August as an Adjective: +2 more winners for the Woodware Blog hop

MAY ARTS RIBBON (RA09) wired....+ New stencil jellyfish (LG758)

Well, it is the last week of our August as an Adjective challenge! The team has been doing some very dignified work and some of you have braved the challenge and shared some most "august" cards and scrapbook layouts. THANK YOU! AND...you have a couple more days to post for the challenge. Last week we announced two of our Woodware blog hop winners and told you to check back for the reveal of two more ....chosen by the Woodware team....to see the reveal scroll to the bottom of this post.

Today I am continuing my work with the Color Solution Alcohol Ink backgrounds....inspired by my work a couple of weeks ago (colors used are iceberg, noble fir and a touch of sugarplum)...see my tutorial HERE. Then I am introducing this new stencil which is a MOST "august" sea creature (LG758) extraordinaire....the jellyfish! In creating the card I read up a bit on this miraculous critter and discovered that they aren't always painful to humans. This one isn't dangerous at all!!!

This card was so simply done. Molten Magic is a technique that is one of my favorites when teaching beginners how to work with the embossing pastes. I began by paste-embossing on top of the aquatic colored cardstock using the Pearlescent Embossing Paste (DPP). While this paste is still wet I sprinkled three colors of Metallic F/X (glacier, pixie blush and gold dust). The next step is to tap off the excess powder and while it is still wet (this won't work if it's dry) heat the entire design with a very hot heat gun. ( I have several Ranger heat guns which I absolutely love for most of my heat work, but this needs to be done with a HOT gun like a Marvy or Milwaukee heat gun.) One reason I like the Ranger gun is that it gives an even heat and isn't super LOUD!!! But for this one you need to bring on the "big guns". For the final touch, once the design is dry and bubbled take a Swiffer dust cloth and sweep up the excess powders from your background then you are ready to embellish with the shells, sand, May Arts Ribbon (RA09), etc.

You won't find the jellyfish stencil quite yet in your favorite store, but if you are traveling to Hawaii I will be using this design and technique in a class on Oahu and selling him at the Hawaii Woman Expo at the Neal Blaisdell Center September 5-7. Email if you are wanting more information regarding the class or show hours...hope to see you there: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

TWO MORE WINNERS FROM THE WOODWARE BLOG HOP:

Remember I said Dorothy Adam, leader of the Woodware team, would be choosing another winner from their blogs across the pond. Well she chose two just as we did and here they are! 

Julie Staves 

Elena Chamberlain

email me your snail mail addys and we will get your stencil/die packet out to you post haste!

lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

Now take time to visit the team listed below to see what August as an Adjective means to them. And come back and join our challenge...this is a good month to give it a try...not too many have joined the challenge, so the odds are in your favor of being our random winner. Sign up with inlinkz before September 1.

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson

An InLinkz Link-up

August as an Adjective Challenge/ Week #3 Plus Woodware Blog Hop Winners

This past week we had the pleasure of hopping with our friends at Woodware in the UK! ...such fun. I enjoyed every minute and would like to thank each and everyone of you for the lovely comments. Below are listed the two winners chosen from the blogs on this side of the "pond" and in a couple of days a winner will be chosen from the blogs of the Woodware team as well! Watch the Woodware blog for notice of the third winner!

Our random winners are:

Diane

and

arlsmom aka as Lynda

We will send you your package of winnings when you email me your snail mail address to:

lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

LJ889 Large Thinking of You and LJ919 Flourish

As we are heading towards back-to-school again, it is only appropriate that we break out our dictionary for this month's Dreamweaver challenge..."AUGUST as an ADJECTIVE"! 

Merriam-Webster defines august as, "marked by majestic dignity or grandeur"....there were several other descriptions too and the word elegant also came into play. Now, I don't know just how dignified and stately the Dream Team can become for an entire month, but we are all going to give it a try! How about trying along with us, and linking YOUR creations to the inlinkz tool below for a chance to win the wildest stencil design your little heart is screaming for.

