Thursday's Dream Schemes

It was great fun releasing the new designs at CHA summer last week. They have been presented to your retailers and as we get our act together we will be shipping them out. But our full order won't be here until mid August. Just drop by to see if your favorite retailer has them in stock yet. And in the meantime just sit back and enjoy as the design team starts showing you what can be done with these designs.

This striking card was put together by Marj Marion, a teacher for Art 'N Soul in Olympia, WA. 

It is very easy to make. The "steampunk" or gears stencil (LJ 911) was paste embossed on a piece of silver metallic linen weave cardstock using the Dreamweaver Stencils Glossy Black Embossing Paste (DGKP). When it was dry it was then die cut into the shape you see and double mounted with another glossy black paper that was also die cut into the same shape. The "sprocket" title was then mounted and the metal sprockets were added as an embellishment.

Thanks Marj, for sending me this card and if anyone else wants to see their work posted here I would love to do it for you. You can email it to me at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com or you can link your blog using Mr. Linky below. Follow the team this week as they share their creations. You can easily navigate to their blogs by clicking their names on the sidebar at the right.

Thursday's Dream Schemes/Colorway Challenge -Monochromatic

I love these colorway challenges and this week Louise Healy submitted the challenge. And I CASEd my design from one by Marj Marion that I posted last year. She did a beautiful variation of blues for a card that showcased the sea turtle stencil (LM179).


My take on monochromatic is blue as well...starting with the Glossy White Embossing Paste (DGWP) and then adding the Glossy Blue Embossing Paste (DGBP). A little Glossy Black Embossing Paste (DGKP) mixed into the blue moved the creation into a navy blue realm and the cardstock in the background is navy blue as well. 


I call this technique "freestyle pasting". The background was done by loading the palette knife and moving across the white cardstock three different "swipes" with a different color variation each time. Then while it was still wet I sprinkled thick glitter  from Art Institute Glitter that was somewhat chunky. The name of the glitter was called "Gala Blitz-Blue" and it has small shards of blue glass and silver beads as well as glitter. Then the bear stencil (LL593) was paste-embossed using the "sludge-paste" technique. You can read about this technique in more detail in my book, New Dimensions in Cardmaking Using Embossing Pastes with Metal Stencils (Book-3). I pull several different colors of pastes across the stencil at the same time and try not to mix it too much by swiping it too many times. If you mix it together too much you lose the definition of the colors, but can recapture the look by sculpting just a bit of one paste color back onto the design with the tip of the palette knife.  I also sprinkled silver micro beads onto him before I removed the stencil from the wet paste. It is important to sprinkle these beads on while the stencil is still in place or they will roll into the cracks and you will lose the definition of the design. You will notice that I regained some definition with his ear by drawing blue ink around it once the paste was dry.


Hope you have fun creating this week. If you are interested in seeing what the team has done follow the sidebar at the right to visit their sites. If you decide to follow the challenge just use Mr. Linky below and we will enjoy having you play along. You can also email me a creation and I will post it here for you. My email is: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

Thursday's Dream Schemes/Sketch #8

The sketch you are enjoying this Thursday was submitted by team leader Deborah March. And the beautiful creation you see here was rendered by Dream Team member Pam Hornschu. Instead of a greeting card this is a tablet cover. 

Inside is a small white tablet for jotting down a quick message. It is held in place with a black elastic band. Notice the small pencil that is attached by a loop of velvet paper at the bottom of the tablet. The cover was created by dry embossing the damask stencil (LJ907) through an embossing machine onto navy blue velvet paper. It was then wrapped around two pieces of thick chip board and connected with another piece of velvet paper to create the cover. Pam finished off the inside by adhering a plain piece of navy velvet paper with a strong glue, creating a loop for the pencil at the same time. 

On the outside she used a square piece of metallic silver cardstock and mounted another piece of velvet paper on which she had paste-embossed the damask stencil (LJ907) using the Dreamweaver Silver Embossing Paste (DSP). Because the velvet paper is textured the silver paste dries with a texture as well and almost looks molten. More and more I see the Dream Team creating items that can be used for a variety of purposes. In the next few weeks we will be changing things up just a bit to show you that the Dreamweaver Stencils can be used for anything from furniture decoration to collage wall creations. You can work on paper, wood or tiles. The sky is the limit when it comes to creating with stencils. 

Sketch #8 by team leader Deborah March

This week if you would like to create and play along with us use Mr. Linky below to link your creation. Remember you can also email me a card at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and I will put it on my blog. Follow the Dream Team this Thursday by using the sidebar at the right to see what they have been up to and view their interpretation of Deborah's sketch.

Thursday's Dream Schemes/Free Challenge Week

Once again it is free challenge week, which means you can create whatever your heart desires. There are so many wonderful techniques, but this week I am posting a technique from Kim Parkinson. She is a design team member from the Boston area and she sent this creation some time ago that was a totally new technique for me. Kim works quite a bit with metal and alcohol inks, but this time she did a variation on that theme and used alcohol inks on the Dreamweaver Glossy White Embossing Paste. I know that Summer has just arrived and many of us are not yet thinking Fall creations, but for those of you that like to get a head start on seasonal cards this is a perfect technique for Autumn. 

She started her creation by paste embossing the background tree stencil (LJ849) with the Glossy White Embossing Paste (DGWP) onto black cardstock. She removed the stencil and cleaned it while the paste dried (approx. 45 min...faster if you let it dry on a warm skillet or griddle), then repositioned the clean stencil onto the image. Next she squirted random droplets of green colored alcohol ink onto a felt applicator and added droplets of the blending solution onto these green droplets. The next step was to daub the applicator randomly onto the stencil leaving large amounts of white paste showing. This gave her the ability to then use a clean felt applicator loaded with red alcohol ink and blending solution on these open white areas. I think she may have used an orange color as well. You can certainly use several colors, but be sure not to daub the red and green on top of each other unless you are trying to make the color brown. Thanks Kim for sending me this beautiful Fall card which could be used for any occasion.

If you get inspired this week play along by linking to Mr. Linky below. And travel to the Dream Team's blog by clicking on any name on the sidebar at the right.