Blog Hop Update

Just a little correction to the dates of the Dreamweaver Stencils blog hop. The hop will start on Friday, October 1 at the Dreamweaver Blog and will continue for 3 days. Each day a different group of Dream Team designers will be featured, so be sure to come back all three days to check out all the beautiful ideas! Don't forget to leave a comment on each of the blogs featured each day to be eligible to win PRIZES! There could be some sneak peeks on some of the blogs tomorrow, you never know.
See you at the hop!
Happy Creating,
Louise

Get Ready to HOP!

Do you hop? Blog hop that is. Well, if not, get ready to learn because starting on September 30, 2010 Dreamweaver will be sponsoring a blog hop with lots of beautiful samples, techniques and, best of all, PRIZES!! Stay tuned for more details as we get closer.

In the meantime, to help you get excited here is another Dreamweaver sample that I recently sent to Lynell featuring the new large branch with berries stencil (LJ900).
I started by using Cut 'n' Dry foam to rouge Distress Inks (Scattered Straw, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky) onto 90 lb. watercolor paper. Place your stencil at one side and use a small stencil brush to stencil the branch with Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire. Flip the stencil over and do the other edge so you have branches coming in from both sides. Clean your stencil and gently tape it down over the two stenciled images so it overlays each of them a little. Paste with Glossy White Embossing Paste, remove the stencil and immediately sprinkle with Crystal Glitter. When the paste is dry, brush some Chipped Sapphire around all the edges of the image. Layer and embellish with coordinating papers and ribbons. I added one of Dreamweavers new white pins that I colored with COPIC markers to match my color scheme. (B32, B97, B37)
Don't forget to watch for more details about the Dreamweaver Blog Hop coming soon!
Happy Creating,
Louise

Holiday Fun

I'm participating in my first ever blog hop this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show (see the September 8, 2010 posting) and this is my entry. The theme is Holiday Fun and we could do any type of card, page or project for Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas. I love all those holidays, so it was hard for me to decide which to focus on for my project, but Christmas won. I just love doing these mirrors, they look completely different every time you make one. I've made them for the different seasons, for gifts, baby showers, "Up North" themes, the list goes on and on.

Start with a mirror from IKEA (they have great things there!), they come natural, black, or red. I used Wendy Vecchi's background words from her "Art of marking it Merry" set (LCS007) and stamped the words in the top left corner and bottom right corner of the mirror using Archival Ink Jet Black. Let that dry well. Using the flower from the same set, I stamped the flower six times with the Jet Black on Tim's Grungepaper and used Distress Inks to color them (Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany and Walnut Stain). I cut out three whole flowers, and three center flowers, and used Glossy Accents to glue the smaller section in the larger flower. Add a large drop of Glossy Accents to the center of the flower and sprinkle with Gold Glass Beads (do this over a coffee filter or container to catch the extra beads). Set aside to dry. The leave are from Wendy's "Ticket to Art" set (LCS001). Stamp them three times and use Distress Inks to color them (Peeled Paint, Forest Moss, Pine Needles). Cut them out and I cut them apart to make them fit in my design better. You can add some Distress Stickles too if you like that (I used Pine Needles).

Next I used Grungeboard and Tim's Elegant Flourish die cut for the branches behind the flowers, and his Caged Bird die to create the wonderful birdcage and bird. Used Distress Inks to color (branches and cage were Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain with Antique Linen Distress Stickles, bird was Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany with Ruby Slippers Stickles). I cut a piece of holly paper to fit behind the cage so the bird would show better. Hung some embellishments from the bottom with jump rings and added a bow and flower at the top to finish it off.

The scrabble tiles for the Merry Christmas came out of my stash that I have collected over the years. They come in very handy for projects like this!

The wood flourishes with the holly at the top are from KaiserCraft. I used the Distress Inks again, then added Pine Needles Stickles to the holly leaves and Ruby Slipper Stickles to the berries. These were a little thicker so I had to let them dry for quite a while.

So I'm off now to add my link to the "HOP". There have been a lot of great submissions so far, so go check them out!

Stop by the list of submissions from all over the world at the Challenge site and click on the names to see all the beautiful entries!

Happy Creating,

Louise

Holly Craze!

The new Holly stencil from Dreamweaver (LL3005) is so versatile. I don't know which techinique is my favorite with it, so I will show you several that I have created so far.





















The first was done with Blue Glossy Embossing Paste, with Crackle Paste over it after it dried. When the Crackle Paste was dry, I used Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy and Rocket Red to color the image. I just love the nice crackling you get in the open area of the leaves.

This one is the faux Cloisonne technique. Paste the holly with gold embossing paste and let it dry. Place the clean stencil back over the gold paste and use pigment inks to color the image. Remove the stencil and sprinkle UTEE over the design. Tap off the extra embossing powder and heat gently to set the powder. Repeat with another layer of color and UTEE if you want a smoother finish.












The shadow technique does not work well with every stencil, but it is beautiful with this Holly sprig. To get the shadow effect, tape your stencil to your paper and use small stencil brushes to color your image (I used Brilliance Thyme ink on the whole image, including the berries). You want to shadow with a fairly dark color to get the best effect. Clean your stencil and place it back over your colored image, then carefully shift it up and to the right about 1/16" to 1/8". Tape your stencil back down and use the Regular Embossing Paste (white matte) over the image. Remove the stencil and immediately sprinkle the paste with Crystal glitter. Let dry. Place your clean stencil on the dry white paste and carefully color the berries with red ink and use your picasso (LL332) to add some veins on the leaves. The red pin in the ribbon was originally white. I used my COPIC markers to color it to match.

Hope these inspire you to try a technique you haven't done before, or forgot you knew how to do!

Happy Creating,
Louise

Crafting Fun

Last Saturday I got together with a group of friends for a day of crafting. It was so much fun and very inspirational. Each of us brought a project for the group to do, and spent the day being creative. It was relaxing and wonderful! Here's what we created.
The little frame was stamped and colored with PrismaColor pencils, then a little Distress Inks rubbed in the background.
The pumpkin was glittered with glass glitter shards and ultrafine to fill in. The leaves were 2 fabric leaves glued together with a wire in between, and the tops glittered, and some gold wire coiled for tendrils. When it was dry, we used a craft pick to make holes and glued in the leaves and tendrils.
The sunflowers are made from grungepaper, with grungeboard for the stems., colored with Distress Inks, the centers are chip board colored and stamped. Everything was assembled with a hot glue gun with bamboo skewers to create "pics" , arranged in a great tin pot, and embellished with ribbon and a tag.
The notecard folder has little pockets inside to hold 4 notecards and envelopes. It is so easy. Cover two pieces of lightweight cardboard with pretty paper, adhere them to some contrasting paper for a spine, leaving about a 3/4" gap, cover the inside with coordinating paper and create matching notecards.
Every project turned out great. Thank you to my friends who made the day so much fun!
Happy Creating,
Louise

Go Green!

It seems like the trend lately is to try to be "green", which is a good thing of course. We definitely need to be aware of our impact to our surroundings. In that line, Lynell created a great background stencil called "Go Green" (LX7000), well that's what I call it, but you can see why. It is an extra large background stencil that easily fits a standard A2 size card front.
In the true spirit of "going green", the card with the Hawaiian image was made from an old travel magazine that I knew I was saving for a reason! I ripped out a page that had a beautiful beach scene for the background, ran that through my Big Shot to emboss the Go Green stencil, then sanded it gently to accentuate the words. The image and mat layer were from the same magazine. It could be a great Bon Voyage card, or an all occasion card for someone who loves Hawaii (is there someone who doesn't!). The little card above that uses gold paste and the little gecko stencil, and just one of the Go Green word sets cut out with some green ink brush on it.
The other card really showcases the whole stencil. I ran kraft colored cardstock through the Big Shot, then brushed ink over the raised area to give it a "distressed" look. Embellish with old string and a rusty old coin and you end up with another great all occasion card.
On another note, the go green theme can definitely be applied to Christmas cards as well. Lynell had a great sample of a Christmas tree shape using this stencil. If we ask her nicely, I bet she'll get that posted on her blog soon!
Happy creating,
Louise

Hallelujah!

This beautiful new Hallelujah stencil (LM207) from Dreamweaver will be perfect for your Christmas cards. Here are two samples to get you inspired!

This first card was done using White Glossy Embossing Paste on a turquoise colored Tsugumi cardstock by Hanko Papers. After removing the stencil, sprinkle the wet paste with Crystal glitter. When the paste is dry, deckle the edge and mount on a black mat that has been edged with gold Krylon pen. The background paper is one of Hanko's beautiful washi papers also edged with the gold Krylon pen. It is a little tricky edging the washi because it is lighter weight and

has a fiber texture, but the result is so beautiful it is worth taking the time to learn to do it! Mount the background paper to a cream colored base card and use foam tape to add the Hallelujah image.

The other sample was done using the Pearlescent Embossing Paste on the inside of one of Dreamweaver's long oval window cards. Working quickly, leave the stencil in place over the wet paste and use a brush or Q-tip to pick up some Metallic F/X powder and sprinkle it over the wet paste (I used Kimono Red F/X15 and Gold Dust F/X01). Remove the stencil and place in water. Gently tap the back side of the image to make the powders "jump" around and help spread them

over the image. Let dry thoroughly. When dry, use a clean soft stencil brush or a swifter cloth to remove any extra powder. Brush the outside front of the card with Brilliance Galaxy Gold on a No. 12 Stencil brush (very large), being sure to place a piece of scrap paper inside the card to protect the image in the opening. Embellish with strips of coordinating paper and a brad or charm.

Happy Creating,

Louise