Shoes, shoes, shoes!

Happy May everyone! It's still a little chilly here, and has been kind of rainy, but warmer, sunnier days are coming, I just know it! With nicer weather comes the opportunity to break out all those strappy, summery shoes we own, so this week the Stampendous Design Team is sharing ideas using the wonderful shoe and matching sentiment stamps and stencils fromStampendous!

Today I'm using the fabulous new Stiletto Metal Stencil (FMS4022) that was released in April. This beautiful design is perfect for bridal shower invites or cards, girls' night out, Mother's Day, birthday...well I think you understand.

"Wish Shoe Well!"

Stampendous:

FMS4022 Stiletto Metal Stencil
CRR257 Cling Shoes Galore Rubber Stamp
SSC1247 Shoe Sense Perfectly Clear Stamp Set
MEM01 Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Dreamweaver:

DWDGKP Glossy Black Embossing Paste
DWDPK Palette Knife
DWLM2010 Paste Spreader

Plus:
Black Cardstock
White Cardstock
Copic Marker 100
Removable tape

Instructions:

Step 1:  Fold a 7" x 10" piece of Black cardstock in half to form an A7 card
Step 2:  Cut a 4" x 4 3/4" piece of the white cardstock

Step 3: Tape the Stiletto stencil to the white cardstock with removable tape 
Step 4:  Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply a coat of Glossy Black Embossing Paste over the image, remove the stencil and place in water for cleaning, let paste dry

Step 5:  Stamp the Shoes Galore image on white cardstock, trim to 3 1/4" x 4 3/4", edge with black marker
Step 6: Stamp the sentiment on a scrap of white cardstock, trim to 3/4" x 2 1/8", edge with black marker and mat on a small piece of black cardstock

Step 7: When the paste is dry, trim the two longer sides a little closer to the shoe, adhere a strip of black cardstock along the right side
Step 8:  Assemble the card by adhereing the Shoes Galore image to the right side of the card front and the Stiletto to the left side
Step 9:  Use foam tape to add the sentiment

Here's today's list of designers:

Stampendous Blog

Laura Drahozal

Kristine Reynolds

Louise Healy

Happy Creating,
Louise

Peaceful Wishes

This week the Stampendous Design Team has been featuring the Small Canvas Tote from Canvas Corp on our blogs. These cute little bags are fun to use and there are so many ways to decorate them! Be sure to stop over at the Stampendous Blog each day for the list of that day's hoppers.
And, of course, there are prizes!

Yesterday, I showed my bag, here it is again:

I based the design of the bag on a card that I made for the Stampendous October 2015 Catalog. If I use it as a gift, I have a matching card!

"Peaceful Wishes"

Supplies
Stampendous
CRW166 Cling Queen Annes Lace
FRC03 Frantage Color Fragments Chiffon

Dreamweaver
DWLL591 Three Butterflies Stencil
DWDGBK Glossy Black Embossing Paste
DWDPK Dreamweaver Palette Knife
DWLM2010 Paste Spreader

Plus
Bazzill Basics cardstock
Neenah Papers Classic Crest Cover Natural #80
Heat Tool
Memento Ink Tuxedo Black
Distress Inks - scattered straw, wild honey, rusty hinge, peeled paint, forest moss
Removable Tape
Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive
Double-sided tape

Instructions

Step 1:  Fold a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of Natural cardstock in half to form an A2 top-fold card

Step 2:  Rip off a piece of  1" removable tape (painter's tape works well) slightly wider than the card

Step 3:  Start with the lightest color, scattered straw, and gently pat the sticky side of the tape over the ink pad until there is ink almost all the way across the tape

Step 4:  Press the inked side of the tape across the top edge of the Natural card, rub very lightly to transfer the ink to the card, repeat 3 or 4 times down the card

Step 5:  Press the tape into the next color, wild honey, and place that over the last two areas of the previous color,  press the tape into the rusty hinge and place over the last wild honey area

Step 6:  Take a fresh piece of tape and apply the two greens in the same way to the bottom of the card, first peeled paint, then forest moss

Step 7: Place the Queen Annes Lace stamp on an acrylic handle, ink with Memento Tuxedo Black and stamp at the bottom edge of the card, repeat across the card

Step 8:  Heat the inked background and stamped image with a heat tool to make sure they are dry before continuing

Step 9:  Tape the Three Butterflies stencil to the left side of the card with removable tape, and use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply Glossy Black Embossing Paste over the image

Step 10:  Remove and clean the stencil, let paste dry thoroughly

Step 11:  Adhere the card to a 4 5/8" x 6" piece of dark green cardstock

Step 12:  Crush up some Chiffon Color Fragments into small piece and apply to the bottom edge of the card with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive

Here are today's hoppers:

Stampendous Blog

Laura Drahozal

Pam Hornschu

Alison Heikkila

Louise Healy

Lea Fritts

Happy Creating,

Louise

Flaunty, Haunty Kitty!

