THE Winners for our Monthly Challenge ARE....

As per usual choosing winner for our monthly challenge has not been easy. We have been dealing with some really creative cardmakers these past few weeks.

Charmaine S. Best Interpretation of the Challenge

The past couple of challenges we have let the winners choose any Dreamweaver stencil that they would like to have. Each month there are two winners...one for best interpretation of the challenge. (Which this month has been "Festively Fall".) The winner for this category is Charmaine S. She has created a card using the double glitter technique. Thank you Charmaine...be sure to email me your snail mail addy and your stencil request and we will get that mailed to you ASAP! my email is: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

Jill D. Best Usage of Dreamweaver Products

The second winner for our challenge is Jill. Best usage of Dreamweaver products has won you any Dreamweaver stencil of your choosing. Great detailed stenciling on those teacups Jill. Be sure to email us your snail mail addy and your stencil choice and we will get that out to you post haste!  Again my email is lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

Also stop by Friday (Nov.2nd) for the next opportunity to join our monthly challenges. By then we will have mr. linky up for you to link your creation to.  Our November challenge is "The Holidays CAS (Clean&Simple)". Again any stencil of your choosing! Best interpretation of the challenge and best usage of Dreamweaver products.

Plus the next two Thursdays our team is posting projects using the Tim Holtz Distress Powders! Festively Distressed ...has some really neat stencil packets to win just for commenting on the team's creations. Plus if you go to the Ranger Blog they are upping the ante and giving away a set of 12 powders and a handful of stencils to people who are linking a creation using the powders and Dreamweaver Stencils! You could win by posting for our challenge and post the same creation on their site and win double!!! Why not?

Joining the Challenge

This card was emailed to me from Tiffany Smith. She is joining our Festively Fall Challenge and was one of last month's winners. I love how many of you are joining us regularly for our monthly challenges.

She stenciled the bare trees background stencil using Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks. Then she paste-embossed the falling leaves stencil with copper embossing paste and sprinkled it with glitter. The sentiment was stamped with Versafine brown ink and then a transparent gold embossing powder was sprinkled on and heated. The final touch was three gold brads in the corner. Very stunning!

I want to thank everyone who has been joining our challenges and emailing me their creations. If you would like to join the challenge next month called: The Holidays CAS (Clean&Simple), come back on Thursday to discover the details.

We are continuing our blog cross promo with Ranger and the Tim Holtz Distress powders. But if you just read through you will discover a place to post your cards on mr. linky. If you do have a place to link your creations Ranger is doing an extravaganza of linking a creation done with stencils and the Distress powders. Why not take the opportunity you could win twelve powders from them and a handful of stencils. And every Thursday we are posting a creation and all you have to do is make a comment on the team's postings in order to qualify to win something on the Dreamweaver Blog. What could be easier?

Festively Distressed with Distress Powders/Week Two!

We Have a Winner for Week One!!!

This is the second week that the Dream it UP team are "Distressing" their stencils with Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powders. We are teaming up with Ranger for these next three Thursdays. Scroll to the bottom to see what the winnings could be for you ...just for leaving a comment and also a new opportunity that Ranger has added.

At summer CHA design team member, Louise Healy, taught a unique technique and used these wonderful matte powders with the Tree Line stencil (LG745). The card is pictured below. Tim was so generous that he sent my team product to play with and use for our cross-promo...which is the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November.

If you would like to know the step-by-step process of how to use the double sticky paper...click HERE to view last week's post. This is a picture of the card Louise did at CHA:

Louise Healy's creation using stencil LG745

You can find the distress products on the Ranger Inks Site. They are taking part in our Thursday promo as well.You have a chance to win some wonderful blog candy just for leaving a comment on the Dream it UP and Ranger's team's blog. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see what else you can win and to follow the hop to my team's blogs. 

And the WINNER is....

This last week's random winner is "Debby" who commented on team member Georgia's blog and she said, "I love the pumpkin stencil. This is a great take on it." Scroll to the bottom for instructions on how to receive your winnings and see what you have won.

We are still running our monthly challenge so if you came here interested in knowing the challenge for the month of October click HERE for all the details and to find where to post your creation on mr. linky. For this challenge you can win any stencil of your choice. Would love to have you play along!

DISTRESSING THE SCARECROW STENCIL

Here is my creation for today, I did a visual tutorial for those of you who are like me and want to SEE how a card is created, today I am using the glossy black embossing paste with the distress powders:

The colors of distress embossing powders that I used on the scarecrow stencil (LG686) are as follows:

Crows: Black Soot 
Jacket: Peeled Paint
Straw: Mustard Seed
Overalls: Faded Jeans
Hat/tie/patch: Fired Brick

Distress ink: Mustard Seed and Vintage Photo

Dreamweaver Materials:

Sunflower stencil (LL429)
Scarecrow stencil (LG686)
Crows in a row (LL432)
Basecoat of scarecrow and crows: Glossy Black Embossing Paste (DGKP)
Palette Knife (DPK)
Paste Spreader (LM2010)


STEP-BY-STEP SCARECROW CARD:

Start by loading a 1/2" Dreamweaver stencil brush (NHB1/2") with the Mustard Seed Distress Ink and pull it toward the center of the card you have cut for the scarecrow and the sunflower background piece. Be sure to keep your bristles flat against the surface and stencil off the edge of the card to get that darker edge all the way around the card.

Place the sunflower stencil (LL429) on this card stock and randomly stencil several sunflowers on the background larger piece and the smaller piece that goes inside the card, using the Mustard Seed distress ink or even a darker ink like Vintage Photo . Again notice that you should keep your stencil brush perpendicular to the surface and use a circular rouging motion for a soft shaded effect.

Tape the scarecrow stencil (LG686) onto one of the now inked pieces of cardstock with removable tape (RMT), being sure to use long pieces all the way around each edge to keep your cardstock clean.  Apply the Dreawmeaver glossy black embossing paste (DGKP) onto the paste spreader with a palette knife (DPK). 

Pull the spreader (LM2010) loaded with the embossing paste gently across the stencil design, but use a firm pressure. If you place your four fingers just like this on the spreader you will achieve even pressure as you lay the spreader down. You may need  a little practice, but the results are worth it.  Rather than "scraping" it across you are actually "laying" it into the design, flattening the spreader as the holes fill up. Try to avoid going across too many times or pressing too hard.

Take the pieces of tape off one at a time, until you get to the last piece. This piece is referred to as your "hinge". Lift the stencil off from the paste-embossed scarecrow just like you would open a hinged door. This ensures that the paste won't get smeared as you remove the stencil. Once the stencil is off, remove the last piece of tape from the stencil and drop the dirty stencil into a pan of water until you have time to clean it. The next part you want to do before the paste dries so you will need to work quickly.

Now the fun part...adding the color!!! I took a thick straw and cut it into two inch pieces at an angle so I would have a pointed scoop. Then I started with the color at the bottom of the  card, which happens to be his straw...you will be using the Mustard Seed distress powder. This next step is important: Be sure to waterfall or angle the card you are holding. This way the powder falls onto the paper below. Next you will give the card a hard tap to remove the excess powder.

Now one color at a time you will move up until you have all the colors where you want them. Be sure to tap off the excess after each color. Don't be afraid to manipulate the card in different directions to achieve putting the colors where you want them. Remember to angle the card so the powder falls away from the wet paste where you want a different color. You will be working from the outside of the design toward the center. So when you are doing his green jacket you will have the card angled on it's sides. The red tie will be the last color to finish.

Remember after each color give the card a tap. So that you don't have to put the powder back in the jar each time you can have different papers set out for each color and just move from paper to paper. This will speed things up. Once the colors are all done set him aside for the paste to dry. Remember the paste is drying the entire time you are working, so you will need to keep moving. This really doesn't take very long...you will work faster than it takes to absorb what I am writing here and before you know it he will be dry and ready to finish.

A wonderful aspect of the distress powders when you use them on the Dreamweaver embossing pastes is that once the paste is dry you don't have to heat the powders to set them like you do on the sticky paper technique that was done last week. So once the paste is dry I stenciled color onto an area which I wanted to be dark brown by using a small stencil brush. If you want to shade on top of the powders with darker inks this is the time to do it.

The crow stencil (LL432) was paste embossed onto the tag with the Dreamweaver glossy black embossing paste (DGKP). The stencil was immediately removed and while still wet the Black Soot distress powder was then sprinkled onto the birds.  The air dry time for this is about 45 min. but you can hasten the drying time by placing it on an electric skillet set on the lowest heat. After this was dry I wrote Thank you on the tag and then finished off the card by tying the tag onto the scarecrow portion of the card using a light weight jute.

Now be sure to follow the list of the Dream it UP team below to see what they have created. You have an opportunity to win these three stencils and three of the distress powders just by leaving a comment. I will choose winners randomly from all of my team's and my blog...Ranger ink is in the mix too, so leave some love on their blog as well.

THE WINNER IS:

The random winner this week is "Debby" and her comment on Georgia's blog was "I love the pumpkin stencil. This is a great take on it." Please email me your snail mail address so we can send you your goodies!  lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

PRIZE PACKAGE FOR YOUR OCTOBER COMMENTS

Apparently, the wonderful people at Ranger were also excited by the response, and they've decided to "up the ante" in the form of an additional prize package(s) which will include TWELVE Distress Powders each, and a handful of Dreamweaver Stencils to go with! Wow! Just one teeny-tiny detail...to win one of these packages from their blog, you need to create something with Tim Holtz's Distress Powders andDreamweaver Stencils and attach it to the inlinkz on the Ranger blog. Winners will be selected randomly. For more details, head over to the Ranger blog. ....AND IF YOU ARE JOINING THIS CHALLENGE CONSIDER JOINING OUR MONTHLY CHALLENGE AS WELL, MIGHT AS WELL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF BOTH OPPORTUNITIES...read HERE for more info.

Now follow the Dream it UP team's blogs listed below to see what they have created with beautiful metal stencils and Tim Holtz wonderful distress materials.

Dream It Up!

Wendy Jordan

Kristi Van Doren

Louise Healy

Lee Kellogg

Georgia Sommers

Liz Martin

Laura Drahozal

Terrece Siddoway

Cherylynn Moser
Cyndi Bundy
Pam Hornschu

Ranger Blog

Thanks for Joining the Challenge JOY!!!

I am always so thrilled when someone sends me an email with a beautiful card attached to join our monthly challenges. October Challenge is Festively Fall and our November Challenge will be "The Holidays CAS (Clean and Simple)".

Our winner this month will get to choose any Dreamweaver Stencil that they desire. We are choosing two winners. One for best interpretation of the challenge and one for best usage of Dreamweaver Stencils products.

Joy Hauck is from Alberta, Canada and she told me in her note that this card creation is representative of the beautiful sunrises and sunsets they have been having in her area this October.

She dry embossed the bare tree background stencil (LJ849) and then left the stencil in position to stencil the sky with a variety of 6 or 7 distress inks. To insure that it was moist she daubed it with a clear ink or versamark ink pad.  Then removed the stencil and sprinkled this wet ink with clear embossing powder and heated it.

The embossing powder created a resist and allowed her to ink the trees with a tombow black ink marker and wipe any excess ink off of the sky.

The sentiment is by Quietfire Designs rubber stamp company and continues on into the inside of the card.

Here is a picture of the inside:

So please consider joining us by linking on mr. linky HERE. And if you don't have a way of linking your creation, just send it to me like Joy did...tell me a bit how you created it (or else I will guess)  and I will post it for you.

Also this month we are doing a cross promo...working with Tim Holtz distress powders. More goodies to be won, so scroll down to find out more! All you need to do is join in and leave a comment on my team's blogs (mine counts too). Please leave Joy some comments too. We all love to know we are sharing. On that note...my challenge today is to take time to send a card to a friend...in fact I am taking my own advice and will send out some thank you cards that I need to do!

Join the Challenge: Festively Distressed for FOUR WEEKS!

I have love love loved playing with the Tim Holtz Distress Powders these past few days. (Thank you Louise Healy for introducing us to this great idea of using them with stencils.) They come in 24 wonderful colors and there are many different ways to create with them. You can go to the Ranger site to see more of Tim's great products (I really like that the distress inks match the distress powders). Be sure to follow the Dream Team's list at the bottom of this post to view their wonderful creations using these innovative products. We are even going to randomly give away some stencils and distress powders to people leaving comments on our sites. Here are the goodies you could win for leaving a comment the 18th or 25th of October...three stencils and three beautiful Festively Fall colors of Distress Embossing Powders:

And... if you dropped by to find out about our monthly challenge for October...click HERE to find out all the details. It doesn't have to be a traditional Fall stencil, as you can tell by my Spider Mum design below...you could just use yummy Fall colors as a jumping off place for our Festively Fall challenge. You could win a stencil of your choice this month. Be sure to check mr. linky to see some of the beautiful cards already posted! 

The technique I have chosen to Festively Distress today is a variation on the Double "Glitter" technique. Obviously I am not using glitter, but the technique follows the same steps using the Distress Powders until the very end. Because the Distress Powders are an embossing powder they need to be heat set for the final step. Read on for the step-by-step process. The wonderful thing about this Ranger product is that even when they are heated they are a bit rough...and so if you want you can stencil on top of them. And the wonderful thing about the Dreamweaver Stencils is they are made out of metal and hold up really well for this stressful process. I know this may sound complex, but I have described in depth for people that really have never tried this...it is really quite simple! There is a "you-tube" showing how to do this too, but using glitter instead...click HERE to view the process...it only takes a few minutes, but today it's all about distress powders on my site.

Tim Holtz Distress Powders on Mounting Paper

1. Soap the back of the stencil with a bar of natural soap (DHHS). A 100% natural soap works best because it is not so crumbly.The soap will act as a resist to the tackiness of the mounting paper, so that when you remove the paper from the metal stencil, you will not ruin it by bending it.

2. Gently brush away any soap flakes from the stencil openings with a firm stencil brush. If there are any clumps of soap on the back of the stencil they will resist the distress powder and could distort the finished image making it blotchy, so smooth these clumps away with the brush.

3. Cut a piece of Double Sided Mounting Paper (MPDS) just slightly larger than the spider mum stencil (LJ892) and remove one side of it’s release paper to reveal the sticky surface. Save this piece of release paper that you have removed for the next step.

4. Press the soaped side of the stencil onto the sticky face of the paper very firmly, to avoid air pockets which could create a way for the distress powder to seep under the stencil. You could use the release paper that you saved to place over the stencil and press to keep the sticky mounting paper clean from dirty fingers.

5. Sprinkle the two Distress Powders...Aged Mahogany and Dusty Concord into the flower petals...give them a circular rubbing motion with your fingers to make them stay on the sticky mounting paper. Then angle these two colors off away from the leaves. Next use Shabby Shutters Distress powder on the leaves using the same technique of rubbing it into the mounting paper with your fingers. 

6.When you are finished, tap off the excess distress powder and place your card, stencil side down, on the table. Now your stencil is hidden from your view. Carefully peel the powdered mounting paper off the stencil with one hand, while supporting the stencil with the fingers of your other hand to ensure that the stencil remains flat against the table. (See how the soap keeps the sticky paper from “sticking” to the stencil?) This way you are bending the cardstock in the removal process and not the stencil.

7. Now the background of your powdered design is revealed and this part is still sticky (this is the area the stencil was sticking to).To finish my card I sprinkled the Distress Powder Old Paper all over this now sticky background.You can even do a circular rubbing motion with your fingers to work this powder into the tacky background area. Now after you tap off the excess powder you need to heat the Distress Powders with a heat gun to melt them and set them...I love how they really have an old world vintage look. But remember it is on sticky paper...so it doesn't need much of a heat set, just a bit. And then it is ready to trim and mount as a finished card, so you will remove the second piece of release paper off the back and mount it onto the cardstock.

8.For a final touch of a Festively Fall look I repositioned the stencil and stenciled inks at the edges of the leaves with complementary Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Ranger's Archival Inks as well. Use our small 1/4" gold handled brushes (GHB) for the best results for these small stencil holes.

Now follow the Dream it Up team listed here for more creative inspiration using the Tim Holtz Distress Powders and leave some comments on the way to win the design package of stencils and powders above:

Wendy Jordan

Liz Martin 

Kristi Van Doren

Lee Kellogg

Cherylynn Moser

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Cyndi Bundy 

 Terrece Siddoway 

Georgia Sommers

Pam Hornschu
Ranger Ink Blog

Thursday's Dream...Challenge for October: Festively Fall

Fall Leaves LJ906/Zentangle work by Wayne Harlow

We are calling our challenge for the month of October...Festively Fall! As I said last week I've been going a bit crazy with this Japanese Maple stencil...but I promise that next week I will do something different. IN FACT...WE HAVE A SURPRISE...We are using some of Tim Holtz products with just a bit of a twist, so be sure to drop by and see what the team has been up to. Dreamweaver has lots of stencils and materials that can be used for a Fall theme, but remember you can post any Festively Fall creation and win best interpretation of the challenge, it can be any product or image.  Again we are letting our winner choose any stencil they desire. So one winner will be chosen for best usage of Dreamweaver products and one winner will be chosen for best interpretation of the challenge. Just link up with mr linky HERE or if you don't have a way of linking ...email your design to me at: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and I will link it for you here on my site.

Once again this is a situation where the creative process evolved. My dilemma was how to add color to the Zentangle work without affecting the vividness of the black ink. So I began by stenciling the Maple Leaf stencil (LJ906) with the Color Solution Alcohol ink Creme Brulée (CS106) and Aspen Leaf (CS102) onto glossy cardstock using a felt applicator with a few drops of the thinner (CSC) to dilute the strong colored inks.  These mixtures of alcohol ink gave Wayne a colorful surface to work on. 

Wayne usually does his Zentangle work using Sakura Pigma micron pen #01. So once again I am working backwards with this process...what about that glossy white paper all over the background. How do I work right up to the leaves with some color without affecting the detailed black Zentangle artwork? Answer?...

What about covering the now finished Zentangle leaf design with translucent paste...let it dry and then work colors behind the leaves. The translucent paste will act as a resist and excess Color Solution can be gently wiped away. Violå!!...

So that is what I did... I paste-embossed the translucent paste (DEPT) on top of the Zentangle artwork and immediately removed the stencil to clean it. Once the pasted design was dry I used several colors of Color Solution Alcohol Inks and a felt applicator to apply soft colors of Iceberg (CS206)and Sugar Plum (CS208) behind and around the leaves. The glossy paper allowed for a bit of open time and I was able to move the colors (again using the felt applicator) into one another for a soft watercolor look. Then I added the darker Creme Brulée and even a Sienna inkpad color, moving these colors out to the edges of the card. Yes, the translucent paste did act as a resist surface and kept the Zentangle artwork crisp and detailed. 

Hope you will find time to join us this month. Also follow the Dream it Up team's blogs listed below and leave them some nice comments. They love to hear from you and have you play along as well!

Pam Hornschu   

Laura Drahozal  

Louise Healy  

Terrece Siddoway 

Kristi Van Doren 

Georgia Sommers 

Lee Kellogg 

Liz Martin

 Cyndi Bundy 

Cherylynn Moser

Thursday's Dream Schemes...Festively Fall, a New Challenge!

ALL ABOUT OUR CHALLENGE

We are calling our challenge for the month of October...Festively Fall! I have been going a bit crazy with this Japanese Maple stencil. Dreamweaver has lots of stencils and materials that can be used for a Fall theme, but remember you can post any Festively Fall creation and win best interpretation of the challenge, it can be any product or image.  Again we are letting our winner choose any stencil they desire. So one winner will be chosen for best usage of Dreamweaver products and one winner will be chosen for best interpretation of the challenge. Just link up with mr linky below or if you don't have a way of linking ...email your design to me and I will link it for you at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com 

Also mid month... starting October 18 the team will be posting using Tim Holtz Distress powders. So stay tuned for "Festively Distressed"...a cross promotion with Ranger!

As I said... I went "creation crazy" with this stencil, maple leaves (LJ906). Do you ever have those moments when you are trying to get something to work in one direction and you end up with a serendipity moment and are headed in the totally opposite direction? Well, I was trying to use the alcohol inks for backgrounds on glossy cardstock in a "letterpress" style. So...

1. I put droplets of the  iceberg colored alcohol inks (CS206) onto the stencil and ran it through the embossing machine, but my experience in the past held true and the glossy paper stuck and tore every time. So...

2. I tried using the thinner in a spray bottle and went at it again...this time I used the iceberg droplets (CS206) all over the stencil and sprayed it with the thinner/cleaner (CSC) as well, in fact I used quite a bit of the spray. It worked..no more tearing or ripping when I removed the stencil, but because it was quite wet, the leaf print was not very clean edged, because  the ink had run under the stencil. ...what does one do??? So....

3. I pulled out the matte yellow embossing paste (DMYP) and paste-embossed  the leaves instead of just leaving them dry embossed. Wow...it was so bright with the yellow and bright turquoise background! So....

4. I decided that when the paste finally dried I would tone things down just a bit by stenciling the yellow leaves with pigment inks. Oranges, reds, greens, even a smidgeon of purple... and whenever those bright complementary colors crossed over it dulled the final results just marginally, for a less electric feel. As you can see I did let some of the yellow paste shine through. Finally...

5. To achieve the veins in the leaves I stenciled off the edge of my stencil shield, Picasso (LL332) with opposing colors for contrast. And....

6. To add a glossy look on the leaves I did "one-step cloisonné" by sprinkling Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) onto the still wet pigment ink and then  heated it with a heat gun. This shiny effect really added to the already thick leaves for a cohesive look with the shiny look of the glossy background paper.

Be sure to follow the design team list below to see what they have created for our Thursday's Dream Scheme...Festively Fall!

Pam Hornschu   

Laura Drahozal  

Louise Healy  

Wendy Jordan  

Terrece Siddoway 

Kristi Van Doren 

Georgia Sommers 

Lee Kellogg 

Liz Martin

 Cyndi Bundy 

Cherylynn Moser