Thankful and Thoughtful

As we officially head into the holiday season, the Dream Team are challenging all of our followers to be especially "Thankful and Thoughtful" during the month of November. We hope that you will link your creations with this theme in mind on the Dream It Up! blog using the Inlinkz tool. Our "thanks" to you is providing you with the opportunity to win the stencil of your choice, and a bonus stencil of our choosing could be yours for using Dreamweaver product(s) in your artwork.

This time of year always reminds me to be thankful for my family and friends. I love creating cards for all the various holidays throughout the year and sending them to the special people in my life. What I have discovered over the years is that people LOVE getting handmade cards and most of them appreciate the time and love we put in to making them. The card I'm posting today has several steps but creates such a serene image perfect for this reflective season. It would be great for fall birthdays, sympathy, or Thanksgiving cards. Here's what I created for you today:

How to:

• Emboss a piece of smooth cream cardstock (4" x 5 1/4") using the LX7002 Plaid stencil
• Lightly brush over the embossed image with Distress Ink Vintage Photo ink
• Mount on the front of a black A2 card
• Place the LX7027 Quatrefoil stencil on cream cardstock (2" x 4")and stencil on Vintage Photo ink, mat on a piece of black cardstock (2 1/8" x 4")
• Add a beautiful ribbon from May Arts across the Quatrefoil design
• Adhere over the Plaid layer
• Cut a cream mat 2 5/8" x 3 3/8" and a black mat 2 3/4" x 3 1/2"
• Rouge edge of cream mat with Vintage Photo ink
• Adhere the cream mat to the black mat, use foam tape to attach over the band of Quatrefoil
• Use the DD001 Nesting frames die to cut a frame from smooth cream cardstock using the second smallest frame die
• Rouge edges with Vintage Photo ink
• Adhere to the cream mat
• Tape LG754 Oak leaves stencil to smooth cream cardstock using removable tape
• Apply Matte Black Embossing Paste using a palette knife and paste spreader
• Sprinkle wet paste with Distress Embossing Powder in a combination of brown tones, press in lightly
• Remove and clean the stencil
• Heat emboss the powder using a heat tool, let paste dry completely
• Cut out one of the leaves and adhere on the small frame

By the way, the Dream Team are very THANKFUL when our followers are THOUGHTFUL enough to leave us a nice comment on our posts! Here's the "A" team lineup for this week, as well as our very special guest designer, Linda Neff!

Dream It Up!

Linda Neff (GD)

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Happy Creating,

Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas in August Grand Finale!

Well, it has been a whirlwind week of creating for Dreamweaver and Woodware UK teams. We have loved sharing with you and hope you have enjoyed our creations! Our goal was to 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 are 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

Kristine Reynolds

Jamie Martin

Pam Hornschu

Louise Healy

Lyn Bernatovich

Lynn Mercurio

Lea Kimmel

Gill Wilson

Laura Drahozal 

Dorothy Adam

Alison Heikkila
 Debs Frost

Here's my grande finale creation:

LX7027 Quatrefoil and LL589 Musical Christmas

I knew I had to do something with this beautiful new background stencil, Quatrefoil LX7027. Isn't it gorgeous!!! But at the holidays, I'm all about cards that are easy to mass produce because I make A LOT of cards. This could not be any easier. Simply tape the background stencil to a piece of purple (yes, it actually is purple, I could not get the light to hit it right so that it would photograph as purple and not blue) and use a 1/2" or 3/4" brush to stencil with the beautiful Delicata Golden Glitz ink from Tsukineko. This is by far the easiest metallic gold ink I have ever worked with and a little heat gun on it sets the color so it won't smudge. It looks wonderful just stenciled, but if you want to add a little more dimension, you could dry emboss your image first. The Musical Christmas, LL589, stencil was done the same way, then after I trimmed it to the size I wanted, I used a piece of cardstock as a ruler and edged around the design with the ink too. Mount the instruments onto another layer of purple and use foam tape to mount them to the background. Add to the front of a base card that you have stenciled or stamped with a sentiment.

LL453 Season's Greetings

The image on the front and the sentiment can easily be changed for whatever occasion you need!  Thanks for all the wonderful comments this week, I have enjoyed reading all of them. They are MY inspiration!

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

Happy Creating,

Louise