More Christmas in September

The kids (and I, the substitute teacher) are back in school, with all the insanity that goes with it, vacations are a not-so-distant memory, and it is once again time to get busy with the important things in life...crafting for the holidays! Yay! All of September the Dream Team will be featuring all the new goodies we have for the "Most wonderful time of the year", the fall and winter holiday season. New stencil designs, new dies, and...(coming soon) brand new embossing folders featuring some of our top-selling designs, all to be found on-line through the Stencil with Style web-site, or your local papercrafting store.

Here's my holiday inspiration for this week:

Once again, I relied heavily on the easy embossing technique of running things through the manual die cut machine.  In this case, it was the Cuttlebug.  First, I used the Small Cathedral Windows Stencil LJ909 and white card stock for the background.  I sprayed the back of the stencil with Memory Mist MM26 Silver.  Then, I placed the stencil face down on my A Plate and covered it with the card stock, Stamping Details Rubber Embossing Mat and two B Plates.  You can see how shimmery it turned out in this picture:

Then, I cut the ornament out of green coated Mercart aluminum with the Nested Ornament Die DG674.  The sandwich was A Plate, die cut, metal, C Plate and B Plate.  I set aside the top and ran the ornament through the Cuttlebug with LX7026 Chevron Background.  I also ran the Happy Holiday Stencil LL3047 through with the green metal.  Both of these were debossed.  That means that I used the sandwich A Plate, stencil face up, metal face up, Rubber Embossing Mat and two B Plates.  I left the stencils under the metal until after sanding in both cases.  The ornament had some extra colors added.  First, I used a Q Tip covered in the Color Solutions Thinner to remove the green from the larger chevrons.  Then, I dripped some Christmas Red Color Solutions in the wells.  I sanded all of the metal pieces and removed the stencils.  Finally, I used a Q Tip to add some Mojito Color Solutions on the raised large chevrons.

To attach the Happy Holidays, I used Double Stick Mounting Paper.  To attach the ornament, I pasted the LG674 Oval Ornament Stencil with White Glossy Embossing Paste (glossy is stickier than the regular, but any color would work). and put the metal on while it was still wet.  You can see a little white peeking around the metal here:

 

Then, it was just simple assembly.

 



Of course, we have our monthly challenge for you to play along, so post your own holiday creations, and use the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog (or in my last post), for a chance to win the prize at the end of the month. We also have our fabulous Guest Designer for the month of September, Wendy Price! Here's the list of our "A" Team with their links for the week:

Dream It Up!

Wendy Price (GD)

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

 

and the link up: 

 Inlinkz

 

Christmas in September?

Where did the summer go? Kids are back in school, with all the insanity that goes with it, vacations are a not-so-distant memory, and it is once again time to get busy with the important things in life...crafting for the holidays! Yay! All of September the Dream Team will be featuring all the new goodies we have for the "Most wonderful time of the year", the fall and winter holiday season. New stencil designs, new dies, and...(coming soon) brand new embossing folders featuring some of our top-selling designs, all to be found on-line through the Stencil with Style web-site, or your local papercrafting store.

 

Here's my holiday inspiration for this week:

I created it using metal and velvet paper, which means that it did not photograph as well as I would like to (the only thing about these two materials that I don't like), but perhaps a couple of closer shots and some more detailed explanation would be helpful.
For the flowers, I started by running green metal through my Cuttlebug with this sandwich:  A Plate, Stencil LL3046 Tall Poinsettia (face up), Green Coated Aluminum (face up), the Stamping Details Rubber Embossing Mat and two B Plates.  You might wonder why I have those little lines through the metal.  Well, true confession time, I was all out of the Mercart Metal, so I used a different brand in the same color.  If you use the metal that I linked, you won't have that problem.  Anyway, I then left the stencil under the metal as I gently pressed the metal against the inside of the stencil with the Teflon Tool in the Basic Metal Kit.  You can skip this step if you want to, it just won't have as crisp of edges.  Then, I used the Color Solutions Remover on a Q Tip to remove the green inside the flower and seeds.  I left just a little in the edges so that it would darken the tips.  I dropped a little Christmas Red Color Solutions inside the wells of the flowers and Lemoncello inside the seeds.  I did not worry too much about it going over the edges because I knew I would sand it later.  I enhanced the colors a little with Q Tips and Paprika Red in the flowers and Gourd Green in the leaves.  I then sanded the top and brushed of the dust with a stencil brush.  I pulled the metal off the stencil, and placed it on Double Stick Mounting Paper, burnishing it down with my fingers.

 

For the background, I repeated the embossing process I explained, except that I put Stencil LX 7027 Quatrefoil face down and the velvet paper face down on top of it.  Other than that, I used the same sandwich.  For the letters, I used the new Dual Alphabet Dies in my Cuttlebug with green metal.  The sandwich for this was A Plate, dies face up, metal face down, C Plate and B Plate.  If you have any trouble cutting all the way through the metal, a slight shim of cardstock should fix it. Then, I sanded just the outside of the letter and reassembled them on Double Stick Mounting Paper.
Finally, I assembled the card, using the other side of the Double Stick Paper to attach the metals.

 

Of course, we have our monthly challenge for you to play along, so post your own holiday creations, and use the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog, for a chance to win the prize at the end of the month. We also have our fabulous Guest Designer for the month of September, Wendy Price! Here's the list of our "A" Team with their links for the week:

Dream It Up!

Wendy Price (GD)

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

An InLinkz Link-up

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August the Adjective

As we are heading towards back-to-school again, it is only appropriate that we break out our dictionary for this month's Dreamweaver challenge..."AUGUST as an ADJECTIVE"! 

 

Merriam-Webster defines august as, "marked by majestic dignity or grandeur", with synonyms such as, "dignified, distinguished, imposing, portly, solemn, staid, and stately". Now, I don't know just how dignified and stately the Dream Team can become for an entire month, but we are all going to give it a try! How about trying along with us, and linking YOUR creations to the inlinkz tool below for a chance to win the wildest stencil design your little heart is screaming for. 

Here's my creation for this week:

 

I know.  I used metal again.  When I thought of the word "august", it reminded me of all the grand old buildings in beautiful cities around the world.  Many contain beautiful masonry and carvings and some even have copper work.  So, naturally, my thoughts turned to copper and the old Verdi Gris patinas that come from their aging.  This is what became of that thought.

On this project, I used the following Dreamweaver stencils:  LJ 919 Art Nouveau Flourish, LL 3023 Tall Poppy, and LS 1006 Sm Thanks.  I used both copper and copper coated aluminum.  The copper was used for the flowers and the word.  The flowers were hand embossed with the tools in the Beginners Metal Tool Kit.  When I had it the way I liked it, I filled the back with Mercart Filling Paste.  The words and the background were both debossed with the help of a Cuttlebug machine and the Rubber Embossing Mat.  The words were done with copper and the background with aluminum.  I then sanded the background.  I used Color Solutions in Mojito Green, Aquarius and Pine Bough on the copper.  I dripped the solution and moved it around with Q Tips.  I removed a little of the excess with the Color Solution Thinner.  Then, I sanded over the rest.  It was easy to assemble with my 5" Xyron Machine, 3D Foam Squares and a little chipboard.
This is what the Color Solutions look like:

I am very pleased with the results.  Now, take a look at the other posts for this week, and don't forget to enter your own for a chance to win the stencil of your choice.  Oh, and check back again next week for a Holiday Blog Hop with our UK distributor, Woodware.

It is the "A" team this week:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

An InLinkz Link-up

Fifth Thursday

On months with fifth Thursdays, the entire Dream Team is going to post, and this is our first fifth Thursday of the term.  In keeping with this month's Flora and Fauna team, I am posting an easy floral thank you card.

