Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving


To my fellow Americans, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope your day is filled with love and laughter and you are surrounded by friends and family.

Since I am quite short on time because this week has been nutso crazy and today looks to be more of the same, I thought I'd share some of the gifts I have created in the past using Dreamweaver products. Hopefully something you see here or on the other Dream Team blogs will inspire you to make at least one handmade holiday gift this year. 

First off is a clay pendant I made using Dreamweaver's Metallic F/X on polymer clay:




Next up is a candle embellished with leaves made from Dreamweaver metallic pastes done directly on my nonstick craft sheet and then adhered to the candle with adhesive:



Same technique as above, this time the leaves were sprinkled with glitter while they were still wet:


Here is a portfolio set and notecard I made. I love this idea especially for Hostess and Teacher gifts:


And finally is the pendant necklace I made using one of  Tim Holtz watch face pieces to hold a stenciled bird and shrink plastic sentiment:


As you can see, when I create handmade gifts I keep them very simple. Yet I don't feel their simplicity takes away from the meaning of love and sharing when given to the recipient.

Need more inspiration? Please check out the other participating Dream Teamers today:


Pam HornschuLinda Neff (GD)

For the month of December I will be posting at least once a week, some stamping, some stenciling and some holiday decor ideas and some gift inspiration. I hope you'll stop on by as your busy schedule allows.

Before the insanity of the holiday season gets into full swing, please take some time for yourself and for creating. Just like milk, "it does a body good"!
Hugs and blessing to you all,
Cherylynn

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Holiday Celebrations Week 2





Welcome back! For the November challenge, Holiday Celebrations, the Dreamweaver Dream Team will be showing ways to use Beacon Adhesives line of products in conjunction with Dreamweaver products to create party and packaging ideas, home decor, hostess gifts....

And since I had such fun playing with Rangers Distress Paints last week, I thought I'd continue playing with them and create another EASY and INEXPENSIVE project that could be given as a gift or used to decorate your own home for the holidays!


To begin, I started with 2" blank canvas that I picked up at my local craft store and dabbed them with Ranger Distress Paint in Chipped Sapphire and Brushed Pewter:


Then I misted them with water so that the paints mottled together:


Once the paint dried, I paste embossed a Snowflake stencil on each tile and sprinkled them with Ranger Distress Stickles Dry Rock Candy glitter. 

To put it all together I folded this May Arts Faux Burlap ribbon over a D-ring and glued it together with Beacon's Fabri-Tac. Then I secured each canvas on the ribbon also with the Fabri-Tac.

Here's a close-up of one of the tiles so you can see the great marbling effect of the paint on the canvas as well as the gorgeous shimmer of the Rock Candy glitter:



I haven't yet decided if this is going to be a hostess gift or get hung up in my house as part of the holiday decor. As some of you already know, I do a lot with snowflakes and snowmen in my holiday decorating so that I can keep them up well into February (or even March!). It helps fight the post-holiday blues and winter doldrums!

Hopefully this quick, easy and VERY INEXPENSIVE project will inspire you to create something to share in this month's Dreamweaver challenge. For all the details, check out the Dreamweaver blog.

AND for even  more inspiration, hop on over to the other Dream Teamers who are participating in today's hop, including our Guest Designer of the Month, Linda Neff!

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Holiday Celebrations with Distress Paint

Ready to be festively distressed once again? The Dream Team have been playing with Ranger's Distress Paints, and are ready to inspire you to be distressed as well...paint distressed that is!



Dreamweaver Stencils are the perfect choice to mix with all things festively distressed, as nothing shows off color and texture better than great designs. By following our hop and leaving love along the way, you have the opportunity to win a great prize package including five Ranger Distress Paints and five Dreamweaver Stencils! Here's the lineup for today, including our November Guest Designer:


This is also our first posting day featuring our new monthly challenge, "Holiday Celebrations", and for the entire month we will be demonstrating ways to use Beacon Adhesives' entire line of products with Dreamweaver to create special projects in home decor and gifts of love.

I had a lot of fun playing with the Distress Paints. They are a lot different than traditional acrylic craft paint because they are so much thinner. For me, that was both a good thing and a bad thing!

Since I am all about quick and easy, especially when it comes to the holidays and gift giving, I created two very easy and VERY inexpensive projects to share with you.

The first one was the most inexpensive. I started out with cheap ceramic tiles from the hardware store. I think they were like 16 cents each! My plan is to make a set of four of these and turn them into coasters tied with a ribbon.


