DREAM it UP !

Jessie Hurley

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Thursday's Dream Schemes/March Challenge!

This month's challenge is called CAS or clean and simple. I want to thank everyone who has been sending their creations and linking up to Mr. Linky at the end of each of my postings to join the challenge.

Today I am sharing a card from a store owner in Salem, Oregon. Lisa Taylor owns Stampin' Cat Studio and the other day she happened to send me a card in the mail. (I love getting a handmade card, don't you?) Anyway the card you see in this post is a special rub out technique done with Memories Mists Ultra Vivid sprays. I love these sprays...they come in really electric neon colors and you can really create some interesting effects. You need to be sure when you are finished working with them to clean the atomizer. This means that each time you remove the atomizer by screwing it off the bottle, spray out the excess in this spray nozzle and then rinse it out under running water. You need to do this because the pigments that create these wonderful colors are thick and have a tendency to clog the nozzle or atomizer. Lisa stenciled the gingko design (LJ893) on the right side of the card with gray ink. On the left side she did the "rub out" technique. First she sprayed with the Ultra Vivid blues and greens onto glossy card stock. She let it set for just a few minutes and then placed her stencil onto the paper and using a soft rag or paper towel she rubbed ink color out of the stencil holes. If the ink doesn't come off easily you can spray just a bit of window cleaner or rubbing alcohol onto your rag and rub with that. Be sure that this moisture is just damp not wet. Don't rub too hard or you'll make your paper soggy and perhaps even tear it. Their are many variations on this and you can click HERE to see one of my older posts with a card my daughter Elizabeth did with the same technique. I love it when a technique is put forth and people go all different directions to create. That is my challenge to you for this last week of March's challenge at Dreamweaver...just DREAM it UP and make it simple!

So either email me a creation to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com or link your blog on Mr. Linky below with your interpretation of the challenge and you will be entered to win two stencils. There will be one winner who does the best job of interpreting the CAS challenge and there will be one winner who uses the Dreamweaver products most creatively in the CAS challenge. Don't forget to visit the Dream Team's blogs...their names are on the sidebar of my blog or listed below. Also you can scroll down to the earliest post in March to see the stencils that you could win.

Pam Hornschu

Jessie Hurley

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Three More Submissions for March CAS Challenge

Three more "Clean And Simple" entries were emailed to me this past week for our March challenge. This technique is often referred to by card designers as CAS.

happy together by Sue P.

The first card to arrive this week was designed by Sue P. who won last month's Go Green challenge for best use of Dreamweaver product. I must have been hungry when it arrived because I immediately started smelling chocolate. (This is such a yummy looking edible color, Sue.) She paste embossed these running horses (stencil LL559) with the regular Dreamweaver Stencils Embossing Paste (DEP) and after it was dry she repositioned the stencil onto the horses and applied a glue. Then she removed the stencil and sprinkled the design with her own mixture of three different colors of glitter to create this magnificent sparkling brown. She mentioned that as you move the card, the glitter's sparkle, makes it seem as if the horses are in motion. Gorgeous card Sue!

Double Glitter by Joy H.

The next card by Joy H. was done with the double glitter technique. It is stunning! Of course this technique is very popular with glitter lovers...and why not? ...it is definitely easy (SIMPLE) to do. My only reservation is... that when I do any glitter technique my work space ends up very messy. (NOT CLEAN) LOL!!! Just teasing, because this is most assuredly a CAS card, people don't realize how easy this technique is to accomplish. To do this very simple technique of "double glitter" it is best to take a natural soap like Hawaiian Handmade Soap (DHHS) and coat the back of the tree stencil (LJ849). All you need to do is rub it gently all over the back of the stencil. This way you needn't worry about the stencil sticking permanently to the double sided adhesive paper (MPDS). Next she removed one side of the protective coating paper on the "sticky" mounting paper and then positioned the soaped side of the stencil against this sticky surface of the mounting paper. To create the beautiful warm background she sprinkled a variation of orange colored glitters onto the stencil going from light to dark, starting at the bottom and going to the the top of the trees. To remove the stencil without bending it...she then turned her work face down (so the stencil is against the table hidden from view) and removed the paper from the stencil (rather than the stencil from the paper), this serves a two-fold purpose. First, she doesn't bend her stencil, but rather the sticky paper (which is very flexible) and secondly if there is any excess glitter it will fall against the table and not onto the sticky tree area which is now exposed and ready for the application of the brown glitter. Sprinkling the brown glitter onto the tree branches creates a beautiful CAS creation that any friend would love to receive. The last step is to remove the protective coating from the back side of the double sticky mounting paper and mount it onto the orange cardstock. Lovely card Joy!

CAS heart with roses by Tiffany S.

This last card using the rose and heart stencil (LL425)was sent to me by Tiffany S. and it is simply yet elegantly rendered! I am not sure how she achieved the embossed design...I am guessing it was either paste embossed with Dreamweaver Metallic Gold Embossing Paste (DGP) on black cardstock or she could have stenciled with any ink, removed the stencil and then sprinkled gold thermal embossing powder onto the image and heated with a heat gun. Whichever technique she chose it certainly translates as CAS. To finish the card she layered the colorful "rose" ribbon on top of the stark black doily (which it looks like she created by hand). This beautiful job of see-sawing back and forth with artistic contrast has created a wonderful CAS creation Tiffany.

We have another week before our challenge ends next Thursday, so you can submit as many creations as you would like. Just go to mr. linky below and link to your blog so we can come see how you have interpreted this CAS challenge. If you don't have a blog and would like to join us you can email me your creation at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and I will blog about it for you. Also take time to visit the Dreamweaver design team's blogs. Their names are listed at the end of this post just before mr. linky.

Pam Hornschu

Jessie Hurley

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Thurday's Dream Scheme's/ Christina is Answering the Challenge

Christina D. is answering our challenge from the UK! She made this lovely card for our CAS (or Clean and Simple) challenge this month. Christina traced the stencil design with a black fine tipped pen and then"doodled" as she calls it inside these lines of the mushroom stencil (LL3025). Some people are calling this technique Zentangle which is making a series of patterns with pen and ink. Christina took this a step further by coloring in some of the patternwork with the Tim Holtz distress pens. The sentiment along the edge is a sticker made by a distributor in the UK called Woodware Craft Collection.

Would you like to play along with our challenge for a Clean and Simple (CAS) card creation this month? Then just link your blog to mr. linky below and we'll come by to encourage you. If you don't have a blog just email me your creation like Christina did...tell me a little about how you did the work and I will post it for you on my blog. My email is lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com. We will have two winners each month one for best use of Dreamweaver Stencils products and one for best interpretation of the challenge...which doesn't need to be my products at all.

Be sure to follow the rest of the team's interpretation of our challenge. They are listed below mr. linky and if you would like to see the two stencils you could win just scroll down to March 1st for more info:

Pam Hornschu