Thursday, July 26, 2012

Summertime Fun!

The Dreamweaver Stencils July challenge of Summertime Fun wraps up this week with one final round of fun summer cards. Here's an easy card made with the beautiful Three butterflies (LL591) stencil:

Start by taping the stencil to white cardstock with removable tape. Use small stencil brushes to apply color to the design. Remove and clean the stencil. Replace the clean, dry stencil over the colored image and tape again with removable tape. Apply a coat of Regular (matte white) Embossing Paste with a paste spreader. Remove the stencil and place in water, immediately sprinkle the wet paste with Crystal glitter, shake off extra, let paste dry.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. Next month we will be featuring Christmas in August projects, so be sure to come back next Thursday too! Click on the Dream Team names on the left to see more great ideas.


Happy Creating,
Louise

Thursday, July 19, 2012

CHA Week

Hello from the Rosemont Convention Center near Chicago! This has been a busy, but fun week for some of us on the Dreamweaver Stencils Design Team. We are attending the Craft and Hobby Associations annual trade show and it has been long days and little sleep but a great time!
I'm breaking away from the Summer Fun challenge to share one of the new stencil designs released at the show. It is a fabulous pine branch with two heart ornaments dangling from the branch. The little "forever friends" is new too!
Enjoy
This is very simple. Gold paste, sprinkle Art Glitter Vine glitter on the pine needles while the paste is wet, tap off excess and let dry. Return the stencil over the design, apply Stamp and Stick glue to the heart ornaments, remove the stencil and let the glue sit for a few minutes to get tacky (or use a heat tool for a bit). Lay a sheet of Red Leafing over the hearts and pat in place with your fingers or a large stencil brush. Use gold paste over the forever friends stencil near the bottom of your card front, let dry.We'll be showing a lot more of the new designs in the coming weeks, so check back regularly to see what else is new!
Be sure to  check out the rest of the team blogs for lots of inspiration.



Happy Creating,
Louise

Thursday, July 12, 2012

More Summer Fun!

The Summer Fun challenge from Dreamweaver Stencils continues throughout the month of July. You can win a great prize if you join our fun by submitting your creation through Mr. Linky on the DREAM it UP! blog, or by emailing a picture to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com. Don't be shy, the design team loves to see what you have created with these wonderful products!
My creation this week takes me back to when we lived in Colorado. The sun shines every day in CO, yes EVERY day (even if only for a little while), and we would often wake on a Saturday morning to the sounds of the hot air balloons that lifted off from the field in front of our house. The WHOOSH is unmistakable. The balloons are usually so bright and filled with beautiful designs, they are incredible to watch. Dreamweaver has a wonderful Hot Air Balloon stencil (LL3003) that brings back wonderful memories of those mornings in CO.  Here are some ideas for this great stencil:

LL3003 - Hot air balloon
Glossy White Embossing Paste with glitter
This first card was done by pasting the image on acetate with Glossy White Embossing Paste and sprinkling the wet paste with various colors of glitter.  The clouds are created by brushing on Brilliance Moonlight white with a 3/4" stencil brush, leaving them a little wispy. The mountains are torn pieces of cardstock with some of the Moonlight white brushed on the peaks.
This next card uses similar colors but a different technique:

LL3003 - Hot air balloon
Regular Embossing Paste stenciled with color

LL332 - Picasso
Use the edge on the left to create clouds!
This balloon was paste embossed with the Regular white matte embossing paste on a small gingham patterned paper. After the paste was dry, I returned the stencil to the image and used small stencil brushes to add color to the various parts of the balloon (I used a Picasso (LL332) to help keep colors clean). I cut out the balloon and ran a black marker around the edge so it would have more definition when I put it on the background. For the clouds on this card, you use a large stencil brush to add white ink in random clusters around the card, then use the end of the Picasso that looks like a cloud (be sure to tape off the openings at this end) and lay it near the edge of a cluster of white. Use a stencil brush with some light blue ink and starting on the Picasso brush color off the edge in a sweeping motion, and VOILA! clouds!  Add the balloon with some foam mounting tape to give it more dimension.
Now I know some of you are saying, "How many balloon cards do I need!", well here's another idea for this versatile stencil, make it into a vase!

This was done with Memories Mist spray through the stencil, cut out, edged with black, filled with "grass" and mounted on the front of decorative paper. How easy is that!
Be sure to stop at the rest of the design team blogs for more Summer Fun!
Happy Creating,
Louise

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Summer Fun!

The new monthly challenge for Dreamweaver Stencils starts today! Our new challenge is to create cards or projects with a "Summer Fun" theme. The timing is perfect because here in northern IL we definitely know it is summer! It has been very hot and we are having one of the driest summers that I can remember in the 20 years we've lived here. Needless to say, it is great to stay indoors and create fun summer themed cards rather than spending too much time outdoors.
Here's what I came up with for our first week of the challenge:
LL379 - Tall palm trees with
Distress Embossing Powders
This was created with the Double Glitter technique that we featured all last month, but instead of using glitter, I used my Distress Embossing Powders. Yes, you have to heat it to set those powders. I made this card for my monthly Lunch Club group. We all do the same technique and exchange cards. It is amazing how one technique can look so different depending on how it is used.
It's only two weeks until CHA and the Dreamweaver Design Team is VERY busy getting beautiful samples ready for the show. Maybe we'll even be able to give a sneak peek soon! Stayed tuned for more news about the new designs.

Today I am at Creative Cuts and Crafts in Elmhurst, IL teaching a fun Zentangle class using the Rolling Hills stencil. It's too late for you to get in that class, but I'll be at Memories and Beyond in Downers Grove, IL on July 12th teaching another Zentangle class using the Dreamweaver Pear stencil. You can still call and reserve your spot in that class!

Check out my post below for another great class that my friend Dirk and I have coming up. It's a beautiful home decor project called Seasonal Tower.  It is a combination of Tim Holtz die cuts and Distress products.

I hope everyone is having a fun, relaxing summer, it is going by too fast! Now be sure to stop at the rest of the team blogs to check out more summer fun!

Happy Creating,
Louise