Stampendous/Dreamweaver - By the Sea

May Arts ribbon is an extremely generous sponsor for us here at Stampendous and our Design Team is absolutely in love with their gorgeous ribbons, cords, strings and specialty items. You’ll find loads of beautiful May Arts on all our samples.

All week you’ve got a chance to check out our Design Team Inspiration as well as the Ribbonistas over at the May Arts Blog.  Be sure to comment and tell us where you’re from, because our Australian Distributor The Stencil Specialists are sponsoring a prize for one friend “down under” to win a Stampendous Stamp, a Dreamweaver Stencil and a surprise goodie from their terrific stock of Stampendous merchandise!

There are Stampendous prize packages up for grabs. THREE US commenters  will receive a prize of their choice in any one roll of ribbon from May Arts and a $20 reward card. Tell us what state you live in when you comment. Stampendous Official Rules.


This week's theme is by far my all time favorite!  I love my beach vacations and am totally enjoying my annual visit to Cape May as we speak!

Here's my card for today:

Never throw away experiments! I had previously stenciled this piece with Dreamweaver Spiral Dots stencil and when it was dry, I dry embossed it with Dreamweaver Cathedral Windows stencil and promptly tossed it aside.

So, when I retrieved the above piece, here's what happened:  This background was originally meant for last week's Flowers and Fairies theme!  I used Gelatos (Faber Castell) to create background color.  It still looked a little blah, but once I added the drippage, it really gave me an impression of an under the sea feeling.  Funny how those experiments work!  

To create the drippage, I generously scribbled the purple Gelato at the top of the panel.  Here's the magic:  Spritz water directly onto the Gelato and watch it drip!  With the drippage, it looks like it should orientate as you see here, right?  Well, I turned it upside down because I wanted the darker color at the bottom.  Amazingly, it looks great turned that way.  TIP:  Rotate a background panel in all four directions just to see what happens at each rotation.  One side may work better for your project than you originally planned!

The fun part for me is the coloring!  I chose to use my favorite watercolor technique with Tombow markers scribbled onto a slick surface such as an acrylic block or Palette Paper.  I use a slim paint brush rather than a waterbrush for better control of the water.  I began the hair using 'light-to-dark' colors.  Keep in mind to create actual color layers, allow areas to dry before adding in the next color layer.  For added pretties, I glittered the shell, flower and her eyelid with Stampendous Crystal Glitter and Quickie Glue Pen (Sakura).  Additional bling was a variety of Stampendous Class-A-Peel Dot Sparklers (blue, gold, pink, violet).

I fussy cut the mermaid and where I didn't get completely around her hair, I simply added a background watercolor.

Isn't the sea horse precious?  It was a tiny little thing to cut out and mount with 3M Foam Mounting Tape!

Here's a coloring closeup of her fishtail.  With the raised heat embossed image, the barriers keep the different colors from bleeding and looking crisp.  I still let areas dry before I paint next to them.  You can see the sea glass pebbles are painted and some areas are glittered with a Quickie Glue Pen (Sakura) and Stampendous Crystal Glitter.  Some areas have added Stampendous Class-A-Peel Dot Sparklers (blue, gold, pink, violet).  I wanted to keep that section of the image as is, so I cut around it and colored the background area.

The Stampendous Cling sentiment was heat embossed with Stampendous White Opaque Embossing Powder on a colored scrap from my Dreamweaver scrap drawer.  May Arts Pink/Purple Iridescent 1/2" ribbon was tied around the card.  The Mermaid was mounted (3M Foam Mounting Tape) onto the card panel.  Stampendous Teal Encrusted Jewels were melted on for the finishing touch!

I hope you enjoyed my magical mermaid card today!  I'd love you to leave me a comment before you hop to the next designer's blog.  Thanks for stopping by!

Stampendous Blog

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Louise Healy

Asia King

Laura Drahozal

Pam Hornschu

Lyn Bernatovich (that's me!)

Jamie Martin

Pam Bray

Kristine Reynolds

Janelle Stollfus

Tenia Nelson

Lea Kimmel

Wendy Price

May Arts Blog


Disclaimer:  I'm so happy to be a Stampendous Design Team Member and to help promote their wonderful products. They generously supply us with many free goodies like these Stampendous Glitters, Encrusted Jewels, and Embossing Powders, Faber Castell Gelatoes, Dreamweaver Stencils, Bazill Papers, and May Arts Ribbon that I'm using today.