Snowman Reflections!

This week the Stampendous Design Team has been asked, "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?". Of course we wanna build a snowman!  Of course I've also had that song from Frozen stuck in my head all week! We've been featuring the fun Stampendous Build a Snowman Set in our creations.

All the inspiring ideas from the Stampendous Design Team have been snowballing around in my head forming this fun creation using a combination of a Snowman from the Stampendous Build a Snowman set and Dreamweaver products. Our Dreamweaver Thursday is sure to be a blizzard of great ideas from the team.

Here's my snowman for today:

"Reflections of a Snowman"

I just love how his reflection turned out! It is even cooler (pardon the pun!) in person because you can see the glittery, glossy finish of the "pond". But I'm getting ahead of myself...here's the how to:

• Put the snowman pieces you want on an acrylic handle (not the arms yet), ink with Memento Tuxedo Black and stamp the image on white cardstock off toward the left side
• Ink the stamp again, but this time stamp it onto another acrylic block, then use the acrylic block as your stamp to stamp the reflection underneath the main image, some parts will stamp clearer than others, but that's ok, you don't want the reflection too perfect, this gives you the true reverse image for the reflection
• Make a mask for the main Snowman by inking the stamp again and stamping it on a post-it note or other thin paper, cut it out along the two sides, set aside for later
• Take the snowman pieces off and choose one arm to put on the block, ink it and stamp it on the main image, stamp a second time on the reflection (don't reink first, there should be enough to get a light image), this one is not backwards, but it still works! Repeat for the other arm
• I used a Tuxedo Black Memento Dual Marker to add lines to the scarf and mittens in the main image, and London Fog Memento Dual Marker in the reflection
• Color the main image, I used Copics - BG10,, BG01, BV00, BV02 for the hat, scarf and mittens, YR21, YR16 on the nose, B0000 to highlight the snowman and snow, C7 on the buttons
• Color the reflection to match the main image but only use BG10 and BV00 on the hat, scarf and mittens, YR21 on the nose with just the smallest touch of YR16, B0000 on the snowman
• Place the mask you created over the main image (if your paper isn't sticky, you can put a removable glue dot or two on the back to hold it in place)
• Place the Snowflake Stencil (DWLJ819) over the top half of the image angling it to avoid the mittens, tape in place with removable tape
• Use a palette knife to apply Translucent Embossing Paste (DWDEPT) to the snowflake openings, remove the stencil and place it in water for cleaning later, take more Translucent Paste on the palette knife and spread a thin coat of it over the reflection area to create a "pond", sprinkle all the wet paste with  Crystal Snow ultrafine white glitter (GX900U), tap off extra, let paste dry well
• When the paste has dried, sprinkle Spoonful of Snow Embossing Powder and Elements between the main image and reflection and around the edges of the "pond", heat from below to set
• Stamp a sentiment from the new Holiday Expressions set (SSC1231) on white with Tuxedo Black ink, mount on purple and blue mats
• Fold a 7" x 10" piece of blue cardstock in half to form an A7 card, adhere a 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" purple mat to the front
• Adhere the snowman image, then use foam tape to add the sentiment

I could decide which sentiment to use, so I'm going to have you vote! Here's the other option:

"Reflections of a Snowman II"

Leave me a comment with your vote on which sentiment I should use. Oh, one more thing, can you find my mistake in the reflection? No not the arms, I already mentioned those. I forgot to color the buttons on the main image until after I had the card complete, so there was no way to "fix" the reflection because it has paste over it. It's one of those little things that NO ONE WILL NOTICE!, so don't stress out about little things like that, only you will know!

Time to go build some more snowmen with these great designers:

Stampendous Blog
Lyn Bernatovich
Kristine Reynolds
Amy Hurley-Purdie
Louise Healy
Alison Heikkila
Wendy Price
Pam Hornschu

Laura Drahozal

Happy Creating,
Louise

Playing with Paste!

And the fun continues for the Design Team! This week we have a theme of "Playing with Paste". There are so many amazing ways to use the various embossing pastes. They are gorgeous and fun to use!

Here is a simple Christmas card I made for the July 2015 Stampendous Catalog. The gold manger scene lends an elegant touch, yet the burlap ribbon and metallic embossing enamels remind us of the rustic side of this blessed event. You might be surprised how I got the gold Manger! Read on...

Supplies
Stampendous
FREG023 Frantage Embossing Enamel aged silver
FREG025 Frantage Embossing Enamel aged copper
EP102 Metallic Embossing Powder Pirate Gold

Dreamweaver
DWLL334 Manger
DWDEPT Dreamweaver Translucent Paste
DWDPK Dreamweaver Palette Knife
DWLM2010 Paste Spreader

Plus
May Arts Burlap ribbon (red edge pulled off)
Neenah Papers Classic Linen Cover Red Pepper 80#
Neenah Papers Classic Crest Cover Classic Cream 80#
Double-sided tape
Foam mounting tape

Instructions

Step 1:  Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" red card in half to form an A2 card

Step 2:  Tape a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of cream cardstock to the front of the card

Step 3:  Pull the finished edge off both sides of a burlap ribbon and place near the left side of the card

Step 4:  Sprinkle some aged copper, aged silver, and Pirate Gold embossing powders randomly down the burlap, heat from below to set the powders

Step 5:  Paste emboss the Manger stencil on cream cardstock (3" x 3") with Translucent Paste using a Palette Knife and Paste Spreader, remove stencil and place in water for cleaning

Step 6:  Sprinkle the wet paste with Pirate Gold Embossing Powder, tap off extra, let paste dry, then heat set

Step 7:  Tape the embossed Manger to a red mat (3 1/4" x 3 1/4") and attach to the front of the card with foam tape

Seeing as everyone is not as lucky as I am to be a part of a design team and have access to a large variety of product, I decided to use the Translucent Paste and gold embossing powder instead of Gold Embossing Paste to show the type of thing you can do with limited supplies. If you can only have a couple of pastes, I would highly recommend making the Translucent paste one of them. It can be used over a stenciled image to create a clear, glossy finish, you can mix reinkers, paints, or mica powders into it to create any color paste you want, or sprinkle it with embossing powder like I did.

Be sure to check out what other team members have been play with too! I'm on vacation in beautiful northern Minnesota this week, so look for the complete list of participants over at the Stampendous Blog! (Hopefully I won't get eaten alive by the bird-size mosquitoes up there!)

Happy Creating,
Louise

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

Making Texture Blog Hop Day 3!

We have a different sort of collaboration for you!

At Stampendous we’re very excited to be able to offer our products in many countries around the world. We’re able to do this thanks to our terrific distributors in those countries who help retail stores to stock our products. In the UK we have a very long and valued partnership with Woodware Craft Collection. These wonderful folks stock almost all of our products, and they even stock several classic items that have retired from our store here in the US. They also stock almost all of our new Dreamweaver Stencils line, so we thought it would be another great event to celebrate the addition of Dreamweaver to the Stampendousfamily.

This week we’re going to celebrate with the awesome Woodware Design Team and the Dreamweaver Stencils Dream Team all of the the great Stampendous and Dreamweaver Stencils products thatWoodware makes available to the UK market. This is good news for our crafty friends in the UK because we’ll be offering prizes and our UK friends are eligible to win!! We’ll be offering three prizes in the UK and three in the US. Each prize package will consist of  Nathalie Kalbach’s terrific Grunge Mixed Media Cling Rubber Stamp Sets and the beautiful Zen Butterfly Dreamweaver Stencil! Both products are ideal for adding texture and backgrounds to your projects!

And that’s our theme!! Making Texture. Here's what I "texturized" today:

• Use the Creative Palette from Stampendous (I have the Rectangles one) to add layers of acrylic paint with a brayer
• Add designs with stamps or stencils
• Press a piece of Stampendous Mixed Media White Paper over the paint and rub gently
• Add another layer of paint to the palette
• Use a stencil or stamp to press into the design and "lift off" some color and create a design. I used LX7024  Zen Flower to create a design
• Press your paper again
• Keep playing until it looks awesome!
• It did several pieces because it's highly addictive!
• On one background, I laid the Zen Flower stencil and pasted with Dreamweaver Translucent Embossing Paste, removed the stencil and placed it in water for cleaning later
• While the paste was still wet, I sprinkled it with a combination of Stampendous aged silver embossing enamel and a little Jeweled gold, let the paste dry, then heated the powders (although I think it would have been neat to heat right away too and have gotten more of the Molten Magic look for even more texture!)
• I took a left over scrap of background paper and laid the Zen Flower on it and outlined the center openings with a Black Micro 02 pen
• Cut out the to flowers, adhere them to yellow cardstock and recut around the edges
• Layer into a beautiful card, embellished with some May Arts Ribbon

We hope you’ll enjoy the wonderful inspiration that three talented teams will bring you this week! Be sure to visit all the blog links listed and leave your comments! Each comment will count as an entry towards one of the terrific prize packages.

Stampendous Blog

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Jamie Martin

Asia King

Wendy Price

Woodware Craft Collection Blog

Pam Hornschu

Dreamweaver Stencils Blog

Cindy Groh

Louise Healy (you're here)

Happy Creating,
Louise

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

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

At Dreamweaver Stencils, we love to make our monthly challenges something for everyone, and not so strict that no one wants to play along. This month our challenge is, "Old, New, Borrowed, Blue", with the obvious thought being a wedding theme...but not necessarily. Add an old embellishment or picture. Use a new stencil design or technique. Borrow, or CASE (copy and say everything) another designers project, and obviously, blue...is blue. Where will YOUR creative process take you for this month? We'd love to see! And remember, linking your creations with the Inklinkz tool at the end of the team posts, provides you with the opportunity to win the stencil of your choice!
For this first week of our new challenge, I have gone with the Old/New theme.  Ever since the Stylized Dahlia stencil (LG743) was released in 2012, it has been one of my favorite stencils (I know, I say that about all of them!). It is so versatile and looks wonderful in a large variety of techniques. Here are some samples of a class I taught in June of 2012 with this fabulous stencil (for the "Old" part of the challenge):

