More Picnic Fun!

Today wraps up our Stampendous Picnic Fun weekly theme. If you missed some of the fun, you can check over on the Stampendous Blog for this week's links. There have been so many wonderful ideas!

I love going on picnics with family and friends, so my card today shares that sentiment. These two little owl friends are having a picnic on a beautiful summer day in the shade of their favorite tree!

"Picnic buddies"

Can't you just feel the warm summer breeze...I wish I could, it's very cold here again and we would love our warmer days back. Oh well, soon enough.

To create this little "picnic" really didn't take very long because I keep a stash of images that I've made in the past and didn't use right away. So I looked, and found that I had paste embossed the Owl Pair stencil (LL3013) on tan paper  with Translucent Embossing Paste tinted brown with Metallic FX Cocoa. They were perfect for my picnic. I cut them out and set them aside while I created their background.

I placed the Leafless Tree stencil (LX7020) near the left side of a 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" piece of white cardstock and taped it down. Using a 1/2" stencil brush and Memento Rich Cocoa ink, I stenciled the tree. I also added a little Memento Tuxedo Black for some depth. The "leaves" were created using a 1/2" stencil brush and Memento New Sprout and Bamboo Leaves, keeping each color concentrated in little circular areas.  The "grass" was done with Bamboo Leaves and the "shade" under the tree with Memento Cottage Ivy.

Of course, the perfect image of a summer day is a sky filled with fluffy white clouds, so I used the Picasso tool (LL332), 1/2" brush and Memento Bahama Blue to add a few clouds.  The little saying is from Stampendous SSC1213 Life Words set and was a perfect sentiment for the feeling I was trying to express.

The red and white gingham ribbon from May Arts made a great tablecloth, but what would they eat at their picnic? I didn't think it would be very cute to have dead mice on the tablecloth, so I created some nice healthy little apples for them instead using the Lg Cherries stencil (LL3032), a 1/4" stencil brush, Brilliance Rocket Red ink, and a little Bamboo Leaves.  I made two "apples", cut them out, pressed them in VersaMark, sprinkled with clear embossing powder and heat set them.

I'm on vacation this week (at the happiest place on earth, you know, WDW!) with my family, so I'm just going to send you to the Stampendous blog for the list of wonderful links today!

Stampendous Blog

Happy Creating,
Louise

April Inspirations Week 2!

The Dream Team has a spectacular month planned for you...filled with exciting news and inspiration for all of your crafting dreams! The exciting news will be announced in the Dream It Up! post on April 17th, but the "April Inspirations" challenge will run for the entire month. Each team member will post what inspires them in their creative life...maybe a Pinterest pic, a magazine pic, a quote, a book, a place, an artist, a crafter friend...along with their creation. We are hoping that you will feel inspired as well, and link your projects (and inspiration) to the inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog. 
One thing that not many people know about me is that I have a BS in Horticulture and taught high school horticulture for a couple of years. I spent many hours traipsing around the woods in MN looking for various plant materials we were required to learn in our MN Plant Life class. We often would see beautiful mushrooms and shelf fungus during our walks. I still look for them where ever I go. This week I found some beautiful pictures on Pinterest as my inspiration to create this for you:

Here's the Pinterest picture it's based on:

Aren't they both fabulous! Mine was pretty easy to create:

• Tape your Mushroom stencil (LL3025) to white cardstock with removable tape
• Apply Dreamweaver Regular Embossing Paste (DEP) to the image
• Before removing the stencil, use the edge of your palette knife to make some ridges in the stem areas
• Remove the stencil and place in water for cleaning
• Let the paste dry thoroughly
• Place the clean, dry stencil back over the dry paste, tape in place
• Use small stencil brushes to apply inks over the image as desired ( I used Memento Inks - Lady Bug and Rhubarb Stalk in the caps, Desert Sand and Rich Cocoa on the stems and grass, and a little Bamboo Leaves on the grass)
• Remove the stencil and sweep some Rich Cocoa around the edges
• Use a paintbrush or toothpick to add some small dots of the paste around the caps
• Let the dots dry 
• Use a large stencil brush and the Rich Cocoa to stencil some mushrooms around the background of a kraft card base
• Add some May Arts netted ribbon across the bottom (I cut it in half so it wasn't so wide)
• Mount the mushrooms on a black mat and use foam tape to add the mushrooms to your card

Be sure to check out what inspired the rest of the team this week:

Janelle Stollfus

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Pam Hornschu
Cherylynn Moser

Happy Creating,

Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

Summertime, Sparklers, S'more!

