Dreamweaver Thursday and Nathalie Kalbach Stamps

Although I am not technically playing along with the Nathalie Kalbach blog hop today, I was inspired to use one of her stamps on my Dreamweaver Thursday card.  Here it is:

Stampendous:
SSC1190 Say It Today Perfectly Clear Stamps™
NKCRS05 Cling Kaffee Klatsch
SSH57 Jumbo Perfectly Clear™ Acrylic Handle
Sparkle Puff Embossing Powder
Blue Tinsel Embossing Powder
Micro Glitter in Black, Teal and China Blue
Jewel Royal Ultra Fine Glitter
Pearl White Ultra Fine Glitter
Versamark Ink

DWLL437 Peacock Feather Stencil
3/4" Brush  DWNHB-18

Plus:
Cardstock by Bazzill Basics Paper®
Double Sided Mounting Paper
Vegetable Based Soap
Scotch by 3M 1/2" Adhesive
Embossing Heat Tool
Scissors
Paper Trimmer

Instructions:

1. Cut the base 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" and fold in half on the side.
2. Cut the Double Sided Mounting Paper to fit the Peacock Feather Stencil.  Leave it in a rectangle shape.
3. Using the Acrylic Handle and Versamark Ink, stamp the Thank You from the Say It Today stamp set onto white paper.
4. Pour Blue Tinsel Embossing Powder over the Thank You and shake off the excess.
5. Emboss with the embossing tool.
6. Using the Acrylic Handle and Versamark Ink, stamp the doily from the Kaffee Klatsch stamp set several times over green paper.
7. Pour the Sparkle Puff Embossing Powder over the stamped images and shake off the excess.
8. Heat with the embossing too until the powder turns white and puffs up.
9. Rub the bar of soap on the back of the Peacock Feather Stencil.  You should have a light film of soap all across the back of the stencil when you are finished.
10. Use the brush to gently remove the soap "crumbles" off the back of the stencil.
11. Remove the backing from one side of the mounting paper, revealing the adhesive.
12. Place the stencil, soap side down, on the adhesive side of the paper.
13. Pinch some of the black glitter into the "eye" of the peacock feather.
14. Continue to pinch glitter colors into the wells of the feather stencil.
15. When all of the stencil wells appear to be covered, rub it in a little with your finger.
16. Brush off any excess glitter.
17. Place the project upside down on a hard, flat surface.
18. Peel a little of the mounting paper from the a corner of the stencil.
19. Using this piece, slowly remove all of the mounting paper from the Peacock Feather Stencil, while leaving the stencil flat.
20. Pour the White Pearl Glitter over the top of the feather, brushing off the excess.
21. Remove the backing from the project and attach it to white card stock.
22. Use scissors to trim the feather and the Thank You words close to the images.
23. Assemble the card.

  Here are the other folks posting for the Dreamweaver Thursday today:

Alison Heikkila

Pam Bray

Louise Healy

Pam Hornschu

April Showers........um....or maybe May Flowers

Yes, the theme for this month is actually April Showers, but I have gone a little off on my own to change it up a little to May Flowers--and there is a reason for this that I will explain soon.

In the meantime, I would just like to remind you that the real theme for the month is "Shower of Showers", and if you would like to play along, you have the chance to win the stencil of your choice by linking to the Dream It Up! blog.  You have an extra chance to win if you incorporate Dreamweaver and/or Stampendous products in your design.

 Now, back to my creation:

       This is the time of year of many transitions.  April is turning into May and showers will soon be replaced by flowers.  As spring finally begins here in Michigan, my life is changing, too. As many of you might know, Lynell Harlow has recently sold Dreamweaver Stencils to Stampendous.  This should mean wonderful things for Lynell's fabulous stencil designs!  Therefore, this is my last official post as a member of the Dreamweaver Design Team.  Dreamweaver has become part of the Stampendous family and I, too, have been welcomed into an exciting new position as a member of the Stampendous team.  (See the new decoration on my sidebar!)  

     Of course, all of these changes, while quite exciting, have me waxing nostalgic.  I was one of the original members of the Dreamweaver Design team.  It was the first (non store) design team that I was ever part of.  As new team, it went through quite a few changes as it developed.  So did I.  I made many friends on the team over the years, including the beautiful (inside and out) Lynell Harlow.  I had a great time doing demos at CHA and teaching classes in the stores.  I also had the unforgettable opportunity to demo in the UK.  Of course, there were the gorgeous stencils! 