Today I am posting two cards...I did this first one and then former design team member Heidi Erickson did the second one. I thought they were interesting because one is black cardstock with silver paste and the other is white cardstock with silver paste, both very dignified in their own way.

Isn't it amazing how some of the most elegant creations are actually the most simple? This dignified creation was simply paste-embossed with the metallic Silver Embossing Paste (DSP) and sprinkled with silver glitter. The stencils used were the LJ889 Large Thinking of You which has an art nouveau style border, but the second stencil here the LJ919 corner is also considered an art nouveau design. I really feel that the time period in design history considered "art nouveau" is one of the most elegant or August.

LJ909 small cathedral windows with LL3034 Your wedding

This background is done with a stencil even though it looks like an embossing folder design. The stencils are very easily used to dry emboss using the Big Shot or Cuttlebug or other types of embossing machines. The whole trick is the way you stack the stencil with the plates of your machine. Some people have complained that they ruin the stencils, but it is just a simple trick of keeping the stencil away from the rollers on the machine. Here is the formula: 

1.   First place the stencil onto the thick white plate of your embossing machine, face down. 

2.   Next place the paper on the top of the stencil and if you have a small spray bottle with some rubbing alcohol in it..this is the time to spritz a bit onto the back of the paper. 

3.   The last step is to use a thick rubber embossing mat on top of the sprayed paper...followed by two of the acrylic plates that come with the machine. If you are using the Big Shot do NOT put the tabs under the thick white plate, but rather let them follow through behind. 

Please see what our team has been up to this week in the way of "August as an Adjective" designing and give them some encouragement with a comment or two. Please join us and link your creation below for a chance to win that stencil of choice!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Pam Hornschu

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Jamie Martin 

Alison Heikkila

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas in August with Woodware: Hop Day Six...Finale!

Yes! It's that time of year again! The time when we inspire crafters on both sides of the "pond" with a mix of both Dreamweaver and Woodware UK* products for the holidays! Six days, SIX, of beautiful, elegant, merry, cute, artsy, and craftsy projects to have you heading out to your local stores or internet sites to buy these goodies immediately!

Of course, there are prizes as well. Three prize packages will be given to three commenters during this week's posts on the team's blogs, including five stencils and one nested die set. You can have an opportunity to win these goodies by leaving some holiday sweetness for each team member posting each day, to be one of the three winners for the week. Here are the team members that are inspiring you today:

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Kristine Reynolds

Jamie Martin

Pam Hornschu

Louise Healy

Lyn Bernatovich

Alison Heikkila

Lynn Mercurio

Lea Kimmel

Gill Wilson

Laura Drahozal 

Dorothy Adam

Here's my creation for the grand finale:

The Baubles on the left of this card are from Woodware's new Christmas Stamp Collection and the "Believe" is a Dreamweaver Stencils classic (LM224).

For most of the week I showed how to use the Dreamweaver Embossing Pastes...the Believe stencil (LM224) which you see here was paste-embossed with Metallic Gold Embossing Paste (DGP), but because it is a slightly different color than the gold embossing powder used on my stamped baubles, I decided to sprinkle the same gold powder onto the wet gold paste and heat it...so they would all be similar. Not exact...but it is close. 

But my tutorial today is about the background paper that I made with our Color Solution Alcohol inks. I used three colors from our winter collection: Noble Fir, Iceberg and Sugarplum.

I dripped these colors onto a piece of glossy digital paper. Our alcohol inks come out one drop at a time, but if you want a steady flow of ink take a pin or paper clip and poke it into the nozzle, this will break the barrier and ink will flow.

You'll notice that the colors are very saturated compared to the final effect. The process evolves by diluting these colors with the thinner or blending solution. 

Drip the thinner all over the alcohol inks. (By the way you could also do the initial drops on a craft mat, but I wanted more papers finished at the and with more vibrant colors.)

 At this point take a second piece of the same glossy cardstock and smear the two pieces together so that you are creating mirror images of the colors.

This is still quite bright for my baubles so I will drip more of the thinner onto the original ink and  use another piece of cardstock to dilute the image.

