Thursday, February 23, 2012

Dreamweaver Thursday Dream Scheme

February is flying by and we still have had only dustings of snow. Not that I'm complaining, but it makes we wonder what March and April will bring!
Our February challenge for Dreamweaver Stencils continues and we would really love it if you would play along with our Green Theme. Be sure to check out this beautiful design from Sue Petersen that she sent Lynell to post for her, click here to see it. Thanks, Sue, for joining our fun!
My take on the "green" theme this week revolves around another kind of green, a golf green. In two weeks I'll be heading to FL to watch my daughter's college team play in several tournaments over their spring break, so I have golf on the brain right now. This card would be ideal for any golfers in your life, male or female, and is easy to reproduce.

Here are the steps:
  • Lay the golf ball stencil (LS35) on white cardstock that is larger than the stencil (I'm sorry to say this stencil is retired, but maybe you can find one)
  • Mist with Memories Mist Wheatgrass
  • Remove and clean the stencil, let image dry
  • Round corners and brush Distress Inks Frayed Burlap around the edges and lightly through the center
  • Run the Triangle weave stencil (LJ912) and white cardstock through a die cut machine to emboss the background (I like to think of them as woven tees!)
  • Use a foam applicator and Distress Inks Peeled Paint over the embossed image
  • Edge with Frayed Burlap and mount to the front of a card
  • Run the Houndstooth stencil (LJ913) and white cardstock through a die cut machine to emboss (this reminds me of divot tools)
  • Use a foam applicator and Distress Inks Frayed Burlap to color
  • Cut a 1" strip of the pattern and edge with more color
  • Add small brown brads near the top and bottom of the strip
  • Adhere it towards the left side of the card
  • Type "fore you!" on the computer and print on white cardstock
  • Apply Peeled Paint and Frayed Burlap to match the card
  • Use foam tape to add the golf ball and saying to the card
Can you tell I've been around golf courses a lot! This card will be perfect for several golfers I know.
But the fun doesn't stop here, be sure to check out the rest of the team blogs, just click on the names below.
Happy Creating,
Louise
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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Dream Scheme Thursday

Welcome to the  third week of Dreamweaver Stencils February challenge. This month's challenge is anything GREEN (as in the color), "green" (as in reduce, reuse, recycle), or St. Patrick's Day themed. You are encouraged to play along with us throughout the month for the chance to win a wonderful prize from Dreamweaver. Just create something gorgeous (no pressure!), post it on your blog or whatever public forum you use, then go to the DREAM it UP! blog to add a link to your creation using the Mr. Linky tool. If you don't have a blog or a way to link your design, just email it to Lynell at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and she will post it on her blog for you. We would love to see what you have created this month!
Today I am using two of the new stencils released last month at CHA. The Open Butterfly (LG740) and Mushrooms (LL3025). I took a little liberty with the green theme, but as you can see there's still a lot of green!

To create the background
  • place the Mushroom stencil in the lower left corner of a piece of white cardstock (3 1/2" x 4 1/2")
  • Use painters tape or removable tape to mask off the large mushroom
  • Apply Brilliance Thyme ink with a 1/2" stencil brush all over the grass and small mushroom in the left corner only
  • Apply a little Brilliance Ivy ink with another 1/2" stencil brush just on the grass (use a Picasso LL332 to shield the small mushroom from the ivy color)
  • Use a 1/4" stencil brush to apply Brilliance Coffee Bean ink on the small mushroom cap and stem, but leave a little of the light green showing in the center of the cap
  • Move the stencil to the lower right corner of the piece and repeat the steps for the other small mushroom
  • Move the stencil back over so the mushroom from the right corner is next to the other mushroom in the left corner that you did first, and add  a third small mushroom as shown
  • Remove the stencil and tape, clean and dry the stencil
  • Use the 1/2" brush and Thyme ink to sweep some green ink near the bottom of the stenciled mushrooms
  • Use another 1/2" brush and Memento Bahama Blue to sweep some color at the top to create the sky
  • Adhere to a solid green mat (3 3/4" x 4 3/4") then to the front of a green gingham check card (finished card size is 4 3/4" x 6")
To create the Crackled Butterfly:
  • Tape the Open butterfly stencil (LG740) to a piece of green cardstock (I used the same color as my green mat for the background) using removable tape of gentle painters tape
  • Apply a layer of Glossy Green Embossing Paste using the Paste spreader tool (LM2010)
  • Remove stencil, place in water to clean, making sure to keep your stencil flat while gently brushing with a small fingernail brush
  • Place the clean stencil on a piece of soft cloth (I use old t-shirts) and dry thoroughly
  • Let the green paste dry naturally (about 40-50 minutes) or place the pasted design on a warming tray set to the low setting (about 20 minutes)
  • When the green paste is dry, place the clean, dry stencil back over the green paste and tape all around the design again
  • Use the paste spreader to apply a coat of Crackle Embossing Paste over the green layer. You don't want to scrape too hard, or your crackle layer will be too thin
  • Remove and clean the stencil
  • Set the Crackled image aside to dry. The cracks will begin to appear within 10 minutes, but drying time is about the same as for the green
  • When the Crackle paste is dry, return the stencil to the design again and tape all around
  • Place a piece of felt on the Color Solutions applicator and apply a variety of colors to the felt (I used Iceberg, Citron, Sugar Plum and Creme Brulee) making sure to keep the drops a little separated from each other
  • Use  a pouncing motion to apply the colors over the crackled image
  • Reapply more drops as needed trying to keep the colors in their original spot
  • Put a drop of Creme Brulee on a craft mat and use a brush pen nib to pick up the ink and apply it to the body of the butterfly
  • Remove the stencil (don't clean it yet, I have more to tell you!)
  • Let the inks dry for just a minute or two, then cut out the butterfly and adhere just at the body to the mushroom layer (so the wings flap free)
Now what about all that beautiful Color Solutions ink still on the stencil?  Well, I can't stand wasting it so here's what I do:

  • Place the butterfly stencil on a clean paper towel (ink side up)
  • Use a mini mister or any fine mister bottle to spray the ink with alcohol (not the thinner or blending solution, you are not supposed to spray those!) until it is wet again
  • Place a clean piece of white cardstock over the wet inks and use a gentle rubbing motion across the image to transfer the wet ink to the cardstock
  • Cut around the image with a deckle scissors
  • Use the 1/2" brush and Memento Bahama Blue ink to sweep some color around all the edges
  • Mount into another beautiful card!
I know this has been a lot of steps, but none of them really take very long, and the results are definitely worth it. I hope you've enjoyed today's creations and will spend a little more time checking out what the rest of the team has created for you today.
Happy Creating,
Louise
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Thursday, February 9, 2012

February Dreamweaver Challenge

Welcome to this week's Dreamweaver Stencil Thursday Challenge. The Dream Team has been given the challenge this month to create either St. Patrick's Day cards or "green themed" cards. You are always welcome to play along with us as many times as you would like during the month. Last month EVERYONE won a prize because we only had a few people join our challenge. Here are the two stencils that will be given away at the end of the February challenge.

 

Both the  Cherry Blossom Crest (LL490) and the Long Lilies (LL542) are so beautiful! Just go to Lynell's blog, DREAM it UP!, and add your link in Mr. Linky, then leave a comment.
Last week I shared a "green" card with you using recycled materials, so this week I decided to switch to the St. Patrick's Day  theme of the challenge. Here's what I created:


It is very easy, which is good because I usually make about 30 cards (I come from a very large family!). I started by taping the Clover stencil (LS58) to white cardstock with painters tape. Turn it over to the back and dry emboss it using a stylus, I did the edge of the stencil as well. Turn it back over and remove the stencil from the paper. When I did this the tape stuck a little and pulled up some of my paper, but I decided to go ahead and color it anyway. I used a 1/2" stencil brush and Brilliance Thyme ink to sweep color over the design from all four sides (Striae technique). I really liked how the torn part of the paper came out, it looks like there is mulberry paper behind the image! I put the Clover back on then added the  Cathederal Windows small stencil over that and used the brush to add more ink to create a design on the clover.  The strip at the bottom was just white cardstock colored with the Thyme ink through the Cathederal Windows stencil.

Now check out the rest of team blogs to see what they created this week!


 
Happy Creating,
Louise 
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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Dreamweaver February Challenge

Wow, I can't believe CHA is over and it's February already! I'm sorry I didn't post from the convention, but the hotel's network was down the whole time we were there, can you believe that!  But we had SOOOOO much fun and the Dream Team finally got to meet in person (all but poor Terrece, we missed you and hope you will be at the next show). We had a team dinner, and a little workshop to prepare us for what was going to happen on Monday during the Dreamweaver class. We had 50 people in class on Monday to learn all about embossing on metal, and working with the new Color Solution inks. I think everyone had a good time, I know I did! Here's a photo of Rebecca and Jennifer (they work for Lynell) getting the booth ready on Sunday morning.

We had a demo table to show various techniques, a make and take table where anyone who wanted could make a cute little teacup card using embossed metal and the Color Solutions inks. Magdalena Muldoon from MercArt USA joined us too, and demonstrated lots of techniques using stencils with metals. She is such an incredible artist!

But now it's time to get back to our Dreamweaver Stencils February challenge. This month the team is doing St. Patrick's Day/Green cards, meaning they can have either theme. I'm just not quite ready for St. Patrick's Day yet, and am crashing fast now that I'm home, so I decided to share a "green" card with you today. A while back Lynell released a stencil called Go Green (LX7000). This is something I created to represent a "green" card. You know the three R's right? Reduce, reuse, recycle (or something like that!).

This card was made from a page of a glossy Travel magazine that I was going to put in the recycle bin. I just tore out a pretty scenic page, embossed it with my Big Shot and the Go Green stencil,  and gently sanded it. You have to be careful because the magazine paper isn't as heavy as cardstock. Adhere the sanded image to the front of a card. I found another picture that worked with the background and mounted that on a blue mat and attached it to the front of my card. Voila! a "green card". (ok so this might be stretching the rules more than a little, but hey, rules are meant to be broken!) Here's another card I did with this stencil.

Now check out the rest of team blogs to see if they followed the rules or not!
 
Happy Creating,
Louise
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