BLOG HOP scheduled...October 1-3

BLOG HOP INFO

We want you to have the chance to win YOUR favorite stencil, embossing paste and Metallic F/X color... for each time you post along the hop, you need to leave a comment on the site where the newest creation is offered, then go to the Dreamweaver site here http://www.dreamweaverstencils.com/, choose the stencil you like best, identify it to us, tell us why it's your favorite, and how you think you'd use it. Just be sure you comment on each blog along the hop..make sure your comments count for winning! Information today...then October 1st you hop!

BLOG CANDY... HOW TO GET IT!

For each time you comment on different blogs, you need to choose a different stencil as a favorite, your favorite paste and your favorite Metallic F/X color...just in case you win more than once! At the end of the three days,each member of the Dream Team will choose a random entry to win and post it on their site by midnight of the next day October 4.

ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY FOR CANDY

Hoppers are encouraged to comment once on each designer's blog throughout the blog hop. Each time you do so will give you one opportunity to win what's on offer at that blog. For an additional entry, you're invited to sign up to be followers of the Dream it Up Blog, right here. So, with eleven designers, this gives you the potential of twenty-two chances to win! All winners will be selected by Random.org, and posted on each designer's blog by midnight Monday.

BLOG HOP SCHEDULE

It is not imperative to follow this schedule, but different designers will be posting their creations on different days, so take one last look on Sunday to make sure you've taken advantage for all the opportunities to win blog candy ...now enjoy these designer's "treats", and here is their schedule:

OCT 1ST

Deborah

Georgia

Kim

Kristi

OCT 2ND

Laura

Lee

Liz

Louise

OCT 3RD

Pam

Terrece

Wendy

An Open Sleigh

So I bet you are wondering who has created all these beautiful sleighs and how they were done....well this weekend we are having a blog hop and you have the opportunity to hop to all of the designers blogs and leave comments so you can be eligible to win your favorite Dreamweaver Stencil...your favorite jar of Dreamweaver Embossing Paste and your favorite color of Metallic F/X. You could win this wonderful blog candy just by visiting each site and leaving your comments!

Check back here for more information soon

Fall is in the Air

The weather here has been horrendous (90s and 100s for a couple of weeks straight), but today I woke up to a soft rain and I don't think it got over 78 degrees, even though the sun came out in the late afternoon. Just wonderful to smell the air this evening and my thoughts are turning toward the autumn indian summer days ahead. Since my mind was on fall I decided to showcase this beautiful warm and whimsical feeling card by Dream Team member Georgia Sommers.

She paste embossed the falling leaves stencil (LL3004) with the yellow embossing paste and when they were dry she stenciled them with, green and red pigment inks and I love how she gently rouged just a bit of burnt sienna and warm green inks on the edges of the cardstock as well. One nice thing about using the yellow paste as a base is that you don't have to basecoat with yellow ink to achieve this wonderful warm look. The "inspire" stencil (LL405) is one of 3 small stencils that come in a set, each stencil has one word on it. This particular set says, "imagine inspire believe". She paste embossed "inspire" with the yellow paste and then added pigment ink after she repositioned the stencil on the dry design. I love the texture of the paper she worked on...it is one of Hanko Designs beautiful Edo Kosome papers from Japan. You have to hold them in your hands to really appreciate them.

With Sympathy

I know some of you love the new glitter technique. Deborah March has used the technique here with the cypress tree (LG650). This design has been around since 2002, and it really is a classic here at Dreamweaver Stencils and the way Deborah has mounted it, has made it look even classier! Deborah has been stamping and stenciling for some time and she never fails to amaze me with her work. This stencil is fairly large, and Deborah has used a large Nestability die to cut the double sided mounting paper and then used a scalloped one to cut out the metallic gold paper. She then paste embossed the With Sympathy stencil (LM174) using white embossing paste. Now be sure to stay in touch because Deborah will soon be bringing some major activity to the team's blogs.

Delicious, Sweet and what a Treat

Dream Team member, Liz Martin, used the Pearlescent Embossing Paste to create this shimmery treat using our ice cream sundae stencil (LL431). Once it was dry she repositioned the stencil and stenciled the entire area with the Palette Stamp and Stick Glue. Even though the instructions ask you to heat the glue to make it tacky...we have discovered that isn't necessary when you are applying the Metallic F/X, so she then stenciled the powders onto the glue while the stencil was still in position. You can use the Picasso stencil shield to keep the colors from overlapping or your can mask out the areas one at a time as you are stenciling. Liz stenciled the cherry and stem with ink and applied glitter glue to the whipped cream to give more dimension and sparkle. When the sundae was dry she cut the image with one of the oval Nestabilities dies using a die cutting machine. To top it off, (so to speak) she edged the piece with a bright pink ink and mounted it on the pink and brown striped cardstock. There will be more sweet things to come...so pay attention if you have a sweet tooth.

