Thursday, March 13, 2014

Thursday's Dream Schemes: March Madness Challenge

Yes, March Madness could mean a lot of things!

1. It could mean "thinking outside the box".


2. It could mean using something in your stash that you haven't ever tried before.


3. Try a new medium or substrate. Make a dimensional project instead of a card or a scrapbook page.


4. OR...it could mean using your favorite technique with your favorite stencil or stamp.


Whatever you do for our challenge this month be sure to have a "Maddeningly" good time and if you have never used our linky tool below click HERE to know more.



I have had in my stash for some time now some shrink plastic from Lucky Squirrel. It really is an "Artist's Grade Shrink Plastic"...just like they advertise. It shrinks evenly and doesn't do squirrely annoying things when you work with it. So on this March Madness Thursday I decided to add it to my Celebrate card. I cut an oval slightly larger than my Celebrate stencil (LS90) and sanded it then I stenciled it with Memories ink and a large stencil brush. I then used a traditional paper punch and punched a hole into the end of the oval near the "C" in celebrate. This of course needs to be a good sized hole because when the plastic shrinks this hole will shrink too. Then I placed the oval onto a piece of aluminum foil and set it in the oven (preheated to 325 degrees F.) for three minutes. I like using the oven because it heats so evenly compared to my heat gun. So there it is attached to my stenciled card with ribbon.


The card was a simple and quick technique called "Letterpress" which took less than five minutes to create. Here are the materials and process for the creation:


MATERIALS:


Vintage Decor Stencil (LX7022)

Memories Mists Sprays: Mango Lemonade (MM01) Cherry Smoothie (MM15) Blue Martini (MM21)
Cardstock: 80# (or heavier) white cardstock
Stencil Brush: 3/4" Natural Handle Dreamweaver Stencil Brush (or #18 size)
Cardboard box to use for a spray booth.
Embossing Machine: I use either the Cuttlebug or the Big Shot

PROCESS:

1. Place the thick white plate onto the deck of the embossing machine. The Cuttlebug white plate is referred to as the "A" plate. The Big Shot white plate is referred to as the "Platform" and the two tabs that are added as shims with this plate are not used in this Letterpress technique with stencils.
2. Place a thin piece of scrap paper onto the thick white plate of your embossing machine to protect it from excess ink.
3. Place a paper towel in the bottom of the cardboard box.
4. Position the stencil on top of the paper towel.
5. Shake up the bottle of Mango Madness spray and spritz the stencil two or three times. It doesn't need to be too wet just well moistened.
6. Spritz on top of this spray just a couple of times with the Cherry Smoothie spray.
7. Gently pick up the stencil by the sides and position it on the scrap paper that you pre- pared in step #2 with the inked side facing up.
8. Position the white or light colored cardstock face down onto the inked stencil.
9. Gently place the thick Stamping Details mat onto the back of the cardstock.
10. Now place the two acrylic plates onto the rubber mat and run this sandwich of plates, stencil, paper and rubber mat through the the machine. Remember to follow this stacking method carefully to protect the stencil from being rolled and consequently warped. (Using warped acrylic plates can warp your stencils, so try to have a set just for stencil embossing.)
11. Now remove the plates and rubber mat to reveal the embossed card that you have created. Place it back into the booth and position the clean stencil on top of the design that was just embossed. This time spray the stencil with the Blue Martini color. Only give it one or two spritzes with the spray. There will be excess spray sitting on top of the stencil. Now use your large stencil brush and pull the color into the holes of the stencil in a swiping motion. This will pull the color across the embossed image and use this excess ink to shade and colorize the stencil design.

Hope you'll have as much fun creating as I did and join our March Madness. Below is a list of the design team who have been going crazy creating this past week, please take time to leave them some love. This week I am going to sneak a stencil gifty to someone who takes time to leave a comment for each of the team. Stay tuned and next Thursday I will announce a random winner for this kind hearted stencil enthusiast!







6 comments:

Katia said...

This is really amazing!!!

Lyn Bernatovich said...

OMG shrink plastic was the bomb, wasn't it? Will have to haul it out of my stash. Wonder how cool the vintage decor stencil would look shrunk....

Lori Gauerke said...

Oops!! Entered the card twice by mistake, please remove one of them, thanks!!

Cindy Groh said...

I feel foolish. Please erase the two extra cards that posted. I'm not a fan of that linky to begin with and I get impatient thinking it didn't take it and foolishly click the button again and again. Inlinkz is so much better.

Janis said...

Who knew there was even such a thing as Artist's Grade Shrink Plastic??!!?? I thought it was *supposed* to twist and contort and turn into corkscrews when you used it!! Ha.

Love your project. The colors are wonderful and the letterpress effect is so cool!
<3 J

jwoolbright at gmail dot com
HerPeacefulGarden.blogspot.com

rose s. said...

I luv the color combo of bright blue and oranges - very new mexico. I too have to agree with Janis - I did not know that there were different grades of shrink plastic. live and learn :)

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