Frosty Fun!

The joy of the holidays is still going strong at our house. I just love having everyone home!.The added excitement of having a baby in the house again has made this an amazing Christmas. Here they all are on Christmas morning.

We are truly blessed to have such wonderful children and are spending this week enjoying every minute we can with them, so for this week's Dreamweaver Stencil challenge I am going to share a very simple card that I may have shown before. It makes a wonderful thank you note for all the wonderful gifts you received!

The steps are so easy:

• Dry emboss the mittens (LJ923) on white cardstock either with a light box and stylus or through a die cut machine
• With the mitten stencil still in place over the embossed design, lay the Plaid stencil (LX7002) at an angle over the mittens
• Use a large stencil brush to brush on your lighter color (the purple on mine), be sure to do the strings too
• Remove the plaid stencil and clean it
• Place the plaid stencil back over the mittens crossing over the opposite direction
• Use a large stencil brush to brush on your second color
• Remove and clean both stencils
• Mount on coordinating colored mats for a fun wintery card!

Don't miss the rest of the teams' ideas too. Just click on their names below.

Dream It Up!

Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Terrece Siddoway

Pam Hornschu

Liz Martin

Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Wendy Jordan

Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year!
Happy Creating,
Louise

We're in the final count down to Christmas! I just got back last night from 10 days of Grandma bliss, I am so thankful for the time I have gotten to spend with our beautiful new grand daughter. I can't believe she will be 4 months old in a week! Now reality  has hit full force and I have a lot to do before Monday!
But it's Thursday, so that means it's time for another Frosty Fun challenge from Dreamweaver Stencils. Today I am sharing a card that I may have shown you before, but I don't think I ever gave directions...so here goes:

The nice thing about snowflakes is they can be used all winter for thank you cards or winter birthday greetings, or really, any wintery occasion.

• Start by paste embossing the Antler snowflake stencil (LL399) with Glossy Blue Embossing paste on white cardstock
• Remove and clean the stencil
• Let the paste dry until it almost dry, then gently brush on some Moonstone F/X powder to soften the brightness of the blue paste
• Paste emboss the snowflake again, but this time use Glossy White Embossing paste on a dark blue paper
• Remove and clean the stencil
• Let the paste dry completely
• Cut each snowflake into four pieces
• Layer each piece on a small mat of the opposite color lining the snowflake up along two edges so only the other two edges have a mat
• Piece two of each color together as shown to create a beautiful, wintery card!
• Hint - make the mats slightly larger than you need them, adhere the four matted pieces to a scrap paper then trim them all the way around to match
• Put a little crystal in the middle to cover where they all meet

Be sure to check out the rest of the team blogs by clicking on their names below:

Dream It Up!

Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Terrece Siddoway

Pam Hornschu

Liz Martin

Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Wendy Jordan

Wishing you and your families a wonderful, safe holiday season!

Happy Creating,
Louise

Frosty Fun!

Here we go with week two of the Dreamweaver Stencil's December design challenge. Our theme this month is Frost Fun and last week there were some great projects, if you didn't get a chance to see them try to find the time to check them out!
This week I am back in Cincinnati being a Grandma and having a ball with my beautiful grand-daughter! But luckily I have my computer with me and she goes to bed early, so here's my creation:

It really was very easy:

• Emboss a piece of blue metal through your die cut machine with theChristmas Borders stencil (LJ922)
• Tape the Mittens stencil  (LJ923) to the front of the embossed blue metal lining up one cuff on the snowflake area
• Carefully turn the stencil and metal over and use a Teflon tool to emboss the outline of one mitten
• Turn it back to the front and line up the second mitten so the cuffs match
• Turn it back over and emboss the second mitten
• You don't have to line them up like this, you can just emboss them as they are, but I wanted my cuffs to match
• Sand the whole piece so that the Christmas borders area is now silver
• Use a paper stump to flatten the background around the mittens
• Use the fiberglass brush to finish cleaning off the blue from most of the background
• Fill the back of the mittens with metal filler paste, let dry thoroughly
• Mount on silver mirror paper and a white card

The blue, silver and white definitely give it a frosty feel don't you think! Check out the rest of team too

Dream It Up!

Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Terrece Siddoway

Pam Hornschu

Liz Martin

Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Wendy Jordan

Happy Creating,
Louise

Frosty FUN!

Oh my goodness it's December! I'm still trying to figure out where November went! We've been having a stretch of balmy weather here in the Chicago area, but I'm sure we'll pay the price soon.
This month our Dreamweaver Stencil design challenge theme is Frosty Fun! Here's a quick project for last minute gift giving.

Start with a flat sided vase (I got mine from IKEA)

Line the Bare Trees stencil (LJ849) up along the top of the vase and
tape down the bottom edge on the bottom of the vase with removable tape

Load the paste spreader with Glossy White Embossing Paste
and put it at the top of the stencil

Draw the paste down the stencil

Don't worry about how "perfect" it looks nature is not always smooth!

Remove the stencil and place it in a pan of water

Sprinkle the wet paste with Crystal Glitter (from Art Glitter)
tap off most of the extra

Lay it down to dry

Once the paste is dry, use an X-acto knife to clean up any rough edges
or clean up between the tree trunks

Place vase on a piece of paper and use a soft brush to gently sweep off excess glitter

Make several, they make an awesome display!

Check out the other team member blogs for more Frosty Fun!

Dream It Up!

Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Terrece Siddoway

Pam Hornschu

Liz Martin

Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Wendy Jordan

Happy Creating,
Louise

Let the countdown begin!

Well, Thanksgiving is over and the leftovers are gone, Black Friday shopping was fun, but the countdown to Christmas has begun! I know we have an extra week this year with Thanksgiving being so early, but somehow it still seems like there won't be enough time to get everything done in time! Then again, I feel that way every year and every year it all works out, so take time to enjoy a nice holiday latte and spend time with family and friends, it'll all get done. This week I have the great pleasure of taking care of my granddaughter every day! I'm sure I'll be exhausted when I get home!

The Dreamweaver Stencils design team has been creating clean and simple holiday cards to help you simplify your card making this year without sacrificing beauty. Here's a very quick and easy card that you can create in multiples using the power pasting technique featured on Lynell's great Embossing Paste Techniques DVD.

Here are the simple steps:

• Tape the Season's Greetings (LG677) stencil to light green textured cardstock with removable tape
• Apply Glossy Green Embossing Paste across the stencil using a palette knife and paste spreader
• Remove and clean the stencil, let paste dry
• Place the clean, dry stencil back over the dry paste and apply Palette Stamp and Stick on the holly leaves using a finger dabber and the Picasso (LL332) to shield the areas you don't want glue on
• Remove the stencil and let the glue stand about 3-5 minutes to get tacky
• Use a large stencil brush to pounce Gold Leaf sheets over the holly leaves, rouge firmly with the brush to remove the excess leafing
• Layer the holly layer on dark green shimmer cardstock, then onto another light green layer and a red card (the red strip across the middle adds a nice accent)
• Make several and send to your favorite friends!

Now be sure to check out more CAS ideas from the rest of the Dream Team:

Dream It Up!

Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Terrece Siddoway

Pam Hornschu

Liz Martin

Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Wendy Jordan

Happy Creating, Louise

Clean and Simple Holiday Cards

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone will have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. I know that I will enjoy every minute I can with mine. We are so thankful this year especially for the addition of our beautiful granddaughter, Ellie. She is truly a joy!

Our Dreamweaver Stencil November challenge of Clean and Simple Holiday cards continues this week. There are so many great ideas for easy Holiday cards, check out mine then hop on over to the other team member blogs for more!

LL589 - Musical Christmas

This card uses the Double Glitter technique with only two colors of glitter and the beautiful Musical Christmas stencil (LL589). Here are the quick, easy steps:

• Attach a piece of double sided mounting paper to a mat of blue cardstock
• Apply Hawaiian Coconut Soap to the back of the stencil
• Use a 3/4" stencil brush to brush away any flakes of soap from the openings or surface of the stencil
• Remove the release paper from the mounting paper to expose the sticky surface
• Place the stencil, soap side down, on the sticky paper
• Tap stencil in place with the end of the brush
• Sprinkle the exposed sticky surface with Art Glitter Royal Wink Ultrafine glitter
• Press the glitter firmly to the sticky paper and brush away any extra
• Turn the glittered image face down on the table and carefully pull the paper off the stencil being sure to keep the stencil flat on the table
• Sprinkle the exposed sticky background with Art Glitter Crystal Ultrafine glitter, brush away any extra glitter
• Mount on a layer of white cardstock
• Use foam tape to apply it to the front of a card covered with decorative paper