What a fun week, really month, this is on the Stampendous Design Team! We are having a Spook-tacular time sharing our Halloween ideas with all of you! Halloween happens to be one of my favorite holidays and I was sad when my kids grew up and moved away and there was no one to decorate for anymore. But of course I came to my senses and realized I could decorate just for ME, exactly how I wanted the decorations to be! So each fall I dig out my favorite things and make a few new things (that's half the fun isn't it!). Now I have my two granddaughters to share in the excitement too.

Our theme of "Got It? Haunt It!" seemed just purr-fect for our Dreamweaver Retro Sitting Cat (DWLL3020), because cats love to flaunt their stuff, don't they! This little kitty is very Flaunty AND Haunty!

"I've Got It!"

I paired this jaunty cat with the Design I beam stencil (DWLX7028) for a really retro look, as well as the sentiment and hat from the Stampendous Witchy Legs set (SSC1230).

Witchy Legs SSC1230

Here are the instructions:

Stampendous:
SSC1230 Witchy Legs Perfectly Clear Stamps™
Perfectly Clear™ Acrylic Handle
MEM01 Memento™ Tuxedo Black Ink by Tsukineko®
Orange Micro Glitter

Dreamweaver:
DWLL3020 Retro Sitting Cat Stencil
DWLX7028 Design I Beam Stencil
DWDGKP Glossy Black Embossing Paste
DWLM2010 Paste Spreader
DWDPK Dreamweaver Palette Knife

Plus:
Cardstock by AMuse, Basic Grey,Hanko
Copic Sketch Markers - Y00, Y15, Y17, YR68, YG11, YG03, BV0000, BV00, BV02, BV13, W1, W2, W6, 100
Glue Dots
Double-sided tape
Foam tape
x-acto knife and cutting mat
Removable tape
Glue Pen
May Arts Ribbon

Instructions:

1. step 1 Fold a 7" x 10" piece of orange AMuse cardstock in half to form an A7 card
2. step 2 Tape the cat stencil to a 2 3/4" x 3 3/4" piece of distress orange paper with removable tape, use the palette knife and paste spreader to apply Glossy Black Embossing Paste, remove stencil, let paste dry thoroughly
3. step 3 Tape the I Beam stencil to a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of distress orange paper with removable tape, use palette knife and paste spreader to apply Glossy Black Embossing Paste, remove stencil, let paste dry thoroughly
4. step 4 Cut a 5" x 7" piece of decorative purple background paper, edge with a black marker, adhere to the front of the card
5. step 5 Cut a 4 1/2" x 5 3/4" piece of distress orange paper, edge with a black marker, adhere to the purple layer placing it closer to the top than the bottom
6. step 6 Stamp the Hat from the Witchy Leg set of a scrap piece of white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black, color with Copic markers, cut it out
7. step 7 Stamp the saying from the set on a 1 1/8" x 2" piece of distress orange paper with Memento Tuxedo Black, color the edges slightly and edge with a black marker
8. step 8 Mat the saying on a 1 3/8" x 2 1/4" piece of Lavender cardstock also edged with black
9. step 9 When the paste is dry, edged the I Beam piece with a black marker and adhere to the orange mat on the card
10. step 10 When the paste is dry, edge the Cat piece with a black marker, use an x-acto knife to carefully make a slit around the right ear, also make a slit in the hat so it will slide over the cat's head, use a glue dot on the back of the hat to hold it in place
11. step 11 Cut a 3" x 4" piece of lavender cardstock, edge with a black marker, adhere the cat to the lavender mat then to the I Beam layer
12. step 12 Use foam tape to add the sentiment
13. step 13 Use a glue pen around the brim of the hat and sprinkle with Orange micro glitter, then do the corners of the saying too

See the shininess of the Black Glossy Paste!

Glitter makes everything flauntier!

