Happy Thanksgiving/Thankful and Thoughtful Monthly Challenge

Ok...a bit late here on my Thanksgiving Day post. I will make it short and to the point...I am thankful for all the thoughtful friends and design team members who work so hard each week to help us present these stencil creations in the best possible light.

The card today is a CASEd card that I created. Louise Healy created a beautiful card about a month ago showcasing this oak leaf stencil (LL3043) and the bare tree die (DX7020) and I also used the dual alphabet die (DD005).  

Here is her card that I CASEd....I used the same molten magic technique as well! Thanks Louise! I am grateful for all your beautiful work and inspiration.

Just a couple more days to post your thankful and thoughtful creation and then we have a very open challenge for the month of December. Be sure to visit all the team to see what they have been up to this week and be thoughtful and leaf them a nice comment to cheer them on. Thank you too Linda Neff for all the beauty that you have shared with us...this guest designer is mega talented!


ALSO ....posting a card for Rose from Nova Scotia! She says it's done with embossing paste, then stenciled with distress inks and added clear embossing powder and heated it. This is a technique called faux cloisonné. If anyone is interested in the instruction flyer email me and I will send out to you. lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

Thank YOU Rose for the added card...what a beauty! I will add you to the challenge list for a chance at the random winning! For those of you who might not have a blog email me your creations and I will try to work them into a post so you can have a chance to win as well!

And here is a card from Gail in Norway...a slider card...I had never heard of them and a link to her blog HERE to see her post...she was not able to post it because the challenge was closed, but  I would definitely like to share it:

Gail used LJ838 Dreamweaver's wave stencil as an icy slope for her slider card!

Dream It Up!

Linda Neff (GD)

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson

Kristi Parker Van Doren

An InLinkz Link-up

Zensdays with Lynell and Wayne #4

Creation #1

Today our first creation is the Diva's Challenge #195. Laura Harms (the diva) is taking some time off and guest designer Sandy Hunter has challenged us with the following...in her own words:

Imagine your favorite go-to tangle pattern. Something you love; something you draw all the time. Is it a grid-based pattern? Or is it a ‘scatter’ pattern, that you can just use randomly to fill up a space? If nothing comes immediately to mind, go poke around on tanglepatterns.com …or pinterest. They’re gold mines for tangle patterns. 

Here’s the challenge: 

If you picked a grid-based pattern, pull it out of the grid and make it a freeform one. 

If it’s a freeform pattern, make it a grid-based pattern. That could mean several rows or a single row, drawn as a border.

The idea is to change the structure of a pattern, while still retaining its basic elements. Don’t worry about getting every part of it exactly “right”. If you’re having a good time and you’re drawing something you like, it’s perfect. 

Also if you have time to see some of her go-to tangle patterns and how she altered them from grid based to free form click HERE to see more about this guest designer on the Diva's site.

I haven't been tangling long enough to have a "go-to" pattern, but last week Wayne and I did a quilt using the grid based pattern Telis by Chrissie Frampton. If you want to see that quilt click HERE. It was great for the faux ceramic tile/quilt design and I do think it lends itself to free-form organic type of design work as well.

I am hoping that now that I've practiced this I can work with it more in  an actual tile. Thank you Sandy for such an interesting concept and challenge, as time permits I will play some more. 

Wayne posts his Diva Challenge work on his Flickr account each week, so you can check out his #195 challenge work there.

Creation #2:

The next creation is a ZIA (Zentangle inspired art). When we first started posting on Zensday Wednesdays I did the diva's challenge and turned it into a quilt design, using a grid type of stencil that we designed many years ago to use for a technique called faux ceramic tile. We have done a different quilt design each week since Zensday #1 and today I am posting one of Wayne's quilts using a tangle pattern called Tesali.

Grid stencil LJ811 used with tangle pattern TESALI

Creations #3 and #4: by Wayne for Christmas Cards:

 Zentangle patterns used: top to bottom

Variation of Veezley and Lanie
Variation of Yew-Dee

For step-by-step information on how to achieve these patterns go to www.tanglepatterns.com 

Zentangle patterns used: top to bottom

Cruze
Combo of Dex and Deco

Materials used on both of these cards are the nested ornament die (DG674) and ink pads were used to stencil the color onto the paper ornaments. Then the word peace was a stencil from our comfort word stencil (LG696) and paste embossed with the matte black embossing paste (DMBP).






