Turquoise and Silver Challenge

Hello all my Dreamweaver friends! It is time for another Dreamweaver Challenge. This week it is a color challenge--turquoise and silver. When I think of these two colors together, especially this time of year, I always think about snowflakes. It was quite the coincidence that in my area of Michigan, we just experienced out first big snowfall of the season. We got over 5 inches. I can tell you that this card looks very much like early morning in the snow.

At any rate, I should get to telling you how it is made. On this card, I used only two techniques, my two favorites, in fact: Double Glitter and Metals. The background, which is very subtle (more subtle than I am used to anyway) was made with the double glitter technique. I first soaped up the back of stencil LJ 819, snowflakes. I brushed off the excess soap and pressed the soaped side of the stencil onto double sided adhesive paper. I then pressed some silver Stampee foil into the larger exposed areas of the snowflakes. I used a dry embossing stylus to push it down well. I then put Art Glitter Microfine Silver Moon glitter over the top and rubbed it in with my finger. I had to make sure to rub it in because this Microfine is so light weight that it needs to be coaxed into place. I then brushed it off well and, when I thought it was good enough, brushed it again. I placed the whole thing stencil side down on the table and carefully removed the paper while running my fingers along the stencil to keep it flat. I poured Ultrafine Opaque Art Glitter in Sky and Blue Hawaii over the top. In real life, you can see that there are two different colors of blue on this card.

The metal was done with plain aluminum and the Gothic Snowflake stencil LL396. I placed the stencil down on a flat, smooth surface and put the metal, plain aluminum side down, on top of the stencil. I rubbed a drawing stump over the top to outline the edges of the stencil. Then, I used the Mercart Telfon tool to push the metal down into the stencil. I flipped the whole thing and carefully removed the stencil. I used the telfon tool to define the outline of the snowflake. Then, I flipped it back again and laid it on a piece of suede. I used a ball tool to push the design out and make it "pouffy". Flipping it back and laying it back on the smooth surface, I once again used the teflon tool to define the edges. Then, I used turquoise alcohol inks over the top and sanded it to show the snowflake. After that, it was a simple matter of assembling the card.

This card, while it certainly uses my favorite techniques and appeals to the "magpie" glam collector in me, is also a very different style than I am used to. It lacks my usual contrast level and, because of that and the turquoise color, feels almost "retro" to me. It is one of the things that I love so much about being on a design team--I am challenged to try something new. Check out all the Dream Team blogs and feel challenged to try something a little different. Maybe even take a class. If you are in Michigan, I will be teaching a lot this week. You can catch me tonight, Thursday, December 1 at Stamp Peddler in Northville (I think there is one spot left), where I will be teaching various uses of double sided adhesive paper. On Friday, December 2, I will be at Capture a Memory in Flint, where I will teach a little of everything. There were two spots left for that on Wednesday afternoon. If you like metals, catch me at My Craft Room in Troy on Saturday, December 3. That is where I will be teaching everyone how to play with metals and stencils. There are a few spots left there. On December 11, I will be at Altered Art Addicts in Jackson, MI. I will be teaching a variety of things there.

So, I will be busy for a little while. If you aren't too busy, take a little time to view all our blogs and get inspired. We check out anything you link to the Dreamweaver Stencil blog, so let us take a look. (I love to read your comments, too, so leave one if you have a chance). I'll see you next week!