Friends Forever

Welcome to the third week of our Dreamweaver Stencils February design challenge. Our theme this month is Love and/or Friendship and the team has come up with some beautiful creations to share with you. We would love to have you join our challenge, click here to link your creation to Lynell's DREAM it UP! blog using the Mr. Linky tool, or email a picture of your creation to me, Louise,at louisehealy@sbcglobal.net  and I will post it on Lynell's blog for  you for a chance to win a great prize!
If you haven't heard, Dreamweaver Stencils is looking for a few talented people who love to share their creations with others. Our new Design Team Call runs until the end of February.  See Pam's blog for all the details on how to apply.
This week I am blessed to be spending time with my beautiful grand-daughter and lovely daughter-in-law while my son is traveling. I cherish these times especially because we live pretty far apart so I don't get to be with them very often. Thank goodness for Skype! Family means the world to me, but so do friends, so this week I dedicated my card to three very dear friends of mine, or "The Ladies" as my family calls them. We all met when our kids were in high school (over 15 years ago!), and still meet regularly for lunch and to share family news. I know they will be my friends forever.

This is not exactly a CAS (clean and simple) card, but it's really not very hard to create. Here's how you do it:

• Emboss the Butterfly stencil (LJ916) on white cardstock using a personal die cut machine
• With the stencil still in place over the embossed butterfly, use small stencil brushes to add various inks to the wings and body
• Use a finger dauber to apply a coat of VersaMark ink over the colored image
• Remove the stencil and sprinkle the butterfly with Stampee Bonding Powder, tap off excess powder
• Use a heat gun to gently heat the powder
• Place a sheet of Stampee Water Clear  Foil over the butterfly
• Place the image in a paper folder and insert the folder into a laminator and let it feed through
• Quickly peel off the foil sheet. The foil will stick to the butterfly where you had the bonding powder, but release where you didn't
• Trim around the butterfly and edge with a coordinating marker, set aside
•  Emboss the Triangle Weave (LJ912) stencil on white cardstock through a die cut machine
• Remove the stencil and use a 3/4" stencil brush to brush color over the embossed image from all four sides.
• Trim close to the design, and layer onto a light yellow mat
• Layer those two onto a darker yellow mat
• Place the Forever Friends stencil (LM2013) on white cardstock and use a small stencil brush to add ink to the design
• Cut the words apart and brush the remaining ink from the brush into the background of the words
• Mount them on light and dark yellow mats
• Place small strips of foam tape behind the body of the butterfly
• Place a  Dreamweaver Embellishment Pin (green) through the head area of the butterfly and then into the front of the card, dont' forget to take the release paper off the foam tape first
• Add a pretty bow with glue dots
• Add the stenciled words
• Write a little note inside and share it with a wonderful friend!

The rest of the team has more ideas to share with you too, just click on their names to jump to their blogs.

Dream It Up!

Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Terrece Siddoway

Pam Hornschu

Liz Martin

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Cyndi Bundy
Wendy Jordan

Happy Creating,
Louise

Sneak Peeks Day 3

Wow, this week is flying by. I've been busy, busy, busy creating more samples with the beautiful new stencils from Dreamweaver Stencils. It has been so much fun and it will be great to finally meet up with the other team members at CHA to get more great ideas! Be sure to let your local store know you are anxiously awaiting the arrival of these fabulous designs!
Today I am featuring the new Tall Poppy stencil (LL3023). It have a retro feel to it , and lends itself well to many techniques. This one uses the Stampee Foils (purple and green), black Fun Flock, and crystal glitter. The new thank you stencil (LS1009) was the perfect finishing touch.  The Tall Poppy will be the featured stencil in my upcoming class at Stampology Chicago on February 18.

Speaking of upcoming classes, here are the cards we will be doing at The Cottage Stamper on February 7th.  This class is featuring two stencils,  LM136 Water Lily, and LS1006 Sm THANKS, both yours to take home after the class.

I hope you have the time to stop over at the rest of the team blogs to see more sneak peeks. We just love being able to share our ideas with you and always welcome your comments!

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

It's hard to believe that it's the end of July already! My daughter will be leaving for college in less than 3 weeks!! We are squeezing in one more family trip before then. My husbands family celebrates "Christmas in July" up at a lake in northern Minnesota.  We cram all the annual celebrations into one long weekend at the lake. This year we have 3 graduations, a 60th birthday, a 1st birthday, plus Thanksgiving and Christmas to celebrate! It's a wild and crazy weekend, but we wouldn't miss for the world. It is so wonderful to have everyone together and we don't have to worry about blizzards, tornadoes, maybe, but not snow.
This week's Dreamweaver Stencils Dream Scheme Thursday is a designer's choice.  The card I'm sharing shows off two of Lynell's brand new stencils that were just released at CHA Summer last week.  All of the new stencils are wonderful, and I'm sure all the design team will be trying to feature them in the next several weeks. Here's what I came up with for this week:

Isn't that new butterfly stencil (LJ916) INCREDIBLE! And see that fun background behind it (LJ915), that's one of several new background stencils that were also released last week.  I have been having a ball working with all the new patterns and designs.  This one is a little more complex than you might think at first glance. Did you notice the shimmery design on the butterfly?  That is done with Stampee Crafts Transparent Holographic Stampee Foils.  The background stencil was put through my Big Shot with white cardstock, then I used a large stencil brush (1") to brush a little color around the edge and mounted that on decorative cardstock. The butterfly was also embossed through the Big Shot with white cardstock. With the stencil still in place over the embossed design, use small stencil brushes to color the butterfly. I use Brilliance inks, which are pigment inks so they stay wet a little longer than a dye ink, but just to be sure the whole image was still wet I took a finger dabber and tapped VersaMark over the colored image. Remove the stencil and sprinkle with Stuck on You bonding powder from Stampee Craft, tapping off the excess. Heat emboss. Cut a piece of the Holographic Foil big enough to fit over the image and lay it foil side down over the butterfly. Place the butterfly in a paper folder (a piece of printer paper folded in half is perfect) and send it through a laminator (pre-heat it). When it comes out the other side, open the folder, quickly peel the foil off the image and VOILA! the transparent holographic pattern sticks to the embossed areas. Cut out the butterfly, ink the edge with a matching marker or the edge of an ink pad, add some wire antennae, and mount onto the background. It's not hard. You can get an inexpensive laminator at the big warehouse stores for less than $20. 
Hope you've enjoyed today's design. Be sure to check out the DREAM it UP! blog for another fabulous design, and of course, all the other designer's blogs too. 

Happy Creating,
Louise