We are just finishing up our thankful/thoughtful card challenge Nov 30, our last post for this is Thursday....so come by tomorrow and see what the Dreamweaver design team is up to. They do such beautiful work and also see what others are doing for the challenge AND please cheer them on...they all work so hard and do such beautiful work that it's nice to leave them a comment or two along the way. 

Thankful and Thoughtful/November's Stencil Challenge

As we officially head into the holiday season, the Dream Team are challenging all of our followers to be especially "Thankful and Thoughtful" during the month of November. We hope that you will link your creations with this theme in mind on the Dream It Up! blog using the Inlinkz tool. Our "thanks" to you is providing you with the opportunity to win the stencil of your choice, and a bonus stencil of our choosing could be yours for using Dreamweaver product(s) in your artwork.

As time moves on I am reminded and am most grateful and fortunate that not only have I had the best design teams over the years, but I have also had some wonderful teachers and sales reps sending me beautifully created cards. Sometimes life here at the helm of Dreamweaver is hectic and my travel and teaching schedule get in the way of blogging regularly. Pam Hornschu has been behind me every step of the way and does many posts for me when that happens. Soooo thankful for Pammie!!! Also I am fortunate to have sales reps that are supportive and several of them demonstrate and teach. Today I am showing two cards done by Kathi Anderson my sales rep from Missouri. She also travels to New Mexico and reps for a couple of stores there. This is the state she used to call home. Thanks Kathi for your hard work.

The two cards she sent me are done with our new embossing folders in the technique called Strié. She taught this in a class recently at a store in the St. Louis area called Checkered Cottage and her students loved the process. If you are interested in the instruction flyer send me an email at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and I will email you a pdf of those instructions. (I also blogged about this tech. a couple of weeks ago...click HERE for more info.) Kathi began by using the pinecone embossing folder FG675 ....she first embossed the design on cardstock and then after doing the subtle strié tech. with light brown ink she used a copic marker and colored the pine needles, then added an overall gold feel using Delicata gold ink from Tsukineko....again with the strié tech...so the needles and pinecones both had a subtle cast of the gold on them.

This is the second card Kathi sent:

Kathi embossed the Peace on Earth folder FG663 and then used the same Strié process of adding the beautiful blue and silver Delicata ink from Tsukineko.

Remember that as you stroke the color across the embossed image that you want to pull it in a straight direction so that it will hit the edges of your embossed image. If you just rub the brush across the image in a circular motion it will add color but it may not create a distinctive coloration to the embossing. Follow the directions closely...notice on both this design and the pine cone how the edges of the cardstock have just a small amount of striping at the edges of the card. Hence the word "strié" which is a french word that means striated, ridged or streaky. 

By the way, the Dream Team are very THANKFUL when our followers are THOUGHTFUL enough to leave us a nice comment on our posts! Here's the "A" team lineup for this week, as well as our very special guest designer, Linda Neff! Don't forget to link up your challenge creation with inlinkz.

Dream It Up!

Linda Neff (GD)

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

An InLinkz Link-up

Zensdays with Lynell and Wayne #3

Hey! It's Wednesday again....seems like time just flew this past week. We have several cards to share with you today. The first posted piece done on black cardstock is for the diva's challenge #194. Laura Harms, the diva, has guest designers this month while she is taking a break for family. Laura's youngest son had eye surgery and the guest designer, Elisa Murphy, is encouraging us to show Laura we are thinking of her during this difficult situation and has come up with a challenge she calls, "embracing the Yuck". The challenge is to draw your tile this week with your non-dominant hand. This gives you the experience of dealing with a situation over which you have no control. I am a righty...so this first piece was done with my left. What a wild ride...pretty shaky, but it definitely shows that we compensate and make do when the going gets rough. There is a lot more behind the story so you'll want to read about Elisa's life experience and how the rest of Laura's followers approached the challenge click HERE to see their challenge submissions.