Supplies Used: Dreamweaver LJ 849 Bare Trees Stencil
Ranger Distress Paint: Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Barn Door and Black Soot
Beacon Fabri-Tac Adhesive

Instructions:

  • Sand tile with 240 grit sandpaper and spray with acrylic primer. Let dry.
  • Dab Distress Paint onto tile and mist with water to encourage blending/marbling. Heat set to dry.
  • Align stencil over dry paint and using a stencil brush, rouge on black soot. Heat set to dry. (HINT: I first sprayed the back of the stencil  with stencil adhesive. This helped it to form a tight seal against the tile and prevented seepage.) 
  • Spray deal glossy sealer.
  • Glue felt to bottom with Fabri-Tac. (Hint: I first applied Dreamweaver Original Embossing Paste to back of tile to smooth out ridges so that the felt had a smooth, flat surface to adhere to.


What do you think? Kind of fun, kind of artsy..which is.not to be said for  project two!

For project two, I went clean, simple and very, very easy. This one cost a little more. I think $1.50!

Supplies used: Various Dreamweaver Snowflake stencils and Ranger Picket Fence Distress Paint

While perusing the craft store the other day I came across these beautiful blue chargers that were on sale for $1.50. I just couldn't resist buying them (and the black ones as well!). Now what to do with them? They were too pretty just to sit under another plate. And then the light bulb went off. Turn them into cookie platters for holiday gifts! And voila! this is the end result.

Very simple to so. Wash the charger first in warm soapy water and dry well. Then adhere stencils to the platters (again, I sprayed the stencils with spray stencil adhesive). Then using a rouging motion, I gently swirled on the Picket Fence paint. Once it was dry, I again applied a food safe sealer. 

Now won't those look pretty all covered in cookies! Hmmm, now if only I can find the time to bake the cookies!

I hope you've enjoyed these two little treats I've created for you. Hopefully they've inspired you to start working on your holiday and hostess gifts. I have more projects in the works that use Distress Paints and I will share those with you sometime next week!

Until then, finish hopping along this week's blog hop and remember to take some time TODAY to create. It's good for your soul!


Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Fall to one and all!

Although today is Halloween, instead of creepy and spooky, I have chosen to celebrate the Magic of Autumn Colors for my last Magical and Mysterious post. This is very timely because today in the beautiful Pacific NW, it is rainy, dreary and all the remaining leaves are disappearing from the trees. Soon it will be winter and the magical colors of autumn will be gone for another year.
  So today, before all the leaves are gone, I'd like to wish a Happy Fall to One and All!




 The background was created using Dreamweaver's ColorSolutions Alcohol Ink. I love these inks because the colors are so vivid. And since these are artist grade inks, they stay wet a bit longer than traditional alcohol inks so you have more opportunity for blending. The technique I used was dropping colors (Paprika Red, Gold Star, Aspen Leaf, Pumpkin and Citron) onto my nonstick craft sheet and then swirling and swiping a piece of coated cardstock over the puddled inks.

I then overstenciled  the Leafless tree stencil (LX 7020) onto the sides with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. Once that was heat set, I paste-embossed the Pumpkin stencil (LL 515) with Glossy Black paste and set it aside to dry. Once the paste had dried, I realigned the stencil and dabbed on Stewart Stamp-n-Stick glue, lightly heated it and then brushed on Metallic F/X (Kiwi, Ivy Garden, Forestry, Just Peachy, Amber Glow and Nouveau Orange and Eye of the Tiger).

Remember, the products listed above and all of Dreamweaver products can be ordered through your local stamp store or online at Stencil with Style.

Although the card is very simple (and quite easy to do), I love the warmth of the colors. It definitely is going to be one of those cards that I hang above my work table to help keep me warm as we move through the coming cold winter months.

Today concludes our entire month of Magical and Mysterious, and your final opportunity to link your own creepy creations to the Dream It Up! blog for an opportunity to win the stencil of your choice!

Now please, check out the rest of the team's creations, as well as our wonderful guest designer, Alison Heikkila. AND thanks so much to Alison for joining us for Spooktober!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Mysterious and Magical WeekTwo

Time again to be spooked, mystified and magically transported to the land of Halloween and holidays! Ride along on the Dream Team train as we journey through all things Mysterious and Magical throughout the entire month of October. Our guest "engineer" is Miss Eerie herself, Alison Heikkila. October promises to be a very bumpy ride...

