Poppies for Remembrance

 Our July Retailer is Linda who runs LLinda’s Craft Shop in Laneham, North Nottinghamshire. LLinda’s is a shop full of inspiration and with regular paper crafting workshops. Linda is one of the talented bunch that qualified as Certified Dreamweaver Teachers earlier in the year. Llinda’s Blog will give you a glimpse of the goings on in the shop. You can find workshop details, directions and much much more on LLinda’s Website. As this is an important year of remembrance the theme that Linda has chosen is

The Poppy….as we remember 

Here I am in Yorkshire, England, writing this week's post. What a wonderful batch of new memories from this trip! So much fun to see Dorothy again, and share the beautiful surroundings with my hubby, including the chance to view the starting leg of the Tour de France! Which reminds me...this week's post was suggested by Linda, one of the Woodware retailers. We are all posting with poppies this week in honor of the fallen soldiers of WWI, and the fields of poppies beneath which they lie.

My card features the Stampendous Jumbo Poppy, stamped in black and in red on two sizes of panels, to be overlapped over a panel of the Forever in Time 6 X 6 Stack Pad, and onto a craft cardstock base. A new sentiment from Woodware's Clear Magic stamps finishes the card along with a lovely polka dot bow.

Dreamweaver Stencils: A July to DIE for!

Welcome to July...the month to DIE for! Yep. All of this month, the Dream Team are featuring our newest toys...our DIES! You'd be surprised at how many we have, and what fun things you can do with them...especially when used in conjunction with many of their stencil counterparts. They are such a simple way to create an effective card. Here's mine for this week:

Just break out a couple of your larger sized stencil brushes, and your Tsukineko Splendor Magic inkpad, and punch up a CAS card in a hurry. Use the Monstera die to cut a window from the front of the card, designed to show off the ink-stenciled Leopard Spots on the inside. The Elephant stencil is ink-stenciled on the front, and the die cut leaf is ink-stenciled with the Herringbone pattern and popped up over the top. A fun stamped saying from the Stampendous Gears Kiddo set is the perfect sentiment.

I'm sure that our "A" team is just DIE-ing to show you their creations, as well as our Guest Designers for the month of July...

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin
and
Terri Sproul (GD)

Dreamweaver Stencils: I've Got the Wedding Card Blues

For my final post of the Dream Team challenge, "Old, New, Borrowed, Blue", I thought I'd go with the more obvious and create a wedding card...with blue.

I chose a simple french blue cardstock and paste-embossed in Glossy White the Large Lace Border. While I still had the paste out, I also paste-embossed the newer, Your Wedding sentiment on acetate, and covered it in Wedgewood Blue Metallic F/X powder. When dry, I used a "Swiffer" dusting cloth to wipe away the excess mica powder from the surface of the acetate. I adhered the bottom portion of the acetate panel to the Dotted Swiss card front, and layered the paste-embossed blue panel over the top...thus holding the acetate in place without having to see any adhesive through the clear panel. A border of crochet lace from May Arts was the only embellishment for this beautifully simple card.

Here's your opportunity to see what the "B" team has created for this final week:

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson 

Woodware Feeling in the Pink...and the Green!

 

Here's a fairly clean and simple card for this week's challenge for the Woodware team...pink and green! Featuring the Dreamweaver Cherry Blossom stencil, I've used the Double Glitter technique to create this cheerful, yet soothing, card. The process goes like this:

1. Cut panel of Double Sided Mounting Paper, and adhere to square of  white cardstock.

2. Peel off the carrier sheet carefully to avoid touching the adhesive with your fingers (oils will undo adhesive properties). Set aside carrier sheet.

3. Rub Hawaiian soap lightly over back of stencil. Use soft brush to remove "crumbs".

4. Place stencil soap-side down on adhesive. Use carrier sheet to press stencil into adhesive.

5. Pour green glitter over exposed areas. Press into adhesive with carrier sheet. Brush off and save excess glitter.

6. Turn panel over and place on firm surface. Carefully pull the panel away from the stencil using the carrier sheet to avoid touching the surface with your fingers...not the other way around! This protects your stencil.

7. Pour pink and crystal glitters over exposed adhesive, and rub in thoroughly.

Now that you have done the technique, finish the card by machine-embossing the Dreamweaver Art Nouveau Flourish on the front of the pink card. Apply Palette Glue Pad with dauber through the Thank You stencil on the card front. Heat set slightly and rub in green glitter into the sticky surface. Adhere the glittered panel to the card and embellish with Mark Richards Self Adhesive Crystals.

 

Woodware: Buttoned Up for Fun!

Sometimes nothing adds that finishing touch quite like buttons! Easy to adhere, colorful, and dimensional, they just scream FUN! For the Woodware Buttons challenge, I've used the Dreamweaver Stencils' Rooster, and "Sludge-Pasted" him. Sludge pasting is when you either have leftovers of small amounts of embossing paste in various colors, and you slightly mix them, or you deliberately mix two or more colors for that mottled and streaky look. In this case, I did the second. Lol. Bright red and yellow pastes, slightly blended created an orange, and a fiery appearance. The sentiment is simple, and simply pasted as well.

The border at the bottom was created by using the Plaid/Stripes stencil...pasting in yellow one direction (let dry), then pasting in the other direction with the red (again...let dry). The colored matting and those fun buttons really added the final punch in creating a happy card for your recipient.

Dreamweaver Stencils: Feeling Old and Blue...in a Good Way!

Wasn't last week's collaboration hop with Imagine Crafts a blast? If you are wondering if you were one of our winners, check the Dream It Up! Tuesday post this week.

This week, the Dream Team is back to playing with our June challenge, "Old, New, Borrowed, Blue"...not necessarily wedding, but creations incorporating one or all of these concepts. My card
today is a bit of the old and a bit of the blue.

Featuring the Dreamweaver Floral with Dots stencil, I ink-stenciled the design in blue and green on kraft cardstock using the Tsukineko Splendor Circus ink pad. As the ink is pigment, I was able to pour Ultra Thick Embossing Powder (UTEE) over the surface and heat in layers, adding clear ink in between each layer until thick enough to make me happy. When cool, I bent the panel to crack the embossed areas. Here's where the "old" comes in.

I placed my cleaned stencil back over the surface of the design, and daubed Black StazOn ink over the surface, pushing the ink into the cracks. Then I took a paper towel and wiped away the excess ink from the surface before removing the stencil. The panel was ink-distressed around the edges and layered over a gorgeous iridescent ribbon from May Arts and a green panel with a crisp white base card.

How would you play with this concept? Show us by linking your creation to the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog. Meanwhile, take a peek at what the "A" team has to show this week:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

An InLinkz Link-up

Woodware: Sketch 35 for That Old Chap

I'm gearing up for fun this week with the Woodware Sketch Challenge No. 35...how about you? I've created a fun masculine birthday card featuring the Clear Magic Single "Spiffing Day" designed by Francoisé Read. So fun! I've used patterned paper from Cardworks "Time Flies" 8 X 8 pad...all gears, which goes perfectly with the Dreamweaver Stencils' Steampunk Clock design, simply ink-stenciled with a brush and grey ink. I used a softer touch with the ink over the sentiment panel. A bit of corner rounding, distressing, and a cut out pocket watch from the paper pad, and the card is done! An easy one to make in multiples...for all of the old and young chaps in your life!

Be sure to play along with the challenge, and upload your creations to the Woodware Blog for a chance to win!