Color for Fun and Happiness

Dreamweaver Stencils Thursday Dream Schemes

Hi Crafters!

I am home with the flu -- it's been nearly 18 years since I've been this sick and I am tired of it! Thus, I am going through my archives to see what I have that I haven't posted yet...

 

Ingredients

Dreamweaver Stencils: LX7012 Wave and Dots, LS1009 Thank You and LS3020 Retro Cat Sitting

Dreamweaver Matt Black Embossing Paste and Glossy Blue Embossing Paste

Dreamweaver Paste Spreader

Clear Embossing Ink and Clear Embossing Powder

Ranger Distress Stain - Broken China

Ranger Foam Ink Blending Tool

Kraft Card Stock

Card Stock for layering

Ribbon by May Arts

 

Method

Working with the kraft card stock first, tape down the waves and dots stencil. Using a foam ink blending tool and a pouncing motion, add embossing ink to the kraft sheet. 

When you have enough ink, remove the stencil (set aside and clean it) and sprinkle clear embossing powder on the kraft paper. Tap off the excess. Heat until the powder is clear. 

Using the Broken China Distress Stain, color the entire embossed area of the kraft paper. The clear embossed areas will act as a resist. With a paper towel, wipe off the excess stain on the embossed areas. 

Next tape and mask the Sitting Retro Cat stencil to the embossed and stained kraft paper. 

Use the Black Matt Embossing Paste and the paste spreader to fill the cat stencil. 

Remove the stencil and clean it ASAP. Set the embossed cat aside to dry. 

On a blue piece of card stock tape down the Thank You Stencil. 

Fill it with the blue embossing paste, set aside to dry. Clean your stencil!

Once the pasted images are dry, trim the paper and layer for your card. 

Wrap the blue ribbon and burlap string around the card. I like to use the 1/8" red line/wonder tape to adhere ribbons. 

Add the Thank You to the top of the ribbons and you are done! 

Have fun today, make art and leave me a note that you stopped by. Be sure to visit the other gals on the design team, they always have fun ideas and techniques sure to keep the creative juices flowing!

Lee

Dreamweaver Stencils Dreaming

Greetings -- it's Thursday in case you haven't noticed!

 

We are still doing the Green/St Patrick's challenge for the month on the Dreamweaver Design Team. I am St. Patrick's Day challenged but Green is never an issue. Though today I am being somewhat liberal with the definition. 

A Green Butterfly -- of sorts!

This is a fun double heat embossed card. Keep reading to learn how to do this!

Here are the two stencils I used:

Ingredients

Dreamweaver Stencils: LX7011 Big Dots and LG740 Open Butterfly

Embossing Ink

Embossing Powders from Stamp A Mania or Ranger Industries: Black and Turquoise Super Sparkle (Ranger it is called Holographic)

Foam Ink Applicator

Card stock

 

Method

On black card stock, tape down the big dots stencil using a hinge tape so the entire card is covered. 

Using the foam ink applicator, apply the embossing ink in a pouncing motion, covering the whole card. You should be able to flip open the stencil and check to see your coverage and return the stencil to the same position. 

When you are happy with the coverage of the ink, remove the stencil (Clean it!).

Working on a scrap piece of paper or tray, sprinkle the card stock with black embossing powder, tap off the excess and return the excess powder to the jar. Heat to melt the powder. The embossing powder will turn glossy and raised when it is melted. More heat is not better, you can over heat the embossing powder and it bubbles in unpleasant ways. 

Once the dots are cool to the touch, a few seconds, position the butterfly over the dots. Tape down and mask around the stencil so the embossing ink doesn't stray off into other parts of the card. 

Again, pounce on the embossing ink. Check to see if you have enough ink on the card. When you are happy with the coverage, remove the stencil. Clean it!

Sprinkle on the Turquoise Super Sparkle or Ranger Holographic embossing powder. Work on a scrap piece of paper so you can pour the extra back in the jar. 

Heat to melt the embossing powder. Here's the trick with this embossing powder: it changes colors the more heat you give it. So work carefully and watch how it changes colors. In addition, this powder works best on dark paper. 

Watch where you work with the heat gun, you don't want to re-melt the black dots any more than necessary. 

Layer up the black on card stock that you like and you are set. 

Thank you for stopping by, leave me a note that you came by and visit the other fine ladies of the design team that are listed to the right. Remember, you can link your blog to Lynell's at Dream it Up and you might win a prize!

Have fun and make art today.

Lee

 

Dreamweaver Stencils Thursday Dreaming

Hello Everyone!

Thank you all who are playing along with us! Remember, if you play along and link your blog to Lynell's you have a chance to win a stencil or two.

Here are the two stencils that will be given away:

  

 

Green is thins month's theme along with the upcoming Saint Patrick's Day. 

