Thank Ewe!

This is a bittersweet post today for Dreamweaver Stencils, it's my last post with the Dream Team under the skillful guidance of Lynell, founder of Dreamweaver Stencils.  If you've been under a rock somewhere and haven't heard, Stampendous Stamps has purchased Dreamweaver Stencils.  Since I'm also on the Stampendous Design Team, I'm lucky enough to get to continue creating with my very favorite stencils, now combined with my very favorite stamps.  I want to "thank ewe," Lynell, for inviting me to become a part of your Dream Team!  It was a privilege and an honor to serve under you for the past two years. Lynell, I wish you and Wayne the best always and I'm sure I'll see you again!  I do hope you enjoy your new-found freedom!

In honor of our last post for the Dreamweaver Stencils Dream Team, I would like to share my first card I posted as part of this wonderful group of gals.  Details can be found here!

And here's my final post for Dreamweaver Stencils as part of the Dream Team:

Here's what I used to create this card:

Dreamweaver Stencils© LL3040 Open Sheep Stencil
Dreamweaver Stencils© DL3040 Open Sheep Die Set
Dreamweaver Stencils© Regular Embossing Paste
Plaid® Baby Pink Acrylic Paint
DecoArt® Americana® Coral Blush Acrylic Paint
Basic Grey® Olivia Paper Pad
Tim Holtz® Distress Ink in Iced Spruce
Coral Cream Cardstock by Bazzill Basics Paper®
Guacamole Cardstock by Bazzill Basics Paper®
May Arts Ribbon®
Zva Creative Crystals®
Beacon Adhesive

Here's what I did to create this card:

Trim a piece of patterned paper and tape reverse side of stencil to paper
Mix paints with paste until you have desired color and paste emboss sheep
Run die cuts through die machine with two different patterned papers
Once paste has dried, attach die cut pieces to paste and pattern paper
Create horizontal A2 card base with a tent fold from green paper
Trim a piece of coral cardstock as a mat for patterned paper and adhere the two
Create a double bow from ribbon and attach tails around back side and adhere entire piece to card base
Add distress ink around edges of sheep
Adhere two small black crystals for eyes

When you have a shower, you need thank you cards to send to your guests that gave you a present.  For a baby shower, there's not much that's sweeter than this adorable lamb.  I think it's perfect!  Plus, I really wanted to thank Lynell for the past two years and the opportunity she gave me to create with her wonderful products.  Here's the rest of the team playing along with our farewell to Lynell:

Dream It Up!

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Lyn Bernatovich 

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson 

Cindy Groh 

Leadonna Kimmel

Laura Drahozal 

Jamie Martin

Thanks for stopping by today.  I appreciate your visits and I always love to read comments you're sweet enough to leave.  Have a wonderful day and I'll see you again soon!

Hugs,
Lea

Light It Up Blue!

Hello and welcome to the Light It Up Blue For Autism Awareness Blog Hop!  I wanted to participate in this hop in support of my friend, Tenia, and her adorable son, Theo!  

We have so many fantastic sponsors that have shown their support for Autism Awareness and you can see the complete list here!  If you would like a chance to win a prize from one of these fabulous companies leave a comment on this blog, and any of the other blogs participating in today's hop! Winners will be chosen at random and will be announced on Monday April 6.  Now here is the mixed media canvas I created for today's hop:

Here's what I used to create this canvas:

5"x7" Canvas Panel
Americana Acrylic Paints in Sapphire, Hauser Light Green, Cinnamon Drop
Americana Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Paint in Cottonball
Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic Paint in Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Americana Dura Clear Gloss Varnish
Golden Extra Heavy Gel (Matte)
Sharpie White Poster-Paint Pen
Copic Marker B28
Stampendous China Blue Micro Glitter
Kids Puzzle
Automobile Headlight Bulb

Here's a freebie for you from my friend, Amy, owner and creator of Amy Doodles:

 I was so happy to create this little canvas for such an awesome cause!  Thanks for stopping by to check out my project!  Don't forget to comment for a chance to win a prize.  I'll see you again soon!

Hugs,
Lea

I Have a ScrewLoose!