Hello everyone. Today I am on my way up to northern Minnesota to celebrate Christmas in July with my husband's family. We have been doing this for many years now and it is absolutely wonderful! No hassles or guilt at the holidays themselves, and no snow! We have traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas food, presents, games, bonfires, boating, fishing, it's four days of family fun!
But I wouldn't leave you high and dry with no Thursday inspiration. Thank goodness for technology, it gives us a lot of freedom to share ideas no matter where we are, or aren't! This months Dreamweaver Stencils theme is Summertime, Sparklers, S'more and this week I am sharing another re-released stencil with you. This one I saved especially for this week because it reminds me of the cattails around the lakes in northern MN and it's sparkly!

LL3035 - Cattails Scene
LL517 - Cattails

Steps:

• Cut a piece of Dreamweaver double sided mounting paper the same size as the stencil
• Cut a light brown mat 1/4" inch larger in each direction than the stencil
• Remove the release paper from one side of the mounting paper and center it on the mat
• Use Dreamweaver's Handmade Hawaiian soap to apply a light layer of soap to the back of the stencil
• Use a large stencil brush to remove any crumbs of soap from the openings of surface of the stencil
• Remove the top piece of release paper from the mounting paper and center the stencil, soap side down, over the sticky surface
• Use the release paper to press all the bridges of the stencil down to the sticky paper
• Use a cut straw to apply Ranger Distress Embossing Powders to each opening 
• I used a combination of Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick for the sun, Weathered Wood and Broken China in the water, Walnut Stain in the cattails and birds, and Frayed Burlap, Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint in the leaves
• Press the powders down with your finger or a piece of release paper
• Use a stencil brush to gently brush away any extra powder
• Turn the image face down on a paper towel and carefully peel the paper off the stencil, being sure to use your other hand to keep your stencil flat on the table
• Use a heat gun to heat set the powders
• Sprinkle the background with Crystal glitter (the "Sparkler" part of the challenge!)
• Mount on a darker brown mat
• Use kraft cardstock as a cardbase
• Tape the Cattails stencil (LL517) toward the left edge and use a 1/2" stencil brush and Memento Rich Cocoa ink to stencil color through the openings, repeat a couple times across the card ( I moved the stencil down a little to extend the stems to the bottom of the card before I move to the next grouping)
• Mount the Cattails Scene in the lower right corner with foam tape
• A GREAT guy card, especially if they are the "outdoorsy type"!

Check out the other team member's creations this week. 

Dream It Up! 

Wendy Price

Lea Kimmel 

Louise Healy (me!)

Stacey Rumsby 

Terrece Siddoway 

Caroline Duncan 

Pam Hornschu 

Cherylynn Moser

Next week we will be having a blog hop with the team over at Stampendous.

It's fun in the sun time again with another collaboration between Stampendous and Dreamweaver Stencils! We'll be playing together all of next week, with a fabulous hop on Friday, August 2nd, featuring a slew of amazing talent from both teams, and of course...prizes!!!

Two prize packages will be given away for the comments left on posts Monday-Thursday, July 29th - August 1st, and one prize will be given away for comments left on the hop day, Friday, August 2nd. Winners will be selected randomly and announced Thursday, August 8th. (Note: USA addresses only, please, due to shipping costs.) Here's what you could win:

Stampendous Surfer and Sandcastle Kiddos • Dreamweaver Hot Air Balloon, Ice Cream Cones, Summer, Mosaic Swirls, Bird Words, and Sandcastle stencils

Happy Creating,

Louise

April...Brings May Flowers

Our Dreamweaver Stencils April challenge is almost over. You have until Monday, April 30th to submit your creations on Mr. Linky on the DREAM it UP! blog, or by emailing a photo directly to Lynell at lynelll@dreamweaverstencils.com. Our theme this month was April...Brings May Flowers. We've seen a lot of beautiful floral creations this month by all the team members, plus several people have joined our challenge.
This week I chose a more tropical image rather than a spring image. This one just says "Hawaiian vacation!". Don't you agree?