Now I have two muted images and one very muted image...just where I want it to be for my bauble background. I stamped the three bauble images with Versamark and then sprinkled them with gold embossing powder and heated them.

A few flecks of gold embossing powder on the final creation adds to the fun. To further embellish I also glued on a variety of sequins and flatback crystals. Here's a close-up to get a better idea of how things look.

So don't forget to make some comments on the team's creations. You never know where the random winners will be chosen from...thank you for all of your lovely comments this week and stop back to see who has won: WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON MY USUAL THURSDAY POSTING!

*For a stockist near you contact Woodware Craft Collection in the UK and Notions Marketing in the USA.

Christmas in August with Woodware: Hop Day Five

Yes! It's that time of year again! The time when we inspire crafters on both sides of the "pond" with a mix of both Dreamweaver and Woodware UK* products for the holidays! Six days, SIX, of beautiful, elegant, merry, cute, artsy, and craftsy projects to have you heading out to your local stores or internet sites to buy these goodies immediately!

Here at Dreamweaver Rebekka B. has been working on samples of our new dies for our boards which go out to retailers. This beauty was first paste embossed using the tapestry stencil (LX7001) on a piece of velvet white paper using the two pastes you see below. Read on to see how she achieved her results.

The Glossy Blue Paste (DGBP) and the Pearlescent Pastes (DPP) are mixed 1:1. Which means if you use a tablespoon of one then you use a tablespoon of the other to make your mixture.

After she positioned the stencil on top of the white velvet paper she taped all four edges with removable tape. She then applied the mixture to the paste spreader (LM2010). This tool will change your life when it come to being successful with the paste-embossing technique. 

Using this paste spreader (LM2010) she positions the paste at the top of the tapestry stencil (LX7001) and pulls towards her flattening the tool as it fills in the holes. If there are places that are missed you can go across again. Remove the tape leaving one piece at the top to use as a hinge. This hinged technique allows you to flip the stencil back like a door opening and it will keep the stencil positioned so that it doesn't smear your paste-embossed image.

Once the embossing paste is dry she die cut the paste-embossed paper using the two new nested ornament dies (DG674) . I have been pleased that you can die cut through the embossing pastes. These dies match our oval ornament stencil ( LG674 ). She die cut the top pieces of the ornament out of silver cardstock. And also cut another silver ornament to layer underneath the decorative white and blue one as you see below.

The Happy Holidays stencil (LM139) was paste-embossed with silver embossing paste. Then fine silver cording was tied to the top of the design as a final embellishment. I love how this pearlescent blue paste looks on the velvet paper. It actually is affected by the texture of the velvet paper, but it makes it look even more shimmery.

Beautiful creation Rebekka!

Of course, there will be prizes as well. Three prize packages will be given to three commenters during this week's posts on the team's blogs, including five stencils and one nested die set. You can have an opportunity to win these goodies by leaving some holiday sweetness for each team member posting each day, to be one of the three winners for the week. Here are the team members that are inspiring you today:

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Louise Healy
Alison Heikkila

Pam Hornschu

Lynn Mercurio

Gill Wilson 

Siobhan the Recovering Stampaholic
Debs Frost

*For a stockist near you contact Woodware Craft Collection in the UK and Notions Marketing in the USA.

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas in August with Woodware: Hop Day Four

If you are arriving for the weekly Thursday's Dream Schemes you have caught us in the middle of a blog hop...YEAH! You've found us hopping! Please join us for a wonderful opportunity to win some lovely stencils and stamps. I did try to make my card today with more of an "August as an Adjective" feel...because that is what our challenge is this month. Scroll down to last Thursday's post for more information regarding the challenge if you would like to join. And if you would like to add your challenge card that is where the inlinkz is located!

Yes! It's that time of year again! The time when we inspire crafters on both sides of the "pond" with a mix of both Dreamweaver and Woodware UK* products for the holidays! Six days, SIX, of beautiful, elegant, merry, cute, artsy, and craftsy projects to have you heading out to your local stores or internet sites to buy these goodies immediately!

