Thursday, February 26, 2015

Bringing Forth the Frilly and Fabulous for Week Four!

Break out the frou frou again for week four! For the month of February, the Dream Team have been going Frilly and Fabulous! Vintage, retro, or modern, adding extra charm with fun Fran•tagé products from Stampendous, ribbons and lace from May Arts, buttons, crystals, charms, or even creating your own dimensional decor! A snippet or a pile, whatever your creative heart desires! Remember to link your creations using the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog for a chance to win the stencil of your choice! Bonus points for using Dreamweaver and/or Stampendous product in your work of heart.)



Pam here once again, with a card that I created while in the UK a couple of years ago. Lynell and I were playing with doing a resist technique. The Dreamweaver Dragonfly was stamped on glossy white cardstock with watermark ink, and various shades of Splendor ink were daubed over the surface. When wiped with a soft cloth, the dragonflies resisted the ink. Over the top, I paste-embossed the Daisy Background using Translucent paste which allows the Dragonflies to still be seen, and from the side, you see the texture and design of the daisies. Almost has a batik look to it. The background panel was machine-embossed with the Daisy Background, and with the stencil still in place, was ink-stenciled with the same Splendor inks as the focal panel. Over the top, the inked areas were embossed with Stampendous Clear Embossing Powder in a one-step cloisonne technique. Two paper flowers were inked as well, layered and adhered for the perfect frou frou element.


A big thanks to all of you who've linked your frilly creations on our blog this month! We try our best to comment on all of your posts, but in case we missed YOURS, please know that we really appreciate that you've shared your art with us!


Our "B" team is up this week for your inspiration:


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

ZENSdays With Guest Designer, Jenn Dove

Welcome to another installment of ZENSdays. Pam here covering for Lynell as she is out of the country at the moment. Today I'm featuring a few creations by one of our favorite designers, Jennifer Dove of DoveArt Studios. She is best known for her amazing Copic coloring skills, and as a teacher of the same. If you can ever find the time, I heartily recommend that you take one of her coloring "Boot Camps".

Today, however, we're showing off her mad skills with what we call "Stentangling", the use of Dreamweaver stencils as the beginning to great tangling designs. Wayne Harlow, of course, is the designer of all of Dreamweaver stencils, including the Tree Line design as shown above. Jenn took this very popular design to a whole other world with her doodles and tangles, and the stark contrast of predominant black with white is exciting to the eye. Below is the opposite version:

An additional thought...Dreamweaver now has a cutting die for this same design. How cool would it be to die cut the design, tangle/doodle over it, and pop it up off of a cool background of hot colors?
This last creation by Jenn, features the Teacup stencil (which, by the way, is also available as a die), which she has stacked and tangled, and added shading with texture using her Copic markers, for more dimension.


Each week, Wayne and Lynell have been posting their ZENspirations on Wednesday, to encourage artists of every level from beginning to advanced, to play with this fun, never-ending trend, each unique in it's own way, and  the perfect way to make every Dreamweaver stencil design your own. Be sure to continue to follow Dreamweaver on Facebook, Pinterest, and especially here on the Dream It Up! blog. From the right hand column, you can sign on to follow by email, so that you never miss out on our ZENSdays posts!

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Frilly and Fabulous-With Lyn Bernatovich

Break out the frou frou again for week three! For the month of February, the Dream Team have been going Frilly and Fabulous! Vintage, retro, or modern, adding extra charm with fun Fran•tagé products from Stampendous, ribbons and lace from May Arts, buttons, crystals, charms, or even creating your own dimensional decor! A snippet or a pile, whatever your creative heart desires! Remember to link your creations using the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog for a chance to win the stencil of your choice! Bonus points for using Dreamweaver and/or Stampendous product in your work of heart.)

Take a look at this!



Pam here today, with a fabulous creation! Not mine, no. No one on the Dream Team does frou frou like Lyn Bernatovich, so I thought I'd show this project off to you in case you hadn't seen it before. We had a monthly challenge a while back for "gifty ideas", and Lyn took the challenge and ran with it! She created this wonderful "purse" to hold a gift of handmade notecards (stenciled of course). The base of the purse was paste-embossed with the Stripes stencil. Her wonderful flower was created with multiple layers of patterned paper, doilies, and several "sludge-pasted" (a mix of pastes that create a marbled or swirled look) Zen Flowers which she cut out and added to the layers. Tulle and buttons and adhesive pearls add to the frilly fabulousness, as well as a lovely contrast in color of the machine-embossed and die cut Leafy Branch, and a monogrammed Nested Frame Die cut for personalization. Who wouldn't want this gifty? By the way, Lyn, my birthday is in June...hint, hint. Oh, and you'll have to change the monogram to a "P"!

Our "A" team would love to share their ideas with you, so follow along:



Wednesday, February 18, 2015

ZENSdays With Wayne and Lynell #15

 Hi! Pam here, posting for this week's ZENSday inspiration, while Lynell is off to the UK on a teaching trip! No, neither of these creations were done by me. Both were tangled by our Certified Zentangle expert, Wayne, before Lynell finished his creations off as cards. Actually, both are beautiful enough to be framed works of art in my opinion.

The top shows off what makes the ZEN Flower stencil so special...it's a wonderful way to practice your tangles and doodles. Nice little areas, and plenty of them. The stencil design was first paste-embossed in Glossy White, and once dry, provides the perfect surface to tangle on. I find it so fascinating to see how many varieties of Zentangle patterns there are, and yet these Certified artists are constantly creating new ones.

For example, I've been looking at both the Zen Flower designs above, and the Open Owl design below, and cannot see where any of the tangles were replicated in the other's design!

