Have a PURRfect Day!

This week the Stampendous Design Team is celebrating Cats and Dogs!  Stampendous has soooo many great images and sentiments for this theme, it's hard to choose! Lucky for me, as part of their wonderful Design Team, I am provided many of these great images to create fun sample cards! Enjoy!

Stampendous:

SSC1222 Cat Sayings Perfectly Clear Set

MPW811 Mixed Media White Paper

Acrylic Handle

MEM01 Memento™ Tuxedo Black Ink by Tsukineko®

DCP1006 Fitted Frames B Die Cuts - P, G

Dreamweaver:

DWLL3020 Retro Sitting Cat Stencil
DWDMBP Matte Black Embossing Paste

DWDPK Dreamweaver Palette Knife

DWLM2010 Paste Spreader

Plus:
My Colors Cardstock - Loveable, Beach Grass 
May Arts Ribbon
Buttons Galore Pink Buttons
Mini Glue Dots
Micro glitter Gold
Foam tape
Removable tape
Paper towel

Instructions:

Step 1:  Fold a 6" x 9 1/2" piece of Loveable cardstock in half to form an A6 card
Step 2:  Die cut a white and pink layer from the Fitted Frames set size P for the cat and G for the saying

Step 3: Tape the stencil to the larger white die cut frame with removable tape
Step 4:  Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply Matte Black Embossing Paste over the stencil, remove the stencil and place in water for cleaning, let the paste dry very thoroughly
Step 5:  Stamp the saying on the smaller white die cut frame, mat on the matching pink die cut frame

Step 6: Cut a piece of Beach Grass cardstock to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" 
Step 7:  Attach a thin pink ribbon toward the right edge of the green layer, using glue dots on the back to hold the ribbon, then adhere the green layer to the card front

Step 8: Adhere the cat to the matching pink frame and then to the card front
Step 9: Use foam tape to attach the saying
Step 10: Thread white floss through the buttons and attach along the ribbon with Mini Glue Dots

Stop over at the Stampendous Blog for today's list of designers.
Happy Creating,
Louise

Frightful or Delightful!

As you may know by now, this week's theme for the Stampendous Design Team is "Pumpkin Pie" so we're sharing some of pumpkin designs that were featured in the Stampendous July 2015 catalog.

Yesterday I shared a quick and easy stamped card for Halloween with you. Today I'm featuring a
card that is a little more work, but the WOW factor makes up for that, and it is SO MUCH FUN! I think this was my favorite out of everything I made for the July catalog!

The Dreamweaver Jack O Lanterns and bats stencils make for a spooky Halloween combination on this fun card. A Creative Palette background finishes off the Jack and bats perfectly.

Stampendous:

CP811 Creative Palette
FREG025 Frantage Embossing Enamel aged copper
FREG026 Frantage Embossing Enamel aged black
FRG08C Frantage Glass Glitter Bronze
FRM04 Frantage Mica Flakes Tea Stained

Dreamweaver:
DWLL531 Jack O Lanterns Stencil
DWLL525 Bats Stencil
DWDEP Dreamweaver Regular Paste
DWDMBP Dreamweaver Matte Black Embossing Paste
DWDPK Dreamweaver Palette Knife
DWLM2010 Paste Spreader

Plus:
Neenah Classic Linen Cover Epic Black 80# 08126
Core'dinations Cardstock Burnt Sugar GX-VC570
May Arts Black jute SM08
Chameleons Pens - Y03, OR4, YL2, BR5, OL3
Double-sided tape

