Dreamweaver Stencils: MOOOO-ving On with Flora and Fauna

Hay there! It is the final week of the Flora and Fauna challenge for the Dream Team, so I thought I'd take a quick turn at Pun-synlvania for a MOOOO-ving experience. I love black and white with an extra pop of color. I've pasted the Dreamweaver Cow stencil in BOSSY White (I mean Glossy White) on black cardstock, and the Splats stencil in Glossy Black on white. The fun sentiments are from the Stampendous Perfectly Clear Hay There set, and add the extra PUNch that this card needed! I hope you've had fun this month playing along with our Flora and Fauna challenge, and are posting your creations to the Dream It Up! blog, or at the end of the Dream Team posts, using the Inlinkz tool. One random winner receives the stencil of their choice! So...MILK it for all it's worth!

Now let's see what FAUNa the rest of the team has been creating...

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich
Lynn Mercurio
Jamie Martin

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila
Lea Kimmel

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren 

Gill Wilson

Laura Drahozal 

An InLinkz Link-up

Dreamweaver Stencils Flora, Fauna, Surprises, and Prizes!

The Dream Team is ready to inspire you with some extra fun this week! Not only are we posting with the Flora and Fauna challenge, we are introducing you to our THREE NEWLY RELEASED DESIGNS...our Owl Buddy, the Open Sheep, and the art nouveau-inspired Heron, which you had a sneak peek at two weeks ago on the Dream It Up! blog. Three lucky commenters on the Dream Team's posts will receive one of these designs to be announced on the Dream It Up! blog next week. Tell us in your comment which technique YOU would use with your favorite of these new designs.

Here is what I created this week...

My aim was to post something with each of the new designs, but you'll have to settle for two from me today. My first features the new Open Sheep, which I have filled in with the Swirls stencil using Clearsnap Jasmine White Mixed Media ink. The background was created with the same stencil with black on white, and "clouds" were created by using a portion of the sheep stencil for the fluffy outline. The sentiment was part Stampendous stamp, and part me trying to mimic the font. I ended up having to add some extra curliques to the stamped word so they both would match a bit better.

My second card features the new Heron design...very art-nouveau-esque. I created a background of bright colors by spraying rubbing alcohol over a piece of Fabriano Watercolor paper with a heavy texture, and then adding drops of Dreamweaver Color Solutions Alcohol Inks. The result was bright and vibrant, and the perfect contrast for the glossy black pasted image. One simple thought from the Bird Words stencil was just enough...especially pasted in glossy white, and colored over the top with Cosmos Pink Color Solutions.

Ready for more ideas? Check out our this week's team players:

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich
Lynn Mercurio
Jamie Martin

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila
Lea Kimmel

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren 

Gill Wilson
Laura Drahozal  

An InLinkz Link-up

Dreamweaver's Flora and Fauna Challenge Goes Under the Sea

Welcome to the merry month of May! The Dream Team are challenging you this month to a "Flora and Fauna" theme! Considering most of the Dreamweaver designs incorporate both of these in the huge variety of stencils, you should have no problem playing along with our challenge this month! As usual, link your creations at the end of the Dream It Up! blog post, or at the end of our posts where it says, "Add Your Link".

My flora and fauna are going under the sea this week...

I created a beautiful inked background using Memories Mists on glossy cardstock with a bit of water spray for movement. The Open Fish design was traced with Sakura Micron pens in .01 and .05, with "Sten-tangling" added, before covering the fish in Glossy Accents and tiny, clear holeless beads. The tiny beads add to the watery effect. Using portions of the Leafless Tree Die in black cardstock as coral, and some soft ink-stenciling of its matching stencil design, I was able to create dimension as well. One of my favorite parts of this design is that the beads cover a multitude of errors in my "Sten-tangling", so no one needs to know that my lines were less than perfect...unless YOU tell them!

For the love of flora and fauna, visit the rest of the "A" team this week, and leave some sweet comments:

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

An InLinkz Link-up

Dreamweaver Stencils: More Fun with Flora and Fauna

Welcome to the merry month of May! The Dream Team are challenging you this month to a "Flora and Fauna" theme! Considering most of the Dreamweaver designs incorporate both of these in the huge variety of stencils, you should have no problem playing along with our challenge this month! As usual, link your creations at the end of the Dream It Up! blog post, or at the end of our posts where it says, "Add Your Link". As the challenge gets underway, you'll see thumbnails of others who are playing along as inspirations for your own creations!

