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:

Dream It Up!

Linda Neff (GD)

Cyndi Bundy

Lyn Bernatovich

Terrece Siddoway

Wendy Jordan

Heidi Erickson

Cherylynn Moser

Laura Drahozal

Louise Healy

Stacey Rumsby

Pam Hornschu

Lea Kimmel

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!

A Festively Fall Canvas

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.

For this week's project, I chose to use the LJ832 Cornucopia to create a Thanksgiving canvas which will sit on our Thanksgiving Table as part of the centerpiece.

1. I began first by staining an 8x8 Canvas with Aged Mahogany and Vintage Photo Distress Stain and adorned the corners with Tim Holtz's Ideology Corners.
2. Then using Dreamweaver's Original Paste, I paste embossed the LG832 Cornucopia stencil on a piece of cross-stitch cloth. I originally had tried to use burlap but the weave was a bit too loose for the detail of this stencil. (Tomorrow I will share a card I made this same technique with burlap!).
3. Once the paste was dry, I realigned the stencil and using a sponge dauber, applied Distress Embossing Ink.
4. Then came the fun part! After removing the stencil, using a tiny spoon, I sprinkled Distress Embossing Powders over the wet ink. Using my heat gun, I melted the powder to give it the mottled look.

This was a really fun project which has inspired me to make another one for our  hristmas table. I hope it has inspired you to give it a try. It's inexpensive, easy and a lot of fun!

To recap, here's a list of all the Ranger and Dreamweaver supplies I used:

 

Ranger Distress Embossing Ink

Ranger Aged Mahogany and Vintage Photo Distress Stains

Ranger Distress Embossing Powders: Black Soot, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Orange Marmalade, Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters and Mustard Seed

Dreamweaver LJ832 Cornucopia Stencil

Dreamweaver Original Embossing Paste

Dreamweaver Palette Knife

Dreamweaver Paste Spreader

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

Ranger Blog

Dream It Up!

Wendy Jordan

Kristi Van Doren

Louise Healy
Lee Kellogg
Georgia Sommers
Liz Martin
Laura Drahozal
Terrece Siddoway
Cherylynn Moser
Pam Hornschu
Cyndi Bundy

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@.... 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!

Playing with Distressed Embossing Powders

The Dream Team are so excited to have the opportunity to play along with some unique Ranger Products in the Tim Holtz line...specifically, the Distressed Embossing Powders! Our own Louise Healy demonstrated how fabulous these are with the Dreamweaver Stencils when she created this card for a fun class at CHA Summer 2012:

Apparently, Tim Holtz agreed with all of us on this unique use of his product, so he very generously had Ranger (thanks, Patti!) send the team some samples to play and blog with. So...here we go!

Here's my post for today::

I know it doesn't exactly fall into the Festively Fall theme but I have a good reason. I have been busy working on a tutorial for the PaperCraft Planet blog for the polymer clay pendant featured last week. (See blog post below for a link to the tutorial.)

Today's card definitely falls into the Clean and Simple, yet Distressed/Grunged category. The supplies used are:

• Dreamweaver Steampunk Clock #LX7018
• Dreamweaver Matte Black Embossing Paste
• Dreamweaver Paste Spreader
• Ranger Embossing Ink
• Ranger Vintage Photo Distress Ink
• Ranger Black Soot Distress Embossing Powder
• Ranger Inkssentials Blending Tool and Foam Pad
• Ranger Heat-it Craft Tool
• Tim Holtz Ideology Watch face, gears, and Brads
• Kraft cardstock
• Black A6 folded card

After securing the stencil with removable tape on the kraft cardstock, apply Embossing Paste using Paste Spreader, remove and clean stencil; set aside to dry. When dry, realign the stencil and apply the Distress Embossing Ink in a pouncing motion with a sponge. Remove stencil and sprinkle on Black Soot EP (remember to shake first). Heat with the Craft Tool. Unlike traditional embossing powders, the Distress Powders don't change appearance all that much when heating, so use your best judgment, lightly testing an area with your finger if you're unsure. Remember, you can always heat again and even apply more ink and powder if you want to, but you can't remove the scorch marks if you burn your cardstock!

Once the Embossing Powder has cooled, rub over it with your finger to remove some of  the powder to give it a distressed look. Option: use a different colored EP, like Vintage Photo or Walnut Stain to have the black paste appear more prominent.

Using your blending tool, edge the embossed cardstock with the Vintage Photo ink and adhere the Watchface and gears where desired. Mount to folded card, sit back and admire your results!

Very easy, very distressed and very much done in classic Tim Holtz style.

For the next four weeks, on our regular Thursday posts, we will be featuring the wonderful things that you can do with Tim's Distress Powders and Dreamweaver Stencils. Leave comments on each of the team blog posts (links below) for an opportunity to win this fabulous prize package compliments of Ranger Ink and Dreamweaver Stencils:

And here are the links to all the blogs.

Ranger Ink Blog

Dream It Up!
Pam Hornschu

Laura Drahozal

Cherylynn Moser 

Louise Healy

Wendy Jordan

Cyndi Bundy

Terrece Siddoway

Kristi Van Doren

Georgia Sommers

Lee Kellogg

Liz Martin

Don't forget to play along with the Dream Team's monthly challenges for more opportunities to win some great stencil designs! October's challenge is Festively Fall, and November is CAS (clean and simple) Christmas! Link your creations on the Dream It Up! blog, or email pics to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com. Join us on Facebook as well! Lots of inspiration, and lots of fun!