Thursday, November 29, 2012

Guest Designer for the Holidays CAS

Hi, everyone! It's Lynell again here for Pam. The dear girl has finally succumbed to the current bug that is going around. All that stress of moving has finally taken it's toll. But Elaine Benedict, former sales rep for Dreamweaver Stencils has sent us this beautiful holiday creation. And this will give Pammie a few more days of R and R, which stands for rest and recovery! Hope you're better soon kiddo...

The November challenge has continued on with "The Holidays: CAS (clean and simple)". This card is definitely one you could make loads of because it is so simple to do. Elaine began by using a glossy black cardstock and placed the holly stencil (LL3005) on the left side, then  daubed it with Stamp and Stick Glue (GSP) and a jumbo dauber (KD02). Then stippled onto the wet glue the Metallic F/X mica powders, Kiwi, Kimono Red and Ivy Garden. This stenciling was done using small stencil brushes (BHB and GHB). Then she removed that stencil and positioned the Merry Christmas stencil (LM250) onto the card and paste-embossed it with the Dreamweaver metallic gold embossing paste (DGP). After letting the paste dry, she embellished the card with metallic gold ribbon and mounted this black front onto a metallic gold card. Thank you so much Elaine for this beautiful card!

One more day to join the challenge, click HERE to sign up with mr. linky and join the holiday challenge. We will announce the winners on December 1. Remember one for best interpretation of the challenge and one for best usage of Dreamweaver products.

Please take the time to see what the design team has created this Thursday for our Holidays CAS theme by following the list below. And stop by December to see our newest challenge, it's just around the corner.



Thursday, November 22, 2012

Hallelujah!...I'm Moved: Well, almost...

Well, it's Lynell here again for Pam. Our fearless leader wants you to know she misses you, but still hasn't found her computer in the stack of boxes in her studio. Well, I guess I'm embellishing the truth just a bit...but the part about wanting you to know she feels bad that she hasn't been in touch with her blog and missing you is true... and she is looking forward to having all those crazy moving boxes empty and organized. A fortunate thing is that I have found one of her beautiful cards in my archives. And I don't think it is one that she has shared with you before. It even meets her requirements for our November challenge... The Holidays CAS (clean and simple). If you would like a chance to win a jar of embossing paste (your choice) and your favorite stencil (or our large paste spreader LM2010) just click HERE to find out the requirements. It's easy peasy! Just a matter of linking it to mr. linky on the Dreamweaver site...or if you don't have a blog or a way to post it on mr. linky and want me to post it for you just email it to lynell@dreamweaverststencils.com and I will take care of that...please just write a brief description of how you made the card...sometimes my guessing is not correct.

This simple yet elegant card can be very easily paste-embossed using the Glossy Black embossing paste (DGKP)....or you could even use glossy blue paste. And if you have never done the embossing paste before...my recommendation is to start with a design like either of these...very small tiny lines are easier for beginners. The tree stencil (LL547) was pasted onto copper metallic card stock and the Hallelujah stencil (LM2007) was pasted onto see-through vellum paper. When they were dry she repositioned the clean stencils and daubed the design with Stamp and Stick glue (GSP) and stenciled them with Glacier Lake Metallic F/X (FX12) mica powders using a stencil brush. What could be easier? Then she mounted the vellum pieces with small copper brads. A beautiful card Pam...and hey if you're listening (or in this case "reading") and I have the facts incorrect please feel free to make a comment. LOL!!! Nothing like telling you what to do with your own blog and card designs, huh Pam?.... Hope your back in the groove soon. We all know it is hard to do a move anytime, but during the Holidays?...Whew! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Now...here's the list of the Dream it Up team. Hope you'll have time to see what they have been up to this week:




Thursday, November 15, 2012

Festively Distressed Winner #4 and the Holidays CAS!

Hi everyone...it's Lynell here, writing a quick note for Pam! She has been "moving" her home and studio bit by bit for the past month and finally this week they (the movers) arrived to move the big stuff. Thankfully the end is in sight and she will be able to breath again. Although she didn't have time to post a card she wanted you to know the winner of Week #4 of Festively Distressed...so here is what I am up to and the winner info too:

I am writing this note from Eastern Oregon, the home of www.stencilwithstyle.com. and more importantly my parents home. This morning Wayne and I took a walk and saw this beautiful cascade of Fall berries and foliage. I knew Pam would love it and decided to share it with her and you at the same time. To me it said...The Holidays (CAS). Before you know it Thanksgiving and Christmas will be upon us...so let's simplify our lives and enjoy it while we can.

