Poppy Sketches #2-Happy Birthday

It’s time for a new sketch at Poppy Sketches! We were thrilled to see so many people join us for our first sketch and are looking forward to seeing even more players for this one. This week’s challenge sponsor is Stampendous.  There's a fabulous assortment of their stamps up for grabs for the challenge winner. And, we’re featuring Royal Red, Touch of Teal, and Seal Grey as our pop of color along with the sketch. Love these colors together!

Here’s my take on the sketch. I made the large panel into a Polaroid-style frame. I didn’t have a die large enough to fit my image, so I created this one on my own using gray cardstock and my trusty paper cutter. The colored Changito image fits just inside the frame. I adhered the image and frame to a piece of red dotted paper. For the sentiment, I used a teal “happy birthday” sticker. It’s accented with a trio of teal enamel dots.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Poppy Sketches team has created using the sketch and colors along with stamps from Stampendous.   Here's where to find them:

Laura Davis, challenge owner
Lee Murphy, design team coordinator
Amy Crockett,
Amy Tsuruta,
Lisa Petrella,
Lori Tecler--you're here!
Renee' Dezember

Be sure to link up your finished creation using the sketch and pop of color at the Poppy Sketches blog.  We're looking forward to seeing what you create!

Materials Used:
Surprise Cake stamp set (Stampendous); Memento Tuxedo Black ink (Tsukineko); markers (Copic); Cherry Cobbler cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); Steel Grey cardstock (My Favorite Things); Soup Staples II-Red Salt designer paper (Jillibean Soup); sentiment sticker (Pebbles); teal enamel dots (Freckled Fawn)

Blogger Challenge: Week 235

This week’s blogger challenge theme is “ornamental.” I combined the challenge with my Paper Craft Planet Fran*tage Friday project to make this fun shrink plastic snowman ornament.

The snowman from the Merry Snowman set was stamped on white shrink plastic, colored with Copic markers, and cut out. I carefully rolled the cut out image and placed it inside a clear glass ornament. I heated the ornament in my oven, shrinking the snowman to fit inside the ornament. After heating the ornament and shrink plastic piece, I poured a little champagne crushed glass glitter into the bottom of the ornament for a snow-like sparkle, then replaced the ornament’s top. A pretty red bow with a button embellishment dresses up the top.

You can find a more detailed tutorial (including photos) on this project here on the Paper Craft Planet blog. If you leave a comment on the PCP blog post, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a great prize package from Stampendous.

For more ornament ideas, check out the link list below. And, if you’d like to join the challenge, add a direct link to your new project below.

Materials Used:
Merry Snowman stamp set, champagne crushed glass glitter (Stampendous); Jet Black StazOn ink (Tsukineko); markers (Copic); red grosgrain ribbon (Michaels); wood button (Simplicity); red baker’s twine (Divine Twine); shrink plastic; glass ornament

Fran*tage Friday: Faux Mother of Pearl

Welcome to the latest installment of Fran*tage Friday! Paper Craft Planet is pleased to be partnering with Stampendous to bring you weekly inspiration and eye candy using Stampendous products. This week, I’m sharing a quick tutorial on how to do the faux mother of pearl technique as seen on the stamped panel in the photo above.


First, you’ll need some pearly paint—I used the new pearlized acrylic paint from Martha Stewart—and a piece of plastic wrap (yes, that’s right, the plastic wrap from your kitchen!), along with some glossy white cardstock. Put a bit of your pearly paint on a palette or some other surface to start. I used a scrap of acetate as a palette, but an acrylic block would work just fine, too. Crumble the plastic wrap up into a loose ball, press it into the paint, then dot the paint all over your glossy white cardstock. You want it to be smooth and fairly well covered. Once you’re done covering the cardstock, set it aside to let it dry. Mine dried pretty fast, even with lots of paint coverage.

Once the paint is dry, use a sponge to cover the cardstock with dye based or distress ink. The paint will resist the ink, leaving a pretty pearlized look with a soft color tint.


After you’ve finished inking your paper, you’re ready to stamp your image over top of the pearlized paper. I used the Jumbo Dogwood image on mine, but this also looks nice with a solid or detailed line art image. I did the stamping with StazOn ink. I tried and found that dye based inks work okay—but need drying time so the image won’t smear.

Here’s my finished card using the image I stamped on my faux mother of pearl panel. I decided to cut out the large flower to use it on my card. I stamped the image a second time and cut out just a portion of the image so I could layer it onto the full image with foam tape. I added some super sparkly Champagne crushed glass glitter to the center of the popped up flower as a fun, feminine accent.

The flower is set on a piece of patterned paper with a doily pattern. I attached a coordinating solid pink strip to the panel and stamped the friendship sentiment from the Friendship Assortment set on the panel. It’s edged with some lace tape. I also wrapped a piece of linen thread around the panel, securing it along the right side of the card with a cream button. The patterned paper panel is set on a kraft panel, then on a cream card base.

Want to win some Stampendous goodies for yourself? Just leave a comment on my Fran*tage Friday post on the Paper Craft Planet blog before midnight on Thursday, October 20 to be entered into the random prize drawing. The lucky winner’s name will be shared on the Paper Craft Planet blog.

Materials Used:
Jumbo Dogwood and Friendship Assortment stamp sets, Champagne crushed glass glitter (Stampendous); Jet Black StazOn (Tsukineko); Pretty in Pink Classic ink, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla cardstock (Stampin’ Up!) Sweet Blush cardstock, Fine Linen button (Papertrey Ink); Baby Steps 6x6 paper pad (Simple Stories); lace tape (Love My Tapes); linen thread (The Cat’s Pajamas); foam tape

Fran*tage Friday: Faux Bleaching with Spray Mists

The Paper Craft Planet Super Novas have partnered up with Stampendous for the next three months to bring you Fran*tage Fridays! Mix up a bit of montage and eclectic collage with a touch of vintage timelessness á la Fran Seiford, and what do you get? Fran•táge! Each Friday, we'll be showing you a technique using the new Fran*tage line of stamps from Stampendous. The best part? You can win all the stamps demonstrated, just by leaving a comment!

I’m excited about sharing a technique with you today that showcases Stampendous stamps along with sparkly spray mists and embossing. This technique uses heat embossing to get a faux bleached look that looks great on shabby chic or vintage style projects.

I started off by stamping the Music Score background stamp in watermark ink on a white panel. After stamping the image, I covered it with white embossing powder (somehow managing to spill half the container’s contents on my black shorts and the floor, but that’s another story . . .) and heat embossed the image.

Once the image was embossed, I used spray mists to coat the paper. I set the embossed cardstock in a little plastic container that fits a 4 ¼” x 5 ½” sheet of cardstock. I keep this container handy to help contain some of the stray droplets.


For interest and depth, I used a few different shades of browns and a bit of pink, too. And, while I had the mess out, I did a few sheets so I'd have a little variety to work with. Here's what one finished quarter sheet of cardstock looked like after I was done spritzing away. You can see how it resisted the embossed areas.

After the mists dried (with a little help from my heat tool since I’m impatient!), I heated up my craft iron to a low heat setting. I have two irons at home—one for clothes and one for craft projects—LOL! I set a sheet of plain white copy paper over the embossed image and ironed over the panel. This re-melts the embossing powder and transfers it to the white copy paper, removing the raised embossing. You’ll know this is happening when you can see the shadow from the embossing powder through your copy paper. Please use care when doing this so that the paper doesn’t burn. If you move the paper around to remove the embossing from different areas, shift the copy paper so that the part that’s under the iron is clean to prevent embossing powder from transferring back to your misted paper.

Once you’ve removed the embossing powder, you’re ready to create your project. I turned one of the panels I made into a pretty shabby chic style card with the Music Score image as a background.

I distressed and inked the edges with a little distress ink, then machine stitched the panel to a pink panel. Since I already had the spray mists out, I used them on a pretty paper doily and the panel stamped with the Dream Forever sentiment. I used the spray mists one last time to color a little white seam binding to match the card. I just added a few drops and some water to a plastic bag with a piece of the seam binding and squished the bag in my hands to spread the ink. After it was dry, I formed it into a double-looped bow and added a pair of buttons at the bow’s center before attaching it to the cardfront. A trio of pearls added one final elegant touch to the card.

