Second installment of Holiday

Hi

My second installment of my holiday continues in Destin.  The weather was perfect, I couldn't believe the temperature and the humidity. It really was a pleasant change from the weather we can get here in the UK. 

So with the sun shining and the beach calling we spent an afternoon just sitting and savouring the scenery.

 

On the last photograph you can see what I mean with the green and blues of the sea and of course the white of the sand.

As with all holidays you have short trips to see different areas and for me I loved the Habour Walk,

  with the pretty buildings and the beautiful scenery.

So this is installment 2 of my journey.  I loved it.

Thanks for stopping by

Gill

First installment of holiday 2014

Hi
I have decided to share one or two of my holiday photos, after having almost 3 weeks in the USA.  I have friends over there and I love going to visit.... which isn't as often as I would like.
My holiday started of in the Blue Grass state of Kentucky........ my friends live in Louisville.  The first couple of days were spent shopping, yes you guessed craft shopping but then we took off for the Lake.  The weather was beautiful, hot and sunny, the first couple of photos were take at Rough River Lake, this is where my friends family have a home.

 
The scenery is lovely and so relaxing.

Carol and Bob ( my friends ) have a home on a nearby lake ..........Lake Nolin, which is equally scenic.

From the Lake we started a long drive down to Destin in Florida, what should have been a comfortable 9 hour drive turned into a 12 and a half hour journey. We landed in Destin and were joined by another couple of friends Kitty and Corky.  It felt like old times as whenever I have gone to stay we all seem to get together and have a good time. 

This was the view on Destin Beach at about 8.30pm on the first evening.  Stunning!
I had seen photos of Destin and been told how white the sand was and how green the water was but when you see it for real - its breathtaking.  No wonder the area is called the Emerald coast.  

I'm going to stop now and continue later, as I have numerous photos I want to share

Thanks for stopping by.

Gill

July the month to DIE for (week 4)

Hi! 

Welcome to week four of our Dreamweaver Stencils July Challenge.  All this month the Dream Team are featuring our newest toys.......our DIES.  You'd be surprised at how many we have, and what fun things you can do with them..........especially when used in conjunction with their matching stencils.  They are such a simple way to create an effective card. 

Having just returned from my holidays I must admit it feels good to get back to crafting, and using DIES makes card making and crafting so much quicker and in some ways easier.  I decided to use the Stylised Dahlia Die, one of my favourites.  This card is quick and easy, and can be made in a matter of minutes for those emergency cards that creep up on us all.

This is what you will need:-

Dreamweaver Stylised Dahlia DIE -  DG743
Dreamweaver Metallic FX powders -Kiwi, Pixie Blush.
Stencil brushes
Scrap of card that has an embossed resist technique on it
Dreamweaver Double Sided Mounting Paper (DWSTICK)Scrap of Pale Blue fairly plain card or paper
Scrap of Kraft card
C6 Cream card for base card
About 1/2 yard of turquoise velvet ribbon (1/4'' wide)
Versafine ink pads - Blue lagoon, Olive green
Die cutting machine (Mines a Big Shot

This is what you need to do:-
1 Take the stencil brush and lightly colour the scrap of resist paper with Blue lagoon at the top and Olive green at the bottom and in the centre blend the 2 colours.  Remember you can always add colour but you cannot take it away.

2 Take the Stylised Dahlia Die and place centrally on the resist coloured card, run this through your choice of Die Cutting machine.

3 Take the adhesive sheet and remove on layer of protection and stick the die cut flower design to this. Trim any excess adhesive sheet off.  Remove the remaining protection sheet from the back and stick this to the pale blue card.

4 Use a clean dry stencil brush to apply the metallic FX powders to the adhesive sheet this should be done on the front side of the panel.  I used the Pixie Blush which is a delicate pink and the Kiwi for the leaves and stems, and also a small amount around the tips of the outer petals.

5 The rest of the card is put together, the ribbon is threaded through a slit I cut in the centre spine of the card and I wrapped the ribbon around the card twice.

There is your card complete, its really quick and the end result is a subtle design.  I hope you like it and enjoy having a go.

This is what the rest of the B team have been doing

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren 

TERRI SPROUL (Guest Designer)

Thanks for stopping by

Gill    

An InLinkz Link-up

Something Old, New, Borrowed, Blue week 4

Well where has June gone.  I am now on my holidays visiting old family friends in the USA, but I had thought my June project through and was prepared.

Something New had me pondering what could it mean..............New Home, New Car, New Job and then it came to me New baby.  There doesn't ever seem to be a card for Twins when you want one, but if you make your own then its a bonus, not only appropriate but made with love and care.

