Still Christmas in August...and a Challenge Winner is Announced!!

Gold embossing paste on LL3005 holly by Deborah March

Glossy black embossing paste on LL3005 holly by Elaine Benedict

Violå! We are announcing our August challenge winner at the end of this post...thanks for joining our challenge this month. Now, just one last post for Christmas in August.

I love embossing paste for Christmas cards because when I get ready to get them done it is 'crunch time' and of course I am doing multiples so...I want to do them fairly quickly. So these two cards done by Deborah March and Elaine Benedict are done with Gold Embossing Paste (DGP) and Glossy Black Embossing Paste (DGKP) respectively. One advantage to creating with the embossing paste is being able to attach  crystals to the wet paste like the card you see above created by Deborah March. The wet paste acts like a glue, so you don't need to wait until it is dry to add the crystals.

The card on the right (done by Elaine Benedict) was stenciled with a glue stamp pad (GSP) after the glossy black paste was dry and then the Metallic F/X mica powders were applied on top of that, using a small stencil brush as the applicator.

The Metallic F/X powders used on the holly stencil (LL3005) were ivy garden (F/X11) and kimono red (F/X15). The sentiment, a "Merry Christmas" stencil (LM298), was also paste embossed with the glossy black paste (DGKP). Oooo...lah...lah! Love the black swirly organza ribbon Elaine! Thanks! I love both of these cards, the simplicity makes them easy to do when you are needing that in your busy life. 

For more information on using the embossing pastes watch my DVD-2 "Embossing Paste Techniques for Artful Cardmaking". And for further information on a technique called "power pasting" watch my DVD-3, "Tips and Tools for Creating with Metal Stencils", these helpful tips will showcase the techniques you see on these cards.

Thank you for joining us for Christmas in August. Loved having several newbies join the challenge and Yogi even joined twice....YAY!!! Our random winner this month is Charmaine Stack! So, Charmaine, ... be sure to go to www.stencilwithstyle.com and choose your favorite stencil and then email me your choice at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com along with your snail mail addy. Don't forget!

Next month we will have two events ...we are doing a cross promo all month long with Art Glitter and their fearless leader, Kristi Van Doren, is our guest artist. We are running our random winner challenge...which is all about Autumn (and glitter of course). And we are doing a blog hop mid-month with Quietfire Rubber Stamp Designs...love Suzanne's stamps...can't wait to play! So don't forget to stop by and see it ALL! Keep those comments coming!

Cyndi Bundy

Louise Healy 
Heidi Erikson

Pam Hornschu

Thursday's Dream Schemes:Christmas in August is the Challenge!

If you don't have a blog and would like to join our challenges, please email me your creation and a brief description of how you designed it and I will post it for you. I love to receive your emails with these wonderful treats! And I love to see people join our challenges each month. I consider all of these designs you do works of art.

Tiffany S. has done just exactly that today and has emailed me a wonderful Christmas creation to post for her. Thanks for the inspiration.

In Tiffany's words here is a description on how she made this card using the double glitter technique. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comment section. And if you are inspired to do a Christmas creation in August just add it to our linky tool below.

"Using sticker sheets with white cardstock, I used red and translucent white glitter with the holly swirl stencil LG731. I altered the colors on the two cardstocks. I then traced and cut out the label center out of the white glitter background sheet. I traced and cut out from red cardstock a slightly larger label to go behind and create a border. I used a Martha Stewart holly leaf border bunch to edge a white cardstock and adhered the red glitter background holly to the holly edged white cardstock. I then tied a gold-edged red ribbon around the panel and adhered that to a red base card. Using pop-up glue dots, I attached the label to the front of the card so that the pattern matched. I also attached red jewels to the holly leaf border.

I had seen an idea that reversed the colors on two panels and wanted to try it with glitter. I like how the colors turned out."

Because it's fun to see what the team has been up to this week you'll want to visit their blogs, so follow the list below to see what they've created.

Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Stacey Rumsby
Pam Hornschu
Cherylynn Moser

Wendy Jordan 

WOO HOO! WE HAVE WINNERS!

Huge congratulations to Jan Castle and Janice K...the winners from last week's Dreamweaver/Woodware UK week-long extravaganza! Janice has won the UK prize package, so email Dorothy at Dorothy@woodware.co.uk with your address.

Jan, please email Pam at phornschu@yahoo.com with your address, and your prize will be on its way! Thanks everyone for following us last week. Keep it up!

Dreamweaver and Woodware UK: A Happy Christmas Reunion, Day Six...Big HOP Day!

Welcome to the finale of our annual Dreamweaver and Woodware Christmas in August extravaganza week! Monday through Saturday we've been knocking your Christmas stockings off with fun and inspirational ideas for the upcoming holidays. All that you need to do is hop back and forth across the "pond" on each day, oohing and aaahhhing as you go, and leaving us plenty of holiday love. In return, you'll be entered to randomly win one prize package for a UK commenter, and a second prize package for a US commenter, featuring products distributed in the UK by Woodware...including Dreamweaver and Stampendous!

Prize includes four stencils, one die, and two stamps, selection may vary.

Pam here, presenting the Dream It Up post for today:

No one does the ultimate in opulence with Dreamweaver Stencils like Kristi Parker Van Doren! It's even more exciting to watch a project of hers come together. We had that opportunity in July when she joined us for the 3rd Dreamweaver Teacher Certification. Kristi was one of "those" students who goes ahead on their own, and as she's been working with Dreamweaver products for years now, and was on the Dream Team until recently, we let her get away with it! Each person in the class received this Pitcher stencil with an assignment at the beginning of the course. Kristi spent both days of the course working on and off on this project whenever she was ahead of the rest of the class. She inked this amazing background with Splendor Inkpads, and used the same to add more depth of color to the pitcher. Then she pasted a layer of Translucent Embossing Paste over it all, and waited (impatiently, I might add) for the paste to dry and harden. Once it was, she placed the Holly and Swirls stencil on the top, and pasted once again with Metallic Gold Embossing Paste and added little piles of Art Glitter on the surface. Once this was dry (yes, another impatient wait!), she added more inks over the surface, and then a few coats of Clear Embossing Powder...regular and chunky. The end result is what appears to be an enameled/cloisonné pitcher. A gold inked piece of cardstock, with the sentiment ink-stenciled on top, along with a yummy May Arts ribbon bow and beautiful purple crystals finished off this work of heart...yes, I said heart, as that is precisely what designing and stenciling is to Kristi, and quite a bit of soul as well.

Before you leave your comment and move on to the next in the hop line-up, we just want to remind you to come back and play along with our monthly challenges (this month is Christmas in August) for a random chance at winning the stencil of your choice. You'll find the linky tool attached each Thursday on the Dream It Up! blog. Also, we'd love for you to follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, and on Paper Craft Planet, where each Thursday we post a different Dreamweaver tutorial. Both the FB page and the PCP tutorials offer more opportunities to win stencils and Dreamweaver product, plus we have a lot of fun! Thanks for hopping with us all of this week!

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Cherylynn Moser

Jessica Griffin

Jane Gill

Laura Drahozal

Terrece Siddoway

Dorothy Adam

Heidi Erickson

Louise Healy

Lyn Bernatovich

Lea Kimmel

Stacey Rumsby

Deb Frost

Wendy Jordan

Pam Hornschu

Cyndi Bundy

Dreamweaver and Woodware UK: A Happy Christmas Reunion, Day Five

Welcome to the annual Dreamweaver and Woodware Christmas in August extravaganza week! Monday through Saturday we will be knocking your Christmas stockings off with fun and inspirational ideas for the upcoming holidays. All that you need to do is hop back and forth across the "pond" on each day, oohing and aaahhhing as you go, and leaving us plenty of holiday love. In return, you'll be entered to randomly win one prize package for a UK commenter, and a second prize package for a US commenter, featuring products distributed in the UK by Woodware...including Dreamweaver and Stampendous!

Prize includes four stencils, one die, and two stamps, selection may vary.

Pam here, presenting the Dream It Up post for today:

Don't you just love a card that tells a story and sets a mood? Wendy Jordan created the perfect example of a warm and cozy holiday feel. Her card features the Dreamweaver "Stockings by the Fire" stencil, which she machine-embossed into vellum, colored from the back with markers, and added a bit of Regular Embossing Paste for the fluffy trim on the stockings. To make sure that this image was the focal point, she backed it with a second piece of vellum...the end result providing the vintage feel of holidays cards fifty years ago. Just in case you weren't feeling cozy enough, she added a printed tag quoting, "The Night Before Christmas", with a sheer bow for added elegance. Oh, and a great tip...adhering vellum can be tricky as most adhesives will show through, so Wendy attached her vellum panels with gold brad fasteners! The linked items can be found at stores listed on the Woodware UK site, and of course you can purchase Dreamweaver products in the US from stores on the Dreamweaver Stencils sight, or online at Stencil with Style.

Here's the line-up for today. Don't forget to leave comments as you go for a chance to win one of the two amazing prize packages!

Woodware UK

Dream It Up!

Wendy Jordan

Louise Healy

Francoisé Read

Pam Hornschu

Lea Kimmel

Dreamweaver and Woodware UK: A Happy Christmas Reunion, Day Four

Welcome to the annual Dreamweaver and Woodware Christmas in August extravaganza week! Monday through Saturday we will be knocking your Christmas stockings off with fun and inspirational ideas for the upcoming holidays. All that you need to do is hop back and forth across the "pond" on each day, oohing and aaahhhing as you go, and leaving us plenty of holiday love. In return, you'll be entered to randomly win one prize package for a UK commenter, and a second prize package for a US commenter, featuring products distributed in the UK by Woodware...including Dreamweaver and Stampendous!

Prize includes four stencils, one die, and two stamps, selection may vary.

Pam here, presenting the Dream It Up post for today:

Certified Dreamweaver Teacher and long-time Dream Team member, Lee Kellogg, created this uniquely beautiful holiday card. It is the perfect example of not needing to have the entire panel of design on your card. If you created an entire panel in these yummy colors, you can cut it in to probably three of these sized panels to create three great cards! Lee used the Faux Cloisonné technique to create this...she Regular Paste-embossed the Christmas Borders stencil on ivory cardstock. Once dry, she replaced the cleaned stencil, and she used dye-based inks to apply color to the surface. Then a clear ink like Versamark was applied to the surface before sprinkling with Clear Embossing Powder and heating. The more layers of embossing powder that you add, the greater shine and less "faux" and more real the cloisonné appears! To complete the card, she added a ribbon border and a sentiment paste-embossed in Glossy Green.

You can purchase these items in the UK from stores listed on the Woodware UK site, or in the US from stores listed on the Dreamweaver Stencils site, or online from Stencil with Style.

Remember to come back and play along with our monthly challenges. This month is Christmas in August. Just link your creation at the bottom of the post for a chance to win the stencil of your choice!

Be sure to leave a comment below for a chance to win one of the above prize packages, and visit the list of team members that are playing today:

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Pam Hornschu

Laura Drahozal

Dorothy Adam

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Cherylynn Moser

Dreamweaver and Woodware UK: A Happy Christmas Reunion, Day Three

Welcome to the annual Dreamweaver and Woodware Christmas in August extravaganza week! Monday through Saturday we will be knocking your Christmas stockings off with fun and inspirational ideas for the upcoming holidays. All that you need to do is hop back and forth across the "pond" on each day, oohing and aaahhhing as you go, and leaving us plenty of holiday love. In return, you'll be entered to randomly win one prize package for a UK commenter, and a second prize package for a US commenter, featuring products distributed in the UK by Woodware...including Dreamweaver and Stampendous!

Prize includes four stencils, one die, and two stamps, selection may vary.

Pam here, presenting the Dream It Up post for today:

 

Today's post features a card by one of our honorary designers, Marj Marion. She created a gorgeous background for the Open Bird/Dove stencil, using Dreamweaver Color Solutions Alcohol Inks in a polished stone technique on glossy cardstock in shades of blues and silver. The dove was paste-embossed in Metallic Silver, with Metallic F/X powders in coordinating colors blown across the wet surface. Tiny Adhesive Pearls were added for dimension, and punched sprigs complete the look. A very elegant card, and perfect to cover most faiths during the holiday season! 

Remember, the product linked above can be found in the UK at stores listed on the Woodware UK site, and (with the exception of the pearls) in the US at stores listed on the Dreamweaver Stencils' site, or online at Stencil with Style!

Don't forget to leave a comment before moving on to the next on the list!

Woodware UK

Dream It Up!

Stacey Rumsby

Louise Healy

Kim Reygate

Terrece Siddoway

Pam Hornschu

Cyndi Bundy

Dreamweaver and Woodware UK: A Happy Christmas Reunion, Day Two

Welcome to the annual Dreamweaver and Woodware Christmas in August extravaganza week! Monday through Saturday we will be knocking your Christmas stockings off with fun and inspirational ideas for the upcoming holidays. All that you need to do is hop back and forth across the "pond" on each day, oohing and aaahhhing as you go, and leaving us plenty of holiday love. In return, you'll be entered to randomly win one prize package for a UK commenter, and a second prize package for a US commenter, featuring products distributed in the UK by Woodware...including Dreamweaver and Stampendous!

Prize includes four stencils, one die, and two stamps, selection may vary.

Pam here, presenting the Dream It Up post for today:

 

This card is a definite WOW! Newly Certified Dreamweaver Teacher, Sandy Magill, created this for her final assignment in the certification course. It reminds me of a sampler, in that it shares a small amount of several techniques and products. Featuring the Ornate Christmas Tree stencil, and created in layers...some with Pearlescent Embossing Paste, Metallic F/X and using the Molten Magic technique; others with Regular Embossing Paste and sprinkled with Crystal Glitter, or ink stenciled over the pasted surface, and a gorgeous gold glittered star on top! Sandy used wonderful technique and skill to create this card, and we are so proud to have her as one of our new Certified Dreamweaver Teachers! If you'd like to know how you, too, can become certified, email Lynell at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com for info.

Don't forget to leave a nice comment for Sandy before heading on to the next in line! Once your creative juices are fired up, be sure to link your own Christmas in August creation to the linkytool on the Thursday blog posts of the Dream It Up! blog, for an opportunity to be our random monthly winner!

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Lea Kimmel

Debs Frost

Louise Healy

Lyn Bernatovich

Heidi Erickson

Pam Hornschu

Remember, all product discussed in this post can be purchased in the UK through the stores listed on the Woodware UK site, or in the US from stores listed on the Dreamweaver Stencils site, or online at Stencil with Style! 

Dreamweaver and Woodware UK: A Happy Christmas Reunion, Day One

Welcome to the annual Dreamweaver and Woodware Christmas in August extravaganza week! Monday through Saturday we will be knocking your Christmas stockings off with fun and inspirational ideas for the upcoming holidays. All that you need to do is hop back and forth across the "pond" on each day, oohing and aaahhhing as you go, and leaving us plenty of holiday love. In return, you'll be entered to randomly win one prize package for a UK commenter, and a second prize package for a US commenter, featuring products distributed in the UK by Woodware...including Dreamweaver and Stampendous!

Prize includes four stencils, one die, and two stamps, selection may vary.

The Dream It Up post for today:

 

Today's post features a wonderfully traditional card created by previous Dream Team member, and now Teaching Team member, Liz Martin. You can see from this card why her students love her classes...a great clean look, wonderful color and dimension, and that fab bit of sparkle! Liz Created this using the  Holiday Greetings and Holly stencil, which she paste-embossed on metallic gold cardstock in Glossy Green. She also paste-embossed the sentiment portion only on ivory cardstock in Glossy Red, which provides a wonderful contrast. Adding to that punch of red, she's added a sheer red organza ribbon and a generous addition of red crystals for the berries.

Remember, the products featured here can be purchased in the UK from stores listed on the Woodware UK site, and in the US from stores listed on the Dreamweaver Stencils site, or online at Stencil with Style.

Now's the time for you to leave a comment and move on to the next designer for today:

Woodware UK

Dream It Up!

Louise Healy

Cherylynn Moser

Dorothy Adam

Pam Hornschu

Jessica Griffin

Demonstration in Olympia Washington on Saturday

Zentangled LG740 butterfly by Wayne: May Arts Ribbon

On Saturday Wayne and I will be traveling to Olympia Washington to demonstrate for ART 'n Soul! We're really looking forward to meeting their customers and showing them some unique techniques. Marj Marion, who is from that area has already been doing some demonstrations for their Dreamweaver trunk show (....thanks Marj). Many of the customers there are avid Zentangle artists and fans of the technique, so we are looking forward to showing what can be done with our stencils. Here are a couple of the cards that we will be sharing.

We are presenting three dies to complement our stencils and this bare branched tree can be done many different ways. Call the store for times and directions on how to get there: 360-357-6820

Die of tree DX7020, Winter LM296, snow LJ878

Go Green LX7000, Die of bare tree DX7020, stencil of bare tree LX7020

tree die DX7020 bird words LG738 bats LL525, background LJ915

Thursday's Dream Schemes/Last Week's Blog Hop Winners and What's Ahead for August

It's Christmas in August here at Dreamweaver Stencils. This month we'd love to have you join our August challenge with one of your own Christmas creations! Today I am posting a beautiful holiday card made by Marj Marion of Olympia Washington. Marj and I are kindred spirits....we both have a background in home economics, love to stencil and our husbands are nature lovers (both named Wayne BTW). How that last thing happened I'll never know, but it was amazing when we found out they had something in common as well. 

