April Inspirations!

We're already into April, and no foolin', 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. Check out what our Guest Designer and the "A" team has been inspired by for this week...

Janelle Stollfus (GD)

Dream It Up!
Laura Drahozal
Lyn Bernatovich
Heidi Erickson
Louise Healy 

The Pampered Stamper

Here is my inspiration:

Yes, it is actually a photo that I took at Epcot.  I always look to my pictures to inspire my embellishments, and this time was no exception.  

Here is the embellishment that I created using Dreamweaver Stencils:

See how I tried to match the topiary in the picture?

Here is how it fits on my scrapbook page:

I have a quick (mostly visual) tutorial of the embellishment.

MATERIALS:

Dreamweaver Stencil LL 588 Dragon

Handmade Hawaiian Coconut Soap

Large Stencil Brush

Double Sided Mounting Paper

Distress Embossing Powder in Fired Brick

Distress Embossing Powder in Broken China

Art Glitter Ultrafine Pearlescent 188 Black Vinyl

Ultra Fine Flower Soft in Sage, Pine, and Raspberry Fizz

Flower Soft in Baby Pink

Globecraft Glastique in Matte (or some other finishing glaze)

Pointed Scissors

DIRECTIONS:

1)  Rub the soap on the back of the stencil.  You will see a light filmy coating over the metal.  This will help to get the stencil off of the paper later.

2)  Use the large stencil to brush the "crumblies" of soap off of the stencil.

 3)  "Crack" open one side of the mounting paper covering and peel it off.

 4)  Place the stencil on the paper, soap side down.

5)  Carefully place the embossing powder into place.

 6)  Rub the embossing powder into place with your finger.

7)  Repeat steps 5 and 6 with the rest of the powder, glitter (in eyes), and Flower Soft.

8)  Press down all the material one last time.

9)  Brush off the excess material with the large stencil brush.

 10)  Place the project stencil side down on a smooth, flat surface and carefully peel the paper off of the stencil.

 11)  Cover the entire project with Glastique.  (In retrospect, I could have trimmed the project before this step.) Then, let it dry over night.

12)  Trim around the embellishment.  You can get very close and nothing should fall off.  The great thing about this project is that you can still see the textures you created with the Flower Soft.  Also, the embellishment is a sticker!

I hope you enjoyed my "inspired by" project.  I am not sure it is what our Fearless Team Leader Pam had in mind with this challenge, but, honestly, when I scrapbook I take all of my inspiration from the pictures!  Of course, with stencils I can make the perfect embellishment for any situation!  Don't forget to check out the links above to see what inspires the rest of the team.  Here's wishing you a month full of inspiration!