March Madness Week 1!

MAD I tell you! We're all going MAD! That is...MAD for Dreamweaver Stencils! Lol. Welcome to our "March Madness" challenge! Anything goes, and the more outside-of-the-box, the better. This year, we're aiming to play with non-traditional challenges whenever possible. So, break out all of your I-never-quite-knew-what-to-do-with-these-products stash, look at your Dreamweaver stencils in a whole new creative light, and get crafting! Oh, and don't forget to link those creations to the linkytool on the Dream It Up! blog for one of THREE chances to win the stencil of your choice!
Ever since its release in January, I have been "mad" for the new Zen Flower stencils (LX7024). It is a very large stencil (6"x6") so using all of it can be a challenge, but it is so beautiful that you want to use it every way you can think of when you're creating! I have been wanting to create a layered version of this flower and just had not found the time, until now. Mirror projects are one of my favorite "non-traditional" go to projects, so this week I created one using this wonderful new stencil and the three new leaf die cuts (DD003 Leafy Branch, DD002 Monstera leaf, and DM2001 Petite fern).

Here's my personal act of madness:

Start by tracing the Zen flower stencil on patterned paper with a Micron pen,
repeat the tracing using less and less of the stencil each time until you have several layers

Cut the layers out and use a coordinating ink to add a deeper color to every other layer

Edge each layer with a black marker and use foam tape between the layers
Make several flowers in various sizes.

Die cut the three different leaves in various shades of green

I painted a square mirror from IKEA with several colors of Distress Paint and let that dry
before adding my layered flowers and the die cut leaves.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to use a ribbon to hang it with or just the hanger it comes with, so for now it doesn't have either, and is sitting on an easel (that's good too). The photos really can't do it justice. It has such depth and texture in person, you'll just have to take my word for for it! By the way, I was able to create all the flowers for this out of ONE 12" x 12" piece of decorative paper with enough left over to make one more small flower. That's MADNESS! what an easy, fun, beautiful way to use up a piece of left over paper! Oh, I almost forgot, I put it all together with ZipDry from Beacon Adhesives. 

Need some more crazy ideas? Check our "A" team, and our very special guest designer and Certified Dreamweaver teacher...

Georgia Sommers

Dream It Up!
Laura Drahozal
Lyn Bernatovich
Pam Hornschu
Heidi Erickson
Louise Healy 
Cyndi Bundy

Happy Creating,

Louise

February Flutters Final Edition!

Is it spring yet???? It certainly does not feel like spring. We still have a lot of snow on the ground here and we're supposed to get up to 10" more this weekend! Uncle! Thank goodness the sun is getting stronger each day and hopefully we'll have a beautiful spring soon. Hope springs eternal as the saying goes.

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DREAM TEAM call for new members!!! See the DREAM it UP! blog for details!
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The Dreamweaver challenge for the month of February  is coming to a close, but we're pretty excited to share our final creations of "February Flutters", meaning anything that flutters. Heart flutters, wings that flutter, breezes, sails, etc. So, come along for the ride and link your own "flutterings" to the Dream It Up! blog for a chance to win the stencil of your choice. 

Meanwhile, here's my "fluttering" for the week featuring one of Dreamweaver's beautiful butterfly stencils and one of the die cuts.

LG706 - Monstera shape, LM121 - Butterfly
DD002 - Monstera leaf die cut

The background was created with the wonderful Monstera shape (LG706) stencil and Memories Mists spray on green cardstock. The Butterfly (LM121) stencil was paste embossed with a combination of some left over pastes on yellow cardstock, dried, then fussy cut. The three small Monstera (DD002) leaves were die cut from various shades of green cardstock. It has that warm "jungle" feel that I need right now.

The new die cuts are just wonderful. If you haven't seen them yet, flutter over to Stencil with Style to check them out.

Fly on over to the other team member blogs for their fluttering creations!

Dream It Up! 

Lea Kimmel 

Louise Healy (that's me!) 

Stacey Rumsby 

Terrece Siddoway 

Pam Hornschu 

Cherylynn Moser

Happy Creating,

Louise