Hope you're having a howlin' good time with our team this month. Here's the list of flaunty ideas for today:

Stampendous Blog

Lyn Bernatovich

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Fritts

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Laura Drahozal

Louise Healy

Pam Hornschu
Alison Heikkila

Several of our designers are also participating in Smeared Ink’s 31 Days of Halloween, so be sure to check out the Stampendous Blog each day in October for their links.


Happy Creating,
Louise

Happy Birthday Week 3!

Welcome to our Birthday celebration for the year 2015! In honor of that, we've decided that our monthly challenge for January will be Birthday Wishes. We'd love for you to play along with us, and link your creations to the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of this post, or on the Dream It Up! blog, for a chance to win the stencil of your choice...and remember, using Dreamweaver products gets you bonus points towards an extra stencil!

My creation this week didn't turn out how I had first envisioned it, but I really like it. I meant for it to have a more Spring-time feel, because we could use a little Spring here in northern IL! Here's my birthday wish for this week:

LX7014 Daisy background - dry embossed on glossy cardstock, colored with Color Solutions Alcohol Inks
LL548 Daisies - paste embossed with Glossy Black, FX Powders sprinkled on then heated, outlined with a fine tip Sharpie

LG704 Birthday words stenciled with black ink

Of course, more birthday inspirations coming your way from our "A" team:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Happy Creating,

Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

August as an Adjective continues!

As we are heading towards back-to-school again, it is only appropriate that we break out our dictionary for this month's Dreamweaver challenge..."AUGUST as an ADJECTIVE"! 

Merriam-Webster defines august as, "marked by majestic dignity or grandeur", with synonyms such as, "dignified, distinguished, imposing, portly, solemn, staid, and stately". Now, I don't know just how dignified and stately the Dream Team can become for an entire month, but we are all going to give it a try! How about trying along with us, and linking YOUR creations to the inlinkz tool below for a chance to win the wildest stencil design your little heart is screaming for. 

Here's my creation for this week:

LL3011 - Lovebirds Heart 

LL3011 -Lovebirds Heart in Pearlescent Embossing Paste on cream paper

LL3011 - Lovebirds Heart in Glossy Black Embossing Paste on white paper

Of course, everything looks better embellished with a beautiful ribbon from May Arts!

Put on a straight face for the "A" team this week:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Happy Creating,

Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

August Christmas in August Day 4!

Yes! It's that time of year again! The time when we inspire crafters on both sides of the "pond" with a mix of bothDreamweaver and Woodware UK* products for the holidays! Six days, SIX, of beautiful, elegant, merry, cute, artsy, and craftsy projects to have you heading out to your local stores or internet sites to buy these goodies immediately!

Of course, there will be prizes as well. Three prize packages will be given to three commenters during this week's posts on the team's blogs, including five stencils and one nested die set. You can have an opportunity to win these goodies by leaving some holiday sweetness for each team member posting each day, to be one of the three winners for the week. Here are the team members that are inspiring you today:

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Laura Drahozal

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren

Kristine Reynolds 

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Gill Wilson

Lea Kimmel

Crafty Debs
Debs Frost
Alison Heikkila

Thursday is our normal posting day for the weekly Dreamweaver challenge, so I combined our "August as an Adjective" challenge with this week's "Christmas in August" theme for my card today. Here's my creation: 

LG731 Holly flourish and LL3005 Holly and swirls stencils
plus the new matching die DL3005 Holly and swirls!

LL3005 and DL3005 used to create the crackled holly leaves

This beautiful card has a few steps, but no one takes very long, and the results are worth it! 

• Paste emboss the Holly and swirls (LL3005) stencil with Glossy Blue (or black if you don't have blue) Embossing Paste, remove and clean stencil and let paste dry
• Place the clean stencil back over the dry paste and add a coat of Crackle Embossing Paste, remove & clean stencil, let paste dry
• In the meantime, place the Holly flourish stencil (LG731) on a piece of white cardstock and tape in place with removable tape
• Place a drop or two of Wendy Vecchi's Archival Re-inker Red Geranium on a craft sheet or palette and pick it up with a 1/4" stencil brush, be sure to work the ink up into your bristles before stenciling with it
• Use the Picasso tool (LL332) and place one of the small holes over each berry area to stencil on ink with the brush you loaded, wipe off the Picasso with a soft cloth before continuing to the next color
• Place several drops of Wendy Vecchi's Archival Re-inker Fern Green on a craft mat and load a different stencil brush with this, stencil the leaves and swirls with the Fern Green using the Picasso tool as a shield around the berries
• Remove and clean the stencil
• Use a 3/4" brush to pick up some of the Fern Green and brush a light coat around the edges of the entire piece
• Use a heat tool to set the inks
• Place the clean, dry Holly stencil back over the dry Crackle paste and use the Fern Green ink and brush to color the holly leaves
• Gently heat set the ink
• Place the matching Holly die over the crackled image and run through your die cut maching
• Cut the leaves away from the rest of the image and brush a little more green ink along the edges
• Mount everything into an august card embellished with a beautiful ribbon from May Arts