I found that after the initial "I cannot do this"...that you really have to embrace the yuck and go forward or else you just give up. It is actually somewhat "freeing"...to quote one of the challengers. None of us were perfect with this challenge and all of us were pretty brave to give it a try, I think. So you also have this sense of "i'm not in this alone". And maybe that's another thing to come to terms with and embrace...support from others.

Here is my tile for #194 challenge and following are a few other creations by Wayne and moi ...done by NOT embracing the yuck. Wayne posts his creation for the diva's challenges on his Flickr page. 

I think the hardest part for me was trying to do the "fills" in the diva dance pattern.

I didn't complete the pattern ING...when I was practicing it I discovered if I just did the first two steps it sort of looked like a wall ...holding back the "water", so I left it at that. 

For more information go to www.tanglepatterns.com to learn more of the steps for this and the following patterns done on some of the ZIA work I am also posting. ZIA stands for Zentangle Inspired Art.


The next ZIA creation is another faux ceramic tile technique done with two patterns to make another quilt looking card. (You may have noticed I went a bit crazy with the quilt theme...starting with our first Zensdays posting). Wayne and I did this one together...I did the leaves and petals and he did all the flourishes. And we collaborated on the colors...choosing the colors together and then he rendered the color this time, using Marvy/Uchida LePlume markers. I again finished the card with a clear embossing powder using LJ911 grid stencil to corral the ink and powder and make it look more tile like. If anyone wants a step-by-step of the process email me and I will send you the instruction flyer for faux ceramic tile. lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

TELIS AND FLOURISH ARE THE TWO TANGLE PATTERNS USED

The last two ZIA creations are cards that we also showed in our Art 'N Soul class a few weeks ago in Olympia. 

 Materials used are:

Merry Winter Stencil LS 1015
Matte Black Embossing Paste
Black Art Glitter
You and me Stencil LS 1004
Stocking Nesting Dies DG692
Houndstooth Stencil LJ913

The papers on both of these stockings were printed scrapbooking text weight papers and some of them had a printed checkerboard pattern already on the paper. These are fun to play with for grid based tangle patterns.

Tangle Patterns used are:

For the Merry Winter card-Flying Geese and a Yincut variation 

For the You and me card- Fungees on the smaller green stocking and the red cuff uses Tesali and the larger stocking uses the houndstooth stencil on the green cuff and a variation of Pom-x2 on the lower stocking part. 

Now we hope you'll take the time to leave a comment and remember that tomorrow is my weekly post on stenciling...stop by on Thursday and join our stencil challenge if you have time!

Thankful and Thoughtful Challenge for November

As we officially head into the holiday season, the Dream Team are challenging all of our followers to be especially "Thankful and Thoughtful" during the month of November. We hope that you will link your creations with this theme in mind on the Dream It Up! blog using the Inlinkz tool. Our "thanks" to you is providing you with the opportunity to win the stencil of your choice, and a bonus stencil of our choosing could be yours for using Dreamweaver product(s) in your artwork.

Wayne and I have recently returned from a road trip to Portland OR and Olympia WA. We met with old friends and met new ones. While teaching at Art 'n Soul in Olympia we were fortunate to spend some time with fellow card artist and demonstrator Marj Marion. Marj has made a few sojourns to the UK for me to demonstrate and teach retailers for my distributor there and I feel so thankful that she could do that because she is such a great teacher. While we were visiting she gave me a few of her cards, so I am sharing her art with you today with her detailed help that goes with them, so this is in her own words:

Oak leaf stencil LL3043

"For this card, I attached the stencil to a light-gold colored cardstock panel. I traced around the inside edges of the design with a black Micron pen I used finger daubers to apply fall colored Distress inks to the open area of the leaf. Shading was created by using different colors in various areas, but blended somewhat to give the appearance of a fall leaf. I used a darker brown color on the finger dauber around the areas close to the Micron pen outline to give the leaf more dimension. With the stencil still attached, I stamped right through the stencil with Magenta Old Script stamp: 24.012J, using black ink. I accented the leaf by making small dots of color with Pico Embellishers (Imagine Craft) and  Pearl Pens ( Viva Decor) choosing fall colors. Now remove the stencil to cut out the leaf, leaving about 1/8" border. I  shaded the border area just slightly with a finger dauber and rust colored Distress ink. I attached the leaf to a torn panel of handmade black decorative paper, using foam tape for dimension. Rust colored twine was chosen and formed into a double bow to attach to the leaf stem. Next, the same Old script stamp as used with rust ink on a rust panel to make a subtle background panel, which is attached to a folded black card. Note, I love using the Distress inks because my painting and shading and stamping all coordinate nicely, but you can experiment with other watercolor paints as well. Have fun!"

