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
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