Dreamweaver: Backgrounds for Birthdays

We are well into the beginning of a new year, and in honor of that, our monthly challenge for January has been Birthday Wishes. We'd love for you to play along with us, and link your creations to the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of this post, or on the Dream It Up! blog, for a chance to win the stencil of your choice...and remember, using Dreamweaver products gets you bonus points towards an extra stencil!

Here's my birthday wish for this week:

Creating your own patterned paper is so simple when you have Dreamweaver stencils! The purple panel was completed in opposite techniques...on the bottom, Memories Mists Grape was sprayed through the Dogwood Pattern stencil, and in an effort to not waste the ink sitting on the stencil, the top portion of the panel was placed on the wet stencil to transfer the ink. The Dreamweaver Apron Die was cut from the center to be used on another card, but I didn't want to waste the rest of my beautiful background. So I sprayed through the Leopard Spots stencil with Mango Lemonade Memories Mist onto a square of yellow cardstock. Once the corners were rounded, I placed the yellow panel behind the negative cut portion of the purple panel, and adhered both to my white card. I finished off this birthday card with a sentiment stamped in purple on a corrugated banner piece, added a May Arts' ribbon bow, buttons, and ric rac. What a fun card for any female...friend, mother, sister, aunt, or grandmother.

For more birthday ideas, check out the team links below:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Cindy Groh

Lyn Bernatovich

Alison Heikilla 

Kristine Reynolds

Gill Wilson

Woodware: Hopping Along for Easter

This year seems to just be hopping along. Already we are thinking about Easter, and spring flowers, bunnies, and eggs. The Woodware team have been challenged this week to create an "Easter Delight". Mine is something fun that I made for the Dreamweaver team a couple years of ago, and is still one of my faves.

The base is double-sided yellow/orange cardstock, with the top flap only being 3 inches in order to reveal the inside panel. Aqua cardstock was machine embossed with the Dreamweaver Stripes/Plaid stencil, and paste-embossed with the Hoppy Easter sentiment and the small bunny in Regular White Paste. The top flap has a fun patterned paper panel, and a trim of green pompom fringe.

Now, the focal point. I used the Dreamweaver Open Egg stencil as a template to cut the egg shape. I "air-brushed" it using markers and one of those kid's air brush gadgets. Then I paste-embossed in white the Tall Daffodils and, when dry, colored them, as well as the bunny's ears, and inside sentiment, with the markers as well. The egg was adhered to a piece of larger white cardstock, and scallop-edged scissors used to create the pretty edge. I adhered the egg to the flap of the card with dimensional squares.

Now that I've left you dreaming of spring in the middle of winter, I'd like to remind you to visit the Woodware blog each day this week for more Easter Delights!

Stampendous: Dreaming of Flowers

Being up to your armpits in snow is the perfect time to dream! Wouldn't you love to trade places with this darling Gruffy Bear from House Mouse Designs®? Warm, sunny day. Green grass. Charming sunflower stalks. Ahhhhhh.

Gruffy has been stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento, and colored with Copic markers. This focal panel has then been adhered over an orange card, which has the Black Eyed Susans ink-stenciled using a dark orange pigment pad by Tsukineko, with a large stencil brush from Dreamweaver. The other panel is a section of Core'dinations Chalk Core in yellow, machine-embossed with the Dreamweaver Hexagons stencil before being sanded to reveal the yellow core.

The sentiment is one of the many appropriate for all House Mouse Designs® images, the Perfectly Clear Berry Nice Sayings set from Stampendous.

Stampendous is having a bit of a floral celebration all of this week, so if you've missed any so far, be sure to  check the Stampendous blog.

Woodware: A Silver Romance

The Woodware team is focusing on Silver Weddings this week, and apparently all I read was the word silver...so please pretend that I followed the challenge correctly. Lol. A silver anniversary is close enough, isn't it?

I created this card by first paste-embossing the Dreamweaver Chevron stencil in Silver Embossing Paste on a black cardstock panel, and setting it aside to dry near a small fan in my studio. Meanwhile, I inked the Stampendous Ornate Heart image, stamped, and embossed it in Silver Embossing Powder on another panel of black. A Peel Off sticker sentiment was added on a thin black banner strip, along with embellishments of Mark Richards Self Adhesive Crystals for added bling.

This simple design could easily be a wedding card or a Valentine as well! Don't forget to check the Woodware Team Blog for more silver inspiration all of this week!

Dreamweaver: Birthday Challenge Got You Dragon?

Welcome to the birth of a new year...2015 to be precise! In honor of that, we've decided that our monthly challenge for January will be Birthday Wishes. We'd love for you to play along with us, and link your creations to the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of this post, or on the Dream It Up! blog, for a chance to win the stencil of your choice...and remember, using Dreamweaver products gets you bonus points towards an extra stencil!

Here's my birthday wish for this week:

I thought I'd go a bit more elaborate for this week's birthday card. Using one of my favorite techniques...Molten Magic...along with Stampendous Embossing Enamels and Micro Glitters. The end result is so much texture, dimension, and color.

The Dreamweaver Dragon was paste-embossed in Glossy Red Paste using these steps:
1) Using removable tape around all edges, tape the stencil over the top of the cardstock panel.
2) Slide palette knife into jar of paste, lifting a thick portion of it up the back of the knife. Transfer to edge of Spreader approximately the width of the stencil design you are using.
3) Spread paste across stencil at a slight angle, lifting up at the end. Use palette knife to daub paste in any areas that may have been missed. Transfer remaining paste on spreader back to jar. Apply spreader at 45˚ angle across stencil to remove excess paste, and return to jar.  Clean edge of jar and close tightly.
4) Carefully remove tape from three sides, leaving last piece as your "hinge" to help lift the stencil off of the paper before removing. Immediately place stencil and spreader in water to be cleaned with a soft brush.

Now, comes the fun part!

1) Sprinkle various Stampendous Aged Enamels (Aged Gold and Aged Black) and Glitter (Red Micro Glitter) over wet paste. Tap off excess and return to bottles.
2) Apply heat tool until surface is bubbling, melding, and molten. Let cool a few minutes.
3) TA DAH! Don't you love it? You know this will be your new favorite technique!

Obviously, the card was finished up in the usual fashion...mats and layers, a glowing red rhinestone eye, and a sentiment. This was computer generated as I was feeling a bit of whimsy, so I designed it quickly in PhotoShop, printed it, and added it. It says, "Need help with those candles?", but I had printed out a couple others..."Another birthday got you DRAGON?", and "Come on...you know you're a HOTTIE!"  Yeah, very punny, I know.

Of course, more birthday inspirations coming your way from our "B" team:

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson

Cindy Groh

An InLinkz Link-up

Stampendous: A Spot of Tea, Perhaps?

Nothing is better for the soul than sharing a lovely cup of tea with a good friend. So, I'm posting this in honor of my good friend from the UK, Dorothy. I always enjoy our chats, sharing thoughts and opinions, and maybe a "biscuit" or two along with that "cuppa".

The card base is created using a large folded panel of WorldWin® DoubleMates paper in two shades of blue. The corners were rounded, along with the corners of the second layer inside of white cardstock. Both were cut straight across the fold at 1 1/4" , and folded back the opposite direction to create the pop-up portion.

I created my teapot by tracing the Dreamweaver Teapot Stencil onto the double-sided paper. After it was cut out, I ran the pieces through my Big Shot along with the Dreamweaver Dogwood Pattern stencil, and brushed White VersaColor ink over the embossed design to highlight it. A stamped sentiment tag was added to mimic a teabag in the pot.

I also embossed the Dreamweaver Oval Doily stencil with the opposite side of the paper, and ink-stenciled the embossed areas with a large stencil brush and Royal Blue ink. One edge was folded approximately 2" from the long edge. Cuts were made to match the original pop-up, and the doily was adhered to the card. The teapot was added as well onto the top flap.

The Cling Teacup Trio is a beautiful new stamp image from Stampendous, which I stamped in Danube Blue Memento, and colored with shades of blue Copic markers to imitate the look of Delft pottery. This was cut out and adhered to the popup, and a lux silk ribbon bow from May Arts finished the inside of the card.

The outside also features the embossed and inked doily pattern, along with two sections cut with the Dreamweaver Nested Ovals Dies, layered and stamped in blue with the Stampendous Perfectly Clear Life Words set.

I hope that each day this week, you'll sit down with your "cuppa", and enjoy the tea-themed creations by my Stampendous teammates. You can find the links here:

Stampendous

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Pam Hornschu

Dreamweaver: More Birthday Fun

Welcome to the birth of a new year...2015 to be precise! In honor of that, we've decided that our monthly challenge for January will be Birthday Wishes. We'd love for you to play along with us, and link your creations to the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of this post, or on the Dream It Up! blog, for a chance to win the stencil of your choice...and remember, using Dreamweaver products gets you bonus points towards an extra stencil!

Here's my birthday wish for this week:

I'm going to cheat a bit here and post a previous creation, as apparently I totally forgot to create something for this week's post before I'd gone off to play at the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) show in Anaheim. Anyhoooooo...I kind of love this card, and it's super simple to create. The large focal panel is a piece of Bazzill Basics' Dotted Swiss white cardstock, on which I'd pasted the Stylized Dahlia design in Regular Embossing Paste from Dreamweaver. Once dry, I brushed a soft pink ink over the surface with a large stencil brush, from top to bottom and left to right. The birthday sentiment, Bonne Fete (French), was pasted on a section of cotton May Arts ribbon in pink paste. No, Dreamweaver does not make a pink paste, but you can create your own...or any color you prefer. Just add a bit of ink, acrylic paint, spray mist, or even mica powders to a dab of the Regular Paste, and mix it with your palette knife.

Once the ribbon was dry, I wrapped it around the focal panel, and adhered the layers to my pink card base. A few self adhesive pearls, and the end result is a beautiful, textural, slightly Shabby Chic-style card for someone wonderful!

I do apologize if you visited this post earlier, and nothing was here to oooh and aaaah over. I hope that won't prevent you from ooohing and aaahing over this one!

Of course, more birthday inspirations coming your way from the Dream Team:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

An InLinkz Link-up

Stampendous: Why Do Hummingbirds Hum?

Because they love to stamp...that's why! Lol.
This week the Stampendous team are sharing our wonderful hummingbird stamps, templates, and dies. I chose to accentuate them by means of a larger canvas. Prepped in advance with gesso, here are the steps:

1. Mix a small amount of Dreamweaver Pearlescent Embossing Paste and tube acrylic to achieve desired background color. Spritz small amount of water to thin slightly. Spray canvas with water, and brush-apply mixed paste. Set aside to dry. Brush some over two paper flowers and set aside to dry.
2. When dry, ink various stamps from filigree set and hummingbird set, and stamp over canvas in Gray StazOn ink. Note: place acrylic blocks behind canvas for stability and a clean image.
3. Using stencil/template from Hummingbird set, paste-emboss one hummingbird on canvas with Dreamweaver Crackle Paste. Let dry until crackled. Color over top with Copic markers.
4. Stamp flowers and leaves with gray on tissue paper. Color with Copic markers. Tear around edge of design. Brush small amount of Beacon Fast Finish over area to place flower/tissue. Place colored tissue down on the wet surface. Brush another thin layer carefully over the tissue piece to seal and adhere to the canvas. Apply a light coat over entire canvas as well.
5. Sprinkle Color Fragments in teal, and Mica Fragmentss over wet Fast Finish. Let dry.Adhere ribbon border on canvas.
6. Layer flowers and adhere to canvas with FabriTac. Add a bit of glue in center and sprinkle with Glass Glitter.
7. Die cut hummingbirds from gauze paper. Ink around edges. Adhere to canvas with Zip Dry.

 For more hummy inspirations, be sure to check the Stampendous blog each day this week, and follow the links!

Woodware: Thinking of My Papa...

This week's Woodware challenge has proved to be a bit emotional for me. We're featuring grandparents this week, and both sets of mine have been gone a long time. However, the memories are never gone. I remember both of my grandfathers loving to fish, and since "Papa" fits better on this card than "Grandpa", I'm pretending this is for my Papa.

The inside is a smaller white card, brayered with Tsukineko Kaleidacolor ink to mimic a nice sunset. You know men...the sun is going down, and it's always, "Just one more cast"! I used a teal ink to stamp the Clear Growing Old sentiment.

The outside is a card made from clear acetate. Acetate can be a bit tricky. It tends to have a mind of its own, and always has a major issue with static cling, which can be  tricky when using embossing powder with it. If you use an anti-static pouch over all of the surface (front and back), you can prevent problems.

The Clear Casting Bait image was stamped on the inside of the acetate card, and embossed in Stampendous Midnight Black Embossing Powder. Yes...on the inside of the flap. The reason is that if the image was reversed, I was able to show more of the sentiment on the brayered layer. Keep that in mind if you ever have an image that you really wish were reversed. Obviously, this will not work if there are any words as they will reverse as well.

Remember how I said that acetate can have a mind of its own? Well, it is not crazy about being tightly folded. I foiled its master plan by using brads to hold the card in place inside the acetate card, and added a bit of dimensional foam adhesive just behind the embossed image as well. The back flap I adhered to the card with a tape runner.

Finally, I die cut letters from the Dreamweaver Dual Alphabet Die set for the word Papa, and adhered them to the top of the acetate card. The end result is far more cool than it photographs, but being creative types, I'm sure you get the idea!

As a final thought...if you are fortunate enough to still have your grandparents in your life, let them know how much you love and appreciate them. Make them a handmade card. Sit with them. Listen to their stories. Share them with your children. This is how they live on ever after.

Dreamweaver: Dreaming of Birthday Wishes for the New Year

Welcome to the birth of a new year...2015 to be precise! In honor of that, we've decided that our monthly challenge for January will be Birthday Wishes. We'd love for you to play along with us, and link your creations to the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of this post, or on the Dream It Up! blog, for a chance to win the stencil of your choice...and remember, using Dreamweaver products gets you bonus points towards an extra stencil!

Here's my birthday wish for this week:

For some reason, I seem to  be in a bright yellow, orange, and pink mood lately. Hmmm. Could it have something to do with being tired of doing red and green? At least for now...

This card has a pocket on the side that holds a bookmark and a gift card, but is large enough for a variety of things...maybe even a chocolate bar!

The main card is created from Bazzill Basics cardstock, and ink-stenciled with a large stencil brush and Splendor ink from Tsukineko. These inkpads are like little palettes of color, and are perfect for ink-stenciling. I used the Dreamweaver Flower Corner stencil. Once stenciled, I die cut an oval from the card using the Nested Ovals dies medium size, and then cut the small one from that piece. This small one was adhered to the bookmark strip, to slide into the pocket.

I ran a panel of acetate through my Big Shot with the Hexagons stencil, which did impress it a bit, but not quite as much as I would have liked, so it did not photograph very well. Oh, well. Live and learn! However, it provided the perfect spot to paste-emboss the sentiment from the Dreamweaver Birthday Combo stencil using Glossy White Paste. Once dry, this was slid into the pocket and adhered behind the oval opening.

The pocket was just a panel of white cardstock cut the same width as the card, and 1/2" larger in height than the size of a gift card. 1/8" folds were done on the top and bottom, and adhered to the back of the front flap of the card. This allows easier access to the gift card and bookmark, along with a semi-circle punched from the left side. A bit of ribbon and a brad become the pull tab.

I did machine-emboss a thin strip of cardstock with the Hexagons, and brushed with ink as a border for the bottom of the card.

