Ride the Wave!

It's O-fish-al!! The Stampendous Design Team will be sharing projects this week that we made for the April 2016 Catalog using the Graphic45 Voyage Beneath the Sea background papers. 

Prizes

Put on your underwater gear and swim through our posts and featured designer’s blog posts this week to comment because we have an ocean of goodies in three (3) prize packages. Each comment is your entry for a chance at one of the prize packages. See Official Contest Rules for details. Deadline to comment is Sunday night, April 17th .

Three winners will receive a prize package with one of our new matching sea theme stamp and die sets (Seashells, Sailboat and Mermaid Friends), Ocean Wisdom Perfectly Clear Stamp Set PLUS a sample of papers from the Graphic 45 Papers Voyage Beneath the Sea Collection.

Here's what I created today featuring the beautiful DWLL477 Wave Crest Stencil, the NEW EK22 Beach Embossing Kit, with DWLJ890 Flourishes Stencil in the background!

"Ride the Wave!"

 

Stampendous:
EK22 Beach Embossing Kit
EPA50 HT400 Embossing Heat Tool

Dreamweaver:

DWLL477 Wave Crest Stencil
DWLJ890 Flourishes Stencil
DWDGWP Glossy White Embossing Paste
DWDPK Palette Knife
DWLM2010 Paste Spreader
DWNHB-12 1/2" Brush #12 Natural Handle

Plus:
My Colors Cardstock - Caribbean Sea, Spearmint
Graphic 45 Cardstock Deep Blue Dreams 4501324
Memento Ink - Teal Zeal
Copic Markers - BG09, BG72, BG10
White Foam Tape
Removable tape

Instructions:

Step 1:  Fold a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of Caribbean Sea cardstock in half to form a top fold A2 card
Step 2:  Cut three pieces of Spearmint cardstock, one 3 3/4" x 5", one 3" x 4 3/8" and one 1 5/8" x 3 1/8"

Step 3: Tape the Flourishes stencil to the largest piece of Spearmint paper with removable tape, use a 1/2" stencil brush to apply the Teal Zeal ink through the stencil, remove and clean the stencil, edge the stenciled piece with the BG09 marker, adhere to the card front
Step 4:  Cut a 3" x 4" piece of the Graphic 45 Deep Blue Dreams paper and edge with the BG09 marker, adhere to the stenciled layer near the lower right corner

Step 5:  Tape the Wave Crest stencil to the 3" x 4 3/8" piece of Spearmint  paper with removable tape
Step 6: Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply a coat of Glossy White Embossing Paster over the image, use the palette knife to dab some extra paste on the crest of the wave, remove the stencil and place in water for cleaning

Step 7: Immediately sprinkle the wet paste with the powders from the Beach Embossing Kit, using the Chunky White on the crest area and a combination of the three blues in the wave area, tap off extra powders, use a heat tool to set the powders and puff the paste a little

Step 8:  Measure in 3/4" from each side of the pasted piece along the top and bottom edges, use a pencil to lightly draw a line from top to bottom connecting the marks, stopping at the crest and restarting on the other side of it, do this on both sets of marks

Step 9:  Use a scissors to carefully cut on one line up to the Crest, then around the Crest and continue on the line to the other edge, repeat on the other side of the Crest, edge the cut out Crest with the BG09 marker, carefully use the BG72 marker to create a shadow along the edges of the waves

Step 10: Edge the remaining piece of Spearmint paper with the BG09 marker, add three white brads, and adhere to the card front more towards the bottom than the top

Step 11:  Use foam tape to add the cut out Wave Crest layer

Check out more great samples on these blogs:

Stampendous Blog

Pam Bray

Louise Healy

Kristine Reynolds

Janelle Stollfus

Happy Creating,

Louise

Celebrate Freedom!

Welcome to the Stampendous - Dreamweaver Design Team final day of our theme "Patriotic Panache".  Yesterday, I shared a Red, White and Blue design featuring Dreamweaver products. Today I'm combining two great Dreamweaver stencils along with some of the fabulous Stampendous embossing powders in the Double Glitter technique (you can see a great video of this technique at the Dreamweaver Stencils by Stampendous youtube channel).