Dreamweaver Stencils do a lovely alphabet set of letters and combining these with an elephant stencil my idea was complete.

So this is what you will need:-

Dreamweaver Stencils LST, LSW, LSI, LSN, LSS, LL383 Elephant border, Blue Glossy paste, Versafine ink pad :- Deep Lagoon, stencil brushes,Low tack tape, patterned paper(baby or children), black, white and cream card, palette knife cleaning things for stencils

and this is what to do:-

Use small pieces of white card and tape the letters T, W, I, N, S to each piece and use low tack tape around all 4 sides.  Apply the glossy blue embossing paste and  remove stencils and wash,  allow the letters you have pasted to dry.  Next make the elephant panel.  Attach the Elephant stencil to the card along one side only and also cover up the section of the stencil you dont want to colour I used a post it note. Use what ever colour you want I used the turquoise blue colour and applied 3 layers so that the colour was more intense.

Once all the bits had been done I trimmed and matted and layered them and constructed my card.

Thats it card completed.  Again its a quick and easy card to do and I think would look just as good with BABY on it or even a name.

Hope you like the card

Thanks for looking

Gill

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren 

Gill Wilson  

Endless Possibilities Day 5

For this final day of the hop I thought I'd go back to card making (its more me).  The new Dreamweaver Die LG745 Tree line was my choice as I could imagine being out walking on a summers day with the sunshine  and flowers at the edge of the woods.  I also thought it was a way of using the Versafine ink pads for colouring the scene. 

Heres what I created:-

For this project you will need:-

Cream card, black card, Dreamweaver Die LG745 Tree line, Versafine ink pads :-Olympia green, Spanish Moss, Crimson Red, Vintage Sepia, Smokey Grey, Majestic Blue and Toffee, Finger daubers, Black micron pen, Die Cutting machine, and adhesives.

and this is how you create the project:-

1 Take a piece of cream card and a piece of black card and cut the Tree line die.  I use a Big shot machine

2 Using the Versafine ink pads and daubers colour the cream die cut shape, the Versafine colours blend together and I was able to achieve the colour tones and shades I wanted.

3 Take the black die cut piece and lay this behind your coloured piece, make sure that the black edge is visible, this will add depth to your design as well as shadow.  Stick these 2 layers together.

4 The next step is to take another piece of cream card slightly bigger than the panel you have created, you next need a piece of scrap paper (I used photocopy paper) and you need to tear so that you form a hill shaped edge. These pieces are then used as masks to create the background of the design.  As ever the colour choice is yours, I used the Crimson Red in the foreground as I had imagined colourful floral bushes. to add a little more interest to the 'bushes' I used the black micron pen and groups of 3 small dots randomly over the red areas.

5 The outer edge of the piece I edged with the Vintage sepia ink pad, again this gave definition to the panel.

6 The final stage was to put all the layers together and then finish off with a green bow.

Hope you like my design.  

Heres what the rest of the teams have done

Dream It Up!

Kristine Reynolds

Alison Heikkila

Laura Drahozal

Savannah O'Gwynn

Lyn Bernatovich

Jamie Martin

Gill Wilson

Lynn Mercurio

John Creighton Petersen

Louise Healy

Lea Kimmel 

Pam Hornschu

Naghma Husain

Kristi Parker Van Doren

Hope you have enjoyed this weeks Endless Possibilities

Thanks for  looking

Gill

      

Endless Possibilities Blog Hop Thursday

Welcome to our first ever collaboration week with Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko! We've shared all of our toys on both sides, so be prepared for Endless Possibilities! Three prize packages are available, each containing one set of each of these inks and stencils/dies. Just leave comments on each post of each day this week (June 9th - June 13th) for a chance to win! Winners will be announced on Tuesday, June 17th!

Imagine Crafts New StazOn Pads from Tsukineko

Stencils and Dies Prize Package

For my contribution for the day I choose to go for a home decor feel and made a candle holder decorated with a Dreamweaver stencil design, coloured with the new Imagine Radiant Neon and Versafine ink pads.  This brings together Dreamweaver and Imagine Crafts.

