Fall Blessings

If you're looking for my Stampendous/Spellbinders post, you can find it here.  Thank you!

As we officially head into the holiday season, the Dream Team is 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:

I wanted to do a mini canvas for my bookcase so I created this 6"x6" canvas I'll sit on an easel.  I've had this particular idea knocking around in my head for a few weeks so I was happy to get it created and see it turn out just as cool as I imagined it to be.  

Here's what I used to create this canvas:

Dreamweaver Stencils© LS 78 Maple Leaf Stencil

Dreamweaver Stencils© LL 3043 Oak Leaf Stencil

Dreamweaver Stencils© LL 3044 Maple Leaf Stencil

Clearsnap® ColorBox® Chalk Paintbox® - Primary Pastels

Clearsnap® ColorBox® Chalk Petal Point® - Autumn Pastels

Tim Holtz® Distress Ink - Antique Linen

Micron® Pen - Black

Artist's Loft™ Canvas Board

Here's what I did to create this canvas

Using sponge daubers, randomly ink leaves around canvas using only yellow, orange, and red tones from the two ink palettes

For each large maple leaf only, replace stencil and loosely outline each leaf following the shape of the stencil but not running your pen against the edge of the stencil

Write your sentiment as shown

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

That's it for me today!  Thanks for stopping by and I'll have another post for you over the weekend.  In the meantime, 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

Guess what day it is!

Did you know that we're celebrating the Queen's birthday this week? Well...the Queen of Stencils, Lynell Harlow, that is. Actually, her birthday is on Saturday, but here at Dreamweaver Stencils we're surprising her by posting birthday cards in her honor today. Nothing like making you feel OLD sooner than necessary, right Lynell? You'll even see a few familiar names in our lineup, as some of the teaching team are whooping it up for her as well.

In addition to our birthday party, we are also beginning a new year and a new monthly challenge. In honor of all those resolutions we hope to achieve, our challenge is "Losing the Weight...AKA Clean and Simple (CAS)". If we all try really hard to simplify our design-work without losing our creativity, we can all say at the end of the month that we've lost some weight! Maybe not off of our waistlines, but at least off of our cards! Gotta start somewhere!

I used Dreamweaver Stencil LL 379, Tall Palm Trees, for Lynell's card as she spent a good deal of time in Hawaii and I know that's a place near and dear to her heart.  I lived there myself for four years and it's truly one of the most beautiful places on earth.  In case you're wondering, my card says Happy Birthday in Hawaiian.  I airbrushed the background with Copics and then brush stenciled my design with chalk inks.  I went back in with a flat brush and added a little more detail on the trees.  I kept my card very simple as that's our new challenge this month.  My papers are Neenah, Bazzill and Little Yellow Bicycle's Splash.  Be sure to leave Lynell some birthday love!  Here's the hop list so you don't miss a thing:

Dream It Up!
Laura Drahozal
Lyn Bernatovich 

Pam Hornschu
Heidi Erickson
Louise Healy
Cyndi Bundy

Lee Kellogg
Liz Martin
Terrece Siddoway
Lea Kimmel (Me!)

Cherylynn Moser 

Kristi Parker Van Doren

Lynell, I wish you the happiest of birthdays and I hope you enjoy your special day!  Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you again soon!

Hugs,
Lea

Stampendous and Clearsnap Fun!

When you put two great companies together like Stampendous® and Clearsnap®, you're sure to have fun creating great projects!  I hope you've enjoyed the ones you've seen this week from all the talented ladies.  Today is our last day to share the goodness so get comfortable and have fun hopping along!  Here's my card and I have to admit, I'm in love with this one!  I hope you'll love it, too!

Isn't he totally adorable!?  Doesn't he just melt your heart? (Probably not nice to say "melt" around a snowman!)  Stampendous® has certainly created some amazing Christmas and Winter stamps and this is truly one of my favorites!

Here's what I used to create this cutie:

Stampendous® Cling Jumbo Top Hat Snowman

Stampendous® Christmas Nest

Stampendous® Detail Black Embossing Powder

Clearsnap® ColorBox® Petal Point® Chalk Inks in Primary Pastels, Autumn Pastels and Soft Pastels

Clearsnap® ColorBox® Pigment Ink Pad in Black

Clearsnap® Mix'd Media Inx® Chox Inkpad by Donna Salazar in Petals

Clearsnap® Dye Ink: ColorBox® Archival Full Size Wicked Black

Bazzill® Card Stock

Neenah® Classic Crest™ in Solar White

My Mind's Eye™ Sweater Weather 6x6 Paper Pad

Ranger Inkssentials™ Cut-N-Dry™ Pen Nibs (Brush)

