Thursday, August 30, 2012

Christmas Finale

Wow, I hope all of you have been enjoying this month of Christmas creations as much as I have. Last week's blog hop with the girls from across the pond at Woodware just blew me away.

Since I am uber busy trying to squeeze every last minute of summer into my schedule before the second Portland season of rain kicks in, I thought instead of creating something new to share, I'd instead share some of my favorite Christmas creations from the past.

First off, is a waterfall glitter card. This is so quick and easy yet truly stunning in person.

Next we have Warm Wishes, which first was machine-embossed and then covered with white pigment ink and sprinkled with white embossing powder mixed with some crystal glitter. I call this the Double Embossing Technique.


One of my favorite stencils to use at Christmas is the LG700 Poinsettia stencil. I find it to be very striking and quite versatile. Here it is down three ways:



 

First with red paste and then topped with red flocking.

Again, using red flocking, this time over black paste and on green cardstock.

 
 

 And finally, for a very different look, with Pearlescent paste on pearl cardstock. I love the simple elegance of this card:
















Finally, for my last trip down Memory Lane, I thought I'd share three more cards, again all using the same stencil. This time I used LX7003 Ornate Christmas Tree.


 



 


I  hope you've enjoyed my little trip to Christmas' past. Remember you can get all these stencils and other Dreamweaver products at your local stamp store or at Stencil with Style online.

Please leave me some love before  heading over to the rest of the Dream Team blogs. I am sure you will, as I know I will, be totally inspired by these incredibly talented artists:

 
Until next month (wow that sounds so far away but it is only a couple of days!) when the Dreamweaver challenge changes to something perfect for all the stampers out there!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Easy Peasy Christmas


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:



For my post today I used two different stencils, one old and one brand new design:
LS92
LJ922 Christmas Borders

Hmmmm, wasn't that the same two stencils I used on Tuesday's post? Well, why yes it was. Here's Tuesday's post:


And here's today's post:
 
 
Same stencils, very different feel!

And this one was sooooo easy to do. It is perfect for when making multiple cards, like say at Christmas!!!

To begin the ink transfer technique, lay the LJ922 Christmas Borders stencil on to a piece of white cardstock. And then misting a red Glimmer mist over the openings. Do the same with the LS92 stencil to create the tag.

Then its just a matter of laying onto coordinating cardstock and embellishign with a ribbon and bow.

Very easy and very shimmery. Really is a WOW factor card!
 
Don't forget to leave me some holiday cheer as you move on to the other players for today:

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

Monday, August 20, 2012

Not your typical Christmas card


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:


For my post today I used two different stencils, one old and one brand new design:
LS92
LJ922 Christmas Borders

to create this fun Christmas card:

I began by first paste embossing the LJ922 Christmas border stencil with blue paste onto green cardstock and the LS92 Merry Christmas stencil with the same blue paste onto white cardstock.
After cleaning the border stencil, I misted light green Glimmer spray over the stencil onto white cardstock. You can't tell from this picture but it has a wonderful soft shimmer to it.
Once the pasted pieces were done I used my Spellbinders dies to cut out the ornaments and rectangle.
Then it was just a matter of laying things onto coordinated cardstock and embellishing with some matching twine.
The colors aren't your typical Christmas colors and I think that is one of the reasons I really liked the way it turned out.
Don't forget to leave me some holiday cheer as you move on to the other players for today:


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.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

An Off-balance Christmas

Part of the fun of blogging is pushing yourself into uncomfortable creations to challenge yourself.

I am a square corner, symmetrical, clean and simple person. (Both in life and in design!) However, sometimes that just feels "too easy" for me so I try to push myself into feeling uncomfortable and awkward.

Today's post TOTALLY does that to me.



LL532 Line of Christmas Trees


The only "balanced" and symmetrical thing about this card is the pink layer behind the  embossed trees. Everything else is either offset either vertically or horizontally. Does it work? I leave it up to you to decide (and hopefully leave me comments with your thoughts!)

The actual stencil looks like this:


and can be purchased online here or at your local papercrafting store.