Here is my creation for this week:

Nothing floral about this card, and I'm not sure that this cat qualifies as "fauna". He may be just too cool for that! The Retro Standing Cat has been paste-embossed in Glossy Black on brown cardstock and cut out to be popped up above a very jazzy background. The left panel is black on black with the Pop Squares stencil in Glossy Black again...as was the Guitar and the banner from the Cat Words stencils. The Guitar had been pasted on a panel with a music score printed on it, and I added shading with my Copic markers. The colors are more masculine, which would make this a great Father's Day, graduation card, or birthday card for a musician, or just someone who really loves music...and cats...cool cats.

Please welcome our new "B" team, officially posting for the first time!

Dream It Up!

Lyn Bernatovich

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Kristi Parker Van Doren 

Gill Wilson

An InLinkz Link-up

Woodware UK: Breaking Out the Brayers!

When was the last time your reached for your brayer? Personally, it's been a while for me. The Woodware team were challenged this week to create with a brayer, so I decided to go with the Dreamweaver Joseph's Coat technique for my project. Here's the process:

1. Use brayer to roll on ink from Kaleidacolor ink pad over white cardstock panel.
2. Place selected stencil (Dreamweaver Open Fish) over panel, tape sides, apply Dreamweaver Translucent Embossing Paste over the design, and let dry.
3. Once dry, sponge/daub/brayer black dye ink over surface to cover thoroughly.
4. Place clean stencil over top of design again, and use slightly damp cotton or paper toweling to remove the black ink from the surface of the design, revealing the bright color underneath.

Note: In the case of this card, I used Onyx Versafine as my black ink on top. Because it is a "hybrid" ink, it didn't dry as thoroughly as I would have liked, so I covered the panel with Stampendous Clear Embossing Powder and heated it. The end result was a black and shiny surface, and a bit of a mottled appearance on the fish...which is actually pretty cool.

The background of the card was the Dreamweaver Waves and Dots stencil. I daubed Versamark ink through the design, embossed with clear embossing powder, and brayered my Kaleidacolor over the embossed surface. This acted as a resist, leaving the design white against the fun color. I had also brayered onto plain white cardstock, so I used this as a backdrop for the Stampendous Cling Breathe sentiment, stamped in black.

The "coral" on the side? A portion of the Dreamweaver Leafless Tree die! I love multi-taskers!

Dreamweaver Stencils: Flora and Fauna Fun

Welcome to the merry month of May! The Dream Team are challenging you this month to a "Flora and Fauna" theme! Considering most of the Dreamweaver designs incorporate both of these in the huge variety of stencils, you should have no problem playing along with our challenge this month! As usual, link your creations at the end of the Dream It Up! blog post, or at the end of our posts where it says, "Add Your Link". As the challenge gets underway, you'll see thumbnails of others who are playing along as inspirations for your own creations! Speaking of inspirations...the month of April was our Inspirations month, and we had so many that linked with us! So exciting! Our randomly chosen winner for April is...JULIE STAVES! Check out two of her creations...

Congrats, Julie! Be sure to email lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com with your choice of stencil, and your address!

Here is my creation for this week:

Another one of my fabulous finds on clearance at Home Goods...this herb garden box, which was plain, had soil to use, and someone had been "light-fingered" with the seed packets, so it had been marked down to $4.00. Score!!!!

I used my Tsukineko Splendor Circus inkpad as my palette to ink-stencil the Wheat, Hexagons, and Rooster Weather-vane over the box. I deliberately kept it weathered and worn looking. I heat set the ink with my handy-dandy Milwaukee tool, before spraying a clear Krylon Finish over the surface, and on the inside.

The soil packets came in thin plastic liners for the pots to protect the wood, so I inserted my herb plants (pre-grown from Lowe's) into their respected areas before adding their cute stakes. These were made with the wood tongue depressor-style sticks from Jo-Ann's, along with precut wood plaques. I painted these with a couple of coats of chalkboard paint, and ink-stenciled in StazOn White ink the names using the Dreamweaver alphabet.

I've really been enjoying taking the opportunity to craft on objects other than just cards. I hope you'll look at your paper-crafting supplies with this same thought in mind. If you ever have questions, feel free to email me at phornschu@yahoo.com.

Please welcome our new "A" team, officially posting for the first time!

Dream It Up!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

An InLinkz Link-up