3L® Scrapbook Adhesives™ MyStik™ Permanent

3L® Scrapbook Adhesives™ Foam Mounting Squares

Red Seam Binding

Here's what I did:

Stamp image, add embossing powder and heat emboss

Color image with pen nibs and chalk inks

Trim image to desired size and stamp snowflakes

Stamp sentiment and trim to desired size

Stamp snowflakes on background of sentiment

Create card base with a tent fold

Trim patterned papers, mats and ribbon and adhere as shown

Using foam mounting squares, attach matted sentiment

I have to tell you, I absolutely love how well the chalk inks blended!  Once they're dry, they're there to stay and if you heat set them, they're waterproof, too.  They were a lot of fun to work with and a nice change from my usual medium, Copics.  I hope my project has inspired you to leave some love behind before hopping to the next person.  

We'd like to apologize for any confusion in today's Blog Hop! Here's a correct list of Bloggers hopping if you want to just keep this window/tab open and hop in another tab it might be easiest. Thanks for your patience, as always you have until Sunday night to complete your hopping/commenting before we will choose our three winners on Monday.

Rhea Weigand

Tobi Crawford

Kristine Reynolds

Jennifer Dove

Asia King

Suzanne Czosek

Jamie Martin

Tenia Nelson

Lea Kimmel

Janelle Stollfus

Krissy Fossmeyer

Clearsnap Blog

Thanks again for hopping along with us! Do be sure to share our posts on your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and wherever else you share!

A HUGE thank you to Clearsnap® for sending us some great products to create with!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead!  

Hugs,

Lea

Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas for those of you that don't speak French!  Such a beautiful language and a lovely way to say Merry Christmas!  This month at Dreamweaver Stencils©, we're showcasing quick and easy cards, tags, and whatnot because, by now, the time crunch is biting down!  I know it is for me!  Here's my project for today, a very simple Christmas card that can be done in a flash!

Here's a list of what you'll need to create this card:

Dreamweaver Stencils© LM 2017 Joyeux Noël
Dreamweaver Stencils© LJ 907 Damask
Dreamweaver Stencils© Matte Black Embossing Paste
Stampendous® Clear Embossing Powder
ClearSnap® ColorBox® Red Pigment Ink Pad
White Card Stock
Green Card Stock
May Arts Black Silk Ribbon
Queen & Co. Clear Rhinestones
3L® Scrapbook Adhesives® My Stick™ Permanent
Glue Dots

Here's what I did:

Tape Damask stencil to white card stock and brush stencil red ink over entire stencil to create background
Cover inked paper with clear embossing powder and heat emboss
Trim embossed background on all four edges where the stenciling stops
Tape sentiment to white card stock and paste emboss, set piece aside to dry
Create card base from green card stock with a tent fold
Attach embossed background to card base
Create bow and set aside
Once sentiment is completely dry, trim to desired size
Create a mat for the sentiment from the green card stock and adhere the two together
Attach matted sentiment to card base
Attach bow with a glue dot just below the sentiment
Attach two rhinestones over the "e" in Noël covering the diaeresis (the two dots, see close-up below)

I wanted to use the clear embossing powder over the ink to give it a pretty shine and I can tell you, I'm not disappointed!  It's really so much prettier in real life!  Here's the list of my teammates that are playing along, please check out their creations and it's always nice to leave a little love along the way!

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Stacey Rumsby
Terrece Siddoway
Pam Hornschu 

Thanks for stopping by today and would love for you to stop back by tomorrow for my next project as part of a blog hop!  Fun stuff!

Snow Much Fun...

...with Stampendous® Stamps and Clearsnap®!  That's right, Stampendous® has teamed up with Clearsnap® this week to showcase their wonderful inks and other fantastic products with our awesome stamps.  Here's the card I've created for today's post using their very blendable chalk inks:

Here's what you need to create this card:

Stampendous® Jumbo Penguin Snow

Stampendous® Detail Black Embossing Powder

Clearsnap® ColorBox® Petal Point® Chalk Inks in Primary Pastels and Soft Pastels

Clearsnap® ColorBox® Pigment Ink Pad in Black

Clearsnap® Smooch® in Silver Fox

Clearsnap® Mix'd Media Inx® Chox Inkpad by Donna Salazar in Petals

Bazzill® Card Stock

Neenah® Classic Crest™ in Solar White

Michaels Recollections™ Jolly Holiday 6x6 Paper Pad

Spellbinders® Snowflake Die

May Arts® Twine

Ranger Inkssentials™ Cut-N-Dry™ Pen Nibs (Brush)

3L® Scrapbook Adhesives™ MyStik™ Permanent

Here's how I created this card:

Stamp image with ColorBox® Pigment Ink in Black, add Stampendous® Detail Embossing Powder in