      This brings me back to my post.  It is a Thank You to Lynell, who is such a wonderful person and artist.  I met her several years before I really got to know her, when I was taking a Dreamweaver Class at a local store.  One of the stencils we used in the class was LJ 888 Hydrangea.  I remember thinking that Lynell really liked this one.  Every time I used it afterwards, I would remember how much she liked it.  Here, I pasted it on blue card stock with White Glossy Embossing Paste.  I used Removable Tape and the LM 2010 Paste Spreader.  I also pasted the LS 1009 Thank You with the same paste.  When the paste was dry, I used my Chameleon Markers to color in the flower and leaves.  For the flowers, I used YL2 Summer Sun and V04 Deep Violet.  For the leaves, I used YG3 Spring Meadows, OL3 Olive Green and GR3 Grass Green.  Mostly, though, I used the CB Colorless Blender.  I colored in the darker sections, and then used the blender to transfer the colors to the lighter sections.  For the leaves, I colored them normally and then used the blender to blend and lighten the colors.  The White Paste gave me a wonderful canvas to work on.

     As a group, we have been encouraging each other to also post one of the first creations we made for the Dreamweaver Team.  Mine goes way, way back.  In fact, it was one of the items I used for my design team audition.   (I also used some Stampendous flock on it!)  Sorry about the picture. 

     While the words "Thank You" cannot fully express my gratitude for everything Lynell has done for me, I certainly hope that she understands.  I urge you to continue to follow the Dream It Up blog, Stampendous and, of course, me, to see all the exciting new things that will be happening with Dreamweaver Stencils! 

Be sure to check out the other posts this week, too.

Dream It Up! 

Louise Healy  

Alison Heikkila 

Lyn Bernatovich 

Kristine Reynolds 

 
Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson  

Cindy Groh 

Leadonna Kimmel 

Laura Drahozal 

Jamie Martin  

Woodware Blog Hop!

This week we’re going to celebrate with the awesome Woodware Design Team and the Dreamweaver Stencils Dream Team all of the the great Stampendous and Dreamweaver Stencils products that Woodware makes available to the UK market. This is good news for our crafty friends in the UK because we’ll be offering prizes and our UK friends are eligible to win!! We’ll be offering three prizes in the UK and three in the US. Each prize package will consist of Nathalie Kalbach’s terrific Grunge Mixed Media Cling Rubber Stamp Sets and the beautiful Zen Butterfly Dreamweaver Stencil! Both products are ideal for adding texture and backgrounds to your projects!

Deadline to comment is  Sunday, March 29th, Pacific Time. Winners will be picked using  random.org and announced Tuesday, March 31st, in the afternoon.

Here is my take on the theme TEXTURE for today:

 





 

For this project, I used LJ 841 Fleur De Lis Stencil,  LG 760 Feather and LS 1001 Merci Stencil.  I simply used a stencil brush to add blue ink through the Fleur De Lis Stencil on light blue card stock.  The Merci Stencil and the Feather Stencil were run through my Cuttlebug die cut machine with brown latte aluminum.  I placed the stencil on the A Plate and covered it with the metal, the Dreamweaver Extra Large Rubber Mat, and two B Plates.  The difference in the look is how the stencil and metal are placed on the A Plate.  The Merci Stencil was placed face down with the metal also placed face down.  The feather stencil and the metal were both placed up.  The additional texture on the feather was created by using an embossing tool on the back of the metal.  All the metal was sanded to enhance the texture.  The ribbon is from May Arts.

 

And that’s our theme!! Making Texture. We hope you’ll enjoy the wonderful inspiration that three talented teams will bring you this week! Be sure to visit all the blog links listed and leave your comments! Each comment will count as an entry towards one of the terrific prize packages.

