Thursday's Dream...Challenge for October: Festively Fall

Fall Leaves LJ906/Zentangle work by Wayne Harlow

We are calling our challenge for the month of October...Festively Fall! As I said last week I've been going a bit crazy with this Japanese Maple stencil...but I promise that next week I will do something different. IN FACT...WE HAVE A SURPRISE...We are using some of Tim Holtz products with just a bit of a twist, so be sure to drop by and see what the team has been up to. 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 HERE or if you don't have a way of linking ...email your design to me at: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and I will link it for you here on my site.

Once again this is a situation where the creative process evolved. My dilemma was how to add color to the Zentangle work without affecting the vividness of the black ink. So I began by stenciling the Maple Leaf stencil (LJ906) with the Color Solution Alcohol ink Creme Brulée (CS106) and Aspen Leaf (CS102) onto glossy cardstock using a felt applicator with a few drops of the thinner (CSC) to dilute the strong colored inks.  These mixtures of alcohol ink gave Wayne a colorful surface to work on. 

Wayne usually does his Zentangle work using Sakura Pigma micron pen #01. So once again I am working backwards with this process...what about that glossy white paper all over the background. How do I work right up to the leaves with some color without affecting the detailed black Zentangle artwork? Answer?...

What about covering the now finished Zentangle leaf design with translucent paste...let it dry and then work colors behind the leaves. The translucent paste will act as a resist and excess Color Solution can be gently wiped away. Violå!!...

So that is what I did... I paste-embossed the translucent paste (DEPT) on top of the Zentangle artwork and immediately removed the stencil to clean it. Once the pasted design was dry I used several colors of Color Solution Alcohol Inks and a felt applicator to apply soft colors of Iceberg (CS206)and Sugar Plum (CS208) behind and around the leaves. The glossy paper allowed for a bit of open time and I was able to move the colors (again using the felt applicator) into one another for a soft watercolor look. Then I added the darker Creme Brulée and even a Sienna inkpad color, moving these colors out to the edges of the card. Yes, the translucent paste did act as a resist surface and kept the Zentangle artwork crisp and detailed. 

Hope you will find time to join us this month. Also follow the Dream it Up team's blogs listed below and leave them some nice comments. They love to hear from you and have you play along as well!

Pam Hornschu   

Laura Drahozal  

Louise Healy  

Terrece Siddoway 

Kristi Van Doren 

Georgia Sommers 

Lee Kellogg 

Liz Martin

 Cyndi Bundy 

Cherylynn Moser