But before we begiin this week's journey, did everyone happen to see Wendy Jordan's awesome tutorial last week on Paper Craft Planet? I love Wendy's work and her tutorials are always so well done. So be sure to check it out and get registered to win the stencil of your choosing!

Now on to this week's challenge creations. For this week's challenge I used two Dreamweaver stencils: LJ 816 Spider Web and LL3015 Raven. Remember, both of these stencils can be purchased at your local stamp store or online at Stencil with Style.


To begin, I first dry embossed the Spider Web on my  Big Shot. Then, with the stencil still in place, I misted over the openings with bleach. After heat setting (to speed up the drying), I sponged on Ranger Distress inks in Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord.

The Raven was first black embossed with pigment ink and then embossed with Black Diamond embossing powder.

The witches hat is a Spellbinders die cut out from Black Glitter cardstock.

If you haven't already been there, now its time to jump on your brooms and head on over to the other Dream Team members playing along with today's challenge:




Until next week, have a magical and mysterious week! 

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Mysterious and Magical

Are you ready to be spooked, mystified and magically transported to the land of Halloween and holidays? Hop on board the Dream Team train as we journey through all things Mysterious and Magical through the month of October. Our guest "engineer" is Miss Eerie herself, Alison Heikkila. October promises to be a very bumpy ride...

Because of a crazy busy week, I do not have anything to share today. However, I am sure these talented ladies have some magical creations to share with you:

 
Until next week, I hope all your days are magical ones! 

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Dreamweaver and Quietfire Finale!

As some of you who know me well know, I love to play with color. Recently I have been practicing making wastercolor wash backgrounds with Twinkling H2Os. Nothing fancy, just mixing and blending of colors.


So today, for my final card of the Dreamweaver/Quietfire Design blog hop, I am sharing with you one of my "practice" cards. I am not completely enthralled with it. (Unlike the one I loved, loved, loved until I put a thumbprint of paste on it!) but I am putting this one out there because this creativity thing should really always be about having fun and trying new things. They may not always be "just right" and that makes them even more special.


After creating the background wash with my Twinklings, I stamped the Quietfire sentiment with black ink and embossed with black embossing powder. Then I black pasted the Large Maple branch and let dry. Once dry, I used the Stewart Stamp n Stick Glue pad and Dreamweaver Metallic F/X to highlight the leaves. It needed something and I really didn't want to use ribbon or other embellishments because that would defeat the purpose of using the background paper so I just doodle-framed the image with a couple different width black markers.

Not perfect, but not bad, don't you think?

Now, please take some time and hop on over to the other bloggers today and leave us all some love. You know you want to win the prize package shown below!

Friday, September 20, 2013

Dreamweaver and Quietfire: Day 4

Welcome to Day 4 of the Dreamweaver/Quietfire Design Blog Hop!


Here is the list of participating bloggers for today:

I'll be back tomorrow for the finale day of this incredible blog hop. Please make sure you stop on by and leave me some love. You know you want to win one of these these two fabulous prize packages!





Thursday, September 19, 2013

A Tree to Die for!

Welcome to Day Three of the

 Dreamweaver/Quietfire Design Blog Hop!

ENABLER ALERT!

This month both Art Glitter and Stencil with Style are offering a 20% discount on your purchase! To receive the discount, use the code DW20 at Art Glitter and the code SWS20 at Stencil with Style!


 In keeping with the Awesome in Autumn theme, I used the Dreamweaver LX 7020 Leafless Tree stencil along with the coordinating die DX 7020 Leafless Tree die with Art Glitter Ultrafine Brown #58 glitter and Quietfire Design's  "Live in the Moment" stamp.





The shadow (actually a highlight) of the tree was created by using bleach with the stencil. I love the subtle effect the bleach created. For all the details and list of supplies used, please head on over to this week's Dreamweaver Thursday Tutorial post on the Paper Craft Planet blog.

BUT before you do, remember to leave me some love so that you can be entered to win this incredible prize package:








AND don't forget to leave some love for these uber talented bloggers also participating in today's hop:


Teresa Horner

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Quietfire & Dreamweaver Day Two!

It's Day Two of the Dreamweaver/Quietfire Design Collaboration!!!

