March Madness Week 2!

MAD I tell you! We're all going MAD! That is...MAD for Dreamweaver Stencils! Lol. Welcome to week 2 of 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!
PLUS, you won't want to miss your chance to join the Dreamweaver Design Team. Here's the link to find out how you can become a DREAM TEAM member too!

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DREAM TEAM call for new members!!! See the DREAM it UP! blog for details!
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This week I am in Cincinnati visiting my darling granddaughter and celebrating my son's birthday. It was sunny and warm Tuesday afternoon when I arrived, a welcome change from the winter storm warning I left behind me in Illinois! But unfortunately, I brought the cold weather with me and it has been rainy and cold since Wednesday morning! Oh well, it still feels like spring here.
Today I am sharing a project I created a while back. If some of you have seen, sorry, but it never hurts to see it again! Our challenge is to use our stencils in unusual ways this month, so this project incorporates stencils, distress products, and a plain wooden birdhouse. Here's my personal act of madness:

How to do it:

• Use Distress Stains and inks to add color to a natural wood birdhouse
• Let it dry or use a heat tool to dry it
• Stain 3 6"x6" pieces of Tim Holtz's grungepaper with peeled paint Distress Stain
• Let dry or heat dry
• Place the Leaves stencil (LX7007) on one piece of the green grungepaper and trace all the openings using a Micron 01 Black pen
• Repeat on the remaining two pieces of grungepaper
• Cut the Leaves out, leaving them connected just in the very center
• Stain a small piece of grungepaper with Distress Stain worn lipstick
• Use just the one whole flower from the Dogwood stencil (LG668) and outline the flower 3 times on the pink grungepaper
• Cut out the flowers
• Use hot glue to attach one whole set of leaves over the top of the birdhouse
• Cut the remaining two sets of leaves into 4 fronds each, set two aside
• Glue the individual fronds around the roof of the birdhouse, staggering them in between the leaves on the top
• Place the two fronds you set aside under the perch near the opening of the birdhouse
• Add the three flowers
• Put some Distress Stickles mustard seed in the centers of the three flowers and dry well

That's all there is to it! A great little decoration for those bird lovers you know.

Need some more crazy ideas? Check our "B" team

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Stacey Rumsby
Terrece Siddoway

Wendy Jordan
Pam Hornschu

Happy Creating and Happy St. Patrick's Day (a little early)!

LS58 - Clover - Dry embossed and lightly brushed with green ink
LJ909 -Cathedral windows small - overlayed and brushed with more green ink

Louise

Lose Some Weight!

That's right, that's the theme of this month's Dreamweaver Stencils challenge! Of course, we mean it in conjunction with card making!  The team is still sharing the new designs recently released at CHA. There are TEN new stencils and SIX new die cuts! They are available and shipping so be sure to tell your local store to hurry up and get them ordered!
This week I am featuring the new Open Fish (LL3038) and Large Scales (LX7023) stencils on a Zentangled card. Here it is:

I just love how the Large Scales make the perfect bubbly waves when they are turned upside down! The great thing about both stencils is they already have nice "sections" to do your tangles in so you really don't need strings (a technical term used by Zentanglers!)

• I started by using my Black Micron 01 pen to outline the Open Fish stencil on white cardstock
• The tangles were added with a Black Micron 005 pen, and shading with a pencil and blending stump
• Copic markers were used to ad a little color 
• I trimmed close to the design and edged with a black marker, mounted it on a blue mat edged with black, and added foam tape to the back 
• The "bottom of the sea" was created by outlining three rows of the Large Scales stencil with the Black Micron 01 on blue paper (matches the mat on the fish layer)
• Add some seaweedy-looking tangles, color them, edge the layer with black
• Mount the scales on the front of your card, add the fish, and there you have it, a fun, colorful card perfect for birthdays, graduations, "have a Fin-tastic day!", you'll think of something!

The B team has more great creations to share with you this week. Check it out!

Dream It Up! 

Lea Kimmel 

Louise Healy 

Stacey Rumsby 

Terrece Siddoway 

Wendy Jordan 

Pam Hornschu 

Cherylynn Moser 

Happy Creating,

Louise

Clean and Simple (CAS)

It seems like everyone always pledges at the New Year to simplify life and lose weight. Well we decided we would make that our Dreamweaver Stencils challenge for the month of January - create Clean and Simple (CAS) cards with not too much froo froo (you know, all those extras we always think a card needs). It is also CHA weekend this weekend, so we are sharing some of the latest designs from Dreamweaver too! CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 10 NEW STENCILS!!
Each week this month I will be posting with the new release stencils, and by the end of the month with the new DIE CUTS! Yes, that's right Dreamweaver has added more die cuts. CLICK HERE TO SEE THEM!
This week I used two of the new stencils to create a modified Zentangle card, we call them "sten-tangled" because we use another stencil to make our design. Confused yet?  It's obvious once you see it:

LL3037 - Zen Butterfly with overlay
LX7025 - Crusade

Isn't the new Zen Butterfly (LL3037) gorgeous!! It is especially striking with the new Crusade background (LX7025) as an overlay to create that Zentangled look! It was like they were made for each other.

This is very easy.

• Dry emboss the butterfly stencil on white cardstock that is slightly larger than the stencil (so you get the outside border when you emboss it)
• Carefully turn the embossed image over to the front leaving the butterfly stencil in place
• Overlay the Crusade stencil so the design is symetrical, tape in place with removable tape
• Use a Black Micron pen (01) to trace the openings of the Crusade stencil
• Remove the overlay and outline the butterfly openings
• Remove the butterfly stencil and use a Black Micron 005 to add little lines to each opening and to fill in the body and antennae
• Lay the crusade  stencil on white cardstock and use a Micron 01 to trace a strip of the design
• Trim all the piece to fit your card, layering the butterfly and strip on black mats
• Place the strip down the far left side of the card, use foam tape to apply the butterfly
• Embellish with some small black gems

Be sure to go to the other team blogs to see how they have used the new designs!

Dream It Up!
Jennifer Dove
Louise Healy
Stacey Rumsby
Terrece Siddoway
Wendy Jordan 
Pam Hornschu
Cherylynn Moser 

Heidi Erickson

Happy Creating,

Louise

Rain, Rain Go Away!

I know that's not really our challenge theme this month, but that's how I feel right now. I need sunshine soon! I am grateful that it's not snow, but enough already! It seems that our Dreamweaver Stencils April challenge of Mists, Drizzles and Showers has been an accurate forecast of our weather.
To go along with the rainy weather, I am showing yet another idea for the the Umbrella stencil (LG737), this time using Zentangle. Enjoy!

If you haven't tried using your stencils with this fun technique, you don't know what you're missing! Stencils are the perfect starting point because they provide natural divisions for your various Zentangle patterns. Check for classes in your area, you'll have fun, I promise! I use Sakura Micron pens to do mine.

Be sure to stop by the rest of the teams' blogs for more inspiration.

Dream It Up!
Alison Heikkila (guest designer)
Laura Drahozal
Lyn Bernatovich
Pam Hornschu
Heidi Erickson
Louise Healy (you're here)
Jessica Griffin
Cyndi Bundy

Happy Creating,
Louise