Winner of Week #4:

Thank you everyone for taking time to make some wonderful comments on our Festively Distressed cross promo with Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Powders. The team here has enjoyed them working with them. Our last winner was randomly chosen from team member Kristi Van Doren's blog and her name is Denise Bryant. So write to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and send your snail mail addy and we will send your Festively Distressed Package. Hopefully you will join our monthly challenges. Read about our current Holidays CAS current November challenge HERE!

Also here is a list of our Dream it UP team, join us and see what their Holidays CAS creations are like:






Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Festively Distressed Finale!


We've now had four weeks of festively distressed fun playing with the Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Powders along with our wonderful line of Dreamweaver Stencils and products. Huge thanks to Tim Holtz and the fab people at Ranger for sharing these four collaborative weeks with us, and providing the yummy shades of Distress Powders for us to create with. We've been inspired by the process, and we hope you have, too!

If you haven't won one of the prize packages yet, you still have one more opportunity this week as the set below is up for grabs to a random commenter on one of the Dream Team blogs.


If you've been following along each week, you've seen some gorgeous creations with these stencils and powders, so you should be all fired up to get distressed! If you've missed the first three weeks, check them out once you've made the rounds today:

 
My festively distressed project for this week is this:


Well...actually...it's NOT my project. My life is topsy-turvy right now while I try to move from one location to another. So...Lynell took pity on my and shared one of her creations with me for my post this week. Not particularly CAS and not particularly HOLIDAYS (but we can consider it a "thanks"giving card right?), but definitely a wonderful tribute to the collaboration between Dreamweaver and Tim Holtz Distress Powders. Who wouldn't want this gorgeous thank you card ANY time of the year?

Lynell's card features the Gingko Bough stencil design done with the Double Glitter technique, but using the Distress Powders in place of glitter, and of course heating to melt them to their more textural and weathered beauty. Various shades of the powders were used to created all the detail, and the sentiment was paste-embossed on the side, covered in more powder, and heated for even more visual interest. 

Don't forget to leave me some love before hopping to the rest of the Dream Team blogs:


Please remember to continue to follow the team through the Dream It Up! blog as we bravely go where no stenciler has gone before, to like us on our Facebook page, and to learn from our fabulous weekly Thursday Tutorials on Paper Craft Planet as well.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Still Festively Distressed...Week Three


Still feeling festive? We hope so! Dreamweaver and Ranger still have two weeks left of our Festively Distressed collaboration, and we are full of distressing ideas...Tim Holtz' Distress Powder ideas, that is. Mixed with our fabulous line of stencil designs and exciting products, your creativity will know no bounds! If you missed the first two weeks, start HERE and HERE! And if you missed Tim's intro to our four week extravaganza, click HERE!

For our postings this week and next, we are offering you the opportunity to win one of two prize packages, perfectly coordinated for your holiday crafting. Simply leave a comment on each of our Dream Team's posts, and YOU could be one of two randomly selected winners!


The Dream Team have been challenged for the month of November to create something CAS (clean and simple) for the holidays. The extra challenge is mixing the Distress Powders in for the collaboration with Ranger. Think that it's possible? Well...let's see...

Here's what I came up with:
 

Those of you who really know me, know that CAS is not my norm, but I tried...really I tried! Actually, the entire line of Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress products makes it remarkably easy to create simply, if not cleanly. Mixed with the Dreamweaver Stencils, the end result is something that appears to have taken hours to create instead of minutes.

Using a kraft bag from my local big box craft store (buy them in bunches for extra savings!), and a shaped paper mache ornament/tag, I began by swiping Distress Stain in Picket Fence over the surface...perfect for the white-washed look. Then I swiped some Adirondack Acrylic Dabber in Silver for added shimmer.

The Joy stencil, along with the Antler, Southwest, and Crystal snowflake designs from Dreamweaver, were all ink-stenciled with embossing ink, and embossed with Tim Holtz Distress Powder in Faded Jeans. The rougher texture of his powders is perfect with the weathered and white-washed look of my base pieces.

Several drops of Ranger Ice Stickles in Silver Ice added just the perfect amount of sparkle to my semi-CAS bag and tag for the holidays.
 
So tell me what you think in your comment below before heading over to the rest of the Dream Team posts:

The Ranger blog is offering another amazing prize opportunity, just for playing along with the Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Powders and Dreamweaver Stencils and linking your creation on the Ranger blog. You can find more details HERE.

We hope that you have been inspired by our creations, and will continue to follow the Dream Team through the Dream It Up! blog as well as to like us on our Facebook page. We really encourage you to play along with our monthly challenges for more prize opportunities and creative fun!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Stampendous New Release...Think Spring!


