Dreamweaver Stencils: Creating a Holiday Celebration

Our final week of the Dreamweaver November challenge...Holiday Celebrations, also know as, Anything But A Card! I have had so much fun creating projects for the Dream It Up! Blog as well as my own (except today...Lynell created her own this week!). I love to make cards, but I really enjoy making dimensional items for the home and for gifts.

Today's project is one of my favorites, and one of the most simple. I had purchased this rusted tin star hanging for 75% off at JoAnn's last year after Christmas, and still had it stashed away waiting the perfect project. I created a template of the triangular sections of the star, and used that to cut out portions of Tim Holtz's Kraft Core cardstock from Core'dinations. I had run each panel through my Big Shot machine with a selection of Dreamweaver stencils...Snowflake Background, Damask, Stripes/Plaid, and the Christmas Borders. I went over each panel with a sanding block to reveal the "core" color of the embossed areas. All of these pieces were adhered to the star with Beacon Zip Dry adhesive (my go-to-glue for most projects involving paper).

I also die cut Spellbinder Label dies from the panels, and paste embossed in copper the Noel stencil, each letter having it's own die piece. While the paste dried, I used Ranger Adirondack Copper Dabber and Distress Walnut Stain to color the plaque before adhering a strip of frayed burlap with Beacon FabriTac, and finally each letter segment.

Per usual, some yummy May Arts ribbon provided the finishing touch! The Dream Team hopes that you've been inspired to create your own Holiday Celebrations projects, and link pictures to the linkytool on the Dream It Up! blog for a chance to win the stencil of your choice. You have until the 30th to post your creation! Click on "comments" below and leave some love before moving on to the rest of our very creative ladies, and our uber-talented guest designer:

Dream It Up! 

Linda Neff (GD)

Lea Kimmel 
Louise Healy 
Terrece Siddoway
Pam Hornschu 
Cherylynn Moser

Dreamweaver Holiday Celebrations...Want Something to WINE About?

The Dream Team have been getting sticky lately...sticky with great products from Beacon Adhesives! As a thank you to them, we're featuring their products all of the month of November, along with our Holiday Celebrations challenge and our Guest Designer, Linda Neff!

I've created a fun gift basket for wine, sparkling cider, olive oil, gourmet vinegars, etc. My hubby and I have several good friends that enjoy sharing a great bottle of wine...or two! I purchased the basket at a Home Goods store (love shopping there!) for $2.99! I had some burlap on a roll from the local craft store, so I used the Dreamweaver Grape Cluster by paste-embossing in regular paste in two sections to cover the front and back. I pasted each twice, allowing the first to dry before slightly overlapping the first pasting to increase the size of the clusters. When dry, I replaced the clean stencil over the design, and using stencil brushes I added color with Tsukineko Memento
inks. For an additional bit of shading, I added some touches of Copic marker. When dry, I brushed over the surface with a light coating of Beacon Fast Finish to set the color. Then I added some highlights of a few grapes with drops of Glossy Accents from Ranger. I applied Beacon FabriTac to the basket staves and wrapped and adhered my burlap cover.

Using the same inks, I stenciled the design on a matching tag, adding the sentiment "Merci" over the top. Some wonderful May Arts ribbon in this luscious two color iridescent makes the perfect bow.

I wonder what my fellow designers have been up to this week? Hmmm, let's go check on the "B" team and our wonderful guest designer:

Dream It Up! 

Linda Neff (GD)

Lea Kimmel 
Louise Healy 
Terrece Siddoway 
Wendy Jordan
Pam Hornschu 
Cherylynn Moser

 

Dreamweaver Stencils Tiny Treats: A Fun Gift Card Holder for Mum

Yesterday I had this light bulb go on over my head, and not necessarily the earth friendly type, just a cute one flashing pink and lime green and telling me, "It. Could. Work." So I grabbed that light bulb and ran with it.

All of May, the Dream Team are being challenged to create "Tiny Treats" for all the various occasions that come up this time of the year...weddings, showers, graduations, and in the case of this Sunday...Mother's Day. I picked up a Starbucks gift card (because, hey, pretty much everyone loves Starbucks, right?), that could be tucked into a cute gift card holder. This was created with the help of a Sizzix box die that I had bought a couple of years ago and never broke out of the package. How sad is that?

My initial thought was to create the little pouch/box out of cardstock or cute paper, or paper with a stenciled background, or maybe the Mercart colored aluminum, and hey...why not one out of kraft cardstock all distressed and perfect for Father's Day, and...you get the idea. I kind of went wild, and yes, I did all of the above. And then I thought of my stash of crafting felt.

It cut like a dream with my Big Shot Pro, but it needed more substance. So, I ran a second color through to layer with. And then I ran a piece of Dreamweaver Stencils' Double Sided Mounting Paper through, and this became the lining between the two colors. I punched some holes through the scalloped edge to show off the pretty lime green interior, and I die cut a scalloped circle from a scrap of felt and pasted in Glossy White the cute tea pot from the Dreamweaver Tea Set stencil. Once dry, I placed the stencil back on and added the rose and vine with Memento inks. I used these same inks to stencil the tea set on a tri-fold insert for my gift card pouch from Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock. (Love that stuff!) Once I finished gluing the sides with Beacon Fabri-Tac adhesive, and adding Velcro closures, I added the final touch...some beautiful plaid May Arts taffeta ribbon. These little pouches were so simple to cut out and put together, that it is easy to run wild with anything fairly flat that can be run through your die cutting machine, and have so much fun doing it!

Now's your opportunity to visit the "B" team's blogs, and the Dream It Up! blog as well, for more "lightbulb moments", before you head off to create your own "Tiny Treats" for the month of May. Don't forget to link them on the Dream It Up! blog, or email pics to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com, for a chance to win this months prize, and to have your art featured on the blog and/or our Facebook page. Have you "liked" us yet on Facebook? If you haven't, you are missing out on a lot of fun!

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel

Louise Healy
Stacey Rumsby
Terrece Siddoway
Caroline Duncan
Pam Hornschu
Cherylynn Moser

It's Crystal Clear...Handmade is Best!

 
Everyone loves getting those special gifts that someone made just for you. You know that the giver spent time thinking about you during the creative process, and these gifts, while often less expensive than their store bought brethren, are cherished forever by the recipients. The Stampendous Design Team is making gifts by hand this year, and they're forging those special ties with their loved ones this season. Each day this week we'll bring you some clever and creative ideas for making some of your own gifts this year.

For my post today, I created a beautiful crystal pendant tucked into a decorated clear tube that can double as an ornament to hang on the tree. I used the Perfectly Clear Kiddo Snow Globe for this project. I stamped two of the snowflake images with Bahama Blue Memento ink on tissue, and decoupaged these onto the back of a Connie Crystal pendant, and around the clear tube, using Beacon Adhesives Fast Finish Decoupage medium. I work with this product all the time. It is thin, dries perfectly clear, adheres to everything, and dries fast! I've found that if I brush a coat on the surface and pour Stampendous Multi Crystal UF glitter over it, it will dry in a few minutes so that I can brush on another coat and apply the stamped tissue over the surface. The result is a subtle sparkle that can't be rubbed off.

I wanted the snowflakes to show through the crystal, so I added a coat of Versamark ink on the back of the pendant, and embossed with Shabby Blue Embossing Enamel. This provided a pretty solid background for the snowflakes to contrast off of. I embossed with more of this on a torn strip of tissue and applied that to the tube at the bottom with the Fast Finish.

The pendant was strung on tinsel cording along with crystal snowflakes, silver beads, and a silver heart charm. All of these can be found at your local craft store. I was able to dangle it within the tube with the cording trapped by the lid. Then the cord could become the hanger for the ornament. I stamped, embossed, and layered an acetate tag with the "sparkly sentiment" from the same clear set, and some extra frou-frous for embellishment finished off this gift.

We hope we inspire and delight you with these ideas.  And of course there will be prizes!! Be sure to visit the blogs we list each day and comment on each one! For those you may have missed through the week, start back at the beginning with the Monday post on the Stampendous Impressions! blog. We'll be drawing for some of our favorite stamps for gift giving! Here's the players for today:

Cyndi Bundy

Janelle Stollfus

Jennifer Ingle

Krissy Fossmeyer

Kristine Reynolds

Melinda Gleissner

Pam Hornschu (you're here!)

Tenia Nelson

Wendy Jordan

Wendy Price