Step 1:  Fold a 7" x 10" black card in half to create an A7 card
Step 2:  Wrap 3 pieces of black jute near the left side of a 5" x 7" piece of Burnt Sugar cardstock, taping on the back side, and tape the cardstock to the front of the A7 card
Step 3:  Paste emboss the Jack O Lantern stencil (LL531) with Regular Embossing Paste on black cardstock using a Palette Knife and Paste Spreader, remove and clean the stencil, let paste dry
Step 4:  Use Chameleon pens to color the Jack O Lantern image, cut the image out, leaving a small black edge all the way around the image
Step 5:  Use a Creative Palette, acrylic paints, and a brayer to create a background "sky" on black cardstock, let dry, then trim out a 4 3/8" x 4 3/4" piece of it
Step 6:  Paste emboss the Bats stencil (LL525) in the upper right corner of the sky background using a Palette Knife and Paste Spreader, remove and clean stencil, let the paste dry
Step 7:  Mat the Bats on a small black mat and adhere near the right side of the card front
Step 8:  Adhere the Jack O Lanterns near the bottom left side of the card front
Step 9:  Sprinkle a combination of aged copper and aged black embossing enamels plus some bronze glass glitter, and tea stained mica flakes, along the bottom of the card by the Jack O Lanterns, heat from below to set, add more if desired

So while it takes a little more effort, it is SO worth it!

There's more "pie" for you at these designers today:

Stampendous Stamps

Laura Drahozal

Lyn Bernatovich

Pam Hornschu

Louise Healy
Lea Fritts

Don't forget the Blog Hop featuring Stampendous and Spellbinders starts today! Head over to the Stampendous Blog for all the details!

Stampendous Stamps

Pam Hornschu

Wendy Price

Janelle Stollfus

Pam Bray

Spellbinders Blog

Happy Creating,
Louise

Showers of Showers! Week 2

Ever use the expression, "When it rains, it pours"? This does not have to be a bad thing, does it? For the month of April, the Dream Team are featuring "Showers of Showers" as our theme. As usual, we'd love for you to play along. Just link your creation on the Dream It Up! blog for a chance to win the stencil of your choice...bonus chances for incorporating Dreamweaver and/or Stampendous in your design. 

Here's what I'm showering you with this week...

LJ908 Umbrella bkg stencil - dry embossed, stenciled with color
Stencil an extra umbrella and cut it out to pop up over the Dog
LL3029 Dog stencil - Matte Black Embossing Paste
DL3029 Dog die - paper piecing technique on dry black paste
LG738 Rain words - stenciled with ink

Inside
SSC1158 Thoughtful Wishes stamp set from Stampendous

This would make a great Get Well/Recovery/Thinking of You card. We've been having A LOT of rain here, even thunderstorms and tornado watches already, so this could be a fun "chase the blues away" card too! 

For a shower of inspiration, please visit the blogs of the "B" team:

 

Dream It Up!

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson

Cindy Groh

Lyn Bernatovich

Happy Creating,
Louise

Frilly and Fabulous Week 3!

Break out the frou frou! For the month of February, the Dream Team are going Frilly and Fabulous! Vintage, retro, or modern, adding extra charm with fun Fran•tagé products fromStampendous, ribbons and lace from May Arts, buttons, crystals, charms, or even creating your own dimensional decor! A snippet or a pile, whatever your creative heart desires! Remember to link your creations using the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog for a chance to win the stencil of your choice! Bonus points for using Dreamweaver and/or Stampendousproduct in your work of heart.

Mine aren't exactly "frilly" this week, but I think they are "Fabulous"!  When I first saw the new Frigate stencil (LG763), I thought,  "What in the world am I going to do with that!" But when given a challenge of something outside my comfort zone, I like to think I can create something presentable!  I had so much fun designing my sample card for Dreamweaver, I decided to create a whole class using the Frigate! I'll be teaching it at Memories and Beyond in Downers Grove, IL on Tuesday, March 3rd, click here for the details. Here's what I've been playing with:

LG763 Frigate stencil, Glossy Black Embossing Paste on white cardstock, let dry, cut out bottom edge
LX7029 Spiral dots, stenciled with blue inks using a stencil brush, on white cardstock
May Arts braided twine tied in sailor's knots

While it's not very "frilly", I like how the background and ship look together. The knots really added the finishing touch to the card.
So then I decided to design a 3 card class around this stencil. Here are the cards we'll be creating on the 3rd:

Stenciled using Memento Inks and stencil brushes
LL332 Picasso was used to create the "clouds"

Gold Leaf Technique using Metallic Gold Embossing Paste as the base

Matte Black Embossing Paste with Metallic F/X Powders

For more frilly fun, visit the "A" team:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Happy Creating,

Louise
An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Thanksgiving!