 


I am taking today off from posting a creation so that I can work on a Paper Craft Planet tutorial for tomorrow! But that doesn't mean you should take the day off from checking out some amazing blog posts. Here is the list of participating bloggers for today:
 Remember to leave some love on each of these blogs posts for an opportunity to win this wonderful prize package:



I'll be back tomorrow with a Thursday Dreamweaver Awesome in Autumn challenge that not only uses Quietfire Design stamps, Dreamweaver Stencils but also adds the glitz and glamour of Art Glitter! Until then, have a creative day!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Dreamweaver + Quietfire = Awesome!!!



Get ready for an amazing week of Awesome in Autumn! This week we are playing with the Quietfire Design team, and are so excited to play with their amazing images and sentiments. In their beautiful calligraphic style, their quotes and thoughts are the perfect addition to our Dreamweaver designs. Follow along with us, and leave your comments for an opportunity to win one of two wonderful prize packages:


Here's what I've created for today's post:


Supplies used:
Dreamweaver LM 121 Butterfly Stencil
Dreamweaver Translucent Embossing Paste
Quietfire Follow Your Dreams Stamp
Glossy cardstock
Ranger Distress Ink: Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge
Black Stazon

Although you could do this same technique using Dreamweaver White Glossy Paste, I choose to paste emboss the butterfly with Translucent paste on white cardstock. Once the butterfly had dried, I sponged on the Distress inks until I achieved the color saturation I wanted. By using the translucent paste with the Butterfly, it acted as a pseudo-resist so the butterfly pops off the page and appears white in color. Then I stamped the inspiring sentiment with the Stazon and mounted it all onto a mat and folded card.

A very simple design but I did not want to detract from the incredible power of the sentiment.

For more inspiration using Dreamweaver products with Quietfire stamps, check out the other participating bloggers for today:


Remember to leave me some love so you two can be eligible to win the incredible prize shown above! And don't forget to stop by each day this week for more inspiration and links.


Thursday, September 12, 2013

Awesome Glittery Gift

Dreamweaver Stencils + Art Glitter = SPARKLY FUN!!



This month is the annual collaboration between Dreamweaver Stencils and Art Glitter, and it promises to have double the glitter and double the fun! Follow the trail of bling all of this month on the Art Glitter blog, and the Dream It Up! blog. 

The colors and smells of autumn always make me think of my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. And although I love all the food associated with it, I really love the sentiment of the day: GIVING THANKS. 

So today I thought I'd share with you a quick, easy and quite inexpensive stationary set that I love to make to give as a hostess/teacher/neighbor gift. It also works great to make for a Birthday present.

With only one sheet of 8-1/2" x 11"  cardstock and a few scores using your scoreboard, you have a folder that holds A2 size cards and envelopes. (I usually put 4 cards and envelopes inside). Here is a picture of the folder and one of the inside cards, both using the LJ 906 Maple branch stencil that has been embossed with Copper paste and sprinkled with Art Glitter ultrafine opaque glitter:





And here is a picture of the inside showing the pockets which hold the cards and envelopes:





LJ 906 Maple branch stencil
Copper Embossing Paste
Palette Knife
Paste spreader

Twig Ultrafine Opaque Glitter
Copper Canyon Ultrafine Opaque Glitter

If this has inspired you to create your own notecard set and you'd like the template for creating the folio, let me know. I'd be glad to send you the instructions.

I hope you'll play along with this month's challenge of "Awesome in Autumn." Just link your creations to the linkytool on the Dream It Up! Thursday posts for a chance to win some stupendous stencils and glamorous glitter! As if that wasn't cool enough, Art Glitter is offering a 20% discount this month if you use the code DW20 and...

BONUS: Stencil with Style is also offering a 20% discount this month if you use the code SWS20!

Check out this week's awesomeness which includes our super sparkly guest designer and previous Dream Team member for additional awesome inspiration...


Thursday, September 5, 2013

It's going to be a Sparkling September!!!


Dreamweaver Stencils and Art Glitter

 
Ready to be sparkly? This month is the annual collaboration between Dreamweaver Stencils and Art Glitter, and it promises to have double the glitter and double the fun! Follow the trail of bling all of this month on the Art Glitter blog, and the Dream It Up! blog. Play along with the monthly challenge of "Awesome in Autumn" and link your creations to the linkytool on the Dream It Up! Thursday posts for a chance to win some stupendous stencils and glamorous glitter! As if that wasn't cool enough, Art Glitter is offering a 20% discount this month if you use the code DW20 and...
Stencil with Style is also offering a 20% discount this month if you use the code SWS20!
Here's a list of participating blogs for today, Thursday, September 5. I'll be posting every other week, other than this one, since I am still playing summer catch-up!