April Inspirations Week 2!

The Dream Team has a spectacular month planned for you...filled with exciting news and inspiration for all of your crafting dreams! The exciting news will be announced in the Dream It Up! post on April 17th, but the "April Inspirations" challenge will run for the entire month. Each team member will post what inspires them in their creative life...maybe a Pinterest pic, a magazine pic, a quote, a book, a place, an artist, a crafter friend...along with their creation. We are hoping that you will feel inspired as well, and link your projects (and inspiration) to the inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog. 
One thing that not many people know about me is that I have a BS in Horticulture and taught high school horticulture for a couple of years. I spent many hours traipsing around the woods in MN looking for various plant materials we were required to learn in our MN Plant Life class. We often would see beautiful mushrooms and shelf fungus during our walks. I still look for them where ever I go. This week I found some beautiful pictures on Pinterest as my inspiration to create this for you:

Here's the Pinterest picture it's based on:

Aren't they both fabulous! Mine was pretty easy to create:

• Tape your Mushroom stencil (LL3025) to white cardstock with removable tape
• Apply Dreamweaver Regular Embossing Paste (DEP) to the image
• Before removing the stencil, use the edge of your palette knife to make some ridges in the stem areas
• Remove the stencil and place in water for cleaning
• Let the paste dry thoroughly
• Place the clean, dry stencil back over the dry paste, tape in place
• Use small stencil brushes to apply inks over the image as desired ( I used Memento Inks - Lady Bug and Rhubarb Stalk in the caps, Desert Sand and Rich Cocoa on the stems and grass, and a little Bamboo Leaves on the grass)
• Remove the stencil and sweep some Rich Cocoa around the edges
• Use a paintbrush or toothpick to add some small dots of the paste around the caps
• Let the dots dry 
• Use a large stencil brush and the Rich Cocoa to stencil some mushrooms around the background of a kraft card base
• Add some May Arts netted ribbon across the bottom (I cut it in half so it wasn't so wide)
• Mount the mushrooms on a black mat and use foam tape to add the mushrooms to your card

Be sure to check out what inspired the rest of the team this week:

Janelle Stollfus

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Pam Hornschu
Cherylynn Moser

Happy Creating,

Louise

An InLinkz Link-up