 Today is the final day of the feature week for the October release of Stampendous new designs. I love this new image, and I'm not alone in that! So many fabulous creations have come from the team with this image. I'm rather proud of mine as it made the cover of the October release catalog! Woo hoo.

This image is called Cling Nesting, and is so much fun to color. To change things up a bit, I colored most of it with Copic Sketch markers, and the white portions with a White Gel Pen, deliberately leaving it in a sketchy appearance. I love the contrast of the white against the kraft cardstock.
Stampendous October 2012 Catalog
I embellished the card by applying some glue marker randomly and sprinkling with Chiffon, Fresh Green, Sage, and Ochre Color Fragments. The Color Fragments are the perfect way to add just a touch of unique texture to your designs.


Be sure to visit the rest of the Stampendous team players today in the grand finale of our new release week:

Pam Hornschu (you are here)

If you missed any of the previous days, start HERE.

And, of course, we welcome you to flip through our newest catalog by clicking on the cover below. You can also print or download a pdf of it to your computer.

 Stampendous October 2012 Catalog

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Festively Distressed For Fall, Week Two



Welcome back to week two of our amazing collaboration between Ranger's Tim Holtz line of Distress Powders, and our beautiful Dreamweaver Stencils & Products! If you missed last week's event, start HERE.

Last week, we were totally blown away by the awesome response we received from those of you who hopped over from Tim Holtz's blog and the Ranger blog to check us out! We've been doing the "happy dance" ever since! Hopefully, you will continue to check us out, especially over the next few weeks as we continue our play-time in Tim's sandbox. (It is rather an appropriate metaphor considering the cool texture of his Distress Powders.)

Apparently, Tim and the wonderful people at Ranger were also excited by the response, and they've decided to "up the ante" in the form of an additional prize package(s) which will include TWELVE Distress Powders each, and a handful of Dreamweaver Stencils to go with! Wow! Just one teeny-tiny detail...to win one of these packages from their blog, you need to create something with Tim Holtz's Distress Powders and Dreamweaver Stencils and attach it to the inlinkz on the Ranger blog. Winners will be selected randomly. For more details, head over to the Ranger blog.

Once again, this week we are offering another fall prize package as shown here. Just leave us all some love as you visit, for an opportunity to be the one random winner we select. Curious as to who won from last week? It could be YOU! Visit the Dream It Up! blog for the announcement of the lucky commenter.



Here is what I had created for this week:


 And, oh boy, did I have fun with this one! I'd had this burlap canvas from Canvas Corp that I'd picked up a while back at my local craft store, and decided that this was the perfect time to use it.

I paste-embossed the Dreamweaver Black-Eyed Susan with Matte Yellow Paste onto the burlap, which was easier than I thought it would be as the matte pastes are thicker and less likely to ooze through. I placed an acrylic stamping block behind the frame for a more solid surface to work with.

While the paste was wet, I carefully sprinkled the various colors of the Tim Holtz Distress Powders in the appropriate locations. (Tip: cut the end of a drinking straw at a diagonal to work as a scoop for more precise placement.) I used Walnut Stain for the centers, Brushed Corduroy for shading, and Old Paper for the vines and leaves. I applied my heat tool to melt the Distress Powders, and to dry the paste more quickly. The paste tends to bubble up, but will settle down again. Be careful with the heat tool, as the burlap will burn a bit...not catch on fire, just get brown...which I liked the look of, so I continued to do it deliberately.

I also placed the Dreamweaver Hexagons stencil over the burlap, and sprayed Adirondack Color Wash in Butterscotch to add to the aged feel. My May Arts mesh bow was also spritzed. I wanted to add a photo to this, which was probably the hardest part of the project! Lol. I did find this pic that I had photographed at Lynell's parents' house, so I played with Photoshop to change the color, printed it, distressed it, and spritzed more Butterscotch through the Hexagons stencil again. The hexagon shape came into play with the punched and stenciled "relax". An ordinary wood clothes pin was distressed and brushed with Adirondack Acrylic Dauber in Lettuce, with an old button to finish it up.



Aren't you excited to see what's next? Check out the Dream Team players for today:




You already know where to find Ranger's/Tim Holtz' products, but if you are having difficulty finding Dreamweaver, encourage your local stamp/paper-craft store to carry the line of fabulous stencil designs, pastes, and other products to mix with all of your stash of Tim's crafty goodness. You can also purchase our products on-line at Stencil with Style.

We'd love to see you come back regularly and play along with our monthly challenges (and more opportunities to win stencils) by linking your creations to the mr. linky on the Dream It Up! blog, or emailing pics of your creations to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com. Since you're on the computer already, head on over and like us on Facebook as well. Just another location for dreamy and distressed inspiration!