Christmas in August Blog Hop with Woodware--The Final Day

Yes! It's that time of year again! The time when we inspire crafters on both sides of the "pond" with a mix of both Dreamweaver and Woodware UK* products for the holidays! Six days, SIX, of beautiful, elegant, merry, cute, artsy, and craftsy projects to have you heading out to your local stores or internet sites to buy these goodies immediately!

Of course, there will be prizes as well. Three prize packages will be given to three commenters during this week's posts on the team's blogs, including five stencils and one nested die set. You can have an opportunity to win these goodies by leaving some holiday sweetness for each team member posting each day, to be one of the three winners for the week. Here are the team members that are inspiring you today:

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Kristine Reynolds

Jamie Martin

Pam Hornschu

Louise Healy

Lyn Bernatovich

Lynn Mercurio

Lea Kimmel

Gill Wilson

Laura Drahozal 

Dorothy Adam

  Debs Frost

Alison Heikkila

Here's my creation: 

 

First, I stamped with a beautiful Woodware stamp on white card stock with Jet Black Archival Ink.  Then, I ran a couple of stencils through my manual die cut machine with the Rubber Embossing Mat.  I ran the Dreamweaver Stencil LX 7002 Plaid through with red velvet paper.  The Dreamweaver Stencil LL557 Long Merry Christmas was used with Red Coated Aluminum.  I put the aluminum red side up over the stencil, which was also right side up.  I enhanced the "debossing" with the Teflon Tool from the Beginner Metal Tool Set.  I used a Qtip with Color Solutions Alcohol Ink Thinner to remove the red in the holly leaves.  I then used a little Color Solutions in Pine Bough to add green to  the leaves.  Finally, a sanding block removed all the color I did not want.  I did all of these steps with the stencil still behind the metal. 

 

The image was colored with Crayola Crayons.  The card was assembled using regular adhesive, Double Stick Mounting Paper behind the metal, 3D Dots and a lovely May Arts Ribbon.

*For a stockist near you contact Woodware Craft Collection in the UK and Notions Marketing in the USA.

A Few Changes for 2012--January Challenge

Welcome to the first posting of the Dreamweaver Stencils' Dream Team 2012 ! We're changing things up a bit for this year, and YOU can help. The first Thursday of every month will feature our new challenge and will extend through the entire month. This means that YOU have ALL month to play along with the one challenge, as many times as you want. Sometimes it will be a color challenge, sometimes a theme, and sometimes a technique. We are hoping that an entire month will give you plenty of time to be inspired, create, and link to the Dream It Up! blog . Each month we are offering TWO prizes...one for the most creative version of the challenge (does not have to be Dreamweaver Stencils ' product, but we sure are happy when it is!), and the second for the best use of Dreamweaver Stencils ' product in the challenge. This could be stencils (of course), Embossing Pastes , Metallic F/X , the new Color Solutions , etc., anything you find on the Dreamweaver Stencils' web site , or in your local store. Don't know where your local store is? The list can be found on the web site . Not near any of the stores listed? There is also an online site to purchase from, Stencil with Style !For the month of January, we challenge you to create something for Valentine's Day! You have until January 31st, 11:59 PM EST, to post and link your creation(s) to the Dream It Up! Blog Mr. Linky. The winners will be announced February 2nd, along with the February challenge.
This month's challenge is Valentine's Day.
Here is my version of this month's challenge:

I chose to feature the cards that I am teaching in a January 14th class at My Craft Room in Troy, Michigan. While my focus is on the metals, I have a couple of extra techniques thrown in. Lets start on the left, shall we? For this card, I used two stencils. One, the candy hearts, can only be obtained by taking the class. I ran that stencil through my Cuttlebug with plain metal, dripped alcohol inks on it, and sanded it. The other was the Plaid Stencil LX 7002. I used that one with Adirondack Dye Inks to create the plaid on the background. The middle card also features that Plaid Stencil, this time run through the Cuttlebug with SEI Velvet Paper. It is difficult to see how beautiful it looks because velvet paper does not photograph well. Then, I used the Cuttlebug with the Cathedral Windows Small Stencil LJ 909 and fuschia coated aluminum. I sanded the metal and put it back through the Cuttlebug without a stencil to flatten it out. I put the metal face down on top of the Heart Swans Stencil LM 2000. I used the Mercart metal tools with the stencil to create the 3D swans. Then, I filled the back with Mercart Backing Paste and let it dry. Once dry, I pounced some alcohol ink right over the swan area to enhance and seperate them from the background. I then sanded the swans well, using the Mercart Fiberglass Tool when I had to get it very shiny in little areas.The final card in the row was the easiest. The background was created with Damask LX 7001 run through the Cuttlebug with Core'dinations Color Core paper and sanded. The Heart Swirls Stencil LL 567 was also run through the Cuttlebug, but with black coated aluminum. It, too was sanded. That was it. Simple, right?

Need more inspiration? Please visit the rest of our fabulous team listed here:

Pam Hornschu (our fearless leader)

Laura Drahozal (me)

Louise Healy

Wendy Jordan

Terrece Siddoway

Kristi Van Doren

Georgia Sommers

Lee Kellogg

Liz Martin

Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Jessie Hurley

A Burgundy and Gold Dreamweaver Christmas

This week's challenge was burgundy and gold. I knew from the start which stencils I would be using--two of my favorite Christmas ones--I just didn't realize that I was going to be sassy and add a little green until yesterday. This particular holly was created as a sample pasting during a class. I used the Holly and Swirls Stencil LL 3005. The paste was the Green Glossy Embossing Paste and, as part of the demonstration, I sprinkled on Ivy Garden and Kiwi Metallic FX. Once the paste was dry, I used a Swiffer to remove the excess powder. I found the sample later when rummaging for the stencil, and it was just so pretty with the Metallic FX that I decided to use it, despite the burgundy and gold mandate. I also used the Metallic FX, in Goldfinch and Gold Dust on the Metallic Gold Embossing Paste for the word. I used the Christmas Stencil LL 3009 for that one.

The only other stencil that I used was the Plaid Stencil LX 7002. This was used with velvet paper and my Cuttlebug Machine. I just ran the stencil through the machine with the velvet paper and a rubber embossing mat. The actual color of the paper is almost identical to the cardstock, but velvet paper does not photograph very well, so there is a slight color shift. The berries are Queen and Company pearls, and almost an exact match as well. I raised the holly up just a little with 3D Dots and added a gold mat and ribbon. I was very pleased with the results. Here is another photo of the card. It shows the raised holly, dimension on the pearls and shimmer on the word just a little better than the previous picture.
So, Merry Christmas all, and a hearty "welcome" to the newest design team members, Cherylynn and Cyndi! I didn't have Cherylynn's blog info yet, but link on over to Cyndi's blog and check it out when you get the chance. Don't forget to check out all of the other Dream Team blogs, get inspired, and leave a comment if you can--we all like comments!