If you've been doodling for years, you'll find that many of the Dreamweaver Stencil designs are perfect to add your patterns to, without having to create any shapes to work them into. Especially the designs that are referred to as "Open", such as the Open Owl, Open Elephant, Open Butterfly, Open Bird. So...if you are OPEN to creativity, you'll want to get oodles of these designs for your doodles. And tangles of course.


Thursday, February 12, 2015

Not Too Frilly, But Truly Fabulous!

Break out the frou frou! For the month of February, the Dream Team are going Frilly and Fabulous! Vintage, retro, or modern, adding extra charm with fun Fran•tagé products from Stampendous, ribbons and lace from May Arts, buttons, crystals, charms, or even creating your own dimensional decor! A snippet or a pile, whatever your creative heart desires! Remember to link your creations using the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog for a chance to win the stencil of your choice! Bonus points for using Dreamweaver and/or Stampendous product in your work of heart.)

Here's what I have to show you today:


Don't you just love this card created by our good friend, Elaine Benedict? She's created such a wonderful soft background using the Mission Roses stencil and soft ink colors. She cut a window from the front so that when you open the card, you see the entire Rose Tree design. The technique used was a one-step cloisonne:

1. Paste-emboss the stencil first using the regular embossing paste, remove the stencil and let the image dry.
2. Using small and medium stencil brushes, ink stencil the Rose Tree design on the inside of the card with pigment ink (Splendor by Tsukineko).
3. Cover inked surface with Deep Impressions Embossing Powder from Stampendous, and heat to melt. The picture below shows more of the shine and dimension from this technique.

That's it! For more depth, you can continue to layer on more ink, and more clear powder, heating in between. However, it's obvious that one step looks wonderful as well, and would be a great way to create several of these cards at a time with various sentiments for other occasions...birthday, Valentines, Mother's Day, Get Well, Sympathy...or Thinking of You as Elaine has done. Elaine has kept her frou frou simple by just adding a soft gingham ribbon from May Arts, so don't let the idea of added frills keep you from linking your own creations for the challenge this month!


Want some more inspiration? Here's the "B" team:



 

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Zensdays with Lynell & Wayne #14

Ahhh....a valentine/heart challenge this week from Laura Harms the diva . I have always loved this holiday...it's all about caring and love. It doesn't have to be romantic love it can be family love or friendly love! Your creation could also end up being a thank you to a teacher or some other special role model in your life.

This was one of my first ZIA/ zentangle inspired art pieces. Of course for me ZIA's are usually greeting cards. I have a real burden for making cards....but I need to get them in the mail more often. Now that we have sold Dreamweaver my goal is to spend more time creating and sending cards to those I love.

Now, Wayne is another story...he surprised me with a beauty of a valentine this evening so I had to add it to the blog...over the years he has often done this and I love it and he knows it touches me deeply. Here is his creation for me...he really has that Akoya pattern conquered, and I haven't even tried it yet:

Wayne and I will be teaching a Sten-tangle class in Roseville, CA March 26 and 27 at Stamp ARt Shoppe. Maybe we'll see some of you there. I have met some really wonderful card making enthusiasts in this wonderful stamp store, owned by Sandy Brien. In a few days she will have my boards to show to you.

This week I will fly to the UK to do a trade show in Birmingham for Stampendous with their distributor Woodware Craft Collection. Then I will travel to North Yorkshire to do two stencil certification classes for retailers in Skipton. I love that part of the world, the people in Yorkshire have such a fun sense of humor and it's fun to poke around the cute stores in Grassington and the dales. AND of course I am looking forward to sharing stenciling with Stampendous fans too.

Pam Hornschu, offered to keep up Zensdays with Lynell and Wayne, so if I get some material to her in the next 24 hours we will keep you going with more information on tangling.

The above creation was done with the following tangles: cubine, flux, mssst, zensplosion folds, pokeleaf....these are the ones that i remember the names. Go to tanglepatterns.com to learn the steps of doing these tangles. These are easy ones to start out your sten-tangle with. The stencil used was LG747 ruffled heart.

Be sure to visit back on Thursday for our February challenge....Pam is really putting together a fun month of frilly and frou frou...and of course my design team is so clever with their creations and would love to have your supportive comments coming their way. Since I am gone there will be some great cards from guest designers on my blog!

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Frilly and Fabulous! Week One/ + February's Challenge Winners

Break out the frou frou! For the month of February, the Dream Team are going Frilly and Fabulous! Vintage, retro, or modern, adding extra charm with fun Fran•tagé products from Stampendous, ribbons and lace from May Arts, buttons, crystals, charms, or even creating your own dimensional decor! A snippet or a pile, whatever your creative heart desires! Remember to link your creations using the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog for a chance to win the stencil of your choice! Bonus points for using Dreamweaver and/or Stampendous product in your work of heart.)

Here's what I have to show you today:

Isn't this fabulous? One of our favorite designers, Jennifer Dove, created this for us with the Hexagons background having been paste-embossed in white, sprinkled with Stampendous Micro Crystal Glitter, and then she airbrushed with her Copic system over a torn panel of the background, as well as a length of beautiful May Arts cotton ribbon. The sentiment and the bees come from Stampendous, and the layers of glittery and cracked cardstock come from Core'dinations. The end result is something that really should be framed and hung on the wall!

Now, remember, this is an inspiration piece. We really want YOU to feel comfortable creating your own frilly and fabulous creations, and to link them for us to see (not to mention an opportunity to win!)

 
We have winners for last month's Birthday card Challenge

#50 Snazzy JJ
Rosemarie S.

These ladies both used Dreamweaver Stencils, so you need to pick your favorite stencil and then for that bonus you get to choose a second stencil (YEAH two stencils) then email me your choices at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com



Our "A" team would love to share their ideas with you, so follow along: