Dreamweaver Stencils: March Madness Goes Magical

Dreamweaver's March Madness theme has been our way of stepping outside of our comfort zone, and playing with new techniques, new media, and new surfaces. For this card, I decided to play on a new surface...a piece of bark from the birch tree in my front yard. I used the Buck stencil, and ink-stenciled with Clearsnap's Mixed Media inks in Jasmine, Leather, and Vintage. Because these inks have a creamier pigment consistency, I was able to work them into the surface of the bark easily. I used a fine Copic Multiliner to trace the outline, helping the image to pop. I daubed some of the darker shades of the inks in Noir and Truffle, to help this further. The base card was the Bare Trees stencil, ink-stenciled as well, with the same inks, aiming for the colors of dusk. The end result is a bit magical...almost the feeling of Harry Potter's Stag Patronus in "Prisoner of Azkaban".

Have you had a chance to link your own "madness" this month? You can find the info on the Dream It Up! blog! Meanwhile, take the time to visit our fabulous Guest Designer, Georgia, and our B team to see what they've been creating this week!

Georgia Sommers

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Terrece Siddoway
Pam Hornschu
Cherylynn Moser

Woodware UK: Happy Spring Showers of Flowers!

Have you thawed out yet? Are you still sloshing through mud puddles. Are you ready for Spring? Winter seems to have broken records this year freezing snow in the USA, and an overabundance of rain in the UK. We all could use some Spring Flowers! The Woodware team has been challenged this week to provide you with just that form of cheery inspiration.

My post features this beautiful Flower Corner stencil from Dreamweaver, along with the Merci sentiment. Both have been ink-stenciled with wonderful Dreamweaver stencil brushes and a Tsukineko Splendor Inkpad in Circus colors. Once all of the color and shading have been applied, I daubed clear Versamark ink through the stencil onto the design, and embossed it in Stampendous Crystal power...leaving a beautiful clear and sparkling finish.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out the team's posts from this week, linked from the Woodware blog. Shower us with some love, please. That is one bit of rainfall that we won't complain about!

Dreamweaver Stencils: March Madness Goes Heavy Metal

Ready to get brutal? Are the sounds of screaming-in-a-trash-can pummeling your ears? In honor of my oldest son, Bryan, and his penchant for heavy metal music, I'm cranking up the madness to 11 (inside joke from the movie, "This is Spinal Tap"), as it was his 28th birthday last week. I created this card for him (and totally forgot to give it to him!), and really had fun going outside of my comfort zone. I embossed the Dreamweaver Electric Guitar on Red Aluminum using my Big Shot and several Mercart metal-work tools to expand the detail. I sanded the embossed areas to reveal the silver, and grunged it up with some black StazOn ink. I used a pointy tool to scratch the design randomly in the background. Another small strip of metal was embossed and distressed with the Heavy Metal segment from the Guitar Words stencil. These panels were adhered over a black glitter card and one of my favorite ribbons from May Arts.
I have a feeling Bryan will think this card is awesome. What do you think?

We'd love to have you play along with our March Madness challenge and link your creation to the linkytool on the Dream It Up! blog. How far can you create outside of YOUR comfort zone? Show us!

For more inspiration, here's the rest of the crew, including our guest designer for this month:

Georgia Sommers

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

Dreamweaver Stencils: March Madness with Color Solutions

MAD I tell you! We're all going MAD! That is...MAD for Dreamweaver Stencils! Lol. Welcome to our "March Madness" challenge! Anything goes, and the more outside-of-the-box, the better. This year, we're aiming to play with non-traditional challenges whenever possible. 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!

For our second week, here's my personal act of madness:

This card went in a rather wild direction for me, and was never one of my personal favorites...a bit too busy. However, Lynell seems to love it. So...I think this month is the perfect time to finally post it.

This card is a perfect example of several ways to use Dreamweavers' Color Solutions Alcohol Inks. For the background, I applied drops of the various colors over the Large Cathedral Window stencil, and ran it through my Big Shot machine to Letterpress the design into the cardstock.

The smaller, framed panel (machine embossed with the Small Cathedral window), is a panel of acetate in which I laid the Large Cathedral Window on top, and dropped the inks over the stencil...obviously, there was quite a bit of running under the design, which  blurs the pattern, yet the colors are beautifully vibrant.

 Finally, we have the Rooster, which I paste embossed in Metallic Gold. When dry, I applied various Color Solutions over the surface using the Applicator designed for this process. A stitched grosgrain May Arts' ribbon and button add some more punch to the project, and bring it all together.

So, what do you think? Was this mad enough for March? Let me know, in your comments below! Hopefully, it was wild enough to have you jump outside of your comfort zone, and play along with us this month! Meanwhile, here's the B Team to inspire you more:

Dream It Up!
Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Stacey Rumsby
Terrece Siddoway
Wendy Jordan
Pam Hornschu

Woodware UK: Play Along with Sketch 32!

