Stampendous Card Challenge

Here is the Stampendous Card Challenge. The sketch was created by Geny Cassady, who is a Stampendous Blogstar.

Here it is:

It was created for a long card, which is a very interesting proportion to me. Here is my take on it:

I used a cling background stamp CRR114 on green with Versamark and Stampendous White Pearl translucent embossing powder. Then, I stamped the flowers from Daisy Stem Trio with Walnut Stain Distress Ink three times. I embossed one set with Stampendous Clear Embossing Powder. Then I colored some of the background petals with colored pencils. On the second set, I colored the top petals with a Versamarker (the marker relative of the pad) and embossed with Stampendous Winter Wonderland Opaque Embossing Powder. It is hard to see in this photo, but it is sparkly white. The third set was embossed with clear, and then flocked (except in the details) with Lemonade Yellow Stampendous Fun Flock. Each of these separate sections were cut out and stacked with 3D Dots, making the flowers very dimensional.

The butterfly and ladybug were from the Daisy Thanks set. The butterfly was stamped twice and embossed with Stampendous Detail Black embossing powder. Then, I colored it with Twinkling H2Os, cut out the top wing from one and stacked it with dots to make it three dimensional. The ladybugs were stamped once with Black Soot Distress Ink and embossed with the Black Detail Powder. Then they were colored with Stampendous Red Jewel Glitter and Stampendous Crystal Glitter (for the wings). The "hello" was from the Daisy Stem Trio set, and was stamped with the Walnut Stain Ink.

I really enjoyed using this fun sketch, and am quite pleased with the results. I especially liked making the flowers and bugs that replaced the hearts from the original.

Dreamweaver Free Week--Two Cards, One Theme

Aren't you always in need of masculine cards? I know I am. Well, partially this is because I can't keep my hands off of the glitter (more on that later.....an announcement at the end of the post) and the flowers. Neither a particularly masculine item. I think I can also blame the manufacturers, though. Not too many of them make masculine products. Lynell has come to the rescue with the tie stencil (LG 735). I used it, the stripe stencil (LX 7002) and the Happy Birthday stencil (LM 248) to make this card for Dreamweaver.

I first pasted the tie with the original white paste. Then, I pasted the Happy Birthday in glossy black. After the paste was dry, I stencilled a little Distress ink in Antique Linen under the collar and Mustard all across the tie. Then, I placed the stipe stencil on the tie, angling it to match the bottom edge of the tie, and stencilled it with Adirondack Pigment Ink in Denim. After that dried, I replaced the tie stencil, covered the whole tie with Versamark and embossed it with clear powder. Finally, I determined the shape and angles of the suit and cut it from a beautiful piece of Graphic 45 Proper Gentleman paper. I finished up the card with inking and brads, photographed it, and sent it off.

Fast forward a couple of months, and I am thinking that I would like to use this card in a class. Of course, we have run out of the Graphic 45 paper, and never did carry the brads. Additionally, we only have one of these birthday stencils in stock. I was thinking that I could also stand to cut a little time from the overall class...........So, this is what I came up with:

Okay, so this is how I solved my problems: I switched the stencil to the Birthday Words (LG 704), I replaced the paper with one from the Pebbles Mr and Mrs line, and I changed the tie color, stencil, embossing project to just stencilling on a colored piece of paper and cutting it out. This last part will shorten my time considerably, since there is no waiting for the ink to dry between steps. I just stencilled on the yellow paper with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and replaced the tie stencil, tracing the inside lightly with pencil and cutting it out. Then I glued it on with Art Glitter Dries Clear. Notice I removed the brads from the card, saving me time, money, and aggrevation, as Scrap Tales never did carry that particular brad. This decision, believe it or not, really troubled me. I kept trying to find a replacement for the brads until I finally just gave up.

The assembly is pretty much the same. I did take awhile to figure out the changes needed to make this card more appropriate for class, but once I worked it out, I liked it. I think I might like it better than the original. Of course, it is now time for you to make the changes that you want to on it. Also, check out my Dream Team Sisters Blogs for their projects today. (The blogs are listed on the left).