This technique is so easy and always creates a WOW reaction. Try it!
Now here are the links to the rest of the team:

Dream It Up!
Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Terrece Siddoway

Pam Hornschu

Liz Martin

Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Happy Creating,
Louise

Clean and Simple Holidays!

Well our four whirlwind weeks of designing with Ranger Distress Embossing Powders and Dreamweaver Stencils is over! It was so much fun, I hope you take the time to give this great combination a try the next time you're creating.
The holidays are upon us and time is racing by just like it does every year. Our challenge this month is to help you create clean and simple cards which can be especially helpful if you are like me and haven't even begun to make Thanksgiving cards yet, much less Christmas cards!
My design this week is very easy to do and a lot of fun. Here it is:

LG700 - Poinsettia

This was done using our Molten Magic technique and the following steps:

• Tape the stencil to white cardstock using removable tape
• Use a palette knife and paste spreader to apply a coat of Pearlescent Embossing Paste
• Use a soft, dry paint brush to randomly sprinkle Metallic F/X powders around the design, I used Gold Dust in the center, Purple Satin and Plum Royale on the flower, and Ivy Garden and Kiwi on the leaves
• Remove the stencil and place in water
• Hold the design by a corner and gently tap from underneath to help "jump" the powders around the paste a little more. It will look quite messy at this point but that's OK, keep going!
• Add some more powders if you think it needs it
• Hold it up-side-down over a wastebasket and tap off extra powders
• Using a heat tool, start by heating from underneath for just a minute. Set the design down on a flat surface and hold in place with the tip of a scissors or a clean, dry palette knife. Heat the paste until it bubbles, keep moving the heat tool until the entire design is bubbled.
• Mount into a beautiful card!
• One down, seventy-four to go!

The colors did not photograph very well, it is much softer looking in real life! Be sure to stop off at the rest of the team blogs to see what great ideas they've come up with this week!

Dream It Up!
Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Terrece Siddoway

Wendy Jordan

Pam Hornschu

Liz Martin

Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Happy Creating,
Louise

Dreamweaver and Distress Fun Grand Finale!

We've now had four weeks of festively distressed fun playing with the Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Powders along with our wonderful line of Dreamweaver Stencils and products. Huge thanks to Tim Holtz and the fab people at Ranger for sharing these four collaborative weeks with us, and providing the yummy shades of Distress Powders for us to create with. We've been inspired by the process, and we hope you have, too!

 

If you haven't won one of the prize packages yet, you still have one more opportunity this week as the set below is up for grabs to a random commenter on one of the Dream Team blogs.

If you've been following along each week, you've seen some gorgeous creations with these stencils and powders, so you should be all fired up to get distressed! If you've missed the first three weeks, check them out once you've made the rounds today:

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

My festively distressed project for this week is this:

A very easy card with only three colors of powders, a small bow, and a few gems. Very Clean And Simple! Mount it on some great papers and it's fast too!

The stencil is LJ897 Rhinestone wreath, here's how I did it:

• Place a piece of Double sided mounting paper on a mat of red cardstock
• Soap the back of the stencil with Dreamweaver Handmade Hawaiian Soap
• Use a large stencil brush to remove any flakes from the openings and front or back
• Remove the top piece of release paper from the double sided mounting paper and place the stencil soap side down on the sticky surface
• Use the handle of your brush to tap the stencil securely on to the sticky surface
• Use a small cut straw to carefully apply Pine needles Distress Embossing powder on the wreath and greeting areas, tapping off the extra in different directions so it does not get on the bow area, rub it down gently with your finger
• Apply Fired brick Distress Embossing powder to the bow area and rub down
• Turn the image face down on a clean surface and carefully peel the paper off the stencil, making sure to keep your stencil flat against the table
• Sprinkle the exposed sticky background with Shabby shutters Distress Embossing powder and rub in gently
• Brush of any extra powder gently
• Heat set with a heat gun, let cool
• Mount to the card front with foam mounting tape
• Add a small red bow to the bow area for extra dimension
• Add some red crystal gems here and there around the wreath
• Send it off to someone you know to brighten their holidays!

