Sand Dollar Thoughts Card

Okay, I've been holding this in for over a week now (which is really hard for me!), but I'm so excited! I've just been selected to be part of the Dreamweaver Stencils new design team! I hadn't worked with stencils much for the past few years, but a couple of good friends loaned me a bunch of Dreamweaver goodies to play with. I had sooooo much fun. I started with the basics and then moved on to thinking outside of the box with stencils. I love being able to work with another paper craft technique, and I'm sure that I'll have opportunities to mix them all. Keep checking back for new stuff!
My first post for Dreamweaver uses their larger sand dollar stencil. I ran it through my Big Shot to emboss it into the paper. Two tricks I found to get a thick embossing: 1) Spritz the cardstock lightly with rubbing alcohol (not water because it will sometimes leave a mark when it dries) before embossing. 2) If you are lucky enough to have two of the same stencil, tape them together at the edges before embossing your cardstock. If you don't, you'll still get a nicely embossed image because these are well-made brass stencils.
I kept the card simple to show off the embossed focal point. I used a Stampendous sentiment on the panel at the bottom. The panel was created kind of by accident, and a happy one at that. I had used the Petals Background stencil for a different project and a layer of ink built up on the stencil. I started to clean it by spritzing with rubbing alcohol first and liked the way the ink and alcohol mingled on the stencil. So, I laid a piece of white cardstock over the top and voila! Kind of a reverse way to use the stencil. I'm sure I didn't invent this concept, but I had fun using it!

"Petals Background" stencil by Dreamweaver (LJ899)
"Sand Dollar" stencil by Dreamweaver (LR12)
Perfectly Clear "Ornamental Frames" from Stampendous (SSC197)
Azurite and Aquamarine ColorBox Chalk inks from Clearsnap
Sepia Versafine ink from Tsukineko
Coredinations, DCWV, and Strathmore cardstock
plain white cardstock
Big Shot (or other embossing machine)
corner rounder