Here is my creation:-

Here is what you will need:-

Wooden Candle (night light) Holder, Pale blue acrylic paint, Brush for applying paint, Dreamweaver Stencil LL543, white matte embossing paste, Imagine Radiant Neon ink pads :-Electric Purple, Electric Pink and Electric Yellow, Versafine ink pads :-Olympic Green, Spanish Moss, Crimson Red and Imperial Purple, fine stencil brushes 1/8'' and 1/4'', palette knife, low tack tape, cleaning things for stencils (kitchen paper, dish for cleaning stencil, wipes for cleaning off ink from stencils)

and this is how I created the candle holder:-

Take the wooden candle holder and paint with the pale blue acrylic paint.  I gave mine 2 coats of paint, and allowed to dry between layers (overnight for each layer). The next step I placed a small piece of double sided adhesive on to the back of the stencil and placed the stencil on to one side of the candle holder and applied the white embossing paste to the design.  (This in a way breaks with the usual way of applying paste, as in the normal way of applying the paste is to tape around the stencil and then apply the embossing paste).  Once the paste had been applied I removed the stencil washed, cleaned and dried it before applying the same technique to the next side. These 2 sides once the paste had been applied I left to dry for at least a couple of hours as I needed the paste to be fully dry, before applying  the paste to the second lot of sides.

Once the paste had fully dried on all four sides and the stencil had been cleaned and was dry, I replaced the stencil on to the design and then applied the colour with stencil brushes using the new Imagine Radiant neon ink pads and the Versafine ink pads. The first layer I applied was the Neons and I used the pink, purple yellow and green the colours looked extremely vibrant and a little to much at the stage of my creation, but after leaving them to dry for a while I then applied the Versafine inks over the top, this made the Neons more sutble and all the colours seemed to blend together creating new shades.  With the Versafine I used 2 greens,the purple and the crimson.......

After applying the colour I left the candle holder to dry overnight as I wanted to make sure it dried fully.

The final result was a candle holder, with a real summer feel.   Hope you like it.   

NOW.............

Just Imagine the possibilities of what everyone else has created!

Thursday, June 12th:

Dream It Up!

Pam Hornschu

Darsie Bruno

Kristi Parker Van Doren 

Isha Gupta 

Louise Healy

Sylvia Blum 

Gill Wilson

Kristine Reynolds 

Baerbel Born

Laura Drahozal 

Lea Kimmel 
Alison Heikkila 

Thanks for stopping by

Gill

Dreamweaver Theme Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

.Well here we are in June and the Dreamweaver theme this month is the well known saying........Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.   First thought weddings, second thought............ break it down into individual pieces.   

So the first topic 'Something Old' this was relatively easy, vintage  - cogs and old stuff, so on checking out the Dreamweaver Stencils I found the Cog stencil, and on looking through my stash of embellishments I found a wooden Penny Farthing Bicycle ideal I thought, my card is sorted

I had decided on the format of my card and the rest was plain sailing.

This is what you will need

Dreamweaver Stencil LJ911, White Matte paste, stencil brushes the larger size are better for this card Die, Cutting embossing machine (mines a Big shot), Dreamweaver Rubber Embossing mat, Ink pads for doing the Strie technique (I used one of the Colorbox Queues that has 3 greens, a tan and a couple of browns), a wooden Penny farthing embellishment, Stampendous Aged Silver embossing powder, a black copic pen for going round the edge of each of my matts on the card (it saved having to cut black card matts.) Dreamweaver Metallic FX powders in Kiwi, Just Peachy, Amber glow and Goldfinch, cream card and low tack sticky tape.
Dish, water and soft nail brush for cleaning the stencil, kitchen paper and adhesives for putting the card together.

and this is how to create it:-

Take a piece of cream card slightly larger than the stencil and attach with a small amount of low tack sticky tape, put the stencil, card, and embossing mat through you die cutting/ embossing machine.  Once the card is embossed the stencil can be removed and the panel of cream card trimmed so that there is about 1/8'' around the outside of the design.  You can then start the Strie technique.  Load one of the stencil brushes with the palest colour and gently stroke this across the embossed design.  When I am doing this technique I go from left to right, and then turn my card 90 degrees and repeat until I have done all 4 sides.  Keep applying the ink to both the stencil brush and the card until the colour you want is achieved, I actually used 4 colours they were :- Yellow ochre, Bisque, Amber clay and Olive pastel.  As I have said previously the amount of colour is personal choice, and once the colour is there its there.  Once you have your colour put the panel to one side to dry and do the panel which has the Penny Farthing on, I used the same technique to apply this colour - it means the colours match and kind of blend together.
The final panel with the cogs was another piece of cream card  which I attached the Stencil to and this time I also taped across the stencil so that when I applied the paste I would only have the small panel of the paste design.  I removed the stencil put it into water ready for cleaning and then started to apply the Metallic FX powders over the top of the paste by dipping a dry stencil brush into the powder and tapping this over the design, once the colour is there  you simply have to heat it with a heat gun and the Molten Magic technique is done.  The edges of the 3 panels were edged with the black copic pen.  To get the metallic effect on the Penny Farthing I simply applied versamark ink to the embellishment and covered with the embossing powder and heated with the heat gun, the card just needs putting together and there it is a masculine card suitable for most occasions. 

Thanks  for looking


Gill