Don't forget to leave me some love before hopping to the rest of the Dream Team blogs:

The Ranger Blog

Dream It Up!
Louise Healy (you're here!)

Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Terrece Siddoway

Wendy Jordan

Pam Hornschu

Liz Martin

Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Please remember to continue to follow the team through the Dream It Up! blog as we bravely go where no stenciler has gone before, to like us on our Facebook page, and to learn from our fabulous weekly Thursday Tutorials on Paper Craft Planet as well.

I hope you've enjoyed the techniques we've been sharing with you using Dreamweaver Stencils and Tim Holtz's Distress Embossing Powders and that you will give it a try yourself!
Happy Creating,
Louise

CAS Distress & Dreamweaver Christmas

Still feeling festive? We hope so! Dreamweaver and Ranger still have two weeks left of our Festively Distressed collaboration, and we are full of distressing ideas...Tim Holtz' Distress Powder ideas, that is. Mixed with our fabulous line of stencil designs and exciting products, your creativity will know no bounds! If you missed the first two weeks, start HERE and HERE!

For our postings this week and next, we are offering you the opportunity to win one of two prize packages, perfectly coordinated for your holiday crafting. Simply leave a comment on each of our Dream Team's posts, and YOU could be one of two randomly selected winners!

The Dream Team have been challenged for the month of November to create something CAS (clean and simple) for the holidays. The extra challenge is mixing the Distress Powders in for the collaboration with Ranger. Think that it's possible? Well...let's see...

Here's what I came up with:

Tape LL316 Gaslight to striped cardstock and spread with Glossy White Embossing Paste.
Remove and clean the stencil
Sprinkle the NOEL with Peeled Paint Distress Embossing Powder, tap off extra.
Use a straw to place the other colors of embossing powders, holding the design at an angle so the extra powder falls off to the side of the image

Continue adding powders to each area.
Fired brick on bow, black soot on the pole, weathered wood on the lamp edges and finial, mustard seed on the flame, and black soot to finish the top.
Mount it on a small black mat, then to the front of a card with matching papers.

LL316 Gaslight with Glossy White Embossing Paste and Distress Powders

LL316 Gaslight with Glossy Black Embossing Paste and Distress Powders

Here they are side by side. You can see what a difference it makes to put the black paste under the powders rather than the white, the colors are very deep  on the black.

Lynell's cards the past couple of weeks inspired me to try the powders on paste, and it was a lot of fun. It is pretty easy to keep your colors where they belong. You could do it with the stencil on, but I find it much easier to do with it off and then you don't have to worry about the stencil sticking to the paper if it sits on there too long.

So tell me what you think in your comment below before heading over to the rest of the Dream Team posts:

Dream It Up!

Ranger Ink Blog

Cyndi Bundy

Pam Hornschu

Louise Healy

Kristi Van Doren

Laura Drahozal

Terrece Siddoway

Lee Kellogg

Liz Martin

Cherylynn Moser

Wendy Jordan

The Ranger blog is offering another amazing prize opportunity, just for playing along with the Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Powders and Dreamweaver Stencils and linking your creation on the Ranger blog. You can find more details HERE.

We hope that you have been inspired by our creations, and will continue to follow the Dream Team through the Dream It Up! blog as well as to like us on our Facebook page. We really encourage you to play along with our monthly challenges for more prize opportunities and creative fun!

Happy Creating,
Louise

Festively Distressed Fall Week 2!

Welcome back to week two of our amazing collaboration between Ranger's Tim Holtz line of Distress Powders, and our beautiful Dreamweaver Stencils & Products! If you missed last week's event, start HERE.

Last week, we were totally blown away by the awesome response we received from those of you who hopped over from Tim Holtz's blog and the Ranger blog to check us out! We've been doing the "happy dance" ever since! Hopefully, you will continue to check us out, especially over the next few weeks as we continue our play-time in Tim's sandbox. (It is rather an appropriate metaphor considering the cool texture of his Distress Powders.)