 

 

These are the three stencils that I used. Don't be put off by the image sizes, downloading photos sometimes does strange things to them. 

Ingredients

Dreamweaver Stencils: LS109 Thank you, LX7013 Pinwheel Checkerboard background and LL3025 Mushrooms

Dreamweaver Embossing Paste - white

Color Solutions Alcohol Inks and blending solution

Ranger Distress Inks - Pine Needle and Peeled Paint

Tag by American Tag

Glossy card stock

Ribbon by May Arts

 

Method

Taping the tag down - I use a loop of tape on the back so I don't leave a bare spot on the front of the card. 

Lay the Pinwheel Checkerboard stencil over the tag. Tap one side to make a hinge. You will need to be able to open and close the stencil while keeping the registration. 

With the stencil open tap the Pine Needles ink pad all over the stencil. You are aiming for good overall coverage of ink on the metal. Be sure to have a craft sheet or some other cleanable surface under the stencil. 

Once you have enough ink on the stencil, flip it closed so the inked side is on the tag. 

Take a foam ink applicator and pick up some Peeled Paint with it. Pounce the ink applicator all over the stencil. I like to hold the stencil down as I work. 

By pounce the lighter green ink on the stencil you accomplish two tasks at once: transferring the ink that is on the stencil and filling in the open areas of the stencil. 

When you are happy with your inking, it's time to paste. Clean the Pinwheel Checkerboard stencil and set it aside. 

Tape down and mask the mushroom stencil. With the white paste applied liberally on your paste spreader fill the stencil in. A 45 degree angle works well. You may find that you need to work left to right rather than top to bottom on the stencil. The thin lines of the stencil are best pasted in the direction they run. 

Set the tag aside for the paste to dry. Clean the stencil.

With the small Thank you face up and backwards -- so as you read the words they read backwards, put many drops of various Color Solutions Alcohol ink on the stencil. Add single drops of blending solution to the drops. If the ink isn't spreading use a felt from an alcohol ink applicator to spread the ink all over the stencil. 

Place the glossy paper over the stencil, glossy side down. You are transferring the ink to the paper. The alcohol ink will run if you try to pick it up and flip it over on the paper. 

Trim the thank you saying to fit your tag. 

Now to make the mushrooms green! 

Put the clean mushroom stencil, you did clean it, right, over the dry paste. Line up so the stencil fits over the dried paste.

Using a felt alcohol ink applicator and a green alcohol ink, I used Pine Bough here. Ink up the applicator and pounce it all over the mushrooms. 

Adhere the thank you to the card, add ribbon and you are done!

Visit the other blogs of the Design Team member's to see what inspirational crafty work they have done. Their blog links are to the right, click and away you go. Leave me a note that you stopped by. 

Have fun and make art today!

 

Lee

Dreamweaver Stencils Dreaming in Green

It's Thursday and the theme for February is Green! In honor of St. Patrick's Day and all things green we will be presenting many green artsy projects. 

So don't forget to play along with us, leave your blog link with Mr. Linky on the Dreamweaver Blog and you might win a prize!

 

 

Here is my first installment on green, I have several for this month. 

Ingredients

Dreamweaver Stencils LX7011 Big Dots and LL3022 Festive Thank You

Ranger Distress ink pads: Peeled Paint and Pine Needle

Ranger Watermark ink pad

Ranger Adirondack Bottle Dye ink pad 

Foam ink applicator

Brilliance Gold ink pad

Ribbon by May Arts

Card stock and glossy paper

Method

Tape white card stock down, I use a loop of painter's tape on the back since I am covering the card completely with ink.

Lay the stencils down on top of the card, tape along one edge to make a hinge. You want to be able to flip the stencil back and forth.

Flip the stencil into the open position, so you see the card and stencil.

Using the Pine Distress Ink stamp ink all over the side of the stencil that is exposed. Cover the stencil well with ink.

Flip the stencil over and using the foam ink applicator pick up the peeled paint and tap the ink into paper through the stencil.

This process will not only color open areas on the card it will transfer the ink that you applied to the stencil.

Flip up the stencil when you feel you have enough of the peepled paint on the card. If there is not enought ink on the paper flip the stencil back and continue to add ink. Once you are happy with the ink, remove the stencil and clean it.

On the gloss card stock tape down the Festive Thank You. Mask off the stencil so you won't get inke where you don't want it.

Using a foam ink applicator apply Ranger Watermark Resist ink to the stencil. Pounce all over so you get good coverage. 

Remove the stencil and clean it. 

Using a small brayer, roll it on the Adirondack Bottle Ink Pad and then on the paper. Your goal here is to cover that piece of glossy paper with as much ink as you can. 

Once you are happy with the amount of ink you have on the card, buff it up with a clean paper towel. 

Buffing will remove the excess ink and bring up the white of the areas with the resist ink on them. 

Lay the BIg Dots stencil over the Festive Thank You card, tape down. 

With Brilliance Gold and a foam ink applicator, pounce on the gold ink.

Layer the Thank You piece and place over the ribbon on the main card.

Lots of words, but an easy technique.

Have fun and do art today!

Lee 

 

 

 

CHA Ranger Class

Hi Y'all!

I have been having a great time here in Anaheim at CHA. I took a class sponsored by Ranger Ink that was full of great ideas and new product. All three projects were great! Tim Holtz had us do a fun miniature canvas, Claudine Hellmuth a great painted canvas bag, but it was Dyan Revaveley's altered book that really got me going this year. So, I'll talk about it first, watch for the other two projects in the next couple of days.

 

Dyan is a Brit, with a great wit who loves bright colors. I am in love with her new line of dye sprays and stencils. Check out her blog, it's fun.

Using her spray inks, we spritzed book pages, folded them back, spritzed some more.

 

Then we played with stencils and stamps. Oh and ended up with very inky fingers! But what really good creative project isn't messy?

While it doesn't show up much here, black spray is an important part of all of this. 

Dyan provided us some pre-stamped sticky back canvas and color images to cut out and adhere to the pages. 

So stay tuned, I will be doing some more of these techniques in the weeks to come. 

Have fun and make art today!

Lee

Dreamweaver Stencils Sneak Peek #6

This is the last one! I am at CHA and will be reporting at least once while I am here. 

Yes, a tag!

Ingredients

Dreamweaver Stencils: Bard Branches LJ849, Mushrooms LL3025 and Chickadee LG708

Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Photo

Foam Ink Applicator

Ranger Emboss It embossing ink

Various colors of embossing ink from StampaMania

Ribbon by May Arts

 

Method

Age the tag using the foam ink applicator and Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Tape down the mushroom stencil, mask around the stencil.

With a clean foam ink applicator pounce on the embossing ink.

Sprinkle on the various colors of embossing powders where you wish them to be. Tap off the excess, brush off any powder clinging to areas you don't want embossed. 

Heat until glossy and dimensional. 

Take the stencil with the chickadee on it, mask off the bird. 

Position the stencil so the bird is landing on top of the mushroom.

Tape down and mask off the rest of the card. 

Pounce on the embossing powder. 

Remove the stencil and sprinkle on a black glittery embossing powder. Heat to melt. With glitter embossing powders I have to watch the glitter change angle as it melts. 

The bard branches stencil is next, to fill in the background. I used Vintage Photo and a foam ink applicator. Pounce in the brown lightly, just enough to give the tag depth.

Off you go to see what everyone else has done, their links are to the right. 
Have fun and make art today!

 

Lee 

Dreamweaver Stencils Sneak Peek #5

Today's main feature is a variation on the technique I did yesterday, only with the Color Solution Alcohol Inks. 

 

 

Ingredients

Dreamweaver Stencils: Retro Standing Cat LL3021 and Kitty Words LG741

Color Solution Alcohol Inks and Blending Solution

Embossing paste in Matt Black and Glossy Blue

Glossy paper

Card stock for layering

Natural Twill Ribbon by May Arts

 

Method

We'll start with the ribbon. Tape off the saying on the stencil that you wish to use on the ribbon. I use blue painter's tape. 

Tape the ribbon down and position the stencil over the ribbon where you want the words. 

Fill in using the embossing paste spreader and the blue stencil paste. 

Remove stencil, clean and set the ribbon aside to dry. 

Next we are going to create the cat layer. 

Lay the stencil wrong side up (No words on this side, words will transfer backwards with this technique).

Add several drops of the various colors of the Color Solution alcohol ink all over the metal stencil. Dilute with the blending solution. I use a piece of the felt for applying alcohol ink to move the inks around to get full coverage on the stencil. 

Now lay the glossy paper down on top of the stencil. Press firmly to transfer the ink to the paper. 

This is what your paper will look like when you lift it off the stencil. Clean the stencil with rubbing alcohol.  

 

Now we are going to reposition the clean stencil over our image. Tape it down and get the black embossing paste. 

Fill in with the paste and set aside to dry. Clean your stencil!

Here's a close-up of the finished pasted cat.

Layer up the cat and add the ribbon to the card. Done and what fun!

Check out the other Design Team member's pages to see what they have made. Leave a note so we know you came by.

 

Have fun and make art today!

Lee

Dreamweaver Stencils Sneak Peek #4

Howdy!

Welcome to day four, only two more to go before CHA!

Today's card is a fairly fast one to make and is what I call a faux letterpress style. 

 

 

 

Ingredients

Dreamweaver Stencils: Thank yous LJ894, Plum Blossom shape LM219, Cherrt Blossom shape LL3024 and Flower Quatrefoil LX7010

Ranger Distress Ink

Ranger Embossing Ink

Red Chile Powder Embossing Powder by StampaMania

White paper stock

Colored paper stock for layering

Mini mister filled with water

Ribbon by May Arts

 

Method

Working on the craft sheet, lay the Cherry Blossom stencil wrong side up (No writing on this side). Using the Distress Ink, tap the ink pad all over the stencil. You want to coat the stencil well. 