Warmest wishes to you and your family on this Thanksgiving Day 2014! I know I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I have had several opportunities to spend time with family and friends this year and I am especially grateful for that.
The most recent family event was at my niece's wedding in blustery MN. It snowed every day, and it was bitter cold, but none of us minded because we were having such a great time! (Well, ok, we minded a little!). Early this year I went up to MN to teach my niece and sister how to use a stencil and Black Matte Embossing Paste to decorate vases for the table decorations and favors for her fall-themed wedding. They caught on quickly and ended up making 130 of these beauties! Everyone was thrilled to take them home after the reception.

Checking out how it would work prior to the wedding

Set up on the day of the wedding

You could still see through to everyone at the table

Guest book table looked great too!

Now we will enjoy them on our Thanksgiving table!

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 "B" team lineup for this week, as well as our very special guest designer, Linda Neff!

Dream It Up!

Linda Neff (GD) 

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson

Kristi Parker Van Doren

  

Happy Creating,
Louise
An InLinkz Link-up

Happy HallowThanksMas Week 4!

Can you tell that sometimes Dream Team's "Fearless Leader", Pam Hornschu, has a hard time deciding on monthly challenges? Since the team will be taking turns all month with the Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween, and we did a Christmas collaboration with Stampendous and Core'dinations the 13th - 17th, the confusion should be understandable. Therefore...happy HallowThanksMas! As usual, we'd love for you to play along with the challenge and link your creations to the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog. Just in case you are wondering...NO, YOU DO NOT NEED TO POST SOMETHING WITH ALL THREE HOLIDAYS ON IT! However, you get bonus points for actually using Dreamweaver stencils and product on your creations! And bonus points might actually earn you an extra stencil as our monthly winner...just sayin'!

Here's my creation for this week:

LJ832 Give Thanks stencil
LL515 Pumpkins
LL3008  Tall wheat

LJ832 Give Thanks in Matte Black Embossing Paste with
Metallic FX Powders

Several team members have been participating in the 31 Days of Halloween Smeared and Smudged hop, and we just featured a lot of Christmas designs in our hop last week with the Stampendous and Core'dinations teams, so I thought I'd feature the "Thanks" part of our challenge. 

• Start with a natural square mirror from Ikea
• Paint across the bottom with some greens and brown acrylic paints (I used Distress Acrylic Paints) 
• Move up the mirror with yellows, oranges, rust, and little red, blending them together
• Dry with a heat tool to make sure the paints are dry
• Lay the Tall wheat stencil (LL3008) in different areas and stencil with the brown paint
• Paste emboss the Pumpkins stencil (LL515) on green cardstock with Matte Yellow Embossing Paste, let dry (do this twice)
• When the pumpins are dry, use the paints to stencil on color
• Tape off the Give Thanks part of LJ832, place the stencil in the lower left corner of the mirror and paste emboss with Matte Black Embossing Paste
• Remove stencil and let paste dry for about 8-10 minutes
• Clean and dry stencil, tape off the cornucopia part, leaving just the words
• Paste emboss the words in the upper right area of the mirror
• Remove stencil and let paste dry
• Use a soft brush to brush Metallic FX powders on the almost dry paste
• When paste is completely dry, use a swiffer cloth to remove any extra powders
• Cut out the two sets of Pumpkins, adhere one set flat onto the mirror, use foam mounting tape on the second set

Check out more great HallowThanksMas designs on the design team blogs below:

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson

Kristi Parker Van Doren

Happy Creating,

Louise
An InLinkz Link-up

JULY...a month to DIE for Week 3!

Welcome to week three of our Dreamweaver Stencils July Challenge!  All of this month the Dream Team are featuring our newest toys...our DIES! You'd be surprised at how many we have, and what fun things you can do with them...especially when used in conjunction with many of their matching stencils. They are such a simple way to create an effective card.

This week my creation incorporates three of our dies and three stencils. Yes, it's a little more work than last week's card, but it is so cute! Here it is...

Dog Days of Summer!

See, it is totally worth it! 
The background was created using 3/4" stencil brushes and Distress Inks (Salty Ocean, Peeled Paint, and Vintage photo). I used the Picasso (LL332) to create some clouds (I told you there were three stencils!).