If you don't have a ScrewLoose, or a Sparky, then you need one or more!  They are two of the cutest little robots you will ever find and some of the newest characters at Stampendous!  We've been  celebrating their arrival all week long and today I have a fun little card to share that's perfect for a little boy (or girl!).  ScrewLoose looks a little rusty but that's actually a reflection on the chrome tape!

Here's what I used to create this card:

Stampendous® ScrewLoose and Sparky Perfectly Clear™ Stamps Set

DecoArt® Americana® Spa Blue Acrylic Paint

DecoArt® Americana® Hauser Light Green Acrylic Paint

DecoArt® Americana® Lemonade Acrylic Paint

DecoArt® Americana® Multi-Surface Satin™ Cottonball Acrylic Paint

StāzOn® Jet Black Ink Pad by Tsukineko®

Faber-Castell® PITT Pens in Black, Cold Grey III, Cold Grey IV, Cold Grey VI

Copic® Markers E07, E08

Neenah® Classic Crest™ Solar White Cover Stock

Limeade Cardstock by Bazzill Basics Paper®

Miscellaneous Items - Gear, Wire, Metal Flashing, Chrome Tape (for HVAC systems)

Beacon® 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue

Here's what I did to create this card:

Create A2 horizontal card base with a tent fold from green cardstock

Trim a piece of white cardstock to fit on front of card base

Add light green paint across the bottom of the white cs

Add blue paint on the rest of the white space, set aside to dry

Cut out doghouse shapes from flashing, set aside

Stamp ScrewLoose on chrome tape and cut out

Stamp Sparky on chrome tape and cut out

Add darker green paint with a flat brush in upward strokes to create grass

Using fingertip, create clouds on sky, set aside to dry

Using scrap of paper, create Sparky sign and attach with wire to gear

Adhere doghouse pieces to card front

Adhere Sparky's sign to front of dog house

With Faber-Castell® PITT pens, darken inside of doghouse using lightest grey on bottom and getting  darker as you go up

Adhere Sparky inside doghouse

Adhere ScrewLoose beside doghouse and stamp sentiment on screen

Using Copics®, add color to Sparky and a little "rust" to doghouse and sign

This is such a simple card to create and I think it's perfect for a boy even though it would work for a girl, too.  I just love these little robots and I know you will, too!  Be sure to check out the rest of my teammates projects here:

Stampendous Blog

Wendy Price

Tenia Nelson

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Kimmel (me)

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you've found some inspiration to create your own little ScrewLoose and Sparky project.  Have a wonderful weekend ahead and I'll see you again soon!

Hugs,

Lea

Hummingbird, Don't Fly Away

If I could be a bird, I would want to be a Hummingbird.  They're colorful, cute and they have a serious sweet tooth.  That's my kind of bird!!  Have you checked out all the beautiful Stampendous Hummingbird projects my teammates have posted this week?  If you haven't, you really should go check them out, lots of gorgeousness.  I chose to go very mixed media for mine.  Paints, inks, crunchy goodness, oh yeah!  Here's my card for today:

Here's an angled view of the glittery goodness I've added to my card:

Here's what I've used to create this card:

Stampendous® Creative Palette Monoprinting Plate

Stampendous® Cling Hummingbirds Stamp Set

Stampendous® NK Studio Mish Mesh Cling Rubber Stamps

Stampendous® Loving Messages Perfectly Clear™ Stamp Set

Stampendous® Lime Micro Glitter

Stampendous® Fran•táge Canary Color Fragments

Stampendous® Fran•táge Silver Glass Glitter

Stampendous® Fran•táge Lavender Glass Glitter

Stampendous® Fran•táge Fuchsia Glass Glitter

Twinkling H2O's in Key Lime, Sunflower and Pink Azalea

DecoArt® Traditions Hansa Yellow Acrylic Paint

DecoArt® Glamour Dust Glitter Paint in Aqua

Americana® Yellow Green Acrylic Paint

Americana® Hauser Light Green Acrylic Paint

Americana® Multi Surface Satin™ in Sky Blue

Liquitex® Inks in Quinacridone Magenta and Transparent Burnt Umber

Neenah® Classic Crest™ Solar White Cover Stock

Magenta Cardstock by Bazzill Basics Paper®

Jet Black Archival Ink™ by Ranger®

Beacon® 3-in-1 Paper Glue

Here's what I did to create this card:

• I started off by adding some Sky Blue and Aqua paints to my Creative Palette, brayered it out, stamped my Mish Mesh stamps into the paint and printed my paper
• I set the paper aside to dry but since I'm impatient, I dried it with my heat tool
• Next I stamped my images onto the printed paper
• I put dabs of yellow and green paints onto my paint palette and misted them with water to create a wash and added my greens and yellow paint to the images
• In a small plastic container, I added one drop of magenta acrylic ink and added it to my flowers and bird
• Once I had my dark pinks painted on, I spritzed the ink with water and thinned it down then added my lighter magenta to the flowers and bird as shown
• I watered down just a tiny drop of the burnt umber and added it to the bird
• Realizing that some Hummingbirds are somewhat iridescent, I decided to go over the bird only with the Twinkling H2O's
• Next I created my card base with a tent fold
• I trimmed my painted piece to fit on my card base as shown
• I stamped my sentiment in black ink and adhered the image to the card base
• It was time to play mad scientist and mix my glitters and fragments into a fun mix and I adhered the yumminess to my card with glue

I seriously love how this card turned out!  There's not a single element to it that I don't like.  I've been taking the Creative Jumpstart 2015 on-line workshop on Nathalie Kalbach's N*Studio blog and the various lessons have really inspired me and taught me some new tricks.  If you haven't signed up, it's not too late, you can sign up any time now.  It's so worth it! For this piece, I really think the glitter and fragment mix was the perfect finishing touch!  Here's the list with my teammates that are playing along today, I hope you'll check them out:

Stampendous Blog

Lea Kimmel (me)

Kristine Reynolds

Asia King

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope I've inspired you to pull out some stamps, paint, ink and fun embellishments for some weekend play.  Whip out that Creative Palette and spread some paint for lots of creative fun; the possibilities are endless!  Have a wonderful day and I'll see you again soon!

Hugs,

Lea

Beautiful Butterflies

Stampendous has showcased our butterfly stamps and dies this week.  Rather than do a card, I decided to do a mixed media canvas.  I've really gotten into creating in the mixed media style as it's more of a anything goes way of creating.  There is no right or wrong, it's all a matter of taste and what makes you happy.  Here's my canvas:

Here's what I used to create this canvas:

Stampendous® Cling PenPattern Butterflies

Stampendous® Cling Lovely Garden

Stampendous® Butterflies Die Set

Stampendous® Lovely Garden Die Cut Set
Stampendous® Vintage Letter Stamp
Stampendous® Vintage Contract Stamp
Stampendous® Elegant Borders Perfectly Clear Stamps
DecoArt® Traditions™ Acrylic Paint - Hansa Yellow
Americana™ Acrylic Paints - Winter Blue, Baby Blue, Pistachio Mint, Pineapple
Americana™ Multi-Surface Satin™ - Cottonball
DecoArt® Gesso
Liquitex® Ultra Matte Gel
Derwent® Inktense Blocks
LuminArte® Twinkling H2O's™ - Key Lime, Blue Grass, Sunflower, Bougainvillea, Ocean Wave, Yellow Rose
Silks Acrylic Glaze - Oyster
Ranger® Archival Inks - Jet Black, Sap Green
Staedtler® Pigment Liner 0.5
Miscellaneous Craft Wire

Needless to say, there were a bunch of different steps to this piece so I'm not going to go into detail.  It would just take too long to tell you each step.  As long as you like the outcome, that's what really matters, right?!  Suffice it to say that participating in Creative Jumpstart 2015 has taught me a trick or two!

I hope you've enjoyed checking out all of the projects this week from my teammates!  We really love having matching dies to go with some of our stamp sets.  It makes it so easy to create projects when you have great products to work with!

Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you again soon!  In the meantime, have a blessed day.  Oh, and stay warm!

Hugs,
Lea

Countdown to Christmas

In a flurry of a hurry? This month the Dream Team is all about the Quick and Cute...whether that be cards, gifts, wrapping, or tags...we have sleigh-loads of ideas! Play along by posting your creations using the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog, for a chance to win the stencil of your choice, and a possible bonus stencil for using Dreamweaver products in your Quick and Cute project! Here's what fun I've been up to this week and I have the pictures to prove it!

 I started out with a plain wooden plaque I've had sitting around for awhile.

 Using DecoArt® Gesso, I covered the entire front of the plaque.

 Once the gesso dried I added two coats of Americana® Navy Blue acrylic paint and two coats of Americana® Multi-Surface Satin™ in Cottonball making sure to leave a little texture in the white.

 Next, I added a small paper mask to keep that area clear of paste and then I pasted my stencil, LG645 Snowman, and additional snowflakes around the snowman with white paste.  Once pasted, I removed the mask and set it aside to dry.  After it dried, I applied a coat of Americana® Clear Chalkboard Coating™ and set it aside to dry one more time.

Once it was dry, using a piece of chalk, I wrote the number 21 and some other "snowflakes" for my countdown to Christmas day!  A fun and easy project, just be sure you have drying time between layers!

I'd love to receive a comment from you before you head on to the rest of the "A" team:

 

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal 

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

 

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at my project for today.  I hope it has given you a little inspiration for an easy gift you can make for teachers, neighbors, friends or for yourself!  Have a wonderful day!

Hugs,

Lea

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Cards Already?

Where did the summer go? Kids are back in school, with all the insanity that goes with it, vacations are a not-so-distant memory, and it is once again time to get busy with the important things in life...crafting for the holidays! Yay! If you don't get started now, you might not get them done in time for Christmas!  So, to inspire you, all of September the Dream Team will be featuring all the new goodies we have for the "Most wonderful time of the year", the fall and winter holiday season. New stencil designs, and new dies, are found on-line through the Stencil with Style web-site, or your local papercrafting store.  

Here's my holiday inspiration for this week:

Here's what I used to create this card:

Dreamweaver Stencils© DG674 Nested Ornaments Die Set
Dreamweaver Stencils© LG674 Oval Ornament
Dreamweaver Stencils© LJ891 Holly Swirl
Dreamweaver Stencils© LJ896 Large Flourish
Dreamweaver Stencils© Regular Embossing Paste
Americana® Antique Gold Acrylic Paint
Americana® Gloss Enamels® Metallic Glorious Gold Acrylic Paint
Translucent Gold Glass Beads
Clearsnap® ColorBox® Fluid Chalk Ink in Dark Moss and Lipstick Red
Tim Holtz® Distress® Ink in Tea Dye
Tsukineko® Delicata™ Golden Glitz Pigment Ink
BasicGrey® Fruitcake™ Collection Nutcracker/Pine and Vintage Ornaments/Pine
Gold Metallic Cord
Beacon® Adhesives Zip Dry™
Scrapbook Adhesives™ 3D Foam Squares
Glue Dots

Here's what I did to create this card:

Mix paste and paint to achieve gold color, add beads (optional to add beads but was my effort to mimic spots on ornaments printed on patterned paper and to age it)
Trim patterned paper to size for card
Create 5"x5" card base with a tent fold
Paste-stencil bottom ornament directly onto ornament paper
Using chalk inks, brush-stencil holly and berries onto bottom ornament
Die cut one large and one small ornament from double-sided stripe paper
Brush-stencil gold swirl onto solid side of small ornament
Add distress ink to the edges of all three ornaments to give a more "vintage" look
Attach die cut ornaments to patterned paper as shown
Create three gold cord bows and trim three pieces of cord to "hang" ornaments
Adhere gold "hanging" cords to ornaments and wrap other end to back of patterned paper and adhere
Attach patterned paper with ornaments to card base
Using small glue dots, attach bows to ornament tops

You can make the ornaments as simple or as detailed as you wish, either way, it's a relatively fast card to create.  If you have a lot to do, this would be an easy design to duplicate!