As you can see I only used about a third of the stencil. And since I hand-embossed this with my lightbox (which, thanks to my Big Shot, had a nice layer of dust on it that first needed removing!), it was easy to only emboss the three trees. And then with the help of my handy dandy, can't live without, Picasso, I colored in my embossed areas with pigment ink.

So please, I'd love feedback. Is this a winner or a "what were you thinking" creation?

In fact, now I want to challenge you to step out of your comfort zone and create a Holiday creation and link it for the August challenge.   Link your own Christmas in August creations to the Dream It Up! blog mr. linky, or email pics of your creations to lynell@..., for an opportunity to win this wonderful newly released Heart Ornaments:



Don't you just love this new design? There are several newly released stencils and products from CHA last month, which you can view for yourself HERE. During the week of August 20th - 25th, the Dream Team will be posting all week with a hop on Saturday to top it all...featuring all of these new fabulous designs...in collaboration with the Woodware UK team. Just a little hint...you may want to buy all of these new designs now, so you are ready and waiting for the inspiration that will come your way that week! Meanwhile, check out what the rest of the team has been creating this week:



And be sure to check back all of next week because the Dream Team will be blog hopping with our friends across the pond from Woodware UK.  I am so in awe of the creations their design team posts and I am sure next week will not disappoint.

Hugs until next week,
Cherylynn

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Christmas Week #2!

Welcome to Dreamweaver Christmas in August Week No. 2! I must admit, its a bit of a challenge creating Christmas cards while wearing shorts and sipping iced tea but playing of Christmas Carols definitely does help!

So last week I opted to go very CAS and so this week I thought I'd break out of my comfort zone and go a bit busier. Busy is definitely not my forte so...

I began by doing a slight variation of the double-glitter technique and the LG700 Poinsettia stencil. Instead of using Dreamweaver's Double-sided Mounting Paper, I placed the stencil on a piece of cold laminate. I applied the glitter to the sticky side and then adhered the glittered side to the gold paper. This technique works well for those who like the look of glitter but would rather not have the texture so exposed.

The background paper and chipboard cutouts are all from K&Company's Evergreen Collection.

 


If the heat of the summer is getting to you, why not take your mind on a cool Christmas break and join Dreamweaver in this month's challenge.  Link your own Christmas in August creations to the Dream It Up! blog mr. linky, or email pics of your creations to lynell@..., for an opportunity to win this wonderful newly released Heart Ornaments:




Don't you just love this new design? There are several newly released stencils and products from CHA last month, which you can view for yourself HERE. During the week of August 20th - 25th, the Dream Team will be posting all week with a hop on Saturday to top it all...featuring all of these new fabulous designs...in collaboration with the Woodware UK team. Just a little hint...you may want to buy all of these new designs now, so you are ready and waiting for the inspiration that will come your way that week! Meanwhile, check out what the rest of the team has been creating this week:


Thursday, August 2, 2012

Christmas Already!

Okay so last month the Dreamweaver blog and Design Team went and had some Summer Fun. So in following the retail store leads, this month we're jumping right into Christmas!

I'm starting out this month very clean and simple. A simple gold embossed stencil and layered onto some designer paper and voila! and quick and easy card anyone can make. In fact, if you use the "Power Paste" technique, you can whip out several of  these cards in one sitting!


Dreamweaver stencil LL557 Long Merry Christmas and
Dreamweaver Metallic Gold Embossing Paste

Now its your turn to get into the holiday spirit!  Link your own Christmas in August creations to the Dream It Up! blog mr. linky, or email pics of your creations to lynell@..., for an opportunity to win this wonderful newly released Heart Ornaments:



Don't you just love this new design? There are several newly released stencils and products from CHA last month, which you can view for yourself HERE. During the week of August 20th - 25th, the Dream Team will be posting all week with a hop on Saturday to top it all...featuring all of these new fabulous designs...in collaboration with the Woodware UK team. Just a little hint...you may want to buy all of these new designs now, so you are ready and waiting for the inspiration that will come your way that week! Meanwhile, check out what the rest of the team has been creating this week: