Thursday, April 30, 2015

Showers of Showers! Week 5

Welcome to the final week of the Dreamweaver Stencils April challenge of "Showers to Showers!" Our designers have created so many wonderful things with this theme, be sure to look back through them if you missed a few. Today is another "final" for our team as well. It's the last time we will post as members of the Dream Team under the direction of our lovely and talented, Lynell Harlow.

Lynell, I can't even begin to thank you enough for your friendship over the last 11 years (yes, it really has been that long!). When we opened our shop, yours were some of the first products we brought in. I had fallen in love with them after taking one of your workshops at ARTS right before we opened, and I've been hooked ever since! You are always so willing to share your talents, and time, making it all look effortless. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for nurturing my love of creating with these beautiful stencils and products. When we sold the shop and you offered me the privilege of joining your design team, I was in heaven! These Thursday posts with the Dream Team have been wonderful, and I'm so excited to now be part of the Stampendous Design Team so I can continue to share our love of stenciling and creating art! You and Wayne are amazing artists, and naturally found another creative outlet in Zentangle. (If you haven't seen them, be sure to check out their Zendays Wednesday blog posts.) Here's a throw back to the first post I did as a member of the Dream Team. Thanks again Lynell for all the wonderful memories, it's been a fabulous ride.

Today I decided to combine some Dreamweaver and Stampendous products to celebrate the merger of these two great companies. I am, again, overjoyed to have been invited to become a member of the Stampdendous design team and really look forward to this new adventure!

"Determined Shopper!"
Not one to ever let a little rain stop me, I thought this little Diva Hopper stamp (HHQ01) from Stampendous looked like nothing would get in the way of her day! Certainly a little rain shower couldn't,
I stamped her with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and colored her with Chameleon Markers.
The Umbrella stencil (LG737) was placed on a background piece I created using the Creative Palette from Stampendous (I have the Rectangles, but there are others) and acrylic paints. If you haven't tried this fun product, you can check out the videos on the Stampendous website.  How did I get that fun pattern you ask? Well, I used the Zen Flower stencil (LX7024) on the Palette with the paints. You have to be a little careful with the metal stencils so you don't damage them, but it's not hard. Use a Micron 03 black pen to outline the openings of the Umbrella stencil, cut it out, and go around the edges with a coordinating marker.
I placed the umbrella over the stamped image then put the Rain stencil (LJ905) over that so I would know where to stencil the raindrops. Use a 1/4" stencil brush and light blue ink (Memento Summer Sky) to add the raindrops.  Use a 1/2" stencil brush and a slightly darker blue ink (Memento Paris Dusk) to brush a little more blue into the "sky" area.
I wanted the umbrella to look like she was holding it in her other "hand", so I cut the handle off the umbrella and used a craft knife to carefully cut around the paw and to cut a small slit at the top of the head for the handle to come through. Then I added the umbrella using foam tape to give it more dimension.

Our team wants to "shower" you with lots more ideas, so be sure to stop over and leave them a "shower" of comments!

 This will also be our final post with Cindy Groh and Gill Wilson. We hope to have them occasionally "guest" post with us in the future, and we wish them both the best in their creative futures, as well as good health and happiness.

Happy Creating,
Louise
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Thursday, April 23, 2015

Showers of Showers! Week 4

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...
"May you be showered with happiness"
Letterpress technique
The Letterpress technique is so easy and creates a beautiful look. It just needs two simple steps.
First: ink the back of the stencil with Delicata ink Golden Glitz from Tsukineko (any color works)
Second: Place the stencil ink side up on the large platform of a die cut machine, place a piece of cardstock carefully on the stencil, then the rubber embossing mat, and finally, two plastic cutting plates. Run through the machine to transfer the ink to the paper. Of course, a beautiful ribbon from May Arts is always the perfect finishing touch.
Here's a close up:
Background:  LX7001 Damask
Saying:  LG738 Rain words 
Our "B" wants to "shower" you with lots more ideas, so be sure to stop over and leave them a "shower" of comments!

Happy Creating,
Louise
An InLinkz Link-up
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Thursday, April 16, 2015

Showers of Showers! Week 3

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. Our designers have so many choices with this theme, baby, wedding, rain...You'll definitely want to see what we come up with each week of April!

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...

"Wishing you a ton of happiness!"
I just love this Dreamweaver  Sm Elephant stencil (LL3042). It makes a wonderful Baby Shower card and can be done in any color palette. I'm going to a Baby Shower this weekend and they know they are having a boy, so this was perfect timing for me! 

I've been preparing some class samples for a workshop I'm going to be doing for Door County Rubber Stamps in June and it just so happened that I had some left over paste that was perfect for the "Sludge technique" Elephant. Whenever you have left over paste that you have colored, save it to an empty paste jar (or any container that seals well). It will keep quite a while in the right container. Anyway...I had some left over blue (Regular Paste with Metallic FX Navajo Sky added), and matte copper (Regular Paste and Copper Paste mixed in equal amounts). Add alternating dollops of paste along the edge of your paste spreader (LM2010), swirl them together a little with the tip of a palette knife, then paste your image. Do I even have to tell you to save the left over! They turn out different each time. This one is a little more "stripey" than "marbley", but it worked great with the striped paper I chose. I can never throw left over paste away, so Sludge pasting is the perfect solution. Beautiful papers also help tie everything together, as does the fabulous ribbon from May Arts.

Our "A" wants to "shower" you with lots more ideas, so be sure to stop over and leave them a "shower" of comments!
Louise Healy

Happy Creating,
Louise
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Thursday, April 9, 2015

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:
 
Louise Healy
Happy Creating,
Louise
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Thursday, April 2, 2015

Showers of Showers! Week 1

Welcome to the Stampendous-Dreamweaver Stencils April challenge of "Showers to Showers!" Our designers have so many choices with this theme, baby, wedding, rain...You'll definitely want to see what we come up with each week of April!

Today I chose to interpret the theme this way:

For your Shower!
I thought this would be the perfect card for when you go to a bridal shower this Spring or Summer. It's pretty easy and you can make it to match the color scheme of the shower or wedding.

  • Paste emboss the Umbrella stencil, LG737, on colored cardstock using Glossy White Embossing Paste
  • Let the paste dry, clean and dry the stencil
  • Dry emboss (by hand or with a die cut machine) the Daisies, LL548, and/or the Tall daisies (LL549), three or four times
  • Place the stencil back over the embossed image and use stencil brushes to add yellow to the centers (be sure to use your Picasso, LL332 to help you with this!) and a very light blue along the outer edges of the petals (this helps the design show better)
  • Cut out the flowers, layer up your card, add a stamped or stenciled saying (I used LG738 Rain words), and you have a beautiful card!

Our "A" wants to "shower" you with lots more ideas, so be sure to stop over and leave them a "shower" of comments!
Louise Healy


Happy Creating,
Louise
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Thursday, March 26, 2015

Making Texture Blog Hop Day 5!



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’ve been celebrating 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. For our final day I've created a "sea" of texture for your! Here it is:
"A Sea of Texture"
Here are the steps I used to create this fun Birthday card:
Choose your stencils and cut paper about the same size as the stencil.
Tape them down. Notice the seahorse stencil is placed sideways so that when I apply embossing paste, I will be applying it in the direction of the small bridges, not against them. This gives you less chance of getting paste under the bridges.
I used Dreamweaver Regular Embossing Paste (matte white) with a little Just Peach F/X Powder to create a very light orange paste. I applied it to the two shells, the starfish, and the seahorse. You can see it doesn't take very much paste to create several images. The left over was put in a jar I keep of various colors I've created, it's great for mixed media projects.
After removing the stencils, I sprinkled the two shells, LM104 Nautilus and LM106 Scallop, with a little Stampendous Golden Sand embossing Powder. I also added a little crushed up Fran-tage taupe color fragements on the Nautilus. Both were heated from below first, then on top.
LM181 Seahorse and LM209 Starfish were sprinkled with Fran-tage shabby pink embossing enamel, excess tapped off, then the starfish had a little Golden Sand embossing powder added to the open areas. Both were heated from below first, then above.
I colored more paste with some Kiwi FX Powder for the LM179 Sea turtle, but before removing the stencil, I took a piece of crumpled paper towel and gently dabbed on the paste to give it more texture. When I took the stencil off, I used a soft brush to scatter more Kiwi FX Powder on the paste, heated the whole image, then used a Swiffer cloth to buff off the extra powder. He's pretty cool, the shell looks so "knobby"!
Cut everything out, create a background with a wash of blue ink on watercolor paper, use blue and brown ink to stencil the seaweed pattern in the background (sorry, I used LG679 which I realize now is no longer available), die cut some "coral" using LX7020 Leafless Tree die and light colored cardstock. After laying everything out, I decided it needed a little something else, so I stamped "from all of us" from the Birthday Wish set (SSC1115), the one of the sayings on the inside of the card.
We hope you’ve enjoyed the wonderful inspiration that three talented teams have brought 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.
Check out all these great designers!
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Marching into Spring Week 4!

See the links below for the DW/Stampendous/Woodware hop!

Ready for fresh air, sunshine, new leaves, and flowers blooming? Well, the Dream Team is right there with you! Our challenge for the month of March is...coincidentally...Marching into Spring. Per usual, we'd love to have you play along with us, and link your own creations to theInlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog, or at the bottom of this post. Play as many times as you'd like. Those of you who work Dreamweaver and/or Stampendous products into your projects receive bonus points, but everyone has an opportunity to be the winner who receives the stencil of their choice.

A sure sign of Spring is Easter, and with Easter only a week away, I decided that a fun Easter card was the perfect way to end this month's challenge.

Here's my hint of Spring, Easter style:

Easter egg stencil - LG685
Double-glitter technique
You can't make an Easter card without glitter! The Dreamweaver Easter egg stencil (LG685) is perfect for the beautiful Double-glitter Technique. The stencil is actually egg-shaped, so you get a nice "frame" of glitter too. Here's how you do it:

  • Cut a piece of Dreamweaver Double-sided mounting paper (MPDS) a little larger than the stencil
  • Cut a piece of colorful cardstock an 1/8" each direction larger than the MPDS
  • Remove the release paper from one side of the MPDS and center it on the cardstock
  • Place the stencil face down on a paper towel and gently rub the back with Dreamweaver Handmade Hawaiian Soap (DHHS) making sure to go over all the back
  • Use a large stencil brush to brush away any flakes of soap from the openings
  • Remove the top piece of release paper from the MPDS and place the stencil, soap side down, on the sticky surface
  • Use a piece of release paper to press the stencil firmly on the sticky paper
  • I used Stampendous fran-tage micro glitters (Lavender, Orange, Pink and Teal) to "color" my egg
  • To remove the stencil, turn the glittered image face down on a clean surface and gently peel the paper off the stencil, making sure to keep the stencil flat on the surface
  • Sprinkle the exposed sticky paper with Crystal micro glitter to finish off the design
  • Mount on a cute paper, add a pretty bow, and you've got a great Easter card!
When I first finished the card it didn't have the bow and looked like this:


Pretty, but I felt like it needed a little something, hence, the bow. Which do you like?  Also, after I finished glittering, I decided to add a second layer to the flowers because I had gotten a little Teal glitter in the pink flowers. I like the dimension the additional layer gives.  Here's a close up:



The links for DW/Stampendous/Woodware
Happy Creating,
Louise
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