Here is how it was made.....

MATERIALS:
Dreamweaver Stencil LX 7024 Zen Flower
Dreamweaver Stencil LS 1009 Thank You
Stamping Details Rubber Embossing Mat
Mercart Aluminum in Yellow
Mercart Basic Metal Tool Kit (or just Teflon Deer Foot Tool)
Color Solutions in Paprika Red
Color Solutions in Cosmo Pink
Large Stencil Brush
Fiberglass Erasing Brush (optional)
Scissors
Cotton Swabs
Paper Towels
Sanding Block
Card Stock
Adhesive
Manual Die Cut Machine (I used a Cuttlebug)

DIRECTIONS:

1)  Cut the aluminum to the size of the stencil with scissors.  Cut for each stencil.

2)  Place the stencil face up on the base of your die cut machine and cover with aluminum, yellow side up.

 

 3)  Cover with the rubber embossing mat and your top mats.  For the Cuttlebug, it goes A Plate, stencil, metal, rubber mat, and two B Plates.

 

4)  Run through the machine.

5)  Leaving the stencil in place under the metal, use the Mercart Teflon Tool (in basic kit) to "sharpen" the edges of the stencil wells and "draw" lines in the petals.

 

 6)  Drop a drop of Paprika Red Color Solutions in each well, leaving the innermost ones empty.

 

 7)  Use a cotton swab to move the color around the well.

 

 8)  Blot off any excess color with the paper towel.

 



 9)  Repeat steps 6-8 using Cosmo Pink in the inside petals, leaving the very innermost circles yellow.  You can put a little pink in some of the red areas.

 

10)  Lightly sand over the top of the project.  You will be removing color from the outlines of the petals, the uppermost parts of the lines inside them, and the background.

 

 11)  You can use the fiberglass brush to clean out any additional areas that you would like to leave silver (OPTIONAL).

 

 12)  Use the brush to remove all the powder remaining from the sanding.

 

13)  Repeat steps 1-5 with the Thank You stencil, then sand well.

14)  Carefully remove the metal from the stencils and assemble the card.

 

I hope you enjoyed my Fifth Thursday post.  Check out the other posts this week and get inspired.  If you link up your Flora and Fauna creation to the Dream It Up! blog, you could win a prize.

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Lynn Mercurio

Jamie Martin 

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Lea Kimmel 

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren 

Gill Wilson

Laura Drahozal 

Dreamweaver and Woodware Blog Hop Day 1

All of this week, the Dream Team and the Woodware UK teams are 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:

So, here is my post for today.  This card is going to be on many of the new stencil boards in the U.S. this year, so I thought I would let everyone know how it was made.

I began with a piece of Mercart aluminum.  This piece was actually color coated with the plain side up. I ran it through my Cuttlebug with the new stencil LX7016 Season of Joy.  I used the A Plate, the stencil face up, the metal silver side up, the Details Embossing Mat and two flat B Plates (not those curvy, scratched up ones we all have.....).   After I put it through the machine, I left the stencil on and refined the edges with my Mercart Teflon Tool.  I then tackled the coloring challenge with my gorgeous Color Solutions Alcohol Inks.   I dripped it into the "wells" of my card, smooshing it around and into the holes with the tip of the bottle.  I shortened my cleanup time a little by gently wiping the overages with a paper towel before the ink dried.  I used Sugar Plum in the words, Gold Star in the star, Pine Bough in the foreground trees, Noble Fir in the background trees, Creme Brulee in the animals and Iceberg in the stream.  After the colors were dry (moments, really), I sanded it.  Any stubborn spots of color on the background were removed with a little Color Solutions Thinner on a precision Q Tip. Then, it was just a matter of assembly. 

