31 Days of Halloween with Smeared and Smudged-Day Five

 
The Dream Team are dipping their fingers into all things spooky, creepy, and scary, as we play along with the Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween. The team will be taking turns to fill the quota of 31 days on the Dream It Up! blog, and posting on their own blogs as well. Be sure to leave them lots of love as this is truly a challenge for many of them! Here is today's post from Alison:

Alison decided to use the Molten Metal technique along with the Owl on Oak stencil for this ATC she's created. She has cut the owl off of his oak branch that he was sitting on. She applied glossy black embossing paste to the owl, and then sprinkled our Metallic F/X powders on top of the paste while it was still wet. She heated the powders and the paste until it started to bubble. The end result is what you see here.

She also used our versatile Scales stencil on her background by spraying out Iridescent Memories Mist directly on to the stencil and then pressing it into her cardstock. She loves the shimmer and color-change of this particular Memories Mist color.

Alison's "Spooky" sentiment is from Inkadinkado, and she used a glittery embossing powder for it, as well as a UTEE powder for around the edge of her ATC. The funky "ribbon" is from May Arts.

The Smeared and Smudged site is offering prizes each day of the month by a long list of sponsors...Dreamweaver being one of them, but we are also offering one stencil (our choice) to one lucky commenter on the Dream It Up! blog each day of the month! So, leave your comment below before heading over the Smeared and Smudged blog to view all of the other creepiness!

Christmas and the Holidays/Challenge for September

Where did the summer go? Kids are back in school, with all the insanity that goes with it, vacations are a not-so-distant memory, and it is once again time to get busy with the important things in life...crafting for the holidays! Yay! All of September the Dream Team will be featuring all the new goodies we have for the "Most wonderful time of the year", the fall and winter holiday season. New stencil designs, new dies, and...brand new, soon-to-be-released embossing folders featuring some of our top-selling designs, all to be found on-line through the Stencil with Style web-site, or your local papercrafting store.

Here's my holiday inspiration for this week:

Well as you can see I am using more of the background papers that I did last month using our Color Solution Alcohol Inks.  However today I am showing you one of the new stencils... the tall poinsettia stencil (LL3046).

The technique is Molten Magic, I love this technique because you can use any of the glossy embossing pastes and because it requires heating it with a heat gun it is dry almost immediately and ready to put into the mail. So this is another Christmas card creation that can be done very quickly. The only time consuming part is tying that crazy bow...never have been able to render a bow like I want it...LOL!

Here is Molten Magic step-by-step:

1. Paste-emboss the poinsettia (LL3046) with the Metallic Gold Embossing Paste.(DGP).

2. While the paste is still wet sprinkle the centers with "Goldfinch" Metallic F/X. Sprinkle the leaves with Forest and Kiwi Metallic F/X and the flower with Purple Satin and Kimono Red Metallic F/X.

3. Tap off the excess powder into a waste basket.

4. Heat with a hot heat gun. The light weight heat guns won't work you will need a higher powered heat gun. Only heat until it starts to bubble and move the gun immediately to an area that hasn't bubbled yet. Keep the gun moving so that it doesn't burn your paper.

5. Repeat the process on the BELIEVE stencil (LM224) using the same gold paste and then sprinkle it with Goldfinch Metallic F/X and heat it until it bubbles. Finer lined stencils like the believe stencil are going to heat up more quickly, be careful that you don't overheat it.

Please take the time to visit the dream team listed below and leave some love in the way of a comment or two. I have the best design team in the whole world. (No brag just fact). And then make a wonderful card and link your creation below.

Dream It Up!
Wendy Price (GD)

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

An InLinkz Link-up

Trying to get it done in a hurry? Then Power Paste the Molten Magic Technique

This month it is the old flurry scurry get it done in a hurry! But that doesn't mean it has to look simple and wimpy...nope, not at all. My all time favorite fast technique is power pasting with the Molten Magic technique.

Molten Magic is a simple technique that requires sprinkling the Metallic F/X mica powders onto wet embossing paste. Then I tap off the excess powder into the trash bin and heat the paste while it is still wet with a hot heat gun. This bubbles the paste and very quickly dries it at the same time....so the results are immediate. The card you see here actually got too hot while I was bubbling the paste, however the haziness actually ended up looking like the ornaments are glowing....see a feature instead of a problem.

The "POWER PASTING" technique adds to these fast results. Usually if I am using a stencil that has small holes like this Shell Christmas tree (LJ898) I can only paste three or maybe (at the most) four at a time before the holes start filling up with paste. However wide open designs can often be pasted as much as 8 times before you have to change the paste. This really helps get multiples done quickly.

