Thursday, July 31, 2014

Dreamweaver Stencils ...."To Die For"


This month I have had a great time working with the new dies. ....Yes, it's been an extravaganza of creativity from the wonderful "Dream it UP" team on using the stencils and dies; presenting new ideas and concepts; and of course extremely innovative creations. I have loved every minute of seeing what they have been blogging about this month. Also we have had a good following in spite of all the summer vacations happening.

A couple of weeks ago I worked with the owl die (DG751) every day for a week, so if you missed out please look back to learn more. Click HERE to see how I made a very similar card to this one.The creation that you see here was a by-product of that week of craziness. This week's blog is really not about this die but rather the one inside the card shown below. However, I did one thing differently on this card than the one I created a couple of weeks ago. The main difference with this owl is that the papers that I used were so busy that I decided to take an 01 micron pen (30181) and trace the outlines of the design, to make it "pop" a bit. Here is a picture of the inside:
I told you last week that I would share more about our dual alphabet die. Last Thursday, I took a picture of the caddie and since then have discussed with my team here at Dreamweaver how they would use this system. Of course there are as many ways to use this as there are crafters, but here are a few suggestions and pictures to give some ideas...by the way leave me a comment as to how you might use this caddie. I am really a newbie at die-cutting and very excited about learning more.


The caddie consists of a box with a base and lid measuring about  4 1/2" x 9" inches. (The base is marginally smaller.)  The base holds 13 smaller boxes that are each approximately the size of a deck of playing cards. 


The caddie will have a magnetic sheet for the dies with an adhesive backing. All you need to do is remove the release paper to reveal the sticky backing and you are ready to place it where you want to on top of or inside the caddie.


In the first photo the magnetic sheet is placed on top of the caddie. For my needs I would like to place the magnetic sheet inside the lid. Notice that after the letter "O" four of the letters need to go sideways to fit all of them on the magnetic sheet.


Some of my help feel that they would rather keep the letters inside the smaller interior boxes along with the stored paper piecing die-cuts. If you want to use the 13 boxes only for the alphabet you would place three pieces in each one and it would come out evenly. There is also a question mark and an exclamation mark and an ampersand which I add to the last two alphabet pieces...eg. Y, Z, &, !, ?".


Rather than having labels I used a permanent marker to indicate which die-cuts and dies are in each box. I prefer this to using labels, but some of the team here said they would rather have a label. Also I decided that I'd rather store more alphabet pieces than three per box and use one box for all the numbers. 


This frees up the magnetic sheet to be used for other dies and then the extra boxes I can use for the die-cuts of the designs that work really well for paper piecing, as shown in the picture.

I never thought I would enjoy die-cutting as much as I do, because I love working with a stencil brush and paints. But choosing colors of paper and designing in conjunction with the matching stencils as well has been soooo much fun. Can't wait to start playing with the new designs that just arrived.  It will be a couple of weeks until our magnetic sheets arrive, so mid- August is our hope for release of this new dual alphabet system. Until then be sure to join our monthly challenge, next Thursday we will announce our two random winners of the "to die for" challenge. For the month of August Pam has given us the challenge of "August as an Adjective"...so start thinking of what awe inspiring and sophisticated creations you'll share with us. 

Visit my wonderful team listed below...almost everyone is playing along and our guest designer Terri Sproul as well. Each week her latest creation is my "favorite" piece yet. Give each of them some love in the way of a comment or two or three, it's what they live for, that's the irony this month...Is it "to die for" or "to live for"?


Dream It Up! (you're here)
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12 comments:

ionabunny said...

I love the alphabet and the caddy. I try and store my diecuts in the packaging with the dies. It gets unwieldy when it's a much used shape ie circles. I love this idea. I think I would stick to three per box, dies in with the cuts. Searching through all the numbers to see if you have a 1 in the right colour/negative/positive could be a bit frustrating. Maybe you should market the caddy by it self. I have lots of dies I would love to fill it with. I'm probably going to go permanent marker over label. Quick and easy. Great to have the magnetic sheet as well. Keeps thing accessible and they don't get knocked around. I do like how you mix the positive/negatives together. Such fun. Hugs

Lynn Mercurio said...

SQUEAL....I'm loving the alpha and their storage (a place to store extra die cuts...LOVE THIS.Brilliant ideas with so many ways to use them. You have really shown us all the versatility of not only the dies, but these awesome alphabets & numbers. Love the fun feel of this owl creation. Such fun colors and patterns. Remind me of a picnic tablecloth! =)

Alison said...

Fantastic card! I love the outline on the owl. It really does help him to pop. I like all of your ideas for storing the new alphabet, and the rest of your dies. They are so much fun to play with!

Proxxon Tools said...

just love the new letter stencil would be great for art journals. thanks for having me this month it's was fun

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I have several alphabet die sets and store them all together on a magnetic sheet. The caddy is a great idea for storing left over letters but I would find it too time consuming to have to open lots of boxes to find all the dies needed to spell a word or phrase. Love the shape of the new Dreamweaver alphabet dies, and like the way the positive and negative can both be used. I'll be adding a set to my collection for sure!

Pam Hornschu said...

So many great ideas for using the new alphabet and caddy!

Con said...

I don't remember if I left a comment here or not. I want you to know that I really enjoyed this project. It was a great idea and I thank you for it.

Viki Banaszak said...

I love your card! The background paper lined up perfectly to make it look as though he has a sprout of feathers on his head. LOL So cute. I really like the checked paper too.I love that caddy. I do have a die alphabet set from way back when and tossed them all into a box and have to search through them all to find my letters. I like this idea much better. I will have to get one or two of those.

Janice K said...

Ooooh can't wait to see these in the metal!! I think I would be inclined to store the dies inside the separate boxes to protect them from anything heavy being placed on top of the box and damaging them. I'd consider cutting the magnetic sheet up into strips to adhere to the individual little lids, that way any loose die cuts wouldn't be creased by the metal dies moving around. Love the possibilities these dies could produce.x

Cazzy said...

Wow I am loving the dies and stencil combinations.

Cazzy said...

I can't join in because the collection has closed now, I will look out for the next one with interest.

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