Mist the stencil with the mini mister. 

Carefully move the stencil to a clean part of the craft sheet. 

Press the white card stock on top of the stencil. Use your fingers to make sure the whole stencil has made contact with the paper. Rubbing will distort the image, so press. 

Lift up the paper, clean the stencil and craft sheet. Repeat with two other colors moving the card around to position the impressions on the card. 

Tape the Quatrefoil stencil down over the card and apply Mustard Seed ink to the card with a foam ink applicator. Faintly color in the white areas of the card. 

Next use the Plum Blossom Shape stencil, ink it as you did the other shape, mist it and press a smaller white piece of paper on to the stencil. 

Cut out the shape, I left a fine white boarder around the flower to help it stand out from the card. 

Next tape off the Arigato on the Thank yous stencil. This will isolate the word for applying the embossing ink.

Position the word where you want it on the plum blossom shape that you have cut out. 

With a clean foam applicator, pounce on the embossing ink. Remove the stencil.

Sprinkle on the embossing powder, heat until glossy and dimensional. Don't over heat, you can burn the embossing powder. 

Layer the card, add the ribbon to the card and then adhere the plum blossom cut out. 

Done!
Check out the other team member's posting this week and leave us a short note that you stopped by.

Have fun and make art today!

Lee 

 

Dreamweaver Stencils Sneak Peek #3

This just gets more and more fun! I hope you are enjoying these posts and the new stencils. They have been a challenge and exciting to play with. 

Ingredients

Dreamweaver Stencil - Open Butterfly

Dreamweaver white embossing paste and white crackle paste

Ranger Distress inks

Red acrylic paint

Dreamweaver paste spreader and stencil brushes

Card stock

 

Method

Mix red acrylic paint (use a heavy body paint) with a couple of tablespoons of white embossing paste. 

Tape the stencil to the card stock and mask.

Spread the red paste into the stencil. Remove stencil, clean and set aside the butterfly to dry.

Once the embossing paste is dry, replace the stencil over the embossed image.

Spread with crackle paste. Set aside to dry.

Clean the stencil right away.  

While the paste is drying, cut your layers for the final card. 

On the dry image, replace the stencil and using the Ranger Distress Inks, brush on the colors you like for the butterfly. 

And you are done!

Leave a note that you have visited. Check out the other blogs from the Design Team and see what they have been up to. 

Have fun and make art today!

 

Lee

Dreamweaver Stencils Sneak Peek Day 1

Howdy!

Don't know about you but there are no winter blues here. The Dreamweaver Design team has been busy working away at making samples for a whole batch of new images that our fearless leader, Lynell Harlow has produced. 

Check out my postings this week and the rest of the Design Team listed to the right. We all have made scores of cards and other samples to highlight these designs that will be released at the CHA trade show this coming weekend. 

Let me know if there are any of the stencils you desire, I will have them on order. Now sit back and enjoy!

This tag features two of the new releases: Festive Thank you LL3022 and Flower Quatrefoil, LX7010. 

Plus I had some fun with the background. 

 

Ingredients

Dreamweaver Stencils LL3022, Fesitve Thank you and LX7010 Flower Quaterfoil

Dreamweaver White Embossing Paste

Ranger Distress Inks: Aged Mahagony and Rusty Hinge

Ranger Adirondack Inks - various colors

Tag by American Tag

Ribbon by May Arts

Card Stock by Paper Cut

 

Tap down the tag and hinge the stencil on top of it.

 

Flip the stencil back, so it is open. Tap the ink pad all over the inside of the stencil.

This should look good and messy by now. It's a lot of fun too!

Now flip the stencil back over the tag, it should look like the photo above. 

Using a Ranger Foam ink applicator and the Rusty Hinge ink. cover the tag with ink. Use a pouncing motion so you don't shred the foam. Just up and down all over the tag. Fill in the all the white space with the wonderful rust color. 

 

Flip back the hinged stencil and you should see:

 

Now at this point if you feel that some of the red didn't transfer, flip the stencil back on to the tag and rub the stencil where the ink needs to transfer.  

Pretty cool technique isn't it?

This is a close-up of the background.

For the thank-you portion, I used the white embossing paste on kraft paper. Once the stencil paste was dry I replaced the stencil and using stencil brushes colored in various ink colors on the words and designs. Then I coated the ink with clear embossing powder. Heat until the ink areas are glossy. 

Mount on card stock and add to the tag. Add ribbons. 

Done!

Have fun, make art today!

 Leave me a note that you stopped by. 

Thank you

 

Lee