Here's what I created:

"Freedom, something to celebrate!"

There's nothing that says Patriotic like fireworks! I just love them, the closer the better! Here are some basic steps for this:

• Soap the back of the Fireworks stencil (LJ886) 
• Use a 1/2" or 3/4" stencil brush to brush away any extra flakes out the the openings and off the stencil
• Place a piece of Double-sided mounting paper (the same size as the stencil) on a cardstock mat that is slightly larger than the mounting paper, burnish it well
• Remove the release paper and place the stencil, soap side down, on the sticky paper
• Use a piece of the release paper to press the stencil firmly to the adhesive
• Starting with the largest firework in the upper left, I carefully sprinkled it with Stampendous Ruby Red embossing powder and tapped off the extra, making sure to tap off away from the other openings
• Next I added Silver Tinsel embossing powder to the stars and tapped off extra
• Then, Sky Blue embossing powder in the the next, Jeweled Gold embossing powder in the bottom left and more Ruby Red in the lower right
• Gently brush away any powders still clinging to the stencil
• Place the image face down on a clean paper towel or piece of paper and carefully lift the paper off the stencil, being sure to keep your stencil flat on the table
• Heat set all the powders
• Sprinkle the background with crystal glitter
• The Celebrate stencil (LS90) was paste embossed on dark blue paper with Glossy White Embossing Paste, stencil removed, then the wet paste sprinkled with crystal glitter
• The little bits of ribbon are from May Arts 

If you don't have the Fireworks stencil or embossing folder, look through your stencils and see what might work instead. Here's how I created fireworks before I had this wonderful stencil!

LJ892 Spider mums stencil

LJ892 Spider mums

I taped off the stems, paste embossed and added glitter while the paste was wet and let it dry. Then I reversed the stencil to add one more "firework"! Think outside the box, see how creative YOU can get with the stencils you have!

See more great Patriotic designs from these team members:

Stampendous Blog
Pam Hornschu
Louise Healy (that's me!)
Wendy Price
Lea Kimmel

Happy Creating,

Louise

Showers of Showers! Week 1

Welcome to the Stampendous-Dreamweaver Stencils April challenge of "Showers to Showers!" Our designers have so many choices with this theme, baby, wedding, rain...You'll definitely want to see what we come up with each week of April!

Today I chose to interpret the theme this way:

For your Shower!

I thought this would be the perfect card for when you go to a bridal shower this Spring or Summer. It's pretty easy and you can make it to match the color scheme of the shower or wedding.

• Paste emboss the Umbrella stencil, LG737, on colored cardstock using Glossy White Embossing Paste
• Let the paste dry, clean and dry the stencil
• Dry emboss (by hand or with a die cut machine) the Daisies, LL548, and/or the Tall daisies (LL549), three or four times
• Place the stencil back over the embossed image and use stencil brushes to add yellow to the centers (be sure to use your Picasso, LL332 to help you with this!) and a very light blue along the outer edges of the petals (this helps the design show better)
• Cut out the flowers, layer up your card, add a stamped or stenciled saying (I used LG738 Rain words), and you have a beautiful card!

Our "A" wants to "shower" you with lots more ideas, so be sure to stop over and leave them a "shower" of comments!

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Jamie Martin

Happy Creating,
Louise

Week 3 Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

How can it be the third week of September already???? The weather has definitely turned into fall weather, cool sunny days, chilly, chilly nights. I love it! 

It certainly puts me in the mood for starting all my holiday cards. I love Halloween, so I try to do a card for that (I'll share that with you in early October!). Of course, I can't let Thanksgiving slip by without sending cards for that, though I only send about 30-35 of those. 

Then comes Christmas, THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! Especially this year because we will be welcoming our second grandchild Christmas week we hope. I send around 100 or so cards at Christmas time, so I like to get an early start making them and do a couple of different designs.

Here are three cards I designed for my recent class at Memories and Beyond in Downers Grove:

LL3046 Tall Poinsettia Metallic Silver Embossing Paste
with Blue Leafing 

LL3046 Tall Poinsettia and LX7026 Chevron Bkgd
Glossy White Embossing Paste with Crystal glitter sprinkled on the wet paste

LL3046 Tall Poinsettia Double glitter technique using
Art Glitter True Red, Vine, Fool's Gold, and Crystal

This new Poinsettia stencil (LL3046) is so beautiful and looks great in any technique! The new Chevron Bkgd (LX7026)  is such fun to use, notice how the bottom front of the card is trimmed to follow the pattern.

