Dreamweaver Stencils: Hang Around for the Fun!

I have been having so much fun with the Dreamweaver Pinterest-inspired challenge this month! I'm thinking that I may just continue challenging myself for one day each week. I love Pinterest, and I can kind of justify the amount of time I spend "pinning", with the fact that my work involves staying on top of trends. One trend lately, is organizing and decorating your closet to suit your own personality. No more ugly shoe boxes and no more boring hangers!

I found several Pins for decoupaging on wood hangers, but the one at the left was my favorite. At first, I thought, "Darn. I just got rid of all my old wood hangers when we moved." And then I was wandering through TJ Maxx (love that store!), and found these awesome turquoise painted wood hangers on clearance for $2! Wow. Five hangers for $2, and my favorite color as well!
I sanded and distressed them a bit. Then I daubed some Ranger White Acrylic Paint Dabber where I intended to place the flowers. I used the Stylized Dahlia stencil with Memento inks on tissue paper. The tissue makes it easy to wrap around objects. I used my favorite decoupage medium...and no, it's not the one that everyone thinks of first...I use Beacon's Fast Finish Decoupage Medium. It is somewhat thin, so I put it in a cup and brush it over the surface to wet it. Then place the tissue pieces on the wet surface and brush more of the medium over it until is smooth and completely covered before setting it aside to dry...which doesn't take long! Maybe 10-15 minutes depending on how much the tissue is soaked. When dry, I used the Small Cathedral Window stencil with Memento Teal Zeal and a stencil brush to add the background details. You could leave it at that, but I did brush another coat of the Beacon Fast Finish over the entire hanger for a little extra shine. Of course, I couldn't just stop there! I added a May Arts Chevron striped ribbon bow, tied with twine and a fun button to the hanger.

Just think of all the fun Dreamweaver designs that could be used to decorate these hangers. They could even be personalized with the Monogram stencils, or the alphabet stencils. They could be a wonderful gift for a bride and her bridesmaids on the big day for those gorgeous dresses (in which case, I would definitely recommend adding that extra coat of the medium so no ink would rub off!)

So, obviously these could be used as garment hangers, duh! But what about a ribbon holder for all those scraps of luscious May Arts ribbon? Check out the picture below! Yep. Think I'm going to need to create some more hangers for all of my ribbon!

 Let's go check out what wonderful inspired pieces the rest of the team have created this week, as well as our amazing guest designer for June, Jennifer Dove! Leave some love for everyone, and then get working on your own Pinterest-inspired pieces. Link your creations to the linkytool on the Dream It Up! blog for an opportunity to win the prize for this month, as well as having your project featured on the Dream It Up! blog and the Dreamweaver Stencils Facebook page. Here's the roll call this week:

Dream It Up!

Jennifer Dove
Laura Drahozal
Lyn Bernatovich
Pam Hornschu
Heidi Erickson
Louise Healy
Jessica Griffin
Cyndi Bundy

Woodware UK: Feeling Blue?

Awwwwww. Are you feeling blue? Well, the girls on the Woodware UK team certainly are this week! Of course, the color blue never makes me feel down, as I love all shades, especially in the aqua/turquoise range! But, I do think it can be a wonderful color for a card of encouragement, like on my tweet card here. I created three background panels from one cardstock panel (it was royal on one side, and sky on the other) that I machine-embossed with the Dreamweaver Stencils' Small Cathedral Window. Cut into three panels, with the embossed and debossed sides alternating, it made a colorful backdrop to the little robin from Francoisé Read's Clear Magic "Tweet Friends" set. I inked the "tweet tweet" portion of the accompanying sentiment, and stamped that on the circle as well. My little robin was colored using a technique that I learned from Francoisé...watercoloring with a Sakura Koi Water Brush and Sakura Glaze and Star pens. Because they stay wet a few seconds longer, you can use a water brush to spread the color for highlights and shading. I used the Clear Magic Jane's Script sentiments to stamp the cute gingham ribbon with Clearsnap Mixed Media Black ink. I've found that particular ink works really well on fabric without bleeding. Give it a try!

You can see what shades of blue that rest of the team have been playing with this week by checking out the Woodware UK blog each day! You can purchase any of the product mentioned above through the stores listed on the Woodware UK website!

Sketch and Hop Info

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