A Stampendous Hop!

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

Today is a momentous day in crafting for all you House Mouse fans! Today House Mouse and Friends is teaming up with the talented crew at Stampendous along with their partners -- Woodware Crafts and the Stencil Specialists!

"Why?", you ask.

Why not!!

But, for those of you who are interested, here is the history.

In July 2013 Stampendous was proud and excited to become the official rubber stamp licensee of House-Mouse Designs®. Since that time they’ve released over 235 House-Mouse, HappyHoppers, and Gruffies images as wood-mounted or cling-back rubber stamps. In January of 2015, they added the Dreamweaver Stencils company to their family, and they’ve been thrilled to release their stencils to their customers as well. Now, they’d like to have some fun combining all their new friends, and have invited us here at House Mouse and Friends to join in the fun!

IMPORTANT: This is a CHALLENGE Blog-Hop!

You are NOT automatically entered to win simply by commenting on the blog posts as in some blog hops (although you DO have to comment). You MUST create a project and link it to the Linky Tool on the HMFMC website found HERE. For Instructions how to do this, see below (at the end of this post).

THEME: House Mouse and Stencils

We’re celebrating stencils, and using them with our House-Mouse Designs® images. We’re going to bring you tons of inspiration over the next two weeks, and we can’t wait to see what you enter into the challenge! You may use ANY House-Mouse Designs® images or characters on your project, and any stencils and stenciling techniques that you like. There is never any purchase necessary to enter. 

And, of course, as always on the HMFMC, “ANYTHING GOES” is always an entry option. 

Link your entry to the linky tool by the end of Friday, April 8, 2016 (11:59 pm in your own time zone). 

There are prizes!! Three entries, chosen at random, will win 1-HMD Stampendous Cling Rubber Stamp, 1–Large Dreamweaver Stencils Background Stencil, and 1–Jar of Embossing Paste.  This contest is open to everyone!! 

We are also very happy and proud to be welcoming back our 2nd AWESOME sponsor
the Official Mousey Family, House-Mouse Designs(R)

HMD is also Offering another Lucky player a $20 Gift Certificate to shop at House-Mouse Designs(R)!

So, make a project and be sure to hop around to each designer’s blog and leave a sweet “eek” of delight at their inspiration! They’ve worked hard to create something you’ll love! Please give them some love right back! Here are the links to the Sponsor’s blogs and our designers playing today: (If a blog isn’t live when you visit, they might still be sleeping! Please, check back  in a few hours!)

Here are links to each site's blog-hop! Be sure to check them all out!

Stampendous

Woodware Craft Collection

The Stencil Specialists

House-Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge - (you are here!)

Now, on to my project for this AWESOME hop!

I made a gate-fold card that tells a little story as you open it up. It's sort of an inspirational story of creativity!

My story begins with little Mudpie looking quite distraught. It appears he's made some type of... mistake. But how could that be? Certainly Mudpie knows there are no mistakes in art.

AH! Now we see why he's upset! In his exuberance, it seems as though he painted Muzzy's poor tail green! Uh oh! Let's open the card up to reveal what is really going on!

 It's a reminder to all of us artists (big, small, fuzzy, or not at all) that there are NO mistakes in art...there are merely "Flopportunities"! 

Now for the 411 on how I made this card!

• This was the first time I've worked with embossing paste with stencils. I will admit, it took me a few tries to get the technique down to where I wasn't making a horendous mess everywhere...but only a few tries.  I squeegeed the paste onto black cardstock for my first 2 attempts. Then, I got brave and stenciled onto transparency film. I was surprised that it was actually much easier going onto the transparency than the paper. It produced a much cleaner stencil. Surprise, surprise! 

• I was working with pearl white embossing paste, which left me with the freedom (and challenge) of adding color to it. I've read about several methods of adding coloring mediums to wet paste, but I decided to let mine dry in its natural pearly-white state and THEN add color. 

• I experimented with several different methods...alcohol ink, alcohol markers, Sharpies, Twinkling H20 paint, Pearl-X powders...they all worked, but some were messy, some were too dark, some too light. 

• I finally pulled out my Crafter's Companion Spectrum Aqua markers (watercolor markers) and tried those. THEY WORKED GREAT. Not too light, not too dark, translucent coverage, easy and clean to work with, and permanent when dry.

• I didn't want to waste my early efforts on the black cardstock, so I cut them to size and mounted them behind the die-cut panels on the front flaps of the card. I love how the color is just peeking through the die cut here and there, plus, it hides the inside of the card! The inside background of the card is the transparency film I stenciled onto...I cut it to size and mounted it with foam tape so that it's slightly elevated off the background.

• For the final touch, I added the stamped image (which I fussy-cut and separated). I colored my image with colored pencils. The sentiment is hand-written and cut out of cardstock that has been washed with color from the Spectrum Aqua markers.

Stampendous supplies used:

• Stamp: Painting Pals
• Stencil: Paint Splats   
• Embossing paste: Pearlescent  

Other supplies used:

• Dies: Diorama Gate Fold (Sizzix Thinlits Plus)
• Spectrum Aqua pens (Crafter's Companion)
• Prismacolor colored pencils 

I am the caboose of this section of the hop, so you should have already visited all the other DT member's blogs. But if not, here is a list of all our Mousey DT, so you can hop on over to see their fabulous makes!! Just click on their names to be whisked away to their blog!

• America
• Beth
• Christine
• Diane
• Dorte
• Karen
• Kate
• Lori
• Snoopy
• Sue D
• Sue K
• Torrey (that's me!) 
• Stampendous Design Team entries  
• Woodware Craft Collection Design Team entries
• The Stencil Specialists Design Team entries
  

HOW TO ENTER:

1. Comment on DT's posts and Create something fun and a little bit wonderful. It’s not a talent show, winners are randomly selected. Use an HMD image PLUS a stencil on your work (or choose “anything goes”). It doesn’t have to be a card, it can be any kind of project. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
2. Post your creation online. You can post it anywhere that will give it a unique URL (internet address). Most folks have a blog, but you can post on Flickr, or PhotoBucket, sites like Split Coast Stampers, or even on your Google+ account. (ps…creating a blog is free! What are you waiting for?)
3. Get the URL for the specific post that contains your project – click on the title of your post, copy the URL from your browser’s title bar, click on the inLinkz picture on the HMFMC post, paste your URL into the tool. Add your name and email address and voila, you’re entered!

TO WIN A FABULOUS PRIZE...
You’ll need to COMMENT AND ENTER a PROJECT into the Challenge. So get ready to be inspired and you Hop along. You'll get one entry for each comment you leave on a post at HMFMC Blog, HMFMC Team member’s blog, Stampendous blog, and/or Stampendous Team member’s blogs.  (please, only one comment per post, per person)  

There will be 3 WINNERS, yes 3, for THREE Lucky players! 

 Each will win a stencil, a jar of paste and an House-Mouse Designs stamp. Open to everyone with the understanding that international winners may have to pay customs duties and fees to collect their prize.

WOW! How FUN is that??  Don't MISS OUT!  Be sure to play to win!