Mousey Mischief and Dreamweaver

The theme this week is "Mousy Mischief" and, of course, this is Dreamweaver Thursday, so what is a girl to do?  Combine the House Mouse with a lovely Dreamweaver background.

To create it, I used the LJ 902 Black Eyed Susan Stencil with Dreamweaver Regular Embossing Paste.  I stamped the Potted Mouse Stamp on the Mixed Media Paper with Memento Ink. When the paste was dry, I colored it and the flower and stem on the stamped image with Spectrum Noir Markers.  Then, I colored the rest of the stamped image with my Prismacolor Colored Pencils.  Then, I simply mounted them on card stock and assembled the rest of the card.

Now that you have seen what I have done, check out all the rest of the participants today:

Pam Hornschu

Kristine Reynolds

Lyn Bernatovich

Alison Heikkila

Louise Healy

Lea Kimmel Fritts

Laura Drahozal

Pam Bray

Tenia Nelson

Dreamweaver Sketch Week

Here is this week's sketch, courtesy of the fantastic Wendy Jordan. Sorry Wendy, but I really changed it up a little this time. I turned it on its end--literally! I eliminated the embellishments on the bottom--uh, side.

Once I had it all sorted out, I used a few different techniques and stencils. First off, on the background I used stencil LJ 914 Herringbone with a textured carstock. I ran it through my Cuttlebug. Then, I sanded it to add depth of color.

For the snowflake strip, I used a technique that was fairly new to me. I sprayed Meomory Mists in Stormy Sky, Blueberry Milkshake and Blue Lagoon directly on the Snowflake Background Stencil LJ 819. I left it blotchy, because I liked the look. I then layed it on some paper towels and ran it through my Cuttlebug. I decorated the snowflakes a little with Diamond Stickles.

The single snowflake layer was created with the Antler Snowflake Stencil LL 399 and, yes, metals. This time I used the dark blue aluminum. I embossed it, filled it and sanded it.

The last technique I used was embossing with regular paste and the Ice Skates Stencil LL 3016. When it was dry, I used a Versamarker and added silver embossing powder to the blades and the eyelets. I then enhanced these with Sitckles as well.

That was it. One thing that I have discovered on this team is that it is often the projects that I struggle with that are the ones I like the best when they are done. I wasn't excited about this sketch, but once I actually started it, I really enjoyed it. It sort of reminds me of a scrapbook page. Ultimately, it is the challenges that I enjoy most about the team.

Do you think that you would like to rise to the challenges of being on a Design Team? If you give it a try, you won"t regret it. Check out the link on the Dreamweaver Blog and give yourself the chance to be inspired all year long. Try out the other Dreamweaver links for some great ideas. I'll see you next week...........

Thursday Dream Schemes--Sketch Challenge

I followed this week's sketch exactly. I used only one stencil--the beautiful Black Eyed Susan LJ902. Here is my result:

I pasted both the lighter and darker versions on Bo Bunny Paper from an older release. I pasted on the lighter paper with the Original Matte White Paste and the darker paper with the Matte Yellow Paste.

After the paste was dry, I replaced the stencil on the lighter color and used Distress Inks to color it. Those inks do not soak in right away, and leave a lighter, more faded look on the white paste. This was exactly the look I wanted so that the background image would remain subordinate to the foreground.

On the darker paper, I used just a little Distress Ink on the flower. Then, I glued green Fun Flock on the leaves and vines. Finally, I used Art Glitter Glue on the flower center to glue small brown beads in the center as seeds.

I cut the lighter flowers into fourths, aged them with Distress Inks in Denim, rounded the edges and glued them onto the AC cardstock. I then cut a square from the darker flowers, matted it in yellow AC cardstock, roughed up the edges and popped it up on top. Finally, I used a pretty little eyelet and yellow gingham to complete my country look (and inadvertantly honor my team, the Michigan Wolverines with the colors maize and blue).

I had some fun with this one. You should check out the other Dream Team member blogs and give it a try yourself. Then, link your creation to the Dreamweaver Blog, so we can all check it out. Oh yeah, and leave a comment--we all love comments!

If you could do me a giant favor, become a follower here, too. I don't keep track of your email or send anything out, but I am thinking of trying out for another design team (in addition to this one) and they would really like me to have one hundred followers.

In the meantime, have an inspired week, and I will see you back here next Thursday.

Thursday Dream Schemes--Free Week

For this week's free challenge, I decided to use this card that I recently sent to Lynell. We were given these two Kanji character stencils. They are both the same symbols, but in two different sizes. They mean hope. I have used the smaller of the two a couple of weeks ago with the red maple stencil. In this card, I am using both of them, LL3018 and LS1008, the fan LJ903 and the ginger jar, LG 626. I also use a few different techniques. I am going to break them down into steps:
THE GINGER JAR:
1) Use regular paste on black cardstock with ginger jar.
2) When the paste dries, replace the stencil and use a large stencil brush and Weathered Wood Distress Inks to create shading.
3) Place the Large Hope Stencil over the jar and use a stencil brush and Cranberry Adirondack Pigment Inks to stencil.
4) When all is dry, replace the jar stencil and lightly dab with Versamark. Toss clear embossing powder over the top and heat it.
RED FAN:
1) Use red cardstock and a dry embossing stylus to create the outline shape of the fan. Don't worry too much about accuracy on the bottom, as this won't show.
BLACK FAN:
1) Using the Mercart Teflon tool and black covered aluminum, emboss the outline of the fan, including the blades on the bottom. Emboss from the back.
2) Remove the stencil. "Poof" out the fan from the back using the largest Mercart ball tool you have.
3) Place the small Kanji figure on the fan and lightly tape with removable tape. Emboss with the teflon tool from the back.
4) Flip the fan over. Working from the front, place a ruler to attach the blades from the bottom to the raised parts on the top of the fan. Very LIGHTLY draw a line along the ruler. Avoid the section with the raised figure.
5) Use Mercart filler in the back of the fan.
6) When filler is dry, sand on black side of the aluminum. Trim around edge.

I think at this point, that you can assemble the card. I hope I have been able to inspire you to use these stencils or this technique to make a creation of your own. Go check out the blogs of the other Dreamweaver Team members. Leave a comment, get inspired, and link your creations to the Dreamweaver Blog. Come back again next week and check out the sketch challenge. See you then!