Balboa Park

These two scrapbook pages by designer Laura Drahozal are a Dreamweaver Stencils extravaganza. First she stenciled the waterlily background stencil (LJ861) onto blue cardstock using green and pink inks. Then she used translucent embossing paste over the entire stencil. Once it was dry she die cut the Balboa Park title with an alphabet die on her die cutting machine. The thing that makes this so amazing is that she must have repeated the stenciling and translucent embossing paste process two or three times to get that many letters die cut. (A work of love for her scrapbook.) She also paste embossed and stenciled the dragonflies and lily pad stencil (LM136) a couple of times and cut those out by hand once they were dry. The koi fish (LG701) were dry embossed on metal through one of the embossing/die cutting machines, and colored with alcohol inks. Then she cut those out by hand as well. They are beautiful and this process sort of reminds me of the red metallic leafing used on copper paste. I know I have said this before but, "the pictures don't do it justice". I am sure she must love to have these pages in her scrapbook to remember those lily pads and koi fish that are shown in her pictures of beautiful Balboa Park. If it wasn't for the horrendous Labor Day weekend traffic I would head down there this weekend to experience them myself. Laura, if you are reading this, feel free to make comments on the process. Also remind me how you did the stitching to connect the fish. Was that done by hand or a machine?

Sing Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! This card is saying how I feel tonight about the Dreamweaver Dream Team. The team's new challenge cards are starting to come in and some of the team members are starting to post these on their blogs. (Be sure to take a look...their blog links are listed here on my site.) I am so excited about all the new things I have to show you, but for the next week I will be showcasing a "last Hurrah" to cards made by the team this summer. Next I will give just a bit of a tease for things to come. "Shhh...don't tell anyone, they'll banish us you know"... (oh, my! sometimes I just can't get Emily Dickinson out of my head). Anyway, I digress, things to come...things to come. Oh, yeah! I was saying... look for something fun coming soon to our blogging team. Do you like good things to eat? What is sweet and spun from sugar and often pink? Like this pretty card made by Dream Team member Louise Healy.

I had to give her a bit of a talking to for tearing up an old hymnal, but the background is just so appropriate for the new Hallelujah stencil (LM2007) that I couldn't feel too bad. (I used to collect old hymnals.) She gently brushed a brown ink across the paper to antique it a bit more, even though it really is from an old hymnal I think the antiquing really adds to the overall aged effect. Next she pasted the word across a portion of torn page using the Pearlescent Embossing Paste. The string of pink beads seems to pull the torn pieces of music together. I do love this card. Anyone needing a lift would love getting this in the mail...I am trying to figure out how to reproduce the piece of music just in case I need to send a music loving friend a similar masterpiece. Any suggestions Louise?

Scrapbooking.Com

Hey, everyone! We are moving into the holiday weekend and some of you are having your last hurrah at the beaches and your other favorite vacation spots...do enjoy. As I am thinking of my own plans I was reminded that Pam Hornschu has done a couple of beautiful scrapbook pages of past vacations. She has been featured this week on scrapbooking.com with another page as well. Also, a week ago, they named her blog ..."Blog of the Week". She deserves it and she does a great job writing about her design work. The page you see here features a background stencil we call "petals" (LJ899). She stenciled it onto a light aqua paper using a slightly darker ink and a larger 3/4" stencil brush. She then used a variety of shell stencils to add interest to the lower half of the page; the nautilus, the sand dollar and the scallop shell and the numbers are respectively,LM104, LR12, LM106. I love how she seemed to literally tie it all together with the off-white twine for a nautical look. Great job Pam!

Pastel Polly

Polly Weed has been stenciling with Dreamweaver Stencils for many eons, almost as many eons as me. LOL! She has a very distinctive style. She usually stencils with pastels and then uses either the regular Dreamweaver embossing paste on top of this or the translucent embossing paste which she then sprinkles with glitter. This particular card she has veered slightly from her usual style, but she has maintained her signature technique as she still loves those pretty soft pastel colors. The way she achieved this beautiful little Christmas tree (LG729) is by mixing just a bit of green tube acrylic paint into the glossy white embossing paste. This is the best way to make your own pastel colored paste. The glossy white paste has white pigment in it and adding small amounts of tube acrylic color will give you just about any pastel color that you want. She finished off this beautiful card by adding some crystals throughout the coiled area of the tree. Just for a different twist on this card design, I put a small amount of the Navajo Blue Metallic F/X, maybe 1/4 tsp. into 2 Tbsp. of pearlescent embossing paste and pasted this second coil Christmas tree. One nice thing about using the Metallic F/X is that it is dry and you don't have to worry about adding wetness to the paste which would make it a bit sloppy to paste. I find that adding the crystals using the "grab-it" tool while the paste is still wet works best for me. The design team is working on a new challenge and we will be posting some of their work soon...and there are rumors of a blog hop in the near future. Stay tuned for more.