Thursday's Dream Schemes...Festively Fall, a New Challenge!

ALL ABOUT OUR CHALLENGE

We are calling our challenge for the month of October...Festively Fall! I have been going a bit crazy with this Japanese Maple stencil. Dreamweaver has lots of stencils and materials that can be used for a Fall theme, but remember you can post any Festively Fall creation and win best interpretation of the challenge, it can be any product or image.  Again we are letting our winner choose any stencil they desire. So one winner will be chosen for best usage of Dreamweaver products and one winner will be chosen for best interpretation of the challenge. Just link up with mr linky below or if you don't have a way of linking ...email your design to me and I will link it for you at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com 

Also mid month... starting October 18 the team will be posting using Tim Holtz Distress powders. So stay tuned for "Festively Distressed"...a cross promotion with Ranger!

As I said... I went "creation crazy" with this stencil, maple leaves (LJ906). Do you ever have those moments when you are trying to get something to work in one direction and you end up with a serendipity moment and are headed in the totally opposite direction? Well, I was trying to use the alcohol inks for backgrounds on glossy cardstock in a "letterpress" style. So...

1. I put droplets of the  iceberg colored alcohol inks (CS206) onto the stencil and ran it through the embossing machine, but my experience in the past held true and the glossy paper stuck and tore every time. So...

2. I tried using the thinner in a spray bottle and went at it again...this time I used the iceberg droplets (CS206) all over the stencil and sprayed it with the thinner/cleaner (CSC) as well, in fact I used quite a bit of the spray. It worked..no more tearing or ripping when I removed the stencil, but because it was quite wet, the leaf print was not very clean edged, because  the ink had run under the stencil. ...what does one do??? So....

3. I pulled out the matte yellow embossing paste (DMYP) and paste-embossed  the leaves instead of just leaving them dry embossed. Wow...it was so bright with the yellow and bright turquoise background! So....

4. I decided that when the paste finally dried I would tone things down just a bit by stenciling the yellow leaves with pigment inks. Oranges, reds, greens, even a smidgeon of purple... and whenever those bright complementary colors crossed over it dulled the final results just marginally, for a less electric feel. As you can see I did let some of the yellow paste shine through. Finally...

5. To achieve the veins in the leaves I stenciled off the edge of my stencil shield, Picasso (LL332) with opposing colors for contrast. And....

6. To add a glossy look on the leaves I did "one-step cloisonné" by sprinkling Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) onto the still wet pigment ink and then  heated it with a heat gun. This shiny effect really added to the already thick leaves for a cohesive look with the shiny look of the glossy background paper.

Be sure to follow the design team list below to see what they have created for our Thursday's Dream Scheme...Festively Fall!

Pam Hornschu   

Laura Drahozal  

Louise Healy  

Wendy Jordan  

Terrece Siddoway 

Kristi Van Doren 

Georgia Sommers 

Lee Kellogg 

Liz Martin

 Cyndi Bundy 

Cherylynn Moser