Thursday Dream Scheme

It's hard to believe that it's the end of July already! My daughter will be leaving for college in less than 3 weeks!! We are squeezing in one more family trip before then. My husbands family celebrates "Christmas in July" up at a lake in northern Minnesota.  We cram all the annual celebrations into one long weekend at the lake. This year we have 3 graduations, a 60th birthday, a 1st birthday, plus Thanksgiving and Christmas to celebrate! It's a wild and crazy weekend, but we wouldn't miss for the world. It is so wonderful to have everyone together and we don't have to worry about blizzards, tornadoes, maybe, but not snow.
This week's Dreamweaver Stencils Dream Scheme Thursday is a designer's choice.  The card I'm sharing shows off two of Lynell's brand new stencils that were just released at CHA Summer last week.  All of the new stencils are wonderful, and I'm sure all the design team will be trying to feature them in the next several weeks. Here's what I came up with for this week:

Isn't that new butterfly stencil (LJ916) INCREDIBLE! And see that fun background behind it (LJ915), that's one of several new background stencils that were also released last week.  I have been having a ball working with all the new patterns and designs.  This one is a little more complex than you might think at first glance. Did you notice the shimmery design on the butterfly?  That is done with Stampee Crafts Transparent Holographic Stampee Foils.  The background stencil was put through my Big Shot with white cardstock, then I used a large stencil brush (1") to brush a little color around the edge and mounted that on decorative cardstock. The butterfly was also embossed through the Big Shot with white cardstock. With the stencil still in place over the embossed design, use small stencil brushes to color the butterfly. I use Brilliance inks, which are pigment inks so they stay wet a little longer than a dye ink, but just to be sure the whole image was still wet I took a finger dabber and tapped VersaMark over the colored image. Remove the stencil and sprinkle with Stuck on You bonding powder from Stampee Craft, tapping off the excess. Heat emboss. Cut a piece of the Holographic Foil big enough to fit over the image and lay it foil side down over the butterfly. Place the butterfly in a paper folder (a piece of printer paper folded in half is perfect) and send it through a laminator (pre-heat it). When it comes out the other side, open the folder, quickly peel the foil off the image and VOILA! the transparent holographic pattern sticks to the embossed areas. Cut out the butterfly, ink the edge with a matching marker or the edge of an ink pad, add some wire antennae, and mount onto the background. It's not hard. You can get an inexpensive laminator at the big warehouse stores for less than $20. 
Hope you've enjoyed today's design. Be sure to check out the DREAM it UP! blog for another fabulous design, and of course, all the other designer's blogs too. 

Happy Creating,
Louise

Thursday Dream Scheme

Welcome to Dreamweaver Stencils Thursday Dream Scheme. This week we were given a colorway challenge submitted by ME! We are doing monochromatic projects. Here's an example of what monochromatic means:

And here's my card:

This very easy to do. Simply lay your stencil on colored cardstock and spray with a coordinating color of Memories Mists sprays. Remove the stencil and let the image dry. Mount onto a mat in a darker hue and adhere to coordinating background paper. Embellish with a ribbon and hat pin colored to match.
Stay tuned next week for a look at some of the new stencil being released this week at CHA. You're going to love them!
Happy Creating,
Louise

Dream Scheme Thursday

Welcome to another Dream Scheme Thursday challenge sponsored by Dreamweaver Stencils. This week the design team was given a sketch challenge. Here's what it looks like:

I used  Dreamweaver's wonderful Bird of Paradise stencil (LR503). This stencil is a nice size to work with and looks great in a variety of techniques. Here's what I came up with today:

Start by taping the stencil to white cardstock, stencil with small brushes and pigment inks (I, of course used Brilliance Inks, they are so beautiful), making your color fairly dark. Remove and clean the stencil. Replace the clean, dry stencil back over the colored image, tape in place and apply Regular Embossing Paste (matte white), remove the stencil and immediately sprinkle with crystal glitter. As the paste dries, it absorbs some of the pigment ink for a beautiful pastel image. Deckle the edge when the paste is dry (about20 minutes) and mount on decorative papers.  I know a lot of people relate orange and black to Halloween, but I just love these two colors together, they are so striking! 
Stop over to the DREAM it UP! blog for another great creation, then on to the rest of the design team blogs for even more inspiration!
Happy Creating,
Louise