LX7022 Vintage decor stencil with DEP embossing paste

Yes, the DEP Embossing Paste is wonderfully made. This matte paste is porous and because of this characteristic you are able to stencil it beautifully with sooooo many different paints and inks etc. Today I am not going to talk about the application of the paste, but rather I am going to tell you more about how to stencil it with color. Like anything that is worth making it takes a little bit of know-how to achieve this shaded intensity. Many people who see my stenciling oooh and ahhh...but the truth is that it is just not that difficult to do. (shhhh....don't tell anyone, but you can do this too.) One thing I tell my students about stenciling is: "STENCILING- is a translucent layering of paint or ink". You can always add more ink or paint, but you can't take it off. So begin by loading your stencil brush with ink or paint and then OFF-LOAD by pressing the wet bristles into a paper towel or soft t-shirt rag. As you stencil keep the bristles flat against the surface and rouge the color onto your image, starting at the outer edge of the stencil design and then move toward the center...doing one thin layer at a time. Rouging is a circular motion, quite like brushing a colored rouge make-up onto your cheeks.

After the vintage decor stencil (LX7022) is colored, the second phase for this card was to reload the brush with the same color and pull the brush bristles from just off the edge of the card in a large STRAIGHT sweeping motion because we want the edges of the card to look "striped" the best tool to do this with is a large 3/4" stencil brush, (sometimes it is referred to as a #18 stencil brush). Do it on all four sides of the card. I finished the front of the card by putting a small amount of Beacon's Gem Tack Glue onto each paste-embossed dot in the stencil design and then added the flat backed pale blue pearls. The triple headed pin that embellishes the netting ribbon was colored with the Color Solution alcohol ink (the color was Iceberg...yes appropriate for Christmas) and then dipped it in glue and sprinkled it with ultrafine transparent glitter from Art Glitter (#97Nirvana).

The sentiment that you see inside the card was a new stamp from Woodware in the UK and here in the USA if you go to Notions site you should be able to find a list of retailers that carry their stamps. It is first stamped with Versamark ink and then white embossing powder is added and heated. Please forgive me for the less than perfect stamping job....SEE...it takes practice, right? I know I'll get better, just like you'll get better as you practice your stenciling.

Of course, there will be prizes as well. Three prize packages will be given to three commenters during this week's posts on the team's blogs, including five stencils and one nested die set. You can have an opportunity to win these goodies by leaving some holiday sweetness for each team member posting each day, to be one of the three winners for the week. Here are the team members that are inspiring you today:

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Laura Drahozal

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren

Kristine Reynolds 

Lyn Bernatovich
Alison Heikkila

Louise Healy

Gill Wilson

Lea Kimmel

Crafty Debs

*For a stockist near you contact Woodware Craft Collection in the UK and Notions Marketing in the USA.

Christmas in August with Woodware: Hop Day Three

Yes! It's that time of year again! The time when we inspire crafters on both sides of the "pond" with a mix of both Dreamweaver and Woodware UK* products for the holidays! Six days, SIX, of beautiful, elegant, merry, cute, artsy, and craftsy projects to have you heading out to your local stores or internet sites to buy these goodies immediately!

LJ923 Mittens Stencil/Glossy White Embossing Paste-Stentangled

Well there has been a lot in the crafting news of late about new paste mediums on the market. But I just want to tell you a bit of history about the Dreamweaver Embossing Pastes. We first came out with our regular embossing paste in 1999/2000. Our original/regular embossing paste (DEP) is a great medium that is porous and can be stenciled with paints and inks beautifully because of this porosity. But we do have other wonderful embossing pastes and today the one I am featuring on the mittens stencil (LJ923) is the Glossy White Embossing Paste (DGWP). What advantage does this have over the regular embossing paste you ask??? Well, in today's new world of Zentangle Art it gives a wonderful smooth surface to tangle on. Yes, it is a bit more of a challenge than tangling on paper, but the raised or embossed surface creates a whole new look for your "STEN-tangle" creations. I was even able to sculpt the cuffs of the mittens for a fluffy look. Once I let it dry I handed it over to the family Zentangle guru...the "Wayne-meister" for his unique touch. He does most of his work with an 01 Micron pen (30181) and used a variation of a tangle called "Veezley"for the one on the right (don't you love it?) and the other one on the left is called "Fungees" which is one of my all time favorite tangles. 