Thank you Marj! Also want to let you know that Wayne and I will be posting some of our Zentangle creations (ZIA) regularly. This beautiful artform has really inspired Wayne and he has encouraged me to try it...I am really enjoying the process. So Zensdays with Lynell and Wayne will be a regular Wednesday posting. Hope you'll take time to give it a try.

Pam Hornschu, head of my design team has given us the challenge to do creations centered around thankful and thoughtful this month, she mentioned that she is doing some cards for our servicemen called "Operation Write Home", click here to find out more about this thoughtful service for those serving so far from home....read carefully because there are limitations that need to be followed. Also would love for you to check out the work of the rest of the design team...they work very hard and we'd love to have your thoughtful comments encourage them in their work. Would also love for you to join our challenges...there aren't a lot of restrictions, but as said before if you are a winner you get to choose any stencil you would like, if you use a stencil we choose a bonus stencil for you. So link up below.

We have the wonderful Linda Neff as our guest designer this month...a special treat for us. Be thoughtful and send them some love in the way of a comment or two.

Linda Neff (GD) 

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Gill Wilson

Kristi Parker Van Doren

An InLinkz Link-up

Zensdays with Lynell and Wayne #2

Welcome to Zensdays with Lynell and Wayne. This is the second Wednesday that Wayne and I are posting our zentangle creations. Hopefully we can enrich your stenciling and zentangle experience with our ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art). Sometimes we will be doing traditional zentangle tile work and other times like now with the holidays upon us we will be posting a variety of projects that we have been working on.

This first creation I did specifically for the diva's challenge #193 ....this month she is being assisted by a different artist friend each week while her sweet son is recovering from a medical procedure and if you are interested in joining the challenge and want to know more about the tangles click HERE. The challenge this week is a tri-tangle using the first letters of three tangles THX (in honor of the thankful month) and the three tangle patterns used are (T)rio, (H)uggins, and (X)yp (pronounced zip). The paper I used was a printed checkered pattern cut on the diagonal with the ornament die. I found the border pattern called xyp to be a bit challenging. It sort of looks like it's a seat belt holding the tangle 'trio' in check. I practiced it a bit but it seemed like it always ended up being "heavier" than I wanted it to be, tighter than I wanted it to be and straighter than I wanted it to be so back to that new word I made up.....practience... and I need lots of it, plus the ability to not take yourself too seriously, Wayne of course helps with that aspect of my life. He can always make me laugh and he's a great teacher too....but as we go forward I try not to lean on him as I do my initial work and we both try not to look at other's work until after we've posted on the diva's site. For me this helps me know my needs for further work. Then once I post I like to look and get inspired. I am such a visual learner, as most artisans are, that my process then moves on to phase II of my learning experience and I can work with even more purpose.

Materials used:

Duo alphabet die: DD005
Ornament die-DG674

Here is another card done using the tangle patterns betweed and hached....this was a diva challenge a couple of weeks ago and I am just now getting around to finishing up my creations. For that challenge the diva had a Maria Thomas (the creators of the zentangle concept) video on her site showing how to do the tangle betweed....well worth watching. Click HERE if you want to see the video  in challenge #191. If you are interested in how the patterns are drawn click HERE to go to tanglepatterns.com which is Linda Farmer's site where many patterns are shown step-by-step:

Fiore used in the faux ceramic tile technique.