Thursday Dream Scheme

Better late than never as the saying goes!! The fourth threw my week off by a day. I was teaching a class today at The Cottage Stamper in St. Charles, IL when one of my students commented how the first thing she does every Thursday is get her cup of coffee and then logon to check out what is new on our Dreamweaver Stencils Thursday Dream Scheme.  She said she just loved my "fireworks"! Well, I was more than a little embarrassed to have to tell her that post was from Saturday and that I had forgotten to do my post for today!  Oh well, that's life.
This week was a free theme so I wanted to share one of the great designs we did at our workshop a couple of weeks ago.  Our focus was working with Mercart metal and Dreamweaver Stencils.  Here's one of the pieces we created at the workshop:

We ran a piece of black metal through a Big Shot using the Bare Trees (LJ849) stencil (be sure the black side is toward the stencil). Turn the metal over and sand the black off the raised tree areas.  Apply a variety of colors of alcohol ink to the exposed silver area of the metal for a beautiful effect. Mount on coordinating papers and embellish. So easy, so pretty!
Hope you've enjoyed today's creation and will give it a try with one of  your stencils. Now check out the DREAM it UP! blog (which happens to be featuring this same stencil) and the other designers as well.
Happy Creating,
Louise

Fourth of July Blog Hop!

Welcome to our Fourth of July Blog Hop. You should have reached me from Kerry's blog, but if you've gotten lost along the way, no problem,  the complete list is below.
Here's what I came up with for you:

I thought for sure that I knew exactly where my Dreamweaver Stencils fireworks stencil (LJ886) was, but alas I could not find it! So I started flipping through my stencils to come up with something that would work and I found my Spider Mum (LJ892) stencil instead! I used painters tape to block off the areas of the stencil that I did not want to use, then positioned the two flowers at an angle on white paper. I carefully pasted one with the Glossy Red Embossing Paste, then the other with Glossy Blue Embossing Paste, removed the stencil and sprinkled red glitter on the red paste and blue glitter on the blue paste.  While those were drying, I cleaned and dried the stencil so it would be ready to use on the third "fireworks".  The background papers are from Rusty Pickle a couple of years ago.
After the paste was dry, I flipped the stencil to the opposite side I used the first time, taped off the areas I didn't need, and positioned just one mum as my other firework, again using Glossy Blue Paste and blue glitter. When that one was dry, I used Distress Inks (Antique Linen, Old Paper, and Fired Brick) to age the white background so it would blend better with my other papers. Put it all together and they really do look like fireworks! (OK, maybe you have to use a little imagination, or squint your eyes a bit, but I think they worked!). Don't forget to leave me a comment for a chance to win a prize. Then hop on over to Liz's blog for another great idea.

Stop by the following blogs for lots of inspiration, ideas, and fun!  Leave a comment on each by 6 pm EST Tuesday, July 5th for a chance to win some great prizes.  Winners will be drawn at random from the various blogs.  Here's the list:
 
Taylor -- http://taylorusry.blogspot.com
Cyndi -- http://scrappychickcyndi.blogspot.com
Alison -- http://alisonsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com
Berenice -- http://karbersweetescape.blogspot.com
Mary -- http://softangelkisses.blogspot.com
Janelle -- http://rainpuddlesdesign.blogspot.com
Erin -- http://stamptillucramp.blogspot.com
Maria -- http://riacreations.blogspot.com
Jennifer -- http://just4funcrafts.blogspot.com
Pam -- http://1pamperedstamper.blogspot.com
Angelique -- http://scrapping-angel.blogspot.com
Sandie -- http://sandieshores.blogspot.com
Wendy P -- http://paperinkandsmiles.blogspot.com
Suzi -- http://mrsweyremaster.blogspot.com
Kathy -- http://pixieduststudio.blogspot.com
Beth -- http://inkyfingersrule.blogspot.com
Wendy J -- http://papertherapy-wendy.blogspot.com
Kimme -- http://kimme-thelifeofaprincess.blogspot.com
Kerry -- http://kerryischilling.blogspot.com
Louise - http://www.artfullyarticulate.blogspot.com/
Liz -- http://www.blackcatsstudios.blogspot.com/
Laura - http://www.rememberinglifesmoments.blogspot.com
Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the hop!
Happy Creating,
Louise