Stampendous Challenge is cleaning up this Saturday

Today is the last inspiration Saturday for our April Stampendous challenge to Recycle~Repurpose~Reuse something into a project. I hope you have had a chance to join us in all the fun, but if you haven't there is still a few days left before we close the books on this challenge.

We want YOU to play along with us!  You have until Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 11:59 PM EST to add your direct link to our collection at the end of this post (or on the Stampendous blog).  You do not have to use Stampendous products, but we sure love it when you do!  As an extra incentive for playing along, one lucky crafter (drawn at random) will receive this fabulous Mother's Love Perfectly Clear Stamp Set.  Available in stores now, it will be on the website for purchase soon!

Due to shipping restrictions, the winner must have a US address.  We hope you have a chance to play along with us (you can enter as many times as you'd like!) this month...Happy Crafting!

Now my project today could not have been completed without a few prayers in the wee hours of last night and the encouragement I get from the Stampendous team. They are over the top encourager's of the crafting community. Thanks gals, you are the best at bringing out the craftiness in all of us. Seriously.

Okay, you know two things about me? I can usually find a use for something if I think on it long enough and once I've got the idea it doesn't go away until I've tried it. With that in mind, my repurpose on my project is a bottle cap! I thought about how to get it into a card project and unfortunately my mind couldn't go easy or simple it had to go altered art. So I got educated through YouTube on smashing bottle caps with my Cuttlebug. Mine did not come out as uniform and cool as in the video because I used screw off caps... trust me... don't use them.

I sprinkled some Aged Gold Embossing Enamel into the center of the flattened cap and heated it from the back all while holding it with tweezers. I sprinkled some UTEE (no reason but you could also use Stampendous Chunky Clear too) over the top of it and heated again. For some reason the Aged Gold EE "cottled" or separated into a black and gold pattern. Really cool looking. I stamped with metallic ink the butterfly from the Charm Collection. 

I tried to stamp the frame from the Stampendous Vintage Frame set (new set alert!!!!) with the gold metallic ink and it just didn't show very well so I sprinkled some Stampendous Pirate Gold Embossing Enamel over it. Ka-chow! That worked so great I added another stamped image on the base of the memo stand (look at the detail image at the beginning of the post).

Everything I have added to this project is either a scrap or leftover from some other project. I know you've seen the Maya Road flower ribbon... the hemp twine... mini clothespins... but also some old new you might not have seen... a musical clef paper clip from a card project 3 years ago and an upholstery tack. The corsage pins are from making corsages last year. The wood stand is leftover wood that I put together with a little bit of chiseling with an Xacto knife and glue. It's painted with leftover craft paint from a MOPS project and one that hasn't happened yet. I trimmed down a piece of ledger paper that's ephemera from my dad's house. It looked too new so I spritzed it with some coffee spray (instant coffee and water in a spray bottle).

Well, I hope you enjoyed this month's challenge and if you haven't jumped in and gotten a little creative with us... you still have some time. All right, there's more inspiration to see from the fabulous Stampendous design team!!!!!

Stampendous Impressions
Janelle Stollfus - me
Jennifer Dove
Lea Kimmel
Jennifer Ingle
Pam Hornshu
Wendy Price 
Susie Moore
Taylor Usry

Tenia Nelson

Wendy Jordan

Details: 
Stamps: Vintage Frames (Stampendous), Charm Collection (Stampendous)
Paper: Ephemera ledger paper from my dad's house
Ink: Versamark Watermark (Tsukineko), Gold Metallic ink (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Clear acrylic handle (Stampendous), Aged Gold Embossing Enamel, Pirate Gold Embossing Enamel, UTEE, wood scraps, burnt umber~Blue Ice Mist acrylic paints, Black pearl acrylic paint, bottle caps, twine, clothespin, flower ribbon, corsage pins, paper clip, upholstery tack, spray bottle of coffee spray