Want to win these stamps? Comment on this blog post on the PCP blog and let us know what technique you'd like to learn. You have until Thursday at midnight, Eastern Time. After that, we'll pick a winner through Random.org and announce that lucky duck on the next Fran*tage Friday.

Materials Used:
Music Score (CRR103) and Dream Forever (CRV219) cling stamps (Stampendous); white cardstock (Xerox); Memento Rich Cocoa and Versamark inks, Angel Pink Fireworks (Tsukineko); Pink Pirouette and Crumb Cake cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); Labels 4 dies (Spellbinders); Vanilla Breeze and Bronze Glimmer Mists (Tattered Angels); white paper doily (Wilton); buttons (Clear and Simple Stamps); self-adhesive pearls (Queen & Co.); twine (Papertrey Ink); white seam binding; sewing machine

Holiday Coaster and Charms Set

Stampendous will be sponsoring us at Paper Craft Planet for the entire month of November with a series of fun stamping ideas! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the entire month, stay tuned for tips and tricks that will help you get a handle on the holidays!

Today it’s my turn to share a holiday gift idea. I used the beautiful Ornament Greetings clear stamp set to create a set of 4 stamped coasters and a set of matching wine glass charms that would be a fabulous holiday time hostess gift.


Stamping on coasters is a quick way to create a “wow” project. For the coasters, I used a set of blank coasters I picked up at a craft store, but you could just as easily substitute tumbled marble tiles purchased at a home improvement store. The project is pretty self-explanatory, but here are a few tips and hints. The ornament images are stamped on the coasters using festive colors of hybrid inks (I used inks from Palette). If using tumbled tiles, you might want to spray the finished tiles with a matte acrylic sealer to protect the design once it’s dry. Be sure to spray from at least 12” away to prevent smearing. You might also want to add some felt pads to the bottom of your coasters so they don’t scratch the surface they’re placed on. A pretty ribbon is all that’s needed to wrap these up to give.

To go along with my coaster set, I made matching wine glass charms. These are made from shrink plastic, earring wires, and beads. Here’s how to make them:

1. Stamp ornament image on shrink plastic. Again, I used hybrid inks from Palette.
2. Cut out stamped image with scissors.
3. Punch a hole in the ornament with a handheld punch (I used a 1/8” punch)
4. Shrink plastic in oven according to package directions. Be patient and wait for the pieces to flatten out—it will happen, I promise!
5. After the shrunken pieces have cooled, assemble your charms. I used a mix of small glass beads and the stamped ornament. I strung the beads and the ornament on silver earring wires I found in the jewelry findings section of the craft store. They were very inexpensive for a large package, so you'll have more than enough to make lots of gift sets.

We will be bringing you these awesome holiday ideas all month long to help you get ready for the holidays. You can access all this inspiration in our Back to Basics Stampendous Group forever.

Back to Basics: Lesson 3

Have you been following along with the Stampendous Back to Basics series on Paper Craft Planet? If you haven't, stop by to check it out. Paper Craft Planet is partnering with Stampendous, Creative Impressions, and Tsukineko to offer a 12 week series featuring a variety of stamping techniques. Each week brings a new lesson, a new challenge for you to participate in, and a fabulous prize package, too. You can find this week's lesson and challenge here.

This post gives you a tiny preview of what you'll find in this week's lesson. Our theme is handmade gift wraps using stamps and stickers. Here's one gift packaging idea I made using a clear pail and a variety of fun Halloween stickers. I arranged the various stickers to create a spooky scene around the outside of the pail.

And, here is a gift wrapped up in homemade wrapping paper. So quick and easy--and really pretty too. I simply stamped the images repeatedly on some brown kraft wrapping paper using gold metallic ink. It's so sparkly IRL! I added some festive ribbon to complete the package.

Hope you'll join us and share your own ideas for handmade gift wraps--and just in time for the upcoming holiday season, too . . . Upload your projects to the PCP gallery with the keyword b2b3 so I can add them to the gallery. A winner will be randomly selected next Wednesday to win an assortment of items used in the lesson.

Over on the (Paper Craft) Planet

If you haven’t stopped by Paper Craft Planet in a while, you want to make sure to make a visit soon. We’re partnering with Stampendous, Tsukineko, and Creative Impressions to host Back to Basics, a 12 week stamping class with lots of inspiration and fabulous prizes. You don’t want to miss out! Each week will have a different focus and a challenge, too. If you participate in the challenge, you’ll have the opportunity to win a very generous prize package. You can join the Back to Basics group at PCP here.

Now, on to other PCP events. Lynn is our hostess for this week’s sketch challenge. She shared a great, simple sketch for the challenge. I managed to crank this card out in under 10 minutes—love when that happens! And, you may just be seeing this sketch again sometime soon. I have a few other ideas for using it spinning around in my mind

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know that I tend to go with non-traditional colors for my holiday cards. Here’s another one that follows that trend. I used some of the snowflake images from Papertrey Ink’s Rustic Snowflakes to stamp the snowflakes across the kraft panel. I used a combination of PTI’s Vintage Cream ink and SU!’s Soft Suede full strength and stamped off once for a variation in color. So pretty! I added just a bit of Stickles to the center of each flake for a subtle sparkle. The edges of the kraft panel are inked with the cream ink for a softer look.

I used images from PTI’s Snowfall set for the sentiment. Again, I stamped the Soft Suede ink off once before stamping on the panel for the muted look. I added a piece of knotted Dark Chocolate twill as a simple embellishment before layering the sentiment on to the card with dimensionals. I really like how this turned out—so clean and simple. Maybe I should use a similar design for my holiday cards this year . . .

Materials Used:
Rustic Snowflakes and Snowfall stamp sets, Vintage Cream Palette ink, Vintage Cream cardstock, Dark Chocolate twill (Papertrey Ink); Soft Suede Classic ink, Chocolate Chip and Kraft cardstock, dimensionals (Stampin’ Up!); Stardust Stickles (Ranger)

Finally, this is another sketch challenge card, based on this week’s sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You. It’s going into this month’s DT gallery at Paper Craft Planet since it’s the perfect fit for our Fall into Fun theme.

I used an acorn embellishment as my focal image. The rest of the card was designed around the acorn using fall colors. I used some dotted designer paper from Papertrey Ink, paired with coordinating solid cardstock colors. The mustard panel on the cardfront is inked with some matching ink for a distressed, weathered look—not my usual style, but I like how it looks here. The sentiment is from the DoodleFactory Woods Sentiments set from Starving Artistamps.

Materials Used:
Woods Sentiments set (Starving Artistamps); Close to Cocoa and More Mustard Classic inks, More Mustard, Ruby Red, and Creamy Caramel cardstock, dimensionals (Stampin’ Up!); designer paper (Autumn Abundance-Papertrey Ink); copper brads (Making Memories); acorn (K & Company Autumn Days); Gold Pearl Liquid Pearls (Ranger); circle and scalloped circle dies (Nestabilities)

Shine, Sparkle, Twinkle

I couldn't resist picking up this Star Sparklers stamp from Stampendous today at Michaels. It was perfect for making one last quick 4th of July card.

I stamped the Star Sparklers image in black ink on white cardstock, then stamped each of the star images on scraps of metallic paper so I could cut them out and paper piece them. I traced the sparkle image with a clear Stardust pen for just a hint of sparkle. A piece of silver ribbon is knotted around the base of the image, then it's layered on a silver panel.

The strip along the bottom of the card base is from a larger piece of patterned paper from a DCWV summer paper pack. I just trimmed along the sections of the paper that I wanted for my card, then cut the 12" strip down to size for my card base. This really helped the card to come together quickly--and eliminated the need for a sentiment panel, too.

And, I couldn't let the holiday pass without sharing a photo of Cosmo the crazy dog in his holiday garb. I got him a brand new star bandanna from Target's dollar spot to wear today. Here he is in all his glory, hanging out in the backyard in the sunshine!

Materials Used:

Star Sparklers stamp (Stampendous); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); Whisper White and Pacific Point cardstock (Stampin' Up!); patterned paper (DCWV's The Summer Glitter Stack); silver, red, and blue metallic paper (Target); silver ribbon (Michaels)