Black and heat emboss
Using Inkssentials™ Cut-N-Dry™ Pen Nibs, color in image with chalk inks
Trim image to desired size
Stamp snowflakes on background of image
Create card base with tent fold
Trim patterned papers as shown
Adhere image to patterned papers
Wrap twine from May Arts® around patterned paper as shown and adhere to card base
Die cut Spellbinders® Snowflake die with white card stock
Cover snowflake with Smooch® in Silver Fox and when it dries, pat Ice Blue chalk ink over it
Attach snowflake to twine

This was a super easy card to create but it's totally adorable!  I love these penguins!  I hope you'll check back on Friday for my next Clearsnap® and Stampendous® project!  Have a great day!

Hugs,
Lea

The Smallest Things

Chilly mornings, leaves changing color, apples ripening, these are just a few of the small things that make me happy when fall arrives in a slow blaze of glory!   The sentiment on my card today has always been a favorite of mine!  I fell in love with Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh and all the other characters of the Hundred Acre Wood when I was very young and I've been in love with them ever since!

To create my card, I used two Dreamweaver Stencils, LL 3004, Falling Leaves and LS 78, Maple Leaf.  Using my stencil brushes, I inked both stencils with ClearSnap's ColorBox fluid chalk ink pads in Autumn Pastels and Primary Pastels.  I also used a small flat paint brush to add "veins" to the leaves.  I stamped my Quietfire Design sentiment Sometimes, Said Pooh with Memento's Rich Cocoa ink.  I  trimmed my inked images down to the sizes I wanted, inked them all over with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen and set them aside.  Using Bazzill for my card base, I created my base with a basic tent fold.  My patterned paper is from Authentique's Thankful Collection and wrapped with a piece of May Arts Faux Burlap Wired Ribbon.  I added Art Glitter's Challis Ultrafine Opaque Hologram Glitter to each of my image pieces by edging them with Tsukineko's The Essential Glue Pad and then dipping each edge in the glitter. I hate that it didn't photograph better as it's really pretty in person!  As a finishing touch, I added a button just 'cause I wanted to!  I like buttons!  So, that's my card for today, I hope you like it!  Here's a list of the others posting today:

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Stacey Rumsby
Terrece Siddoway
Wendy Jordan 
Pam Hornschu

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon.

Hugs, 
Lea

You Are Sunlight...

Get ready for an amazing week of Awesome in Autumn! This week we are playing with the Quietfire Design team, and are so excited to play with their amazing images and sentiments. In their beautiful calligraphic style, their quotes and thoughts are the perfect addition to our Dreamweaver designs. Follow along with us, and leave your comments for an opportunity to win one of two wonderful prize packages:

Cock-a-doodle-dooooo!  I love roosters!  I think they're comical to watch as they strut around the yard!  My great-grandmother had several and most of them were mean but there was one in particular that liked to follow my cousins and me around the yard.  He would even let us pet him but there was no way he would let us pick him up!  I miss those summer days of my youth when the world was still so big and something as simple as a rooster following me around a yard was the highlight of my day!  Boy those days are long gone but they are and always will be "sunlight to my heart."

This Dreamweaver Stencil, LG753, Crowing Rooster, brought back so many memories of days spent in the country that I wanted to give my card a country feel.  I had these great papers from Graphic 45's French Country Collection that are perfect for this card.  My card base is Bazzill.  I stamped my Quietfire Design sentiment, You are Sunlight, with Memento Tuxedo Black on Neenah Classic Crest and also used Neenah for my stencil inked with ClearSnap's ColorBox fluid chalk ink pads in Autumn Pastels and Primary Pastels.  The colors were perfect with my patterned papers!  I dabbed on some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen on both my image and my sentiment.  I edged my sentiment with his Aged Mahogany Distress Ink. Once I had most of my pieces rounded on the corners, layered and adhered with Beacon Zip Dry, I added some glue to the sun and then added Art Glitter's Challis UltraFine Opaque Hologram Glitter over the glue for a little added sparkle!  Using pop dots I finished it off by adding my sentiment to the card and for the ultimate country feel, I added three buttons with glue dots.  Very simple, very country, kinda cute!

So here are the others playing along today with awesome inspiration for your viewing pleasure!  Be sure to leave some love to be entered to win one of our prize packs.

Quietfire Design Members...

Yogi Grunwald

Suzanne Cannon

and

Dream Team members...

Wendy Jordan

Louise Healy

Terrece Siddoway

Lea Kimmel (me!)

Pam Hornschu

and the

Dream It Up! blog

and

Quietfire Creations Blog

Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you back here tomorrow for the big blog hop!  

Hugs,

Lea