Don't forget to visit the rest of the team blogs for more great holiday inspiration!

Dream It Up!

Wendy Price (GD)

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Happy Creating,
Louise

InLinkz script -->

An InLinkz Link-up

Dreamweaver and Imagine Crafts Day 3!

The Dreamweaver Stencils design team is pairing up with Imagine Crafts to bring you a week filled with creative ideas, you won't want to miss a moment of it!

 Welcome to our first ever collaboration week with IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko! We've shared all of our toys on both sides, so be prepared for Endless Possibilities! Three prize packages are available, each containing one set of each of these inks and stencils/dies. Just leave comments on each post of each day this week (June 9th - June 13th) for a chance to win! Winners will be announced on Tuesday, June 17th!

Imagine Crafts New StazOn Pads from Tsukineko

Stencils and Dies Prize Package

Today I am featuring the beautiful Floral w/dots stencil (LJ927) and VersaFine inks from IMAGINE Crafts. I just love the rich color you get from these quick drying pigment inks.

This couldn't be easier, simply:

• Tape the stencil to white cardstock with removable tape
• Use 1/4" stencil brushes to add color to the design, be sure to have your Picasso (LL332) handy to cover small areas or to work as a shield ( I used Crimson Red & Imperial Purple on the big flower, Habenero & Satin Red on the small flowers (with Memento Dandelion in the centers), and Spanish Moss & Olympia Green on the leaves) 
• Here's what it will look like at that point

I did two at a time to try two different embossing pastes over them

• Clean of the stencil with a soft cloth to get some of the ink off (I left mine in place while I did this)
• Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply a coat of Regular Embossing Paste to one image
• Remove the stencil and immediately sprinkle the wet paste with Crystal glitter, tap off extra, and let paste dry
• Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply a coat of Translucent Embossing Paste over the other image
• Remove the stencil and immediately sprinkle the wet paste with Crystal glitter, tap off extra, and let paste dry
• Here's how they look when dry

Regular Embossing Paste on left, Translucent Embossing Paste on right

Both are beautiful, the Translucent just lets the bold color come through, the Regular leaves it with a more muted look. I could now go back to the one with Regular Paste and add more color if I choose, or use it in the muted form (yes, I am able to stencil right over the glitter, your brush gets a little sparkly, but it washes out). 

My finishing touch was to take a small piece of velvet ribbon from May Arts and tape off one "Thank You" from the Thank yous stencil (LG691), place the stencil on the ribbon and apply Glossy White Embossing Paste over the words. Let dry thoroughly.

Just Imagine the possibilities of what everyone else has created!

Dream It Up!

Kazuko Kocho

Lynn Mercurio

Louise Healy

Jamie Martin

Nancy Hawes 

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Cathy Andronicou

Lyn Bernatovich

Happy Creating,
Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

Flora and Fauna Dreamweaver Style Round 2

Welcome to the merry month of May! The Dream Team are challenging you this month to a "Flora and Fauna" theme! Considering most of the Dreamweaver designs incorporate both of these in the huge variety of stencils, you should have no problem playing along with our challenge this month! As usual, link your creations at the end of the Dream It Up! blog post, or at the end of our posts where it says, "Add Your Link". As the challenge gets underway, you'll see thumbnails of others who are playing along as inspirations for your own creations!

This week I have been busy teaching the Dreamweaver Stencils Certification 2 class along with Pam Hornschu in Geneva IL. Here are a few pics of the class!

Karren from Memories and Beyond, Downers Grove, IL

Carla from Pearl Street Stamping, Tremont, IL
Teachers Margaret and Joan

Jean from Stampin' n Scrapin' Fun, Marshfield, WI
Michelle from Michelle's Crafts, Hayward, WI

Marilyn from Stamp Thyme, Lockport, IL
Pam Hornschu our fearless Dream Team leader!