I always enjoy playing with a sketch challenge, and this month's Woodware Sketch #32 was no exception. The main panel features this beautiful Stampendous King's Teapot (only in this case it is for the queen mum in every family's household). Colored and shaded with markers, and with some shimmery Mark Richard's lavender adhesive pearls, it makes a perfect focal point...just like Mum!

The background triangles were cut from pretty shades of Woodware Color Cardstock packs. I stamped in rows images from the Woodware Clear Magic stamps designed by Francoisé Read called, "Time for a Cuppa", in lovely Clearsnap Archival Dye inks.

To finish it off, I created my own banner from a strip of white cardstock, stamped with one of the new Woodware Just Words for "Mother's Day". Mother's Day in the UK is March 30th, and in May for the USA, so this card is fun inspiration to cover both
occasions!

I hope you'll take the time to create something following Sketch 32, and link it up to the Woodware blog. Meanwhile, you have all of this week to see what the rest of the team have been playing with!

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of Stencils!

MAD I tell you! We're all going MAD! That is...MAD for Dreamweaver Stencils! Lol. Welcome to our "March Madness" challenge! Anything goes, and the more outside-of-the-box, the better. This year, we're aiming to play with non-traditional challenges whenever possible. 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's my personal act of madness:

If you follow me on a regular basis, you've already seen this project on my blog this week as a post for the Woodware UK team. Considering how mixed the media is on this project, I figured it also fits into the "MAD" category for the March Dreamweaver challenge!

My base is a wood door hanger from one of the local craft stores, which I slapped on a coat of black acrylic paint over the surface. When dry (just a few minutes), I taped my Dreamweaver Large Scales stencil on top, and spread Crackle Embossing Paste over it, removed the stencil to clean, and set aside the hanger to dry.

Meanwhile, I played with my dimensional elements...

 First, I pasted on acetate the Dreamweaver Scallop and Nautilus shell stencils with Gold and Pearlescent pastes, respectively. Both were sprinkled with various Metallic F/X powders before heating with a heat tool until bubbly and mostly dry. You can pat down the bubbling a bit after it's cooled. These were cut out and set aside.

Secondly, I dripped Color Solutions over a few white paper flowers and set these aside to dry.

Thirdly, I die cut the Dreamweaver Leafless Tree Die out of orange cardstock to mimic coral.

Finally, I stamped the Stampendous Cling Mermaid on tissue paper and colored her with markers. I used a clear medium to adhere her over the now dry and crackled surface of my door hanger.

Now I could really have fun...I added color to the background using a large stencil brush and my Splendor ink pad with all of it's palette of colors. I traced the Zen Fish stencil over the top using a Sakura Micron Pen, and colored with markers. Then I applied Translucent Paste over the surface of the fish, and let dry.

Once dry, I used Glossy Accents to adhere sprinkles of Stampendous Color Fragments, adhered Mark Richards Pearl Clusters, a portion of my die cut "coral", and my Molten Magic sea shells with my bright flowers.

I love projects like this as you never know quite where they'll take you! Play along with the challenge by submitting your March Madness project on the Dream It Up! site. Need some 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

Woodware UK: Crafty Cardmaker's Challenge...All Mixed Up!

The Woodware team are playing along with the Crafty Cardmaker's challenge once again. This time with Mixed Media, and boy, have I mixed my medias for this one!

My base is a wood door hanger from Woodware, which I slapped on a coat of black acrylic paint over the surface. When dry (just a few minutes), I taped my Dreamweaver Large Scales stencil on top, and spread Crackle Embossing Paste over it, removed the stencil to clean, and set aside the hanger to dry.

Meanwhile, I played with my dimensional elements...

 First, I pasted on acetate the Dreamweaver Scallop and Nautilus shell stencils with Gold and Pearlescent pastes, respectively. Both were sprinkled with various Metallic F/X powders before heating with a heat tool until bubbly and mostly dry. You can pat down the bubbling a bit after it's cooled. These were cut out and set aside.

Secondly, I dripped Color Solutions over a few white paper flowers and set these aside to dry.

Thirdly, I die cut the Dreamweaver Leafless Tree out of orange cardstock to mimic coral.

Finally, I stamped the Stampendous Cling Mermaid on tissue paper and colored her with markers. I used a clear medium to adhere her over the now dry and crackled surface of my door hanger.

Now I could really have fun...I added color to the background using a large stencil brush and my Splendor ink pad with all of it's palette of colors. I traced the Zen Fish stencil over the top using a Sakura Micron Pen, and colored with markers. Then I applied Translucent Paste over the surface of the fish, and let dry.

Once dry, I used Glossy Accents to adhere sprinkles of Stampendous Color Fragments, adhered Mark Richards Pearl Clusters, a portion of my die cut "coral", and my Molten Magic sea shells with my bright flowers.

I love projects like this as you never know quite where they'll take you! Play along with the challenge by submitting your Mixed Media project on the Crafty Cardmakers blog site. For more inspiration, visit the Woodware blog to see what our team has been "mixing" up!