Apparently, Tim and the wonderful people at Ranger were also excited by the response, and they've decided to "up the ante" in the form of an additional prize package(s) which will include TWELVE Distress Powders each, and a handful of Dreamweaver Stencils to go with! Wow! Just one teeny-tiny detail...to win one of these packages from their blog, you need to create something with Tim Holtz's Distress Powders and Dreamweaver Stencils and attach it to the inlinkz on the Ranger blog. Winners will be selected randomly. For more details, head over to the Ranger blog.

Once again, this week we are offering another fall prize package as shown here. Just leave us all some love as you visit, for an opportunity to be the one random winner we select. Curious as to who won from last week? It could be YOU! Visit the Dream It Up! blog for the announcement of the lucky commenter.

 

Here is what I had fun creating this week:

Use the Dreamweaver Hawaiian soap to soap the back of
LM295 Autumn stencil, use a large stencil brush to brush
away any flakes from the openings or surface of the stencil



Cut a piece of Dreamweaver's double-sided mounting paper
the size of the stencil and attach it to a mat of dark brown cardstock



Remove the top piece of release paper and place the stencil,
soap side down, on the sticky surface. Use the end of the large stencil brush
to tap the stencil firmly onto the sticky surface 

Choose some Distress Embossing powders, I used
fired brick, spiced marmalade, scattered straw, peeled paint, and
a leftover combination of vintage photo and walnut stain from a previous project

Use an angled straw to start layering your rainbow of colors

Here's what it will look like

Gently rub the embossing powders into the sticky paper with your finger

Brush off as much extra powder as you can

Turn the image face down on the table and carefully
peel the paper off the stencil, making sure your stencil stays flat

This now exposes the sticky paper in the background

Sprinkle Distress Embossing powder frayed burlap over the image

Gently rub it in and remove any excess powder

Heat set

Repeat the soaping process on the back of
LJ874 Fall borders stencil

Place the stencil on a piece of double sided mounting paper that was
attached to a brown mat and use a straw to start adding powders where you want them

The straw lets you keep your powders just where you want them

Don't forget to rub the powders down a little each time

I first put two shades of brown on the acorns (walnut stain in the caps
and the mix in the acorn) then sprinkled the leaves with a leftover mix
of fired brick, spiced marmalade and scattered straw that I had from a
class I taught last week (I can never just throw it away, it's still fine!)

Turn it face down on the table

Peel the paper off the stencil

Sprinkle the background with frayed burlap, and heat set

I wanted a little more detail, so I put the stencil back over the image and used
a small stencil brush and Distress Ink walnut stain to add a little shading here and there

Then I used my Micron pen to do a little outlining and add some
veins in the leaves, not a dark solid line, more of a hint of an outline, it really
gave it a lot more dimension

Mount the Fall borders layer on a piece of Rusty Hinge, then use
foam tape to pop the Autumn in the center, and add a small
bow made of twine to complete the Festively Fall look!

Pictures never do justice to our creations. I wish you could see and feel this in person, the frayed burlap in the background is just the perfect color to compliment the other fall colors on the cards. Oh well, you'll have to take my word for it!

Aren't you excited to see what's next? Check out the Dream Team players for today:

 

Ranger Blog

Dream It Up!

Wendy Jordan

Kristi Van Doren
Louise Healy
Lee Kellogg
Georgia Sommers
Liz Martin
Laura Drahozal
Terrece Siddoway
Cherylynn Moser
Pam Hornschu
 Cyndi Bundy

You already know where to find Ranger's/Tim Holtz' products, but if you are having difficulty finding Dreamweaver, encourage your local stamp/paper-craft store to carry the line of fabulous stencil designs, pastes, and other products to mix with all of your stash of Tim's crafty goodness. You can also purchase our products on-line at Stencil with Style.

We'd love to see you come back regularly and play along with our monthly challenges (and more opportunities to win stencils) by linking your creations to the mr. linky on the Dream It Up! blog, or emailing pics of your creations to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com. Since you're on the computer already, head on over and like us on Facebook as well. Just another location for dreamy and distressed inspiration!

 

Happy Creating,

Louise