JULY...a month to DIE for Week 3!

Welcome to week three of our Dreamweaver Stencils July Challenge!  All of this month the Dream Team are featuring our newest toys...our DIES! You'd be surprised at how many we have, and what fun things you can do with them...especially when used in conjunction with many of their matching stencils. They are such a simple way to create an effective card.

This week my creation incorporates three of our dies and three stencils. Yes, it's a little more work than last week's card, but it is so cute! Here it is...

Dog Days of Summer!

See, it is totally worth it! 
The background was created using 3/4" stencil brushes and Distress Inks (Salty Ocean, Peeled Paint, and Vintage photo). I used the Picasso (LL332) to create some clouds (I told you there were three stencils!).

So what are the three dies? They are DX7020 - Leafless tree, DD003 - Leafy Branch, and DL3029 - Dog. The decorative papers for the Leafy Branch and the Dog had Double-sided mounting paper put on the back before cutting. I did not do that to the tree because I wanted the branches to be flexible. I just used a dot roller on the back of the trunk and some lower branches to adhere the tree. The Leafy branch was cut apart so I could stick the leaves all over the tree limbs.

LL3029 - Dog stencil was paste embossed on light green paper with Matte Black Embossing Paste and set aside to dry. The cut pieces were edged with black marker and stuck on him. This allowed me to keep his eyeball, nose, collar and back spot black for more contrast. I added a little glue and glitter to his collar. 

The Sun stencil (LR502) was paste embossed with Matte Black Embossing Paste, then, before removing the stencil, a combination of Distress Embossing Powders were sprinkled over the wet paste (spiced marmalade, mustard seed, fired brick), the stencil carefully removed, heat set the powders being careful not to let the paste bubble.

I'm sure that our "A" team is just DIE-ing to show you their creations, as well as our Guest Designer for the month of July...

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

and

Terri Sproul (GD)

Happy Creating,
Louise

An InLinkz Link-up

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