Stampendous and DecoArt Blog Hop - Day 1

Servus and welcome to the start of an exciting week with some massive blog hopping with DecoArt in collaboration with Stampendous, who have provided the members of the DecoArt International Design Team (featuring Andy Skinner) with loads of their awesome stuff so they could join in and show what they can create with their lovely stamps, stencils, embossing powders and enamels and the Creative Palette!

But I guess I better first let Stampendous do the talking:

 "Our great friends at DecoArt are joining with us this week to show you what you can do with stamps and acrylic paint! 

You'll be amazed how these two craft items make amazing things! Artists from all over the world will be playing with Stampendous and DecoArt. Prepare to be amazed! Of course, there are prizes! DecoArt is sending three sets of their Media Fluid Acrylics to international commenters, and we'll be adding a $20 Stampendous Reward card to each one so you can choose the stamps or essentials you'd most like to work with!! 

Visit each blog, leave a comment! • Like Stampendous and DecoArt on Facebook! • We've also got a Pinterest Board started!

Please repin our projects on to your boards and be sure to tag us when you do (#Stampendous and #DecoArt) - we'll be tracking. Your comments on the blogs are your entry into the drawing! We'll randomly choose three blog posts from all the designer posts this week and then choose a winner from each to receive a prize package. BUT I have a few bonus goodies hanging around my office for some lucky people who SHARE our Facebook posts and Pinterest Pins! Sorry, even though our artists are from all over the world, you still have to have a U.S. Mailing Address to win. The Official Rules can help explain why. Ready for your trip around the world??? Let's get Hoppin!

Claudia Neubacher (Vienna, Austria)

Kristine Reynolds (California, USA)

Iliane de Fockert (Elly) (Niedersachsen, Germany)

Julia Stratford-Wright (near London, UK)*

Julie Robertson (UK)

Asia King (Oxford, England)

Jessa Plant (Arizona, USA)

Kathi Rerek (New Jersey, USA)*

The Official Rules can be found here. Ready for your trip around the world??? Let's get Hoppin!"

* Sorry - there was a mistake with the first version of the link, but it is updated and should work now. 

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I hope everything is clear now and you can enjoy a wonderful inspiring hop! As I have the special honour to open this terrific event, I really hope you like my little "Take Away Sketch Journal" I made for a very special and talented young lady (so she can note her ideas for more great poetry in it whenever they hit her mind). 

DecoArt also sent a huge bundle of their new Media fluid acrylics line to their DT so we all can experiment and explore the new possibilities to show them to you, makes this event even more exciting! 


And this is the awesome load of goodness I was able to play with during the last days:

Awesome, isn't it? The new fluid acrylics from the DecoArt media range contain an incredible amount of pigments and I love the opaque tones as well as the translucent ones! There's an "Interference" colours range too, antiquing creme and some fab texture media like crackle glaze and paste and different varnishes - just to name a few. If you hop over to the blogs of my fab teamies (throughout the week) you will find the whole variety there is to choose from - and what you can create with it!

This week is going to see a lot of inspiration from the Stampendous AND the DecoArt International DT members and there will be new posts from Monday to Friday - and some chances to win goodies and give-aways too! So make sure you check back each day with Stampendous and DecoArt to not miss any of the fun! Also make sure to read to the bottom of this post so you don't miss a very special give away from fabulous Andy Skinner himself! Yay!


I highly recommend you visit all the blogs of my creative colleagues and get inspired (but to leave some words of encouragement as well - these are highly appreciated, you know?)! You won't regret it! I promise!


For a start I had a heavy play with the Creative Palette from Stampendous, which works really well as a palette to spread your acrylic colours on but also as a monoprinting plate! You simply apply acrylic colours - like the DecoArt Media fluid acrylics or the Americana paints - alongside some DecoArt Gel Medium or Fluid Medium (or other drying time extenders) - to the palette with a brayer, take off colour with stamps or bubble wrap, doodle into it, use masks... and pull your prints (applying pressure to the back of the paper with your hands or a brayer). Especially printing several layers in separate goes produces the most intriguing results!

You can see the Creative Palette to the left and one of the prints I pulled. It is the one I used to create a thin notebook from as I used a heavier paper with it - so it worked really well as a cover for a light-weight notebook with a sewn binding.

The white circles were done by positioning cut out paper (or acetate) masks before laying down the paper to pull the print. I like to use these areas where the white paper still shows through to add more detailed texture or text.

I stamped some "Brush Strokes" images (from the Stampendous stamp set) first - using DecoArt Traditions "Carbon Black", the Creative Palette and a piece of cut'n dry foam to apply the colour evenly to the stamps.

For more opaque stamped images I used some colours of the Americana range alongside the new Media Fluid Acrylic paints.

Slowly the layers of my cover began to build up and create depth. I also used DecoArt Dazzling Metallics for some of my stamping - to add a bit of metal shine and "bling". I hope a bit of it can be seen with this image:

The golden stamped dots circle was stamped with DecoArt Media "Interference Gold" - which is very subtle but gives a rather delicate feel to your creations.

For a finish I added some detail with a white Sharpie pen and black watercolour pencil.

I then cut the cover to size, folded it and cut some sheets of paper to according size to sew them to the cover.

And this is how the finished project looks like:

I hope you like it! I had such a ball playing with the Creative Palette and the beautiful stamps and the new DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics go a long way with just a little droplet! Stampendous stamp sets used: Brush Strokes, Grunge, Wired.

Also up for grabs - exclusively on the Decoart International Design Team Blog posts -  is a chance to win a one off piece of artwork from brilliant Andy Skinner who will choose one winner from the comments on our blog posts on Thursday and will announce the winner on his Facebook page on Friday: Andy Skinner  facebook page

Didn't promise too much, did I? ;)

I will share some more projects I created for the DecoArt-Stampendous blog hop on Wednesday and Friday - so make sure you come back to check them out! Thanks for stopping by my place and enjoy hopping!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia x