Foiled Again! Birds With Branches

Only a little over two weeks away until the Dreamweaver Stencil's Dream Team "gets hopping"! That's right! Plans are in the making for our very first blog hop over the weekend of September 30 through October 2nd. Mark it on your calendar because not only will you see some amazing new designs by our extremely creative team, but you will have the opportunity to win some wonderful blog candy in the form of fabulous stencils for your own creations. Get ready to be inspired! Check back for more deets. Meanwhile, I'll try to tide you over with this deceptively simple holiday card. I "foiled" the embossed stencil design and layered it with cardstock and borders to a square red card with cute paper and a cheerful satin bow. 

The technique for foiling the design using your embossing machine (I use  a

 Big Shot) goes like this:

1. Place stencil on platten in your machine according to directions for embossing with a stencil.
2. Place foil shiny side down on top of stencil. (Not the kind from the kitchen! The kind you buy at your craft or stamp store that adheres with a tacky adhesive.)
3. Spray front side of cardstock panel with spray adhesive. Spray back side with rubbing alcohol (helps to ensure a deep emboss). Place panel adhesive side down onto foil layer.
4. Cover with embossing mat and 2nd platten and run through machine.
5. Remove from machine and peel off carrier from foiled panel. Tip: For a more broken up look to the foiling, crinkle sheet of foil really well before using.)
See! Really simple and big wow factor. It's easy to do several in a row for multiple cards. Happy stenciling!
Pam

Bird & Branches from Dreamweaver Stencils (LL526)
gold foil
3M spray adhesive
red linen, black, and white cardstock from Kelly Paper
print paper
embossing/die-cutting machine (Big Shot)
border punch from EK success
ribbon (Michael's)

Watch Out Carmen! It's Changito Miranda

Watch out Carmen Miranda! Changito is throwing a Halloween party, complete with wild costumes. "Changito Miranda" was stamped on a white circle and watercolored. The modified flap-fold card includes all the party info on the inside (*suggestion at bottom), a wild tiger print was stamped on the side, and the closure is a brad and swing mount. Fun colors of Bazzill cardstock ensure that Changito's party will be THE party of the spook season. Be there or be square!
Pam

"Changito Miranda" from Stampendous (F193)
"Costume Party" from Stampendous (G067)
*"Spooktacular Invite" from Stampendous (N177)
Perfectly Clear "Simply Safari" from Stampendous (SSC161)
Onyx Versafine ink from Tsukineko
Bazzill cardstock
decorative edge scissors
double-sided foam adhesive
watercolors
brad fastener, swing mount

STMC23-Fall Fields Card

Week 23 of the Stampendous Saturday Sketch Challenges. This week Wendy challenged us with some great fall colors. Be sure to check out her gorgeous creation, as well as the rest of the design team for inspiration. Play along by posting your version to any of the online sites, and post a link on the Stampendous Impressions blog. You have the opportunity of winning one of two fabulous prizes!

My card has a stamped, Copic colored, and torn out Sunflower Scene image from Stampendous. I added some buttons with twine for the fun of it, and a great Class A' Peel sentiment as well. I love the colors of fall, and for California, we've almost been having some fall-like weather. Living in the high desert, we rarely see temperatures below 100 this time of year, but the last few days it's been in the 70's and 80's. Darn near brisk...sort of.
Pam

"Sunflower Scene" from Stampendous (CRP112)
"Fall Trees" Class A' Peels from Stampendous (AC967C)
Rich Cocoa Memento ink from Tsukineko
Copic Sketch Markers from Imagination Int.
WeR Memory Keepers "Grandma's Kitchen-Dippity Dot" print paper
Bazzill and Canson cardstock
buttons, twine, twill tape
double-sided foam adhesive

Dreamweaver Sanded Snowflake Card

Yeah, I realize that it is only September, but when it comes to holiday cards, it never hurts to get an early start. I posted some great Christmas card samples in July and August as peeks of new products from Stampendous and Dreamweaver Stencils, so feel free to refresh yourself on those by clicking on the "older posts" button at the bottom of the page. Meanwhile, I plan to start posting at least one holiday card sample per week for the next month before ramping it up. This card was created using one of Dreamweaver Stencil's great snowflake designs. Extremely simple card to reproduce over and over. Just run the panel of Coredinations cardstock through your die cutting/embossing machine (I use a Big Shot) with the stencil, and run a sanding block over the surface to really highlight the detail. Sand a little over the card created from the same cardstock. Kind of leaves a distressed and frosty look. The white panel down the middle was run through the machine with the flakes background stencil (hard to tell in the photo). I recommend spritzing the cardstock with rubbing alcohol before running it through with the stencil to get a deeper embossed image. Adhere the panels to the front of the card. Wrap and tie a ribbon around it. Embellish with a rhinestone and dimensional sentiment and you're done! Has a great wow factor, yet simple to duplicate...or triplicate, etc. Happy holiday stamping!
Pam

"Gothic Snowflake" from Dreamweaver Stencils (LL396)
"Snowflakes" from Dreamweaver Stencils (LJ819)
Coredinations (blue) and DCWV (white) cardstock
Big shot machine
double-sided foam adhesive
ribbon, rhinestone, word tile (Michael's)

STMC22-Gimme Vamp

So it's Saturday, and you know what that means. No I don't mean the day you get to sleep in and skip hauling kids everywhere. It's Stampendous Saturday Sketch Challenge day, week 22! So get your butt out of bed and get stamping! Don't forget to post a link of your version to the Stampendous Impressions blogsite and check out the creations of the rest of our spookily amazing team (at right). The sketch this week is shown below. My version uses Stampendous' darling little vampire. Personally, I think he is far more cute than Edward or Jacob, but that's just me. I did a paper piecing technique with the image. Very easy to do, just a little time consuming. Stamp your image on various papers, cut out the segments that you want, and adhere them where you'd like on your main stamped image. In my case, the orange printed paper. I found these two papers that were double-sided and one side has four different prints, so these were perfect for this project. This process is also fantastic for using up all those tiny scraps of great papers that you just can't bring yourself to throw away. You don't need enough of the paper to stamp the entire image, just enough to stamp the portion you need. The circles on the side have super cute Class A' Peel stickers from a set called, appropriately, "Cats and Bats". The tiny "stitches" along the background paper were the centers of a picket fence from the same sticker sheet. I zig zag cut the border at the bottom and curled some of the edges over to expose the cute print on the opposite side. Finally, I added the Class A' Peel border along the bottom. Hope all of you have as much fun with this sketch as I did!
Pam

"Give Candy" from Stampendous (CRV211)
"Cats & Bats" Class A' Peels from Stampendous (AC969K)
"Bat Chain" Class A' Peels from Stampendous (AC692K)
Onyx Versafine ink from Tsukineko
Copic Sketch Marker from Imagination Int. (C5)
"Little Scary Night" and "Big Scary Night" from Pinecone Press
"Nostagiques Attic Collection" from EK Success
Coredinations and Bazzill cardstock
sanding block
double-sided foam adhesive

Dreamweaver-Veni Vidi Fishi

Wednesday's post was all about bragging about my latest feature on Scrapbooking.com, at which time I mentioned that I would be posting my designs that were featured with the article. The above is a scrapbook page using Dreamweaver Stencils products. The background was stenciled using ink, going for that "manly" look. I distressed around the edges and used antiqued hardware and twine to add to that effect. The focal point of the page (no, not the picture of my hubby), is a fishing fly that has been paste stenciled and once dry, colored and shaded using chalks.
The card is very similar, same techniques and stencils using the same earthy colors. Both have a very unique look to them, and both were amazingly simple to create. For the cleanest designs, use removable tape to hold your stencil in place while you ink through it, or in the case of the paste stenciling, spreading the paste. Just pretend that you are spreading icing on a cake (no licking off the excess!), smoothly running the offset palette knife across the stencils at an angle. Scrape the excess back into the jar and run the palette knife over the surface to ensure a smooth pasted surface. Carefully remove the stencil and wash immediately, while allowing your pasted surface to dry for about 30 minutes. For more info on stenciling, please visit the Dreamweaver Stencils site and their Dream It Up Blog.
Pam

"Leopard Skin" background from Dreamweaver Stencils (LJ817)
"Veni Vidi Fishi" from Dreamweaver Stencils (LM2002)
"Fishing Fly" from Dreamweaver Stencils (LM2003)
Matte Orange Embossing Paste from Dreamweaver Stencils (DMOP)
Decorating Chalks from Craf-T Products
Vintage Sepia and Olympia Green Versafine ink from Tsukineko
Bazzill cardstock
antique brad fasteners and swing mount from Creative Imaginations
twine

Woo Hoo...Two?

Today being September 1st, the second installment in my feature articles on Scrapbooking.com is available for my friends and followers to, hopefully, be inspired by or at least be amused by. Please check it out by clicking here....or here....or here, or wait...maybe here? Hee hee. Sorry just messing with 'ya! Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to add a 3rd, 4th, and 5th installment. :) Meanwhile, I plan on posting pics of the samples from this article with all the deets over the next few days. Happy papercrafting!

Pam