Dream Schemes-Bubbly Hearts

 The holiday season is almost over for another year, and as we prepare to ring in a new year, bright with hope and promise, I still find it necessary to celebrate the year of 2010. It's brought several changes to my life...some good, some bad, some fun, and some sad. Our Thursday Dream Scheme for this week was to celebrate "Love in the New Year". Each year of our lives is all the more enriched by those we love. My post today features a bottle of the bubbly (the real stuff or sparkling cider...your choice), a representation of all celebrations. My bottle is created from acetate. I paste-embossed in white "Heart Whimsy" on the "bottle", and in glossy black on the gold "label". The "champagne" was glitter paper, with a few "bubbles" punched out, and Dot Sparkler stickers adhered at the top of the bottle. The acetate bottle was popped up off the surface of the elegant black linen card for effect. The foil and cap at the top were created from Nesties. A clear sticker sentiment, tulle, ribbon, and a fun corsage pin from Dreamweaver finishes the card. Of course, this design is perfect to celebrate the New Year, or for a wedding, anniversary, birthday...any special event in someone's life. Dreamweaver has a wonderful variety of heart stencils to fit any occasion. Pull out your stencils and play along! Be sure to post your creation with a link to Dreamweaver's "Dream It Up" blog. We love to see your creations as well! Check out what the rest of the team has come up with to celebrate "Love in the New Year".

"Heart Whimsy" from Dreamweaver Stencils (LL599)
White (DEP) and Glossy Black (DGKP) Embossing Paste from Dreamweaver Stencils
White 3" Pins from Dreamweaver Stencils (WTIP)
Class A' Peel Black Dot Sparklers from Stampendous (AC672HSK)
Thermo Acetate from Stampendous (PC75)
black linen, metallic gold cardstock
Nestabilities Classic Ovals, Large Scalloped Ovals, and Labels Four
tulle, ribbon
double-sided foam adhesive
1/4" and 1/8" hole punches

Feeling the Love?

 Feeling the love? Today's post features two darling images from the Perfectly Clear "Love Buds" from Stampendous. I  created two versions...one for the boys and one for the girls. Each image was simply colored with colored pencils, so simple even the kids could do this portion. the bottom of the card is stamped with "Happy Day Square" in black. Portions of Class A' Peel "Girly Ribbon" is used across the centers and embellished with fun heart-shaped brad fasteners, and a snippet of ribbon. A treat or gift certificate could easily be tucked inside for that special someone. Now are you feeling the love?

Perfectly Clear "Love Buds" from Stampendous (SSC265)
Cling "Happy Day Square" from Stampendous (CRF205)
Class A' Peel "Girly Ribbon" from Stampendous (AC708MRS)
Onyx Versafine ink from Tsukineko
Prismacolor pencils
Swiss Dots Bazzill cardstock
black, white cardstock
American Crafts ribbon
Creative Impressions brad fasteners

Call Me...Resistable!

 Feeling a touch of the "after-Christmas-blues" tonight as I post this blog for Monday. My hubby left this morning to go back to work. My two sons left this evening to go back home. Now it's just me and my kitties. I needed a little cheering up, so I'm posting this bright and sweet card featuring new release stamps from Lizzie Anne Designs. This rose and sentiment are from the Winter 2011 mix release, "Lucky in Love". The rose was done with a resist technique. I stamped and embossed it in white on white cardstock. I used the ColorBox Chalk ink pad in Rouge direct-to-paper over the embossed image. Then I wiped the ink away from the embossed surface to show off this gorgeous rose image. I inked a piece of screening with the rouge ink and carefully placed the rose panel over the surface to achieve the

textured appearance. The Bazzill Bling card has rounded corners, and a panel of this pretty pink and green plaid paper from Paper Adventures at the bottom. The sentiment was stamped in green on a Nestie die cut white panel. The rose was off-stamped before stamping a soft image over the sentiment. This panel was popped up over another Nestie die cut piece, and embellished with pearl stickers. A pretty satin bow completes the card. Would make a sweet card for Valentine's day, anniversary, wedding, or everyday. Hope you had a wonderful holiday with your family, and are looking forward to a very creative new year.

Winter 2011 Mix, "Lucky in Love" from Lizzie Anne Designs
White Embossing Powder from Stampendous (EP100)
Rouge ColorBox Chalk ink from Clearsnap
Tea Leaves VersaMagic, VersaMark ink from Tsukineko
Paper Adventures print
Bazzill Bling cardstock
Mohawk white cardstock
pink satin ribbon, pink pearl stickers
Nestabilities Labels Two and Big Scalloped Ovals Large
screening
double-sided foam adhesive

