Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all! I hope you have a wonderful day with your family, or even just by yourself doing crafts! Do you still need a "little something" for your Mother or friend? Then my project this week for the Dreamweaver Stencils May challenge of Tiny Treats or Treasures could be the perfect thing. It really doesn't take that long to make even though there are several steps.
I used the wonderful new Shasta Flower Trio (LL3031) stencil to create this fun notecard folder. This makes a great hostess gift or teacher gift too.

Shasta Flower Trio - LL3031

Start by cutting two pieces of chipboard 5" x 7", and
two pieces of decorative paper (text weight works best) 6" x 8"

Use a permanent glue stick to cover one side of the chipboard with a nice
coating of glue (you can use any adhesive that you like for this, I use glue sticks because
they are very inexpensive and do the job well)

Place it glue side down on the back of the decorative paper,
turn it over and burnish it well with a dry, wadded up paper towel or rag

Trim the corners, do not go all the way to the chipboard, you need a little
to cover the corners

Add glue to the edge of the chipboard and the paper,
bring the two long edges over first, then the two shorter one, tucking
in the little wing at the corners (like when you wrap a present),
burnish well

Repeat for the other cover

Use a contrasting piece of paper to create a spine 2 3/4" x 8",
on the back side of the spine paper
measure in 1" from each side, mark near the top and bottom

Put glue along the outer edges of the spine paper,
use the marks to line up the covers, centering top to bottom,
carefully turn the whole thing over and burnish well

Add glue to the small flaps at the top and bottom and
fold them in making sure to press them into the spine opening,
burnish well

To form the corner pockets for inside the folder
cut two pieces of the decorative paper 4" x 4"
Score 3/4" from two adjacent sides, crease well

Trim out the little square of paper from where the two creases crossed,
fold the opposite corner over to form a triangle, glue the triangle down,
repeat for the other piece

Cut a piece of contrasting paper (I like to use the same paper as the spine) 6 3/4" x 10 1/2"
Put glut on the two small flaps of one corner pocket and attach one pocket to each bottom corner
of the inside paper

Put glut on the entire back of the inside paper making sure to get all the way to the edges
Center the paper inside the covers burnishing it well all over
Press the paper gently into the spine area

Use a bone folder to carefully crease the paper into the spine

Fold in the two sides to form your folder

Cut 5 pieces of  yellow paper 2 1/2" x 4 1/2"
Tape your stencil to the paper with removable tape
Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply
Dreamweaver Embossing Paste (regular matte white) to the stencil

Repeat for a total of 5 images
Wash and dry your stencil and tools

Let the paste dry for a couple of minutes (about 5)
Use a soft brush to carefully apply Dreamweaver Metallic F/X powders to the
flower centers and leaves (Goldfinch, Kiwi, Ivy Garden), let dry completely then
wipe off excess powders with a Swiffer cloth

Cut four white cards 4 1/4" x 11", score at 5 1/2" and fold in half

Add a strip of matching cover paper to one side of each card,
mount the flowers on small black mats and place one on each card
(black mat 2 5/8" x 4 5/8")

Put two cards and two envelopes in each side pocket

Mount one matted flower with foam tape to the cover,
add three Candies (paper brads, I colored them black to match)
You could also add a beautiful May Arts ribbon around the notebook before adding the image  and tie
a pretty bow for a closure.

 Well, I hope you made it all the way through! I know it was a lot of pictures, but these are so easy to make and with all the paper choices and stencil choices, the possibilities are truly endless! If you want to add more notecards, you would need to leave a wider spine and adjust the size of your inside paper accordingly.

Be sure to stop over at the other designer's blogs for more Tiny Treat ideas. We hope you will consider joining our challenge this month, just add your project to on the DREAM it UP! blog for a chance to win a beautiful stencil of your choice. You can also join the challenge by sending a picture of your project directly to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and she will post it for you. Good luck!

 Dream It Up!

Lea Kimmel 
Stacey Rumsby 
Terrece Siddoway
Caroline Duncan 
Pam Hornschu 
Cherylynn Moser

Happy Creating,
Louise