I hope that you got a little inspiration here. Don't forget to leave me some holiday cheer as you move on to the other players for today.                                                              

Woodware UK
Dream It Up!
Laura Drahozal
Lee Kellogg
Pam Hornschu
Dorothy Adam
Terrece Siddoway
Wendy JordanLouise Healy
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.

CHA Sneak Peek Week Day 4

Welcome to day four in the CHA Sneak Peek Week for Dreamweaver Stencils. You say you didn't know that it was Sneak Peek Week? That's okay. Just go look at the three previous posts, too. Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the finale. Anyway, back to today. I will start with the easy background. I ran aluminum through my Cuttlebug with a Details Embossing Mat and the new LX7011 Big Dots Stencil. I then covered the whole thing with Color Solutions Ink in Sugar Plum and Blue Velvet. I lightly sanded to show only the edges of those big dots. The cat is my reaction to the Zentangle fad. I have done Zentangle before, but it never really held my interest until I did it with typography. First, I lightly traced the inside of the new LL3020 Retro Sitting Cat stencil. Then, I lightly drew the words to the song "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" in the spaces. I colored around the words with my Zig Millenium Pen. I trimmed around the outside, mounted it on black (which I also trimmed) and popped it up on the background. The words "Cool Cat" are from the new LG741 Kitty Words stencil. I did it with the Double Glitter Technique in Art Glitter. Don't forget, these stencils have not been released yet. If you see something you like, call your local scrapbook store and let them know. Don't forget to check out the other team members' blogs. Also, create a little something Valentine-y and link it to the Dreamweaver blog for a chance to win a prize. I will see you for the last peek tomorrow.

Dreamweaver Sketch Challenge

This week was initially supposed to be not only a sketch theme, but a vintage theme. I was thrilled when Pam opted to remove the vinatge requirement, because ever since I initally saw this sketch, I have been thinking that I needed to use these stencils, some metals and the Color Solution Inks. Those alcohol inks were my primary problem. The colors that I had to use--Blue Velvet and Sugar Plum were neither shy colors nor vintage. I kept trying to use another idea, yet this take off of the Tim Holtz pumpkin technique just wouldn't allow me to move on. I kept thinking that perhaps the sanding would allow this to work with the theme-but a vintage purple, silver and black Christmas card? Happily, it worked out in the end.
This project was much easier than it looks. First, I used my Lifestyle Crafts metal through my Cuttlebug with the Snowflake Background stencil LJ 819. The sandwich was B plate, A Plate, stencil, metal, a soft embossing mat, a shim and another B Plate. I used my Mercart Metals basic kit to lightly enhance parts of the snowflakes. Then, I removed the stencil and put my metal face up on my craft sheet. This is where I drew inspiration from the Tim Holtz pumpkin: I dripped the Color Solution Inks on top of the metals. I used both Sugar Plum and Blue Velvet. With such intense colors, I didn't need very much. Instead of using a regular paint brush, I swirled the colors around with a Q-Tip. Then, because they were still quite bright, I used a little paper towel to dab off some of the color. Then, I used regular isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol in a Mini Mister and spritzed the top of the background piece to create the splotches. Finally, I lightly sanded over the top of the snowflakes to bring out the silver color.

The individual snowflake was done roughly the same way. The stencil I used was the Gothic Snowflake LL 396. I ran this one through the Cuttlebug as well. I then placed it stencil side down and used the metal tools to push the metal forward into the stencil. The Color Solution was applied the same way, but was never sprayed with the alcohol, because I wanted that foreground snowflake to appear a little brighter than the background. I then lightly sanded the snowflake, cut it out, and mounted it on a piece of white glossy. After that, it was a simple matter of assembly, including cutting the snowflake background into strips.

So, with the help of this very interesting sketch, I was able to do a card with only two stencils and one technique. You should try and play along this week (if you have any time). Go to everyone's blogs, post yours and link it on the Dreamweaver Stencils blog. At least check out the blogs and get inspired. Oh, and leave comments if you can. We all love comments. See you next week!