Stamping Sentimental: Matt's Card from December 1992

I think Christmas Eve is the perfect time to feel sentimental. This card always makes me feel that way. I have been stamping for almost twenty years now. When I first started, my boys were 4 and 5, and they quickly became stampers as well. They had their own stamps, and inks, and markers, etc., and they loved to sit at Mom's desk and make their own cards. You probably have similar memories with your children, or will create those memories in the future. They're special memories, a bonding experience with your children that time and circumstance can never take away from you, or them. This card represents this feeling for me. Matthew, my youngest, was five at the time he created this card. By then, he had watched mom go beyond just stamping and coloring, to embossing, and foiling, and glittering. He did this card all by himself. I remember him talking about it as he carefully worked on it. He drew the frozen pond and the mountains, and colored them in along with the sky. He broke out his little Disney set of stamps that included Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and other images for a holiday scene. He stamped his trees in green, the holiday light strings across the top, the little cottage, Goofy ("rolling down the hill in a Panzer", which was a favorite expression after seeing "The Santa Clause" for the first time), and colored them all. He stamped Mickey separately, colored him, and cut him out. He wanted the pond to look icy, so he applied some glue pen, let it dry until tacky, and applied silver foil over it. He wanted snow on the hills and trees, so he used a embossing marker to color on those areas and applied white embossing powder with glitter in it, heating with the heat tool just like Mom had shown him. The final touch was popping Mickey up off the card with a little foam tape. I was amazed by this card at the time, and I still am every time I see it. He gave it to me for Christmas that year, and I've treasured it ever since, and always will. Maybe someday he'll show this card to his children, and tell them how he carefully created this for his mom. Maybe they will want to do the same. This is how treasured traditions begin. Merry Christmas to all of you, and wonderful memories for you and your family in the new year.

Dream Schemes-Grateful Hearts

Two more days until Christmas, and those of us in the Dreamweaver "Dream Team", still have itchy stencil fingers. So, we all decided not to take the week off of the "Thursday Dream Schemes". I did, however, choose to do a super-simple card for our open challenge this week. I love the Celtic look of this stencil, which I simply paste-embossed with Glossy Black paste on a textured paint chip sample from the local home store. It has kind of a sandy and slightly sparkly texture to it, which is kind of cool, and I picked up a handful of them in various colors. The rest of the card is simply velvet Damask Class A' Peel stickers and a sentiment sticker from Stampendous. I embellished with black rhinestone stickers at the corners of my Nestie die cut square, and two shades of pearl stickers on the design. I like the sentiment that I used. Simple, to the point, yet different than the usual "thank you". The holidays always remind me to be especially grateful for my life, my family, my friends, and how fortunate I am to be able to create something beautiful every day and share this with others who do the same. For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the team's blogs. Please play along by linking your own creation to the Mr. Linky on the Dream It Up! blog. We are GRATEFUL to have YOU as well!
Pam

"Hearts Knot" from Dreamweaver Stencils (LL326)
Glossy Black Embossing Paste from Dreamweaver Stencils (DGKP)
Class A' Peels "Damask Leaves" from Stampendous (AC990VK)
Class A' Peels "Tiny Messages" from Stampendous (AC963K)
DCWV cardstock
textured paint chip
rhinestone and pearl stickers
Nestabilities Scalloped Squares

Party with the Polka Penguins

I thought I was through with posting Christmas cards for this year, but I came across this one that I created for the Stampendous holiday catalog '09. It is one of my favorites, mainly because I love penguins, and I love the color scheme for this card. I took one white cardstock panel and stamped the Polka Penguins image, the sentiment, and the snowflakes. I watercolored all, and then cut the panel into three sections. Each were matted in black cardstock, adhered over this smoky blue MME paper, on a red card, and embellished with rick rack, ribbon, turn mounts, and red brad fasteners. A little glitter to highlight the frosty feel finished it off. Happy holiday stamping! Be sure to come back on Thursday for the Dreamweaver Stencil's Thursday Dream Schemes!
Pam

"Polka Penguins" from Stampendous (M172)
"Mini Flake" from Stampendous (AA014)
"Ours to Yours" from Stampendous (L190)
Onyx Versafine ink from Tsukineko
Multi Ultra-fine Crystal Glitter from Stampendous (GM220U)
Bazzill Maraschino cardstock
black, white cardstock
print paper (MME)
turn mounts, brad fasteners (Creative Impressions)
rick rack, ribbon
watercolors
corner rounder

Bag It and Tag It...Homespun-Style

Coming in to the home stretch now for Christmas. The cards have probably been sent, the decorating is done, and now you need to quickly wrap those gifts. Here is a quickie wrap using Lizzie Anne Designs, "Oh, Christmas Tree" set. This set has a variety of trees in different shapes, sizes, and styles. For this bag and tag, I wanted to go more traditional with a homespun feel. I started with a kraft bag, and added a band of DP which I had continuously stamped the sentiment namesake for this set. This was adhered to a green band, and a tan cardstock run through the Corrugator for texture. The tag follows the same process, with the addition of this old-fashioned tree stamped on the tan cardstock, cut out, run  through the Corrugator, and then popped up on the die cut tag. For the tissue, I stamped the star in deep red, and the trees in dark green, and the sentiment again randomly. This would be so easy to make "conveyor belt-style" for multiples, and hand-crafted gift bags, tags, boxes, etc. really let the recipient know that you care enough to REALLY give the very best. Happy wrapping!
Pam

"Oh Christmas Tree" from Lizzie Anne Designs
Rhubarb Stalk, Rich Cocoa, and Cottage Ivy Memento ink from Tsukineko
Sizzix Tag die
kraft bag, jute twine
double-sided foam adhesive
Corrugator from Marvy-Uchida