Thursday, November 29, 2012

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:

Happy Creating, Louise
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Thursday, November 22, 2012

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:
Happy Creating,
Louise
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Thursday, November 15, 2012

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!


Happy Creating,
Louise
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Thursday, November 8, 2012

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:




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:

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

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
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Thursday, November 1, 2012

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:

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
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