a week, and they are already bored silly.

To start, I used a precut A2 size card and attached a piece of patterned paper to it.  I stamped this image, one of Janie's Girls from Hot Off the Press on X-press blending card and colored it in with my Copic markers. I then stamped the plumeria flowers from the Tropicals flower stamp from Stampendous, and trimmed along one edge. These were also colored with Copics. I fussy cut around both the girl stamp and flowers, and then mounted them to the background with foam adhesive tape. Before attaching the girl's image to the floral background, I attached a square of vellum that I embossed in my Stripes Embossing Folder by running through my Cuttlebug machine. It diffused the bright flowers from the background, so the girl's image could more readily be seen.  I then stamped the saying from one of Winnie & Walter's new stamp sets, "The Big, the Bold, and Fun" stamp set.

After I finished this card, and was writing this post, I decided the plumeria needed a tiny pearl in the center of each flower.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I took off a little time last week to work on some "special" projects, and to celebrate my birthday on Wednesday. I am now back on track and will visit again with you soon. 

Happy Stamping!

Hello Friend

  I am playing today with my Jumbo Blossom Beauty stamps from Stampendous.  I have been taking a class on My Creative Classroom.com learning how to color the face stamp and flower it comes with.  This is one of my "practice" faces, one that I colored with Prismacolor colored pencils, and another one of the jumbo flowers available "the Hydrangea"!

I have been trying to squeeze the face and flowers on an A2 size quarter-fold card, which really isn't easy.

The face is fun, and the various flowers are awesome, especially since I love flowers!  So here is what I did to complete this card.

First of all, I prepared an A2 card front with a piece of patterned paper 1/4" smaller all the way around. I then stamped out the face and colored it in with Prismacolor pencils.  I love Prismacolor pencils because they are so creamy and really do blend well when layered.  I stamped the hydrangea cluster stamp on X-press Blending card and colored them in with my Copic markers.  There is also a single flower that I stamped and colored also, so I could adhere it with foam tape and pop it up for dimension. One of the exclusives of these jumbo flower stamps, is that Stampendous also has the wafer thin dies that match the flowers so you can cut them out quickly and layer them if you wish.  I love to fussy cut, so I didn't purchase all the dies that were available.

The glasses that I cut for the face were described on a video on YouTube from Stampendous.  There are several videos available from the designer of the faces and flowers line, and she gives you great ideas on projects to use the faces and lovely flowers. She also gives ideas on different hair styles you can draw, paint, or create if you want your face to have hair instead of the jumbo flowers. To complete the card, I trimmed off several of the flowers that hung off the edge of the card. I also added a small banner saying, "hello Friend"!

Have a nice week, leading up to a wonderful weekend. I am busily trying to finish my "class project" from My Creative Classroom.com, and will share it with you as soon as I do. 

Mindy

Blossom Beauty

Welcome Friends! Today's post is a page from my Art Journal, using the New Stampendous Stamp Set, "Blossom Beauty!" I was so excited when a friend, Diane Hover, brought it to my attention, that I knew I had to order it at once! (she is one of my enabler's)  It is a two stamp set, with a large face, and a large flower. Since the images were larger than normal, I knew I would need help in shading and coloring this image. I searched the Internet, and found a class coloring just this set at My Creative Classroom, with the renown artist, Jennie Black.  She is a wonder with Watercolors and most markers, including Copic Markers (my favorite!). I am in the process of taking this class, and have many practice images to play with, that don't look half bad. This is my first attempt at coloring the face and flowers. Please enjoy!

I'm sorry I won't be able to give a step-by-step tutorial on how I colored the stamps, but there are classes available if you are interested.  Once your coloring is complete, there are other videos available on You

Tube, that will help you add hair, dresses, etc. to your stamped images from Stampendous.

To create the journal page I made, I first applied a layer of fluid Cream acrylic and fluid Ultramarine Violet acrylic paint from Golden Products to the blank page in dots.  I then blended the two colors somewhat with my brush, and then let them dry.  I die cut my large flowers from the Blossom Die set that is also available through Stampendous.  There are three dies in the set that cut the full flower, the small center area (like her necklace) and the center with the next layer of petals, to give you a stacked set of petals in case you want to give your flower more dimension. I fussy cut around the face, and the dress (downloaded from one of the YouTube videos).  When the background was dry, I stamped on it with a texture stamp and Love Letter Memento ink, and a small Hibiscus stamp from Deadbeat Designs stamped in Grape Jelly Memento ink. The single Hibiscus stamp from Deadbeat Designs was stamped on her dress in Grape Jelly ink also. 

I then attached them to my page with Regular Gel Medium from Golden Products. I love the Golden Mediums because their water content is low, and they don't leave the paper images or pages warped or wrinkled. I first attached the face, and then layered on the dress, and then the two large flowers. I set this all aside to dry, and then came back with the small center of the large flower and used foam tape to attach it to the page.  I used it to cover a smudge of ink on her chin that I couldn't remove or erase. 

Each time I color the face, I get a different look, which I really enjoy. There are so many ways to use these stamps, and I have several ideas already on projects I want to use them on. I hope you will enjoy, and leave me a comment on ideas you think would look good with this stamp. I also hope you had a wonderful National Scrapbooking Day on Saturday!  I don't do much scrapbooking, but I do enjoy working in my Art Journal, which is what I did on NSD this year.  Have a great week, and I will see you again soon.

Mindy