Wayne posted his diva challenge piece on his flickr account, (it's gorgeous as per usual and destined to be one of my favorites)...but here is his contribution today...a quilt design that he did this past week. We both went crazy creating these quilts after I did a paper quilt last week for our first post. He did the zentangle art rendering and I again used the faux ceramic tile technique and added embossing powder with our grid stencil LJ811 to give it that extra shiny finish. If you are interested in the faux ceramic tile technique email me and I will send you the step-by-step instructions: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

The tangle pattern used was fiore.

Tis the month to reflect on what we are thankful for and we want to thank you for connecting with us. Stop by tomorrow to see what my design team has been up to this month. They work very hard and do a great job. Please leave a comment if you are moved to do so...love to have your feedback.

Here are a couple more cards Wayne did for the class in Olympia last month:

Tangle patterns used are: Mi2 and hached

Tangle pattern used is Holly and the stencil is LS92

For Carol's Questions Regarding Technique

Hello everyone,

Today I received a call from a customer, Carol, and she had purchased a couple of our new embossing folders, got them home, and had some questions on how to use them. Embossing folders have been around for awhile and there are several techniques on inking the folder and running them through the machine. BUT...have you considered using ink and a stencil brush and doing the Strié technique like you do with our stencils. Here are a couple of samples:

Season's Greeting FG677 an embossing folder by Dreamweaver Stencils

After you put the embossing folder through the machine, use a large stencil brush (make sure it doesn't have harsh stippling bristles, but rather soft tipped bristles) and your favorite inks. I am using the Wendy Vecchi Archival ink "leaf green". Load the brush generously and then off-load the excess ink onto a paper towel. I pulled the color straight across the design leaving the Season's Greetings area white and then went back with another clean brush and pulled Imagine Crafts Delicata gold ink across that area. The berries really needed some help because they were green and gold now....so here is a picture of the next step:

I dipped a medium tipped embossing tool or stylus into white glue and touched each berry. I found that I needed to reload the tip for each berry, but it didn't take long. Then I sprinkled on my favorite "Art Glitter" red. Then set it aside to dry.

Here is another folder FJ917 Happy Holidays:

I used a blue distress ink with the same strié technique and finished it with the silver ink from Imagine crafts Delicata silver again using a large stencil brush.

Another technique for using the folders with colored metal is shown in this post from October, click HERE to learn more.

This is a quick "view the technique in a nutshell" post, but I have a couple more samples I will try to post later this weekend using this technique with the folders. I have been traveling and some of my samples are packed. Kathi, my Missouri sales rep, sent me a couple of beautiful samples using this technique and has an even lighter touch with her work, so beautiful. Will get back to you later this weekend with her samples.

If you would like an instruction flyer on the Strié technique (this flyer was originally done with showing people how to emboss with the machine and their metal stencils, but the technique can be used for any type of embossed paper) so email me at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com if you are interested in the step-by-step process.

Thankful and Thoughtful: Plus October Winners

As we officially head into the holiday season, the Dream Team are challenging all of our followers to be especially "Thankful and Thoughtful" during the month of November. We hope that you will link your creations with this theme in mind on the Dream It Up! blog using the Inlinkz tool. Our "thanks" to you is providing you with the opportunity to win the stencil of your choice, and a bonus stencil of our choosing could be yours for using Dreamweaver product(s) in your artwork. 

Cornucopia LL529 done with the double glitter technique

The thanks in this card is done with the new dual alphabet DD005. Also used was the cornucopia stencil LL529 (we have a handful left). Read more about it HERE! I cut the letters once with a paper that I created with brown glitter from Art Glitter and then I cut the second set of letters on a pumpkin colored cardstock and placed them inside the first....you will also have a second alphabet set with brown glittered letters and framed with the pumpkin color.

When I do double glitter with something this detailed I always work from the outside toward the center of the design. It is a bit time consuming, but most painting is, and of course I just consider this painting with glitter. If you would like to see me doing a video of the process watch HERE. Then I placed the two larger oval dies from the set of three ovals on the glittered piece, taped it in place and cut this through the embossing machine. Then I used foam mounting tape and cut thin strips to put the larger oval in first and then popped up the smaller inner oval by doing two layers of the foam tape on top of each other. Yes...it is a bit hard to tell that the ovals are popped up. If you are interested in more details on how to do double glitter email me and I will send you the instructions in a pdf format. lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com 

By the way, the members of our Dream it UP team are very THANKFUL when you are THOUGHTFUL enough to leave us a nice comment on our posts! Here's the team lineup for this week, as well as our very special guest designer, Linda Neff!

Dream It Up!

Linda Neff (GD)

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

October Winners- Remember we are changing it up a bit this month.... if you are chosen and used one of our stencils in your creation you win two stencils!

Overseas winner is Lisa #19 ...you get to choose one stencil! (Now you'll have a stencil to use for your next post and an opportunity to win two stencils).

Stateside winner is Fit Kitty #30 and because you used a stencil you will win a bonus stencil.

Please email me your snail mail addy at: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

Link up your new challenge creation below and let's think about how we can be thoughtful to ward friends, family and our fellow creatures this month!

An InLinkz Link-up

Zensdays with Lynell and Wayne

I am finally doing something I have wanted to do for a long time....joining the "iamthediva" weekly challenge. Would like to thank my better half, Wayne, for encouraging me to tangle. This is challenge #192 and Cris Letourneau is helping Laura Harms (the diva) with her blog challenge this week so Laura can take care of family. Cris has designed a tangle called "Seton", you can read about her challenge on the diva's site HERE.

My take on this beautiful tangle (I love quilts) is to begin by using my grid stencil LJ911. This grid stencil gave me the opportunity to finish off the design with a technique called faux ceramic tile. Here is a closeup of the tile effect created with clear embossing powder. It reminds me of Spanish tile and makes me want to try other colorways too. I created the tangle work with a  Micron 01 pen by Sakura and then did the coloring with an older set of Prisma color pencils that we've had for more than twenty years. I love color so this first challenge had to have color. YAYA!

If you would like to know the step-by-step process for faux ceramic tile email me at: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and I will email you a pdf of the instructions.

This is the first Wednesday (Zensday) for Wayne and me to work together on a blog post. I would like to do this every week, so hopefully I can get my act together to post regularly. Wayne will still be posting to his Flickr account when he joins a diva challenge, but we will try to post a collaboration project here as well. Below is a card that he tangled and I made into a greeting card creation using our new small elephant stencil LL3042. That design also comes in a larger version elephant LG756.

Zentangle Patterns Wayne used or created:

Ear- Pepper
Trunk- Wayne wasn't sure (sometimes we create from things going on in our experience and can't remember where we saw it or it evolves, but we like to give credit when we can)....if you have a name for it... help us out please
Blanket- var. of Yincut
Blanket border- greek key
Body and legs- 'NZeppel
Tusk-candy cane

tanglepatterns.com is a good place to find step-outs for some of the more well known patterns

Materials used:

Chevron stencil in the background LX7026
Glossy Black Embossing Paste DGKP used on the chevron stencil on iridescent white paper
Small elephant stencil LL3042
Color Solution Alcohol Inks Noble Fir CS202 and Iceberg CS206
May Arts Ribbon 345-10
Button...just one I've had around for awhile and it seemed like the right place to use it.

31 Days of Halloween with Smeared and Smudged - Prizes for Creeps

We hope all of you have had as much fun being creeped out through October, as we've had in the creeping. We'd like to thank the ghouls over at Smeared and Smudged for allowing us to take part in their "scare-for-all"! Thanks to our Dream Team for all their hard work, and to Alison Heikkila for leading us on the scary path for the month! More than anything, we really appreciate all of YOU who have left such wonderful comments while following along. 

Here is the final list of winners for the 31 Days of Halloween with Smeared and Smudged:

The winners on our blog for the past week are:

Comment winner day twenty-four: Beadz

Comment winner day twenty-five: Mitsyana Wright

Comment winner day twenty-six: Leigh SB

Comment winner day twenty-seven: Christina Doré

Comment winner day twenty-eight: Pam

Comment winner day twenty-nine: Jan Castle

Comment winner day thirty: Nan B.
Comment winner day thirty-one: DogsMom

Please email lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com with your address, and the stencil of our choice will be on its way to you!

We'd love for you to continue to follow us here on the Dream It Up! blog, and on the Dream Team's blogs as listed on the right.

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