Oh, and about that glitter comment, anyone who knows me understands that I often walk around leaving a trail of glitter in my wake. My favorite brand is, of course, Art Institute Glitter. Therefore, it is quite a thrill for me to have been selected to be a guest blogger for June, July and August on the Art Glitter Blog. (Blinkie and link to follow as soon as I get it). You have heard it here first, folks, as Art Glitter hasn't announced the names yet, and I am posting here before Facebook this time. I hope to catch you over there some time this summer, too. I will still be here every week though, so keep coming back for your Dreamweaver fix.

Dreamweaver Sketch Week

Deborah made this week's sketch. Initially, it had me a little perplexed. What could I put in those arches? Then, I remembered an arched shaped stencil LG 639. I based my interpretation on that stencil.

I wish the photograph did it justice. This card was created with foils--a mix of Stampee and Creative Imaginations--and Art Glitter. First, I soaped the back of the stencil and placed it on the Double Sided Adhesive paper. Then, I trimmed around the outside of the stencil.

This is where I owe a shout out to my new friend, Julie Makela, the Australian Distributor of Dreamweaver. Without her great demonstrations at CHA, I would have NEVER thought of using foil with the double glitter paper. Of course, she did laugh at me when I gathered all the used bits of foil to take home with me. Julie, THIS is what I used them on.

I started with the darkest color, a purple, on the edges. For this first pass, I used just those remnant bits that were left on the backing. I pressed them down firmly with my fingers. I continued, lightening the colors as I worked inward, and making sure that I overlapped all of these bits, so the colors would blend into each other. After that initial pressing, I found larger areas of foil, pressed them near their coordinating colored edges, and pushed them down with the larger end of the small purple embossing tool. Then, I pressed foil right into the edges of the stencil with the smaller end. Finally, I took fresh sheets of foil and, finding the colored areas that coordinated, I rubbed over the whole area with the larger end of the big purple embossing tool. That covered all of the adhesive paper and did not use much of the foil. I then poured a blue colored pearl Art Glitter over it all and pressed it lightly with my fingers into the very small parts that I missed.

When all of the inside was finished, I turned it over and carefully removed the stencil from the adhesive paper. Then, I poured pearl white Art Glitter over the whole thing. I mounted the two windows on the black cardstock. I stamped a phrase from a company called Words Like Honey on some white/gold shimmer cardstock with Archival ink. I then mounted that on the black and added sheer white and blue ribbon. I trimmed around the windows and put it on plain white cardstock and trimmed the outside of the top windows.

It was missing something. Being that it was a Confirmation card, I decided that it needed a dove. Of course, this was last minute and I was not able to go to the store for a dove embellishment, so I made my own. I googled the picture, which is actually listed as a tatoo image by Bangbang Urdead, although to me it looks straight out of stained glass. Anyway, I downloaded this image, made a couple of changes, and printed it. Then, I mounted it on the back of my shimmery cardstock, cut it out, and adhered it to black carstock. I cut around it, attached it, and added a little Diamond Stickles. I was done.

I really enjoyed using the foil with the adhesive paper. If you are local, look for this technique to show up in my next class......... Until then, check out everyone else's interpretation of this sketch by clicking on the names listed under Dream Team. See you next week.

Thursday Dream Schemes--Free Week

It is another free challenge week at Dreamweaver, and this week, my card was inspired by a stamp. See, I was prowling a craft store, looking for sayings that would go with the fabulous new umbrella stencil, when I found this Inkadinkado stamp in the kiddie writing that said "Count your rainbows, not your thunderstorms." The sentiment was written by Alyssa Knight, when she was 12, apparently. I didn't buy it at first, because, although I liked it, the rainbow part really had me wondering--how could I show it? Well, here is my resulting card, as well as the step by step instructions:




I found a way to create a rainbow rainbow using the new paste spreader LM 2010.
First, cut the cover sheet of a Double Sided Adhesive paper in half. Remove the top half of it, and replace a strip along the right side. Soap the back of the spreader, and position it so that it covers up to the top of the rainbow--where you want the sky to show through. Using the Double Glitter Technique, cover that upper left hand corner with blue Art Institute Glitter. Brush off the excess. Pick up the spreader, and scoot it down to rest under the first color of the rainbow. Be careful not to change the relative position of the spreader, because you want to make sure that the rainbow stripes are even across the arc.
Then, put red Art Institute Glitter on that stripe, brush it off, and move the spreader further down. Keep repeating this process, using the roygbiv colors that we all learned in elementary school, until you have a complete rainbow. The great thing about this technique, is that even if you get a little sloppy with the color that you are working on, as I did with the green in this photo, the current color will only stick to the adhesive paper that was just revealed. The parts that have already been covered with glitter just won't accept any more. Make sure that it is good and covered with glitter for each and every stripe. After you are finished with the rainbow, brush off the colors well, then remove the stencil anthadditional coverings from the Double Sided Adhesive Paper. Cover the entire thing with the sky blue that you used above the rainbow.

Then, position the umbrella stencil so that the umbrella reaches side to side and overlaps the rainbow. When you are sure that you have it right, tape sheets of paper all the way around the stencil. This way, you can be sure that none of the paste gets on any of the glitter that you worked on. Then, paste the umbrella with Glossy Black. You will need to work quickly and confidently to get it pasted well on all that fantastic glitter. Remove the stencil and set this aside to dry.

Meanwhile, get clear acetate and the Rain Stencil. Paste the stencil on the acetate using Pearlescent Paste, and tossing clear glitter onto the paste while it is still wet. After the paste is dry, brush off the excess glitter.

For the assembly, the Double Sided Adhesive gets adhered to the cardstock background. Then, the acetate overlay, which is attached with Glue Dots and brads. Finally, the ribbon and the popped up saying.

One last parting shot. I think it really shows the acetate

Thursday Dream Schemes--Blue and Orange Mother's Day Card

This week's challenge is a blue and orange Mother's Day Card. The colors seemed appropriate for me, as I have been feeling a little blue around Mother's Day since I lost my mother three years ago. Anyway, I really took my time on this one, while thinking about my mother.


The stencils I used included the now discountinued teacup stencil. (You can still get it if you ask your local store to order it for you.) I recently gave it away in a class, so if you are one of the folks that got it, you are all set already.

I used the regular paste with the teacup stencil. My paper choice is from the My Minds' Eye Stella and Rose Collection. I really like the MME papers because they are sturdy enough to take this much paste without too much warping. After pasting, I waited until it was dry. Then, I replaced the stencil, and brushed a little Weathered Wood Distress Ink on to create some shading. I then put the Cherry Blossom stencil over the top, leaving that teacup in place. I stencilled the image using one of my latest obsessions--Twinkling H2Os by Creative Imaginations. It is a shimmery watercolor paint that is loaded with mica. These paints need to be activated with a spritz of water a few minutes before you plan to use them. They are usually used a little wet, so I was concerned that they might migrate under the stencil. I used a Dreamweaver Blue Handled Stencil brush, which I daubed into the paint, touched on some paper towels, and stencilled onto that paste. Fortunately, the paste took the paint extremely well (that regular paste can take ALOT of things!) and very little travelled under the stencil. I used three different colors: Yellow Rose, Ginger Peach, and Burnt Umber. I tried to place these colors the best I could before removing the stencil. Then, I removed the stencil. Here is the best part: because the H2Os are a watercolor, I was able to remove any errors with a little water on my brush. I loved this complete control. I went in and added extra shimmer and color as I removed the parts I did not want. The ribbon was also painted with Twinkling H2Os. Finally, I added a rim around the top, bottom and handle with a gold Zig paint pen. The sentiment, by Inkadinkado for EK Success, was stamped with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink. The MME papers were distressed with ink as well.

Well, here is wishing all the mothers out there a happy day and a great weekend. Check out my Dream Team Sisters' blogs while I consider what to make for next week's Free Week. ( You should consider playing along with us....)