More March Madness

Welcome to the Dreamweaver "March Madness" challenge! Anything goes, and the more outside-of-the-box, the better. 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!
Here is my Mad Creation:

It is a gift for my friend, Georgia, who is currently playing along with our team. I met her as a Dreamweaver Designer and am so glad that I did!  This is a picture of her on the teacup ride at Disneyland.  What is crazier (or harder to get) than a teacup ride frame?  To quote Alice in Wonderland, "We're all mad here", further adding to the March Madness theme.

This is how I created the Madness:

MATERIALS:
Dreamweaver Stencil LJ896 Large Flourish
Dreamweaver Stencil LS96 Hello
Dreamweaver Stencil LL493 Teacups Vertical
Dreamweaver Stencil LL 550 Party Lanterns
Any Small Print Dreamweaver Stencil
Stencil Brush 
Palette Knife
Removable Tape
Dreamweaver Glossy White Embossing Paste
Color Solutions in Aquarius, Red Pepper, Mojito, Cosmo Pink and Lemoncello
Color Solutions Thinner
Art Glitter Ultrafine Transparent in 85 Crystal
Corron Swabs
Blue Acrylic Paint
White Acrylic Paint
Paintbrush
Plain Wooden Frame

 DIRECTIONS:
1) Paint the frame with your background color.  I used blue.  Let it dry.
2)  Position the Large Flourish Stencil over the corners and paint with the stencil brush.

3)  Position the hello stencil on the bottom of the frame and tape down with the removable tape.
4)  Using the palette knife, spread the glossy paste across the top of the stencil.
5)  Remove the stencil.
6)  For the Hello Stencil, cover with clear glitter immediately.

 7)  Repeat steps 3-5 with the teacups on the sides and the lanterns across the top.  You won't always be able to get the whole stencil on the frame.  When that is the case, you can use your finger to remove any excess embossing paste.

8)  Let dry.

9)  Brush off excess glitter.

10)  You can test the Color Solutions ink colors.  Use cotton swabs to test the colors on plain paper and see which colors you want to use.

11)  Add color to the glossy paste with cotton swabs.  You can use stencils with simple patterns as masks to put on the Color Solutions Ink.

12)  Use a little of the Color Solutions Ink Thinner on a cotton swab to perfect the inks.

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

Georgia Sommers

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

And Now For Something a Little Different.....

It may come as a surprise to my followers that I have always considered myself a scrapbooker, NOT a card maker. Recently, I have joined a great group of online scrappers. The Disney Scrappers, as they call themselves, have reinvigorated my scrapbooking. Here it is, a layout that combines four of my passions: Disney, scrapbooking, the Silhouette Machine and Dreamweaver Stencils. These photos were from a trip to Epcot in November, just as the Christmas Decorations were being put up. I decided to reflect some of the decorations in the embellishments: snowflakes and ice skates.
The first stencil that I used was the Ice Skates Stencil LL 3016. I taped it down on top of black cardstock and right onto my craft sheet with removable tape. I actually taped it upside down because I wanted the skates to face in. I then got out my Dreamweaver Spatula and the original embossing paste. I placed some of the embossing paste above the stencil. I laid my spatula at a 45 degree angle from the table and pulled the paste over the stencil toward me. I made sure that the spatula was in contact with the stencil at all times. I tried to cover it all in one stroke. The remaining paste went right back into the container. After the paste was dry (about a half an hour) I colored the heels with a Copic marker and the blades and lace accents with a silver paint pen. The original paste takes all sorts of techniques. I trimmed around the edge, attached it to the page and added a brad.
The snowflakes used almost the same technique. Instead of the Original Embossing Paste, I used the Glossy White Embossing Paste.
It is more opaque (obviously shinier), and a little thinner in consistency. I always make sure that I work just a little quicker with the glossy paste because I find that it has more of a tendency to try and "bleed" under the stencil than the original. I pasted these stencils: LL 399 Antler Snowflake, LL 396 Gothic Snowflake, LL 398 Southwest Snowflake, and LS 26 Snowflake (which I pasted twice). When these were dry, I used silver Stickles to sparkle them up. You can see that I had fun using the stencilled snowflake with different patterns of Stickles.
Oh, and I mentioned the Silhouette Machine (the best die cutting machine in the world). Well, that title? It was cut on my Silhouette. The font is a dingbat font called Prototype Community. It contains the original logos of everything in Epcot. If you are a Disney fan and a Silhouette user, you DEFINITELY need this font. I was also surprised that the Silhouette cut the mirror paper that I wanted to use. The top layer ripped just a little on some of the finer corners, but I think that may have been due to a slightly duller blade. I just fixed it up with a little gold paint pen.

So, I am hoping that you like my extra posting this week. I sure had fun with it. Don't worry, regular cardmaking fans, I am still going to post my usual on Thursday with the rest of the Dreamweaver Stencil Design Team. It is already scheduled, in fact. If anyone is visiting from Disney Scrappers, you can expect to see me A LOT more active in the near future. I love both groups--you inspire me. Here's hoping I inspired someone else. See you Thursday!

Dreamweaver (sort of) Monochromatic Challenge

This week's challenge is monochromatic. This card that I made for Lynell fits the theme (almost). The grayish wood looking paper is not technically part of the blue monochromatic scheme, but I think you will forgive me.
So, have you noticed the two new stencils? The skates are new and are simply pasted with white glossy paste. The background is also a new stencil, which I think Lynell is calling "hills". When I saw it, I knew right away that I would be using it this way. The openings are perfect for Zentangles. I did this Zentangling with the Ranger Inkssentials Opaque White gel pen.
The Winter stencil was pasted with glossy white paste as well. Both Winter and the skates were put on the card with 3D Dots. The brad was added to make the skates look as if they are hanging just inside the windowed door, waiting to be taken out on a glorious winter day.
This was a simple one, but so much fun to create. Thanks for stopping by today, to check out our challenge, the new stencils and a little bit of cool winter on this toasty summer day. I hope you enjoyed it all. Check out the other Dreamweaver Team Blogs, leave a little love, get inspired, and make a monochromatic (or sort of monochromatic) project yourself. Then, you should link it to the Dreamweaver Blog. We would love to see your projects, too.

Dream Scheme Sketch Week

This is the sketch challenge for this week. For once, I actually followed the sketch exactly. This is my very simple card. Unlike many other cards I have made, this one has already been used. I made it for my niece's Confirmation.

It was so, so simple. When I saw this sketch, I immediately thought of how the oval would be a great shape for this cross, being that the proportions would fit perfectly. The colors were dictated by the Confirmation paper that I found at Scrap Tales. Both pieces were part of the same collection. I probably would not have chosen these colors if it weren't for the paper, but once I found it, the color choices were obvious. (Just like when those design shows on TV say to pick an "inspiration piece".) Although I tried this with MetallicFX, the beautiful metallic colors just didn't fit. The only good choice was glossy white. So, there it is, a plain glossy white pasting.

The other nice thing about this sketch was that I was able to easily create a "money envelope" on the inside. All I had to do was cut a piece of cardstock that was slightly smaller than the orange outer rectangle, and adhere it on three sides. I also echoed the rectangle shape to create the spot for a sentiment. I used the decorative ribbon on the front as a closure device for the whole card to create a little more security.

Simple, simple, simple. Anyone could do it.