Thursday, December 27, 2012

Frosty Fun

We've had a lot of fun with this month's Frosty Fun challenge and I hope you've been able to play along.  There's still a few days left, so if you've got some time this week, join us!

This week's project from the archives is a salute to the annual New Years Eve fireworks display in San Francisco.  It's a crowded event – necessary in order to stay warm – and a lot of cool and frosty fun.  This card was super easy to make.  Begin by paste embossing the Fireworks (LJ886) stencil with Translucent embossing paste and a paste spreader (LM2010).   Wash the stencil and set aside to dry.  Sprinkle gold and silver glitter over the fireworks while the paste it still wet and set that aside to dry.  Stamp an image or sentiment of your choice and mat it with coordinating paper.  When the paste has dried, add ribbon or other embellishment and stamped image and you're done.  This makes a great invitation for a New Years Eve party or, with a different stamped image, a Happy New Year card if you didn't get all the Christmas cards out in time!

There's still a few days left, so I hope you'll find some time to play along.  You can get all the details about this month's challenge and the great prize package here.  And for more ideas and inspiration, check out the rest of the Dream Team blogs beginning with Dreamweaver Stencil's blog, Dream it Up!

Liz Martin (you're here)

 

Wishing you all a happy holiday season and warmest wishes for the new year.   See you next week.

Happy crafting,
Liz 


Thursday, December 20, 2012

Fun and Frosty outside . . .

 . . . warm and toasty inside, which is perfect for the season and a good reason to spend time in the craft room.   I like the idea of ice skating (does anyone remember The Skater's Waltz?) but am not very good at it (my one and only experience ended badly).   These lucky skates, however, are pure joy!
The background is the snowflake stencil (LJ819) paste embossed with translucent embossing paste.  After removing and washing the stencil, I sprinkled clear glitter over the paste while it was still wet.  After it was completely dry, I brushed off the excess glitter with a soft brush.

For the skates (LL3016), I dry embossed the metal first by running it through a personal die cutting machine and then, with the stencil still in place, went over the fine details with the small end of a stylus to give more definition.  Then, I turned the embossed metal over and applied regular embossing paste to the back to keep the details crisp and dent-free.  When dry, I cut it out and attached it to the snowflake panel. 

I know this is a very busy time of year, but there's still time to play along with this month's Fun and Frosty challenge.  You can find more information about it here.   For ideas and inspiration, be sure to check out the fabulous projects created by the Dream Team, beginning with the Dreamweaver Stencil blog, Dream it Up!

Liz Martin (you're here)

 

Wishing you all a happy holiday season and warmest wishes for the new year.   See you next week.

Happy crafting,
Liz 


Thursday, December 13, 2012

Fun and Frosty

We've got some very cold, near freezing temperatures headed our way the next few nights and, of course, you need warm wooly mittens to keep your hands warm.  Here they are . . .

I've had a lot of fun using the Mittens (LJ923) stencil and this time I paired it with Christmas Borders (LJ922) for the lovely pattern.  Here's what to do:

Place the Christmas Borders stencil on card stock and tape two corners to hold it in place.  Then, place the Mittens stencil on top and tape the two opposite corners.  With a foam applicator, apply Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China in a pouncing motion over the borders stencil.   To give the mittens a bit more definition, I replaced the cleaned mitten stencil over the inked image and traced the outline with a Micron 05 pen.  Cut out the mittens, adhere them to matching card stock and hand cut a mat.  Adhere mittens to card base.   Attach ribbon and tuck ends into mitten cuff and you're done! Couldn't be easier.

I know this is a very busy time of year, but I hope you'll find some time to play along with this month's Fun and Frosty challenge.  You can find more information about it here.   For ideas and inspiration, be sure to check out the fabulous projects created by the Dream Team, beginning with the Dreamweaver Stencil blog, Dream it Up!
Liz Martin (you're here)

See you next week.

Happy crafting,
Liz 






Thursday, December 6, 2012

Frosty Fun

CONGRATULATIONS to November's  Holidays CAS Challenge winners

Yogi
for the best interpretation of the challenge
and
Sheila Lile
for best use of Dreamweaver products

 We look forward to seeing more of your work in the coming months.

 Now, on to December's challenge.  This month we are challenging you to design a wintery delight. It can be something other than paper, but again we will have two winners: "Best interpretation of the challenge" and "best usage of Dreamweaver products". This last month of the year we will award each of these winners a brand new stencil design we are releasing at CHA. (It's a secret until the very end of the month!)

The first thing that comes to mind is the song . . . "The weather outside is frightful," ta-da-da-da, ta-da-da-da, ta-da-da-da (humming along because I can't remember the words, but I do remember this part) "Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow."   Well, every time I've worked with this stencil, I just have to sing along. 
Here's what you'll need to make the card:
Clear glitter

The details:
Attach stencil to card stock and tape all sides with repositionable tape.  Apply metallic paste with paste spreader.  Remove, wash and dry the stencil; set image aside to dry.

Dry emboss ice skates on to aluminum using personal die cut machine, remembering to position stencil on the base plate and to use new cutting plates dedicated to dry embossing.  Remove stencil and carefully cut around image.

Adhere pasted image to card base and attach ice skates to card front with strong, double-sided tape.

We have a whole month ahead of fun and frosty inspiration, perfect for the winter months, when it's too cold to go outside.   Check out the rest of the design team blogs to see what they've been up to.  Then, sneak in some time to get crafty and post your project on the Dream it Up! blog using Mr. Linky.   There will be prizes for two lucky winners of this month's Frosty Fun challenge. 

Liz Martin (you're here)

Happy crafting,
Liz