This is a happy day for me. Last week I was invited to be part of the
Woodware UK Design Team. If you are not familiar with
Woodware, they are a distributor in the UK of craft labels predominantly found in the US. Fortunately for me, they carry a huge selection of both
Stampendous and
Dreamweaver Stencils' product lines. A couple of months back, the Woodware UK team collaborated with the Dreamweaver team on a blog hop. It was a great learning experience on both sides of the pond! Now I get to play with the WW team some more.
For my post today, the weekly challenge was for traditional Christmas. Now, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that I normally do not do really traditional, but this card came close. The focal point of the card is the
Holly & Swirls stencil from
Dreamweaver Stencils, which I love, love, love! The panel was created at CHA Summer in Rosemont, Illinois, in July, as part of a demonstration I was doing in our booth of the double-glitter technique. Normally, our
Dreamweaver Stencils' team sweetheart,
Laura Drahozal, demonstrates this as she is the queen of the double-glitter technique, but that day we gave her a short break. The
Double Glitter technique normally goes like this:
1) Cut piece of
Double-sided Adhesive as desired. Remove carrier from one side and save.
2) Adhere
adhesive to panel of cardstock (in this case, white). Remove the other carrier sheet.
3) Using
Hawaiian Soap bar, cover back of stencil thoroughly*. Use a soft brush to remove any bits of soap from inside the image area. Place
Holly & Swirls Stencil soap side down on your adhesive panel. Use saved carrier sheet (not your fingers) to press stencil into place.
4) Carefully pour the
Stampendous Emerald Green Jewel Glitter over the leaf and stem areas** and use your carrier again to press and rub the glitter into the spaces for great coverage. Brush off excess glitter and save.
5) Carefully add
Stampendous Red Jewel Glitter where the holly berries would be**, rub in, brush off excess. (Note: Be careful to brush away all excess glitter!)
6) Remove stencil from the adhesive panel (soap will wash off easily with water...because it's...soap!)
7) Pour
Stampendous Multi Crystal Glitter to cover background areas. Rub in with carrier sheet, brush away excess and save.
So, you noticed that before the directions I had said that
normally this was the process? However, this was one of those cases where the expression, "Mistakes are just opportunities for embellishment", is so true. If I had been more careful, I would have realized when I placed the stencil down, that there was still sticky area uncovered and just waiting for unintended glitter to migrate over there, which is what glitter does best. I
should have masked off those areas with the carrier sheets, but I forgot. Now remember, I was demo-ing this process. Have to make it look good...what can I do? What any self-respecting paper crafter would do! I added more colors of glitter in those areas to appear intentional. In the end, I liked it better that way! But if you are a purist, follow all the directions. In my demo, I also showed how you can use the
Dreamweaver Stencils' Picasso to mask off areas as you stencil various colors of
Tsukineko's Splendor Circus ink pad to add shading and highlights to the glittered panel.
To complete the card, I cut around a couple of the leaves and pulled them up for dimension, before adhering the panel to my layered card. A
Stampendous sticker sentiment, some yummy red rhinestones, and pretty sheer ruffled ribbon completes the card.
The
Woodware UK Design Team posts six days a week on a revolving schedule, with challenges for each week. So be sure to check out the
Woodware UK blog to visit the rest of their super-talented team!
*Soaping the stencil prevents the stencil from sticking permanently without leaving residue that glitter won't stick to.
**A trick for placing glitter where you want it is to cut a drinking straw at a sharp angle, and use this as your "spoon" to apply your glitter.
Ever looked at something in a different way? Not quite the normal way? This week as I worked on the Dreamweaver Stencils' Dream Team sketch challenge provided by Wendy, I did just that. Her sketch as seen to the left, was straightforward enough, and I quickly had my elements stenciled, cut out, and ready to be assembled. That's when I looked at the gorgeous new Christmas Tree stencil...upside-down! I've loved this stencil since it was released at CHA in July. Fun borders that mimic Icelandic sweater patterns...so fun that I begged Lynell to come out with an entire background of these patterns. (Maybe next year? Please?) I wanted to add just a little interest in the background on my card ('cuz you know I have a hard time with CAS!), and noticed the little wedge next to the angled panel, and got the idea of stenciling the tree upside-down to fit into the space. I flipped it right-side-up on the right side to balance it out. These were simply stenciled with Splendor Magic ink using the larger brush to cover more surface area with ink in a quicker timer period. The sentiment panel also features a portion of the same tree along with the small Happy Holidays. The stockings were from the Stockings by Fireplace and were paper-pieced with cute papers from WeRMemoryKeepers. With the deeper tones and plaid patterns, this card would work well for the men on your Christmas card list and their families as well. Now it's going to be fun to see what the rest of the team have done with Wendy's sketch. Let's go check them out, along with the Dream It Up! blog as well: 