LG743 - Red Glossy Embossing Paste with Crackle Paste over, let dry, then
stencil with Brilliance inks from Tsukineko

LG743 - Double Glitter Technique, but with Ranger Distress Embossing Powders
instead of glitter (heat set after powders are all in place)

LG743 - Molten Magic Technique, Pearlescent Embossing Paste with
Metallic F/X powders sprinkled over wet paste, heat until bubbly

When Dreamweaver announced last month that one of the four new die cuts being released in June was the matching die for this wonderful stencil, I was thrilled! For the "New" part of the challenge here's what I created:

DG743 - Stylized Dahlia die, cut out of plain white cardstock and the negative image mounted over
patterned cardstock. Notice how you can leave the "petals" loose for more dimension (save the
other pieces for another card)

LG743 - Pasted embossed with Glossy Red Embossing Paste, let dry
DG743 - place double sided mounting paper on the back of some pink and green papers,
die cut images and peel off release paper to stick the pieces where you want them

*Note* - While Glossy Red Embossing Paste is no longer available, it is easy to make your own using Translucent Embossing Paste (about 1 Tbsp), and red acrylic paint (tube not bottle) mixed in (start with about 1/4 tsp, then adjust)

Next week the Dream Team will be doing a collaborative Blog Hop with Imagine Crafts. Each day various team members will be posting ideas using Dreamweaver stencils and various products from Imagine Crafts. The fun starts Monday, and the grand finale will be Friday. Be sure to stop by each day, I'm sure there will be prizes involved!

Here's what our "A" team has been working on this week:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin
Lyn Bernatovich

Happy Creating,

Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Tiny Treats and Treasures

It's week three of our Dreamweaver Stencils May designer challenge. This month we were given the challenge to create little gifts or treats to use for various occasions such as shower favors, party favors, thank you gifts, and so on. We hope you will join our challenge by either linking your creation over on the DREAM it UP! blog using the linking tool, or by emailing a photo of it to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com, you could win a beautiful new stencil of your choice. 
This week I have created a thank you treat that could be used for a number of events: a teachers' appreciation lunch, a bridal shower (you could do a recipe shower),  thank you favors for volunteers, like I said, any number of events.

LL3032 - Cherries 

LL3032 - Cherries (just the frame), and LS1006 - Thanks

This is so easy to to make. Here are the simple steps:

• Tape the Cherries stencil to white cardstock with removable tape
• Use 1/4" stencil brushes to apply various colors of inks to the design, using the Picasso (LL332) as a shield and to add a vein to the leaves
• Remove and clean the stencil
• Return the stencil to the colored image and tape back in place
• Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply Translucent Embossing Paste over the image
• Remove stencil and place in water for cleaning, let paste dry
• Tape the clean, dry Cherries stencil to another piece of white cardstock 
• Use the 1/4" stencil brush to apply red ink in the border checkerboard only
• Remove and clean the stencil
• Place the Thanks stencil across the center of the checkerboard frame and tape in place
• Use a 1/2" stencil brush to apply brown ink to the word
• Remove and clean the stencil
• Mount onto coordinating papers and attach a small bag of Sour Cherry Balls between the layers

Now be sure to see what our other team members have created this week, just click on their names below.

Dream It Up! 

Laura Drahozal 

Lyn Bernatovich 

Pam Hornschu 

Heidi Erickson 

Jessica Griffin 

Cyndi Bundy

Happy Creating,

Louise

Mists, Drizzles and Showers!

The April Dreamweaver Stencils challenge of "Mists, Drizzles & Showers!" perfectly describes the weather outside as I prepare this posting. It is a gray, gloomy day here, though I'm not complaining because our relatives in MN are getting more snow! I'll take a rainy spring day instead, the daffodils seem to be liking it. 
This week I am sharing a card that I made for Lynell a couple of years ago. I have always loved how it turned out, so I hope you don't mind seeing it again, it is perfect for this challenge.

LJ905, LJ908, LG738

This uses three great stencils and is a bright and cheery card, perfect for lifting someones spirits when you include a personal note inside! Here are the steps I used:

• Use a light box or die cut machine to emboss the Umbrella bkg (LJ908) stencil on white cardstock
• Leave the stencil in place over the embossed image and use 1/4" stencil brushes to add various colors to the umbrellas (tape the stencil in place with removable tape)
• Clean off the Umbrella stencil and place back over the colored umbrellas, taping it down
• Tape the Rain stencil (LJ905) over the umbrellas
• Use a Palette Knife and Paste Spreader to apply a coat of Translucent Embossing Paste over the Rain stencil
• Remove and clean stencil, let paste dry
• Tape off the word you want from the Rain words stencil (LG738) and use a 1/4" stencil brush to stencil the words on white cardstock
• Remove the stencil and add a little of the same color around the edge of the words
• Mount onto coordinating cardstocks
• Finish the whole thing off with some fun ribbon flowers.

We are happy to welcome back our guest designer Alison Heikkila. This weeks designers are:

Dream It Up!
Alison Heikkila (guest designer)
Lea Kimmel
Stacey Rumsby
Terrece Siddoway
Caroline Duncan
Pam Hornschu
Cherylynn Moser

Happy Creating,
Louise