What else can you do with the glossy white embossing paste? Well, one of the properties of this particular paste is that it actually has white pigment in it. The regular/original Embossing Paste (DEP) does NOT have pigment in it. So how does that impact the use of the Glossy White Paste, you ask? If you were to mix tube acrylic paint into this white acrylic embossing paste the titanium white pigment in the paste would tint the color. So if you were to put a small amount of red paint into the glossy white paste you would get a glossy pink paste...NOT a red paste as you would get with the regular/original Embossing Paste (DEP). So the glossy white paste ( DGWP) IS really pigmented with titanium white and as such is actually a form of thick white paint. Another feature of our pastes is they are user friendly, by this I mean they don't have a lot of smell to them. I won't say that I have never used or sold smelly products, but I prefer being careful with paints and acrylics and want my customers to take precautions too. If you need any other information about embossing pastes...please continue to watch our blog this week. Tomorrow I will be stenciling on the regular embossing paste...

Of course, there will be prizes as well. Three prize packages will be given to three commenters during this week's posts on the team's blogs, including five stencils and one nested die set. You can have an opportunity to win these goodies by leaving some holiday sweetness for each team member posting each day, to be one of the three winners for the week. Here are the team members that are inspiring you today:

Dream It Up!

Woodware UK

Lynn Mercurio

Louise Healy

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson 
Deb Frost

*For a stockist near you contact Woodware Craft Collection in the UK and Notions Marketing in the USA.

Christmas in August with Woodware: Hop Day Two

Yes! It's that time of year again! The time when we inspire crafters on both sides of the "pond" with a mix of both Dreamweaver and Woodware UK* products for the holidays! Six days, SIX, of beautiful, elegant, merry, cute, artsy, and craftsy projects to have you heading out to your local stores or internet sites to buy these goodies immediately!

LX7003 Traditional Christmas Tree

Metallic leafing is one of my favorite techniques. It is one of the techniques which requires using embossing paste and although you can use any of the pastes (including crackle) the "glossy" pastes work the best for beginners.....this includes the metallics, eg. silver, gold and copper pastes. 

On this Christmas tree (LX7003) I paste-embossed first with the glossy black embossing paste (DGKP). Then I did the metallic leafing technique, but only on the swirls and swirly leaves and toward the top of the tree I did the leafing on some of the border detail, plus the tree topper. In the next step the other tree parts like the ornaments, birds and poinsettias, and holly leaves I stenciled the dried paste with the Stamp and Stick Gluepad (GSP) and then stenciled those items with a variety of the Metallic F/X colors using a small stencil brush (GHB).

The reason you need to keep these two steps separate from each other is.... if you daub the glue onto the whole design at once you would have leafing all over the areas where you want to apply the Metallic F/X, so do your leafing first. One other important thing is, when you have this much detail you should probably apply the glue with a brush. Often I use a dauber when applying the glue for the leafing, but in this situation you will have a lot more control with a small 1/4" stencil brush (GHB). 

Because the leafing technique is fairly complex I am NOT writing each step here, but for those of you who would like to do this technique, please email me and I will send you a pdf of the instructions for metallic leafing. lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

Of course, there will be prizes as well. Three prize packages will be given to three commenters during this week's posts on the team's blogs, including five stencils and one nested die set. You can have an opportunity to win these goodies by leaving some holiday sweetness for each team member posting each day, to be one of the three winners for the week. Here are the team members that are inspiring you today:

Dream it Up!

Woodware UK

Louise Healy

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson 

Jamie Martin

 Jane the Flower Girl

Debs Frost

*For a stockist near you contact Woodware Craft Collection in the UK and Notions Marketing in the USA.