Thankful and Thoughtful

As we officially head into the holiday season, the Dream Team are 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.

This time of year always reminds me to be thankful for my family and friends. I love creating cards for all the various holidays throughout the year and sending them to the special people in my life. What I have discovered over the years is that people LOVE getting handmade cards and most of them appreciate the time and love we put in to making them. The card I'm posting today has several steps but creates such a serene image perfect for this reflective season. It would be great for fall birthdays, sympathy, or Thanksgiving cards. Here's what I created for you today:

How to:

• Emboss a piece of smooth cream cardstock (4" x 5 1/4") using the LX7002 Plaid stencil
• Lightly brush over the embossed image with Distress Ink Vintage Photo ink
• Mount on the front of a black A2 card
• Place the LX7027 Quatrefoil stencil on cream cardstock (2" x 4")and stencil on Vintage Photo ink, mat on a piece of black cardstock (2 1/8" x 4")
• Add a beautiful ribbon from May Arts across the Quatrefoil design
• Adhere over the Plaid layer
• Cut a cream mat 2 5/8" x 3 3/8" and a black mat 2 3/4" x 3 1/2"
• Rouge edge of cream mat with Vintage Photo ink
• Adhere the cream mat to the black mat, use foam tape to attach over the band of Quatrefoil
• Use the DD001 Nesting frames die to cut a frame from smooth cream cardstock using the second smallest frame die
• Rouge edges with Vintage Photo ink
• Adhere to the cream mat
• Tape LG754 Oak leaves stencil to smooth cream cardstock using removable tape
• Apply Matte Black Embossing Paste using a palette knife and paste spreader
• Sprinkle wet paste with Distress Embossing Powder in a combination of brown tones, press in lightly
• Remove and clean the stencil
• Heat emboss the powder using a heat tool, let paste dry completely
• Cut out one of the leaves and adhere on the small frame

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

Happy Creating,

Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

March Madness Week 3!

MAD I tell you! We're all going MAD! That is...MAD for Dreamweaver Stencils! Lol. Welcome to week 3 of our "March Madness" challenge! Anything goes, and the more outside-of-the-box, the better. This year, we're aiming to play with non-traditional challenges whenever possible. So, break out all of your I-never-quite-knew-what-to-do-with-these-products stash, look at your Dreamweaver stencils in a whole new creative light, and get crafting! Oh, and don't forget to link those creations to the linkytool on the Dream It Up! blog for one of THREE chances to win the stencil of your choice!

PLUS, you won't want to miss your chance to join the Dreamweaver Design Team. Here's the link to find out how you can become a DREAM TEAM member too!

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DREAM TEAM call for new members!!! See the DREAM it UP! blog for details!
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This week I'm actually working "inside" the box instead of outside-the-box! Inside a shadow box that is! It is an 8" x 8" black shadow box that I created one year for Christmas time when I saw an idea on Pinterest for it. After Christmas was over, I decided it would be nice to change it to Valentine's, then Easter, Spring, Summer, Fall....you get the idea. I decorate a background piece of decorative paper then add little do-dads to match the season, jingle bells, chocolate kisses, wooden eggs...etc. As one season comes out of the box the do-dads go in a baggie in a plastic bin and the background paper is moved behind the next season's background. That explanation was a little mad wasn't it! Here's what it looks like for Easter:

Here's how I did it:

• The words were cut on my Cricut. 
• To create my big eggs I used a piece of white cardstock (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") and laid the Plaid stencil (LX7002) on the cardstock 
• used a 1/2" stencil brush to add the light pink
• Cleaned the stencil, and turned the design so it went the opposite direction and taped it over the pink stripes
• Used a palette knife and paste spreader to apply a coat of Matte Yellow Embossing Paste
• Removed and cleaned the stencil and let the paste dry
• Place the Egg stencil (LG670) over the plaid paper and used a dark pink marker to trace the opening of the egg 
• Cut out the Egg and use the dark pink marker around the edge
• The other beautiful egg is the Easter Egg stencil (LG685), dry embossed on white cardstock
• Used small stencil brushes to add color to the embossed image
• Cut out the egg shape and edged with a blue marker

Here's a close up of the eggs:

Need some more crazy ideas? Check our "A" team, and our very special guest designer and Certified Dreamweaver teacher...

Georgia Sommers

Dream It Up!
Laura Drahozal
Lyn Bernatovich
Pam Hornschu
Heidi Erickson
Louise Healy
Cyndi Bundy

Happy Creating,

Louise

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

Day 6 Christmas in August Hop!

All of this week, the Dream Team and the Woodware UK teams have been celebrating the release of the new holiday designs from Dreamweaver Stencils. Of course, no celebration is complete without prizes...and there are some fabulous ones for those commenting on both sides of the "pond".

Each team will be providing the opportunity to win four prize packages of stencil designs, perfect for the holidays. Just leave your comments each day on each players' post as well as the Dream It Up! and Woodware UK blogs, and the Dreamweaver and Woodware Facebook pages. Two random commentors will be chosen from the batch of weekday posts, one each from the DW and WW Facebook pages, and from the big hop on Saturday...from each side of the pond!* That's a total of eight prize packages up for grabs! Here's what you could win:

For my final posting of the week I wanted to show you a couple of more ways to use the new mittens stencil:

LJ923 Mittens overlayed with
LX7002 Plaid

Dry emboss the mittens on white cardstock. With the stencil over the embossed image, brush a little color over the image. Place the Plaid maker stencil over the mittens at an angle and brush on the first color. Remove and clean the plaid maker and put it back over the mittens the other direction and brush on a complimentary color. Layer on coordinating cardstocks.

LJ923 Mittens with tree from
LX7016 Season of Joy
LM2013 forever friends


Dry emboss the mittens. With the stencil still over the mittens, brush red ink around the edges and cuffs. On the Season of Joy stencil use removable tape to mask off everything but one of the smaller trees. Center the tree on the mitten and brush in green ink. Repeat on the other mitten. Remove the tree stencil and brush just a little green into the background of the mittens. Remove the mitten stencil and brush more red ink around the mittens. Mount mittens on a dark green mat. Stencil forever friends on the bottom of a kraft color card with the same green ink as the treen. Add the mittens over the saying.

I hope you've enjoyed all the creations the teams have posted this week, I know we have had a lot fun sharing them with you!

Don't forget to leave me some holiday cheer as you move on to the other players for todaySaturday, August 25th HOP DAY!Woodware UK

Dream It Up!

Lee Kellogg

Cherylynn Moser

Dorothy Adam

Louise Healy

Debs Frost 

Laura Drahozal 

Terrece Siddoway

Cyndi Bundy

Wendy Jordan

Francoise Read

Liz Martin

Georgia Sommers

Siobhan Fyffe 

Pam Hornschu
Kristi VanDoren
 

Remember to follow along with the challenges on the Dream It Up! and Woodware UK blogs for more prize opportunities, and more crafty inspiration, as well as "liking" DW and WW on Facebook.

*Winners selected must be from USA/Canada/UK only.

Happy Creating,
Louise