Here are the designers sharing the projects today

Stampendous Blog

Pam Hornschu

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Kimmel

Woodware Craft Collection Blog

Debs Frost

Dreamweaver Stencils Blog

Lyn Bernatovich

Gill Wilson

Laura Drahozal

Louise Healy

Lynn Mercurio

Thankful and Thoughtful November

As we officially head into the holiday season, the Dream Team are challenging all of our followers to be especially "Thankful and Thoughtful" during the month of November. We hope that you will link your creations with this theme in mind on the Dream It Up! blog using the Inlinkz tool. Our "thanks" to you is providing you with the opportunity to win the stencil of your choice, and a bonus stencil of our choosing could be yours for using Dreamweaver product(s) in your artwork. I'm posting this for you today:

 

Here, I have put together an easy, French themed thank you card.  Aside from some Graphic 45 paper, I used some black coated aluminum, Stencil LS1011 Merci and Stencil LL 447 Fleur De Lis.  I simply ran them through my Cuttlebug with this sandwich:  A Plate, stencil face down, metal colored side down, Stamping Details Rubber Embossing Mat, and two B Plates.  I then used my Teflon Tool from the Metal Beginner Tool Kit to push the metal out a little on the Fleur De Lis.  I filled the back with Mercart Metal Filling Paste.  I let it dry and then sanded all of the metal and attached it to the card.  Done!  So, this week, I was able to make it thankful AND easy!

 



By the way, the Dream Team are very THANKFUL when our followers are THOUGHTFUL enough to leave us a nice comment on our posts! Here's the "A" team lineup for this week, as well as our very special guest designer, Linda Neff!

Dream It Up!

Linda Neff (GD)

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Back to August as an Adjective

After all the blog-hopping excitement of last week, we are back to "August as an Adjective".  Yes, that is right, we are using the term august as, "marked by majestic dignity or grandeur", with synonyms such as, "dignified, distinguished, imposing, portly, solemn, staid, and stately". How about trying along with us, and linking YOUR creations to the inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up Blog for a chance to win the wildest stencil design your little heart is screaming for.

Here's my creation for this week:

 

 

All the metal is aluminum with a medium blue coating.  The part that appears black in the picture is actually navy blue suede paper.  I used the Dreamweaver Stencils LX 2001 Damask and LL565 Script Thank You with the Rubber Embossing Mat in my Cuttlebug for super easy embossing.  The background was embossed, with the metal and the stencil face down.  The Thank You was debossed, with the metal and the stencil face up.  Both were sanded.  I attached the Thank You with both Double Sided Mounting Paper and small jeweled brads.  That's it.  Very simple, and, I think, rather august.  Now, check out the other posts for the week and then try your own.
 

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

 Alison Heikkila

   

A Simple Metal Thank You

In honor of CAS Love and Friendship month on the Dreamweaver Blogs, I am presenting a simple metal Thank You card.

MATERIALS:
Dreamweaver Stencil LJ 841 Fleur De Lis
Dreamweaver Stencil LS 1011 Merci
Navy Blue Coated Mercart Aluminum
Mercart Basic Tools
Mercart Fiberglass Tip Tool
Stamping Details Rubber Embossing Mat
Double Sided Mounting Paper (my adhesive of choice on this one, but you can use something else)
Manual Die Cut Machine (I used a Cuttlebug)
Scissors
Blue Card Stock
Big Bite
3D Foam Squares
Silver Ribbon

DIRECTIONS:
1)  Use scissors to cut the metal to the size of the outside stencil edges.
2)  Run metal through the machine with the stencils (one at a time) and the rubber embossing mat.  This is the Cuttlebug sandwich:  A Plate, stencil face down, metal blue side down, rubber embossing mat, two B Plates.  
3)  With the stencil still in place, place face down (you should see the silver side of the metal and not the stencil) and use the Mercart Teflon Tool to push the metal down a little further wherever the edges do not appear crisp.
4)  With the stencil still in place, flip over.  Use the fiberglass tool to remove all of the blue metal that you see through the openings.  When you are finished, the metal of the stencil will appear a little scratched and buffed.  It will not effect the performance of the stencil.
5)  Use the mounting paper to attach the metal to the card stock.
6)  Use the Big Bite to create holes in the smaller piece.
7)   Use the foam squares to raise the smaller piece and attach into place.
8)  Attach the ribbon.

That is it--a simple Thank You card.  If you create a simple love or friendship card this month, send a photo to Lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com for your chance to win.  If you really love stencils, check out our Design Team Call.  Good luck!