*For a stockist near you contact Woodware Craft Collection in the UK and Notions Marketing in the USA.

Happy Creating,

Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

Mysterious and Magical Week 4!

Are you enjoying being spooked, mystified and magically transported to the land of Halloween and holidays? The Dream Team train continues this week to journey through all things Mysterious and Magical for our October challenge. Our guest "engineer" is Miss Eerie herself, Alison Heikkila. October promises to be a very bumpy ride...
I made several of the little witch's hats that I showed you last week on the Retro standing cat stencil (LL3021), (click here if you missed it!), so this week I've put another hat to good use on this fun card!

LJ841 Fleur de lis  and LL3017 Cameo
Hat is LM173 Birdbath and LM183 Ice cream cones

The beautiful background stencil is Dreamweaver Stencils Fleur de lis (LJ841),  and the "witch" is the Cameo stencil (LL3017). The stylish hat was created from the Birdbath (LM173) and Ice cream cones (LM183) stencils that I showed you last week. 
All images were pasted with Glossy Black Embossing Paste, then the background and Cameo were sprinkled with Metallic F/X Nouveau Orange powder while the paste was wet. Let the paste dry, and then assemble.
The "WICKED!" stamp is from A Muse Artstamps (now a muse studio), and the wonderful ribbons are May Arts. The background paper is an old BasicGrey Halloween paper (from 2009!, I hoard paper can you tell).
You won't want to miss the rest of the team blogs for more Mysterious and Magical creations!

Dream It Up! 

Alison Heikkila 

Lea Kimmel 

Louise Healy 

Stacey Rumsby 

Terrece Siddoway 

Wendy Jordan 

Pam Hornschu 

Happy Creating,
Louise

Mysterious and Magical Week 3!

OK, am I the only one that feels like time has sped up! I truly don't know how it got to be the middle of October already! I haven't even worked on my Halloween cards yet, much less Thanksgiving and Christmas! Mysteriously it all seems to get done eventually...maybe that's the Magical!
Are you ready to be spooked, mystified and magically transported to the land of Halloween and holidays? Hop on board the Dream Team train as we journey through all things Mysterious and Magical through the month of October. Our guest "engineer" is Miss Eerie herself, Alison Heikkila. October promises to be a very bumpy ride...
I really love witches' hats at Halloween, I always answer my door on Halloween night dressed all in black and wearing  a tall black witch hat. Alas, Dreamweaver Stencils does not have a witch hat stencil (I've talked to Lynell about that!) so I have gotten creative once more to make the perfect little hat for our wonderful Retro Standing Cat stencil (LL3021), my own version of "Cat in the Hat" so to speak! (If you missed my first hat creation, click here to see it) Here he is:

LL3021- Retro Standing Cat  - Glossy Black Embossing Paste
Black glitter from Art Glitter, and Green linen ribbon from May Arts

 Now, to create that cute little hat that is just the right size, I've combined parts of two other stencils, LM173 Birdbath, and  LM183 Ice Cream cones,  Paste with Glossy Black Embossing Paste, cut them out, layer them, add a little glitter pen to hide where they meet and create the look of a band around the hat, add it to the cat with foam mounting tape.

LM173 - Birdbath tape off just the bowl portion
LM183 Ice cream cones tape off the cone portion

Hope you like my Cat in the Hat, and will come up with some creative ways to use parts of your stencils to create magical designs!
Here are other team member links so you can look at their wonderful creations too!

Dream It Up! 

Alison Heikkila 

Laura Drahozal 
Lyn Bernatovich 
Pam Hornschu 
Heidi Erickson 
Louise Healy  
Cyndi Bundy

Happy Creating,
Louise