A couple of the cards got singed, but it turned out to be a feature. 

Last week design team member, Louise Healy, described the process beautifully. She blogged all about "holidays in a hurry and power pasting". This wonderful posting was so detailed that I am sharing her description with you. Just click HERE to discover how she accomplishes this technique. I also have a DVD on Embossing Paste Techniques that shows the process. If you are someone that is more visual I highly recommend this DVD.

NOW....after sprinkling the wet paste with the Metallic F/X and the card is heated and the paste is bubbled I take a dry Swiffer dusting cloth and gently wipe the excess Metallic F/X powder off of the background of the design. Here is a list of the colors I used:

1. Pink Poppy
2. Goldfinch
3. Wedgewood
4. Sapphire
5. Glacier Lake
6. Kiwi

The embossing paste used on the aqua paper was the Metallic Gold Embossing Paste (DGP) and the paste used on the dark blue paper was the Pearlescent Embossing Paste (DPP). So you can see that this technique can be done on several of the glossy styles of embossing paste.

May Arts Ribbons are beautiful embellishments

The paper that I used as my base cardstock is a metallic golden yellow. I have discovered that this is not the best stock to use to sprinkle the Metallic F/X onto because the Swiffer just doesn't clean off the excess from glossy or metallic cardstocks. So I use these type of papers for the main card instead. I did the same process for the Season's Greetings stencil (LS91)....I power pasted and did the Molten Magic technique  as well. Then I used a variety of May Arts ribbons to embellish my cards for the finishing touch. 

Now if you would like a detailed pdf of the Molten Magic Technique you can email me for it: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

I know some of you are super busy...but I certainly want to thank those of you who have taken the time to play along with our "holidays in a hurry" challenge this month. Please feel free to do so again...we have a couple more weeks to go. If you need more information on how to link up with the linky tool click HERE. This month I will again choose two random winners instead of only one. Remember Pam Hornschu also does a banner every Monday on the Dreamweaver Stencils Facebook page and you could comment to randomly win a stencil there each week.  A special thank you to FitKitty who allowed me to CASE her card for my posting last week. It also allowed me to get several Christmas cards in the mail early. Don't forget to take the time and follow the list of our Dream it UP team listed below. See what they are accomplishing in a hurry this month...they have loads of beautiful ideas. Leaving them some comments encourages them to keep creating with Dreamweaver Stencils.

Laura Drahozal 
Lyn Bernatovich 
Pam Hornschu 
Heidi Erickson 
Louise Healy  
Cyndi Bundy

Dreamweaver and Woodware Day Four: Molten Magic

All of this week, the Dream Team and the Woodware UK teams are celebrating the release of the new holiday designs from Dreamweaver Stencils. Of course, no celebration is complete without prizes...and there are some fabulous ones for those commenting on both sides of the "pond". 

Each team will be providing the opportunity to win four prize packages of stencil designs, perfect for the holidays. Just leave your comments each day on each players' post as well as the Dream It Up! and Woodware UK blogs, and the Dreamweaver and Woodware Facebook pages. Two random commentors  will be chosen from the batch of weekday posts, one each from the DW and WW Facebook pages, and from the big hop on Saturday...from each side of the pond!* That's a total of eight prize packages up for grabs! Here's what you could win:

Check out our creation for today:

Elaine Benedict is showing off her talents again. This time featuring the Star Dream Christmas Tree, and using the Molten Magic technique. This is our latest inspiration, and so much fun to do! Especially if you are the type of crafter who hates to wait for paste to dry. Here's the steps:

1. Paste emboss the tree with a glossy paste (Elaine used the Pearlescent Paste). Need the basic paste info? Click HERE.

2. Sprinkle surface with various colors of Metallic F/X powders.

3. Apply a heat tool over and above surface until puffy and bubbly (keep moving the tool).

4. When cool to the touch, you can press with fingertips for a more textured look.

5. Once it is totally dry (it may take a bit longer to dry than just heating with the tool if you have pasted it thickly) take a Swiffer dusting cloth and remove the excess powders in the background.

Note: On more open designs, you can ink a stamp with Versamark and stamp the design into the surface!

Don't forget to leave some holiday cheer as you move on to all the players for today:

Dream It Up!

  Woodware UK
Louise Healy
Laura Drahozal
Lee Kellogg
Terrece Siddoway
Wendy Jordan
Pam Hornschu
Liz Martin

 Kristi Van Doren

Remember to follow along with the challenges on the Dream It Up! and Woodware UK blogs for more prize opportunities, and more crafty inspiration, as well as "liking" DW and WW on Facebook.

*Winners selected must be from USA/Canada/UK only.