First Marj did a watercolor wash in the background, this laid the groundwork for the Canadian Geese stencil (LG687) to be paste-embossed in the regular matte white Embossing Paste (DEP). Once the geese were dry she stenciled them with ink and last but not least the stamped vegetation, watercolored hills and paste-embossed birds were all given just a touch of glue and crystal glitter for a snowy sparkle to give it that holiday feel. The Season's Greetings (LS91) was paste-embossed with Glossy White Embossing Paste (DGWP) and then while it was still wet the crystal glitter was sprinkled on generously. Tip for the day: the glossy pastes hold the glitter better than the matte pastes.

Check out our team players for today:

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Stacey Rumsby
Terrece Siddoway 
Pam Hornschu
Cherylynn Moser 

Jessica Griffin

Now...don't be shy, just pull out the stencils or stamps and let the creativity begin as you join our Christmas in August challenge. Next week you'll want to join us for the Woodware Craft Collection Blog Hop. This distributor in the UK will be linking up with us for a week of blogging fun with Dreamweaver Stencils, Stampendous stamps, and several of their very talented designers.

Aren't you dying to know who the three winners are from last week's fun collaboration with Dreamweaver and Stampendous? Here they are:

From the Monday - Thursday team posts:

 

Bunny

Larissa Heskitt

and 

From the Friday HOP posts:

Alycia Clark

Congratulations to the three of you! Please email me at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com with your snail mail address, and your prizes will be on their way!

Thanks so much to both teams for a fun and inspiring week, and to all of the fans who followed each day, and left such enthusiastic comments. We'd love to see you follow regularly and play along with our monthly challenges. Just link yourself to the Followers button at right. You can like us on Facebook as well for more fun, prizes, and bright ideas:

Dreamweaver Stencils Facebook Page

Stampendous Facebook Page

Stampendous and Dreamweaver Summertime Fun Collaboration HOP DAY!

It's fun in the sun time again with another collaboration between Stampendous and Dreamweaver Stencils! We've been playing together all of this week, with today culminating in a fabulous hop on, featuring a slew of amazing talent from both teams, and of course...prizes!!!

Two prize packages will be given away for the comments left on posts Monday-Thursday, July 29th - August 1st, and one prize will be given away for comments left on the hop day, Friday, August 2nd. Winners will be selected randomly and announced Thursday, August 8th. (Note: USA addresses only, please, due to shipping costs.) Here's what you could win:

Stampendous Surfer and Sandcastle Kiddos • Dreamweaver Hot Air Balloon, Ice Cream Cones, Summer, Mosaic Swirls, Bird Words, and Sandcastle stencils

I am an aqua maniac and just could not resist an ocean scene for my final creation for this summertime hop. Turtles are a big part of the good luck traditions and aloha spirit on the Hawaiian islands and today is a thank you card to the Stampendous and Dreamweaver teams for being so supportive this week.

I paste-embossed the turtle stencil (LM179) with Pearlescent Embossing Paste (DPP), also the Thank You (LG691) and the ocean floor were done with the same. The bubbles were done with the holes of Picasso (LL332)...I just taped off all the curves and other odd shaped holes and what was left were great circles for the air bubbles. Next came the Molten Magic technique (which was a happy technique creation by Stampendous design team member Jennifer Dove). This is achieved by sprinkling the wet paste with Metallic F/X colors (Goldfinch, Glacier Lake and Moonstone) and also some of the Stampendous Encrusted Jewel Teal Kit (EJK06), then heating it all while wet for a result of bubbling lava-like texture. The ocean floor was sculpted with about 1/8" to 1/4" of paste and then shells, sea glass and some of the larger mica powders from the Encrusted Jewel Teal kit were set into this wet paste for the final touch. I am really loving these crusty sparklers by Stampendous.

Now, hop on over to the next in line. Don't forget to leave some love for a chance to win, and just 'cuz it's nice!

Dream It Up!

Stampendous

Louise Healy 

Jamie Martin

Janelle Stollfus  

Jennifer Dove

Lyn Bernatovich

Krissy Fossmeyer

Terrece Siddoway

Laura Drahozal  

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu  

Lea Kimmel

Cherylynn Moser

Cyndi Bundi   

Suzanne Czosek

Jessica Griffin

Stacey Rumsby  

Tenia Nelson

Heidi Erickson

Rhea Weigland

Tobi Crawford
Asia King

If you are interested in attending a Dreamweaver stencils technique retreat in North Carolina scroll down or click HERE for more information.