I have loved the Stylized Dahlia stencil (LG743) ever since it was released. When I'm in a hurry and need a quick, beautiful card I know I can use this stencil and create one in no time. Here are my creations for this week:

LG743 - Stylized dahlia using Pearlescent Embossing Paste and Metallic F/X Powders

LG743 - Stylized dahlia using Glossy White Embossing Paste and glitter

Please welcome our new "B" team, officially posting for the first time!

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds 

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren 

Gill Wilson 

Happy Creating,
Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

Clean and Simple!

Well, we have almost made it through January! I will be so happy to have some days with above zero temperatures!
The Dreamweaver Stencils design team has an extra week this month to share more great samples from the new release of stencils. This week I'm sharing a fun card that could be used for a boy or man's birthday, or for someone you know who loves elephants!

This is very easy, here's how it's done:

• Tape the Pop Rectangles stencil (LJ929) along the left side of an A6 (4 5/8" x 6") piece of  green cardstock with removable tape
• Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply Glossy White Embossing Paste over the design
• Remove and clean the stencil, let the paste dry
• While that is drying, tape the Open Elephant stencil (LG756) to white cardstock with removable tape
• On a piece of freezer paper place a small dollop of Glossy White Embossing Paste and about 1/4" tsp of Pewter Metallic F/X Powder, mix them together using a palette knife
• Apply the colored paste to the Elephant stencil 
• Remove and clean the stencil, let the paste dry
• Cut a small green mat (1/4" larger than the elephant layer) for behind the elephant and a white layer for behind that (1/8" larger than the green layer)
• Cut a white card A6 size (6" x 9 1/4")  and fold in half
• Round the corners of all the layers
• Mount the Pop Rectangles layer on the card front
• Mount the elephant on the small green and white layers
• Use foam tape to adhere the elephant to the card front

The Open Elephant is also great for Zentangle. I will be teaching a Zentangle class featuring this great stencil at Memories and Beyond on Tuesday, February 4th. Call the store to sign up! Here's what we will be creating:

Now hop on over to these other team member blogs for other samples.

Dream It Up!

Louise Healy

Cyndi Bundy

Terrece Siddoway

Cherylynn Moser

Lyn Bernatovich

Pam Hornschu

Lea Kimmel

 

Happy Creating,

Louise

Holidays in a hurry!

The days are rushing past faster and faster. I still do not have my Christmas cards started, much less finished! Each day as we receive more beautiful cards in the mail I realize how far behind I am! Oh well, somehow it all gets finished.
The Dreamweaver Stencils design team has been posting ideas for last minute projects or cards to help you in this busy time of year. I had an idea pictured in my mind using the beautiful Nativity stencil (LL554), it seemed so straight forward! Somehow I just could not make it turn out how I envisioned it, have you ever had a day like that! Here are two attempts, but I'm not very happy with either, so there may be another later if I can get it to do what I want it to do.

Nativity - LL554 and Season of Joy - LX7016

Nativity - LL554 and Lg Peace on Earth - LX7019

See what I mean...they are OK, but not WOW! and I really like to make WOW cards. The first one uses Glossy White Embossing Paste with Crystal glitter on a navy blue shimmer paper for the Nativity stencil. The words from the Season of Joy stencil (LX7016) were stenciled using a small stencil brush and Memento Paris Dusk ink which was then highlighted with a clear glitter pen.
The second card in done on white linen cardstock. The Nativity was dry embossed near the bottom and then stenciled with the Paris Dusk ink. The Lg Peace on Earth - LX7019 was stenciled near the top, had Translucent Embossing Paste put over the ink, then Crystal glitter on the wet paste.After everything was dry, I used a larger stencil brush to add color to the background.

Here is list of other team members who ideas for you too:

Dream It Up! 

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

 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
Happy Creating,
Louise

Mystical and Magical Week 2!