This is an older design called Heliconia (LL358). It is a beautiful version of this fabulous plant. Here are the simple steps to create this card:

• Dry emboss the Heliconia on white cardstock
• With the stencil still in place, use small stencil brushes to add color to the image
• I used Memento Tangelo, Lady Bug, and Rhubarb Stalk on the flower and Brilliance Thyme and Ivy on the leaves
• Remove the stencil and use the green brush to add some green around the edges
• Tape the Friends (LM210) stencil to the front of an orange card near the right side (I taped over the "S" for this card)
• Apply Glossy Black Embossing Paste
• Remove and clean the stencil, let the paste dry
• Layer the flower image on a small black mat
• Use foam tape to layer the flower onto a deeper orange layer matted in black
• Add two brads
• Mount it to the front of the card
• Send it to a good friend with a nice note inside!

Be sure to hop over to the other team member blogs to see what they've created this week.

DREAM it UP!

Pam Hornschu
Laura Drahozal
Wendy Jordan
Terrece Siddoway
Kristi Van Doren
Georgia Sommers
Lee Kellogg
Liz Martin
Cherylynn Moser
Jessie Hurley

Happy Creating,
Louise

Dream Scheme Thursday

Welcome to the  third week of Dreamweaver Stencils February challenge. This month's challenge is anything GREEN (as in the color), "green" (as in reduce, reuse, recycle), or St. Patrick's Day themed. You are encouraged to play along with us throughout the month for the chance to win a wonderful prize from Dreamweaver. Just create something gorgeous (no pressure!), post it on your blog or whatever public forum you use, then go to the DREAM it UP! blog to add a link to your creation using the Mr. Linky tool. If you don't have a blog or a way to link your design, just email it to Lynell at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and she will post it on her blog for you. We would love to see what you have created this month!
Today I am using two of the new stencils released last month at CHA. The Open Butterfly (LG740) and Mushrooms (LL3025). I took a little liberty with the green theme, but as you can see there's still a lot of green!

To create the background

• place the Mushroom stencil in the lower left corner of a piece of white cardstock (3 1/2" x 4 1/2")
• Use painters tape or removable tape to mask off the large mushroom
• Apply Brilliance Thyme ink with a 1/2" stencil brush all over the grass and small mushroom in the left corner only
• Apply a little Brilliance Ivy ink with another 1/2" stencil brush just on the grass (use a Picasso LL332 to shield the small mushroom from the ivy color)
• Use a 1/4" stencil brush to apply Brilliance Coffee Bean ink on the small mushroom cap and stem, but leave a little of the light green showing in the center of the cap
• Move the stencil to the lower right corner of the piece and repeat the steps for the other small mushroom
• Move the stencil back over so the mushroom from the right corner is next to the other mushroom in the left corner that you did first, and add  a third small mushroom as shown
• Remove the stencil and tape, clean and dry the stencil
• Use the 1/2" brush and Thyme ink to sweep some green ink near the bottom of the stenciled mushrooms
• Use another 1/2" brush and Memento Bahama Blue to sweep some color at the top to create the sky
• Adhere to a solid green mat (3 3/4" x 4 3/4") then to the front of a green gingham check card (finished card size is 4 3/4" x 6")

To create the Crackled Butterfly:

• Tape the Open butterfly stencil (LG740) to a piece of green cardstock (I used the same color as my green mat for the background) using removable tape of gentle painters tape
• Apply a layer of Glossy Green Embossing Paste using the Paste spreader tool (LM2010)
• Remove stencil, place in water to clean, making sure to keep your stencil flat while gently brushing with a small fingernail brush
• Place the clean stencil on a piece of soft cloth (I use old t-shirts) and dry thoroughly
• Let the green paste dry naturally (about 40-50 minutes) or place the pasted design on a warming tray set to the low setting (about 20 minutes)
• When the green paste is dry, place the clean, dry stencil back over the green paste and tape all around the design again
• Use the paste spreader to apply a coat of Crackle Embossing Paste over the green layer. You don't want to scrape too hard, or your crackle layer will be too thin
• Remove and clean the stencil
• Set the Crackled image aside to dry. The cracks will begin to appear within 10 minutes, but drying time is about the same as for the green
• When the Crackle paste is dry, return the stencil to the design again and tape all around
• Place a piece of felt on the Color Solutions applicator and apply a variety of colors to the felt (I used Iceberg, Citron, Sugar Plum and Creme Brulee) making sure to keep the drops a little separated from each other
• Use  a pouncing motion to apply the colors over the crackled image
• Reapply more drops as needed trying to keep the colors in their original spot
• Put a drop of Creme Brulee on a craft mat and use a brush pen nib to pick up the ink and apply it to the body of the butterfly
• Remove the stencil (don't clean it yet, I have more to tell you!)
• Let the inks dry for just a minute or two, then cut out the butterfly and adhere just at the body to the mushroom layer (so the wings flap free)