So what are the three dies? They are DX7020 - Leafless tree, DD003 - Leafy Branch, and DL3029 - Dog. The decorative papers for the Leafy Branch and the Dog had Double-sided mounting paper put on the back before cutting. I did not do that to the tree because I wanted the branches to be flexible. I just used a dot roller on the back of the trunk and some lower branches to adhere the tree. The Leafy branch was cut apart so I could stick the leaves all over the tree limbs.

LL3029 - Dog stencil was paste embossed on light green paper with Matte Black Embossing Paste and set aside to dry. The cut pieces were edged with black marker and stuck on him. This allowed me to keep his eyeball, nose, collar and back spot black for more contrast. I added a little glue and glitter to his collar. 

The Sun stencil (LR502) was paste embossed with Matte Black Embossing Paste, then, before removing the stencil, a combination of Distress Embossing Powders were sprinkled over the wet paste (spiced marmalade, mustard seed, fired brick), the stencil carefully removed, heat set the powders being careful not to let the paste bubble.

I'm sure that our "A" team is just DIE-ing to show you their creations, as well as our Guest Designer for the month of July...

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

and

Terri Sproul (GD)

Happy Creating,
Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

Dreamweaver Flora and Fauna Week 4!

The Dream Team is ready to inspire you with some extra fun this week! Not only are we posting with the Flora and Fauna challenge, we are introducing you to our THREE NEWLY RELEASED DESIGNS...our Owl Buddy, the Open Sheep, and the art nouveau-inspired Heron, which you had a sneak peek at two weeks ago on the Dream It Up! blog. Three lucky commenters on the Dream Team's posts will receive one of these designs to be announced on the Dream It Up! blog next week. Tell us in your comment which technique YOU would use with your favorite of these new designs.

One of our stores in La Crosse, WI (Stamp 'N Hand), had requested a sample of the Paddle fan (LJ826) from me so I decided to incorporate it with the new Heron (LG757) for week's creation so it could do double duty! (I was going to say "kill two birds with one stone", but that just seemed cruel considering our theme this month!) Here is what I created this week...

Paddle fan (LJ826) with Heron (LG757) overlay
this is the one I sent to Stamp 'N Hand

Paddle fan (LJ826) with Heron (LG757) overlay
I kept this one as my sample

These were created following the same steps:

• Dry emboss the Paddle fan on white cardstock using a die cut machine and rubber embossing mat
• With the stencil still in place, use 1/2" stencil brushes to lightly add some color around the edges of the fan, and on the handle (I used Distress Inks - scattered straw & spiced marmalade in the "sky", salty ocean & faded jeans in the "water", and vintage photo & walnut stain in the handle)
• Wipe any ink off the fan stencil and tape back in place with removable tape, use removable tape over the handle opening so no paste gets on the handle
• Lay the Heron stencil over the fan area and tape in place
• Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply Matte Black Embossing Paste over the design
• Carefully remove both stencils and let the paste dry about 10 minutes
• Use a soft brush to gently apply Metallic F/X powders on the paste (I used Kiwi on the leaves, Cocoa on the tree trunk, Navajo Sky on the water, and on the top one Moonstone on the Heron - then used a pin to scrap a little eye, the lower one I left the Heron black) 
• Let the paste dry completely then use a piece of Swiffer cloth or a soft rag to gently wipe off any extra powders
• Mount on a black mat, then onto a colored card. I love how different they look just based on color selection!

By this point I was on a roll, so I decided to use the same color scheme and stencil to create my cards for a monthly lunch club card exchange group I belong to, but using the required technique instead. Here's how that turned out:

Masking Tape ink transfer technique in the background,
LG757 Heron in Matte Black Embossing Paste w/FX powders

Close up you can see the lines of color transferred on the tape, I used
1" green painters tape

Ready for more ideas? Check out our this week's team players:

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Lynn Mercurio

Jamie Martin 

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Lea Kimmel 

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren 

Gill Wilson

Laura Drahozal 

Happy Creating,

Louise

An InLinkz Link-up