Of course, we have our monthly challenge for you to play along, so post your own holiday creations, and use the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog, for a chance to win the prize at the end of the month. We also have our fabulous Guest Designer for the month of September, Wendy Price! Here's the list of our "A" Team with their links for the week:

Dream It Up!

Wendy Price (GD) 

Leadonna Kimmel (Me)

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

That's it for me today!  I do hope I've given you a little inspiration to start your Christmas card creating!  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon.  Have a blessed day!

Hugs,
Lea

An InLinkz Link-up

How Do You Stack Art?

All this week, the Stampendous Design Team and several guest designers have been showing off a lot of fun things you can create with the new Stampendous Stack Art Kits.  Truly, you are only limited by your imagination with these fun kits!  I've created two different projects with similar themes but two very different looks!  We'll get to my projects momentarily, first, here's an explanation of our Stack Art Kits to help you better understand what they consist of.

Our Stack Art Kits have three components:

• The Stack Art Kraftboard Kit which includes all the kraftboard pieces you’ll need to make at least 4 amazing creations; die cut, double-sided adhesive for all the kraftboard pieces; and sentiments you can use to make each piece a special gift or card embellishment.
• The Stack Art Stamp Sets which include an assortment of terrific background stamps and other images plus an acrylic handle.
• The Stack Art Elements Kits which each include five jars of embellishing goodness to stick to your adhesive covered kraftboard pieces.

Since so many others have shown you projects using the larger kraftboard pieces, I decided to show you a couple of different ways to use the smaller accent pieces and the adhesive pieces.  Here's my first project:

Here's what I used to create this project:

Stampendous® Stack Art Kraftboard Angel Wings

Stampendous® Stack Art Angel Wings Stamp Set

Stampendous® Red Micro Glitter

DecoArt® Americana® Winter Blue Acrylic Paint

DecoArt® Americana® Baby Blue Acrylic Paint

DecoArt® Americana® Snow White

DecoArt® Traditions® Carbon Black

StāzOn® Cloudy Sky Ink Pad

Faber-Castell® Pitt Pen in Warm Grey III

Faber-Castell® Pitt Pen in Black Medium Point

Beacon® Gem-Tac

Artist's Loft™ Canvas Panel

Here's what I did to create this project:

Mix both blue paints and cover canvas

Paint on some clouds and allow to dry

Once clouds have dry, mix a tiny amount of black to some white paint and add some subtle shading in the clouds

Paint the wings with the white paint and set aside to dry

Cover the fronts of two hearts with glue and add the red glitter, set aside to dry

Using gray ink, cover wing stamp with ink, stamp off once and then stamp onto painted wings

Write sentiment on canvas panel

Glue wings and hearts onto canvas panel 

For my second project, I wanted to make a little something different that I could set on my desk or on a shelf around the house.  I have a thing for hearts, I love them!  Hearts with wings remind me of my dad, I bought him a pillow that was a heart with wings attached right after he had quadruple by-pass surgery on his heart.  This project is dedicated to my dad whom I miss dearly!

Here's what I used to create this project:

Stampendous® Stack Art Kraftboard Angel Wings

Stampendous® Stack Art Royal Heart Stamp Set

Stampendous® Chunky White Embossing Enamel

Bo Bunny® Love Letters Collection 6x6 Paper Pad

Neenah® Classic Crest™ Solar White Cover Stock

DecoArt® Americana® Coral Blush Acrylic Paint

Tim Holtz® Distress Inks® in Antique Linen and Tea Dye

StāzOn® Cloudy Sky Ink Pad

Beacon® Gem-Tac®

Frames & Moore™ Medford 3.5 in x 5 in Frame

Here's what I did to create this project:

Stamp background image onto white cs and trim to desired size

Add distress inks to stamped image

Apply wings die-cut, double-sided adhesive  to image as shown

Add embossing enamel over wings and heat

Paint heart with coral paint, set aside to dry, apply additional coats of paint as needed

Trim patterned paper to fit frame

Adhere stamped image to center of patterned paper

Adhere heart to wings

Assemble into frame

That's it for me today!  I do hope you've enjoyed my projects and have found a little inspiration along the way!  Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon.  Have a blessed day!

Hugs,

Lea