Now what about all that beautiful Color Solutions ink still on the stencil?  Well, I can't stand wasting it so here's what I do:

• Place the butterfly stencil on a clean paper towel (ink side up)
• Use a mini mister or any fine mister bottle to spray the ink with alcohol (not the thinner or blending solution, you are not supposed to spray those!) until it is wet again
• Place a clean piece of white cardstock over the wet inks and use a gentle rubbing motion across the image to transfer the wet ink to the cardstock
• Cut around the image with a deckle scissors
• Use the 1/2" brush and Memento Bahama Blue ink to sweep some color around all the edges
• Mount into another beautiful card!

I know this has been a lot of steps, but none of them really take very long, and the results are definitely worth it. I hope you've enjoyed today's creations and will spend a little more time checking out what the rest of the team has created for you today.

DREAM it UP!

Pam Hornschu
Laura Drahozal
Wendy Jordan
Terrece Siddoway
Kristi Van Doren
Georgia Sommers
Lee Kellogg
Liz Martin
Cyndi Bundy
Cherylynn Moser
Jessie Hurley

Happy Creating,
Louise

Thursday Dream Scheme

Wow is it Thursday already!! Each week is flying by so fast. We have been having absolutely glorious weather here in northern Illinois. Every day is sunny and warm with just a little cool breeze to keep you comfortable. Aaaahhh, we are going to miss this very soon!
Halloween is my second favorite holiday (Christmas being the first) so I found a little time this week to get out my fall and Halloween decorations. The colors of fall are so beautiful and warm and fit into my decor just beautifully. So it may seem a little out of season to learn that our colorway challenge for this week's Dreamweaver Stencils Thursday Dream Scheme was to use Pink and Black! They are a stunning combination, but for me bring more romantic thoughts to mind than ghosts and goblins! Here's what I created for this week's challenge:

The new Cameo stencil (LL3017) and Damask background (LJ907) immediately came to mind when I got this challenge. I knew exactly what I would create (I love week's like this!). To create my card I followed these simple steps:

• Emboss LJ907 Damask on a rose colored cardstock (I used my BigShot)
• Use a 3/4" stencil brush and Memento Rose Bud ink to sweep color over the embossed damask design
• Trim to 3 7/8" x  5 1/8"
• Use a piece of foam to darken around the edge of the damask
• Cut a matching piece of rose colored cardstock to 2 3/4" x 3"
• Tape the cameo stencil to the cardstock and apply Glossy Black Embossing Paste (DJKP)
• Remove and clean the stencil, set the cameo image aside to dry or use a warming tray on the lowest setting to speed the drying process
• Cut a piece of light pink cardstock to create a card base for a 4 3/4" x 6" card
• Ink the edges with the foam and Rose Bud ink
• Cut a piece of black cardstock 4" x 5 1/4" and adhere the Damask layer to it with double sided tape
• Wrap a black ribbon around the Damask layer the tie a bow
• Adhere the Damask layer to the front of the card
• Cut a piece of black cardstock 2 7/8" x 3 1/8"
• When the cameo image is dry, use the foam and Rose Bud ink to rouge some color around the paste, but try not to get any inside the image
• Adhere the Cameo to the small black layer
• Use foam tape to mount the Cameo onto the Damask background
• Color a Dreamweaver 3" white Embellishment Pin with a COPIC marker to match your design
• Insert the pin through the ribbon and catch the tip in the layers of cardstock

Ta da! a beautiful card to send to a dear friend for any or no occassion, just because.
What can you come up with for our pink and black challenge?  If you would like to share your  creation with us, you can use the Mister Linky tool over at the DREAM it UP! blog or email it to Lynell at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com  and she will post it for you.  We love to see what everyone is creating out there!
Happy Creating,
Louise