We hope you enjoyed week one of our spooky, mystical and magical land of Halloween and holidays. This week the Dreamweaver design team has another set of great creations to share with you and we hope you will consider joining our challenge. Just link your creation with the linky tool over at the DREAM it UP! blog or email a photo of your work to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and she will post it for you. You could win a prize! 
The month of October we have as our guest designer, Alison Heikkila. October promises to be a very creative month, you won't want to miss any of it!
Here's my design for this week:

LJ816 - Spider web, LL531 - Jack o lanterns
LS28 - Spider, LG749 - Doggy words

Here's how it's done:

• Paste emboss the Spider web stencil (LJ816) with Glossy White Embossing Paste (angle the stencil across the upper left corner of black cardstock)
• Remove the stencil and place in water for cleaning, immediately sprinkle the wet paste with Crystal glitter
• Let dry
• Paste emboss the Jack o lanterns stencil (LL531) with Matte Yellow Embossing Paste in the lower right corner
• Remove the stencil and place in water for cleaning
• Let dry
• Return the Jack o lanterns stencil over the dry paste and use small stencil brushes to apply ink over the paste (I used Splendor Ink - Circus ink pad)
• Paste emboss the Spider stencil (LS28) on white cardstock with Glossy Black Embossing Paste
• Remove the stencil and place in water for cleaning
• Sprinkle Metallic F/X powder Nouveau Orange randomly over the wet paste
• Let dry
• Cut out the spider as close as possible to all the legs, use a Distress marker in antique linen to color the white edges throughout the design
• Attach to the web with foam tape
• Use the Dog words stencil (LG749), a small stencil brush and Memento Tuxedo Black to stencil the "happy" from the Happy HOWLoween part of the stencil
• Line up the Happy underneath the first one and a little to the left, tape off only the "Ha" and stencil that, use the "pp" upside down to create the two l's (minus the round part of course!), then the "oween" next to that
• Use a deckle scissors to cut around the words, and brush the background with the left over black ink from the brush, mount the words on a small orange mat with a deckled edge
• Use foam tape to add the words to the card

Now check out the rest of the team blogs:

Dream It Up! 

Alison Heikkila (guest designer)
Lea Kimmel 
Louise Healy 
Stacey Rumsby 
Terrece Siddoway 
Wendy Jordan 
Pam Hornschu 
Cherylynn Moser

This week I have been taking Creative Chemistry 102 with Tim Holtz. Scroll down to see what we've been creating!

Happy Creating,
Louise

Christmas in August!

Welcome back to our Dreamweaver Stencils August challenge of "Christmas in August". We had an incredible week last week with the team from Woodware Crafts, filled with wonderful ideas for the upcoming holidays. If you missed it, look back through some of our older posts for those beautiful projects. Winners of the prizes will be announce on the DREAM it UP! blog!
This week I have used our fabulous new Leafless tree die cut. Yes, I said die cut! Dreamweaver has released three new die cuts to match three of our stencils, with more to come! Here's what I came up with:

LJ878 - Snow splatter in Glossy White Embossing Paste
DX7020 - Leafless tree die cut from shimmery white cardstock
LM139 - Happy Holidays traced with a Memento marker in Paris Dusk

This is a very easy card:

• Cut a piece of dark blue cardstock 5" x 7"
• Tape the Snow splatters (LJ878)  stencil across the card with removable tape
• Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply Glossy White Embossing Paste
• Remove the stencil and place in water for cleaning
• Sprinkle the wet paste with Crystal glitter
• Let paste dry (it won't take long because they are very small dots of paste)
• Repeat the process underneath the first snow to fill the background
• Use white shimmer paper to die cut the Leafless tree (DX7020) die
• Use scraps of the white paper to create your torn "snow mounds"
• Tape the Happy Holiday (LM139) stencil to the lower mounds and use a dark blue marker to outline the saying (be careful not to put too much pressure on the tip of the marker or you will get ink bleeding under the edge)
• You could use a stencil brush and ink pad to stencil the saying instead of a marker
• Assemble the card as shown, I taped the bottom of the tree directly to the "ground", but used some foam mounting tape cut in narrow strips a little further up the trunk
• Use a glue pen and more Crystal glitter to add some sparkle along the top of the snow and on the branches

I know you will love our new dies as much as we do! This tree can be changed to match any season!

Hop on over to these design team blogs for more Christmas in August ideas.

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy (you are here!)
Stacey Rumsby
Pam Hornschu
Cherylynn Moser

Wendy Jordan 

Happy Creating,

Louise