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. Here is my version of this month's challenge: 
I have to admit that Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. And I enjoy sending them to friends, family and even my sweetheart either before, on or after the actual date. One year I missed getting my Christmas cards done, so I did Valentine's Day cards instead. Yes, I am a bit of a heart fanatic...as you can tell by our design line-up.
This card was not difficult to do. First I dry embossed the large open heart stencil (LJ834), then I left the stencil in place and placed the flower lace stencil (LJ820) on top of it. This way the embossed heart is pushed up as close as possible to the flower lace stencil so that when you paste-emboss the design onto the heart there will be very little gap. I used the Glossy Black Embossing Paste (DGKP) to paste-emboss and used the new paste spreader (LM2010). I especially like this paste spreader for wide open designs like the heart or large background stencils like the flower lace stencil. I immediately removed the stencils and cleaned them. Then I sprinkled the dark purple flocking onto the wet embossing paste. These days I dry things quickly by setting them in my large electric skillet on the warm setting. Pasted items will dry in half the time they usually do when I use this skillet. In this case I just left the flocking piled onto the paste while it was drying. While this was drying I mixed 1/4 tsp. of Plum Royale Metallic F/X (FX07) into 1 Tbsp of the Pearlescent Embossing Paste using the smaller palette knife (DPK). Then I used this mixture and paste-embossed the word "Love" from stencil (LL498) onto acetate or transparency film. Also while I was waiting for these pasted pieces to dry I stenciled the flower lace background design onto the lavender paper using pigment ink and a very large 3/4" stencil brush. This particular stencil has a repeat to it so I could move it around on the larger piece of paper to cover the entire area.
By now the flocked and pasted heart was dry, but to ensure that the flocking was deeply embedded into the Glossy Black Paste (DGKP) I warmed up my laminator, placed the heart inside a sleeve of glossy card stock (so the flocking wouldn't get sprinkled inside my laminator) and put the entire heart -flocking and all, through the machine. This way the flocking was impressed into the warmed up embossing paste. I cut out the pasted "Love" from the piece of acetate. I placed a piece of double stick mounting tape onto the back of the acetate and adhered it onto the flocked heart. A piece of Creative Impressions' Eggplant colored crepe ribbon, was tied onto the lavender background card then the mauve striped paper was cut 1/8" larger than the flocked heart and mounted behind it. These two hearts were then mounted using foam mounting tape onto the ribboned cardstock. For a finishing touch an ivory embellishment pin was colored using the Sugarplum Color Solution Ink (CS208) and placed down through the bow of the ribbon adornment. To finish the card I mounted it onto another piece of metallic pin-striped mauve cardstock.
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