Of course, more birthday inspirations coming your way from our "B" team:

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson

Kristi Parker Van Doren
Cindy Groh

An InLinkz Link-up

Stampendous: Fluttering By

How about a bright and sunny card full of butterflies and fun to scare away the winter blues? All of this week the Stampendous team have been letting our  butterflies take flight. I had fun creating beautiful backgrounds with the Creative Palette, by spritzing Dreamweaver Memories Mists in Mango Lemonade, Pink Lemonade, and Iridescent colors, spraying a bit of water, and place several panels of white cardstock onto the surface to transfer the colors and patterns. As the inks began to dry a bit, I used them with the Stack Art Regal Bird cling stamps as ink pads to add patterns to these panels. Then I switched my mist color to Lavender Tea, and used this as an inkpad to stamp one of the beautiful Cling Pen Pattern Butterflies on my favorite panel. Using the medium butterfly die that matches the butterfly stamps, I cut one from the edge of the panel. This butterfly was folded up to add more dimension to the panel. I used dimensional foam tape to adhere the panel over the top of a white cardstock panel stamped with the Cling Vintage Letter Script in Tuxedo Black Memento ink. To finish off this card, I applied a glue marker to adhere a heavy sprinkling of Amethyst and Canary Color Fragments.

For more flutter-by inspiration, be sure to visit the Stampendous blog each day this week for links to the team's creations.

Want to play with the January 2015 challenge? You can find the details HERE.

Woodware: Sketch 41...Simply Fun

Sketch 41 is a simple and fun one. Less about the layout, and more about what you lay out! I simply created a background by ink-stenciling the Dreamweaver Chevron background with Clearsnap Mixed Media ink in Peridot, using a big fat stencil brush for quick coverage. I used the same ink to "watercolor" the soon-to-be released Stampendous Cling PenPattern Petal a couple of times. These were cut out, the petals rounded, layered, and adhered along with one small white paper flower and a Mark Richards' Self-adhesive crystal. The line going across in the design was perfect for a pretty ribbon, and as I don't ever have enough birthday cards on hand, I used the Stampendous Perfectly Clear Birthday Assortment for my chosen sentiment.

This sketch is great for quick cards for any occasion, so be sure to play along with this month's challenge on the Woodware blog. All the details can be found there!

Dreamweaver: Dreaming of Birthday Wishes for 2015!

Welcome to the birth of a new year...2015 to be precise! In honor of that, we've decided that our monthly challenge for January will be Birthday Wishes. We'd love for you to play along with us, and link your creations to the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of this post, or on the Dream It Up! blog, for a chance to win the stencil of your choice...and remember, using Dreamweaver products gets you bonus points towards an extra stencil!

Here's my birthday wish for this week:

In honor of the Queen of Stencils, Lynell Harlow's birthday coming up on the fourth, the team are joining up this week to wish her the best ever. My card is done in Lynell's favorite colors...shades of blue and green...using the Dreamweaver Stripes/Plaid stencil, and one of the sentiments from the Birthday Combo stencil.

The plaid is achieved by inking the stencil with a darker blue chalk ink, and placing it face up on the base plate of my Big Shot machine. A panel of white cardstock was placed facedown on top, along with the embossing mat, and two clear plates. All of this "sandwich" were run through the machine, in an inkpress technique, where the ink is transferred, and at the same time the paper is embossed with the design. Now, the stencil is inked again with a turquoise chalk ink, and placed face up on the base plate again. This time, place the cardstock panel 1/4 turn on top so that the ink transfers in the opposite direction, creating the plaid, almost seersucker pattern. This panel was matted in white and adhered to a dark blue card. Using the Dreamweaver Nested Ovals Dies, I cut one of each size from corresponding navy, white, and turquoise cardstock. The sentiment was paste-embossed with Glossy White on the turquoise oval, and set aside to dry.

For the finishing touches, the ovals were layered, along with two ribbon strips, and a couple of paper flowers with gems in the center.

This card is really simple, and perfect for creating for men as well as women. Just a change of colors, and you've created something entirely different!

Happy birthday, Lynell! Love you!

Of course, more birthday inspirations coming your way from the Dream Team:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin
Cindy Groh
Kristi Parker Van Doren
Lyn Bernatovich
Alison Heikilla

An InLinkz Link-up