It's Sketch Challenge Thursday!

We are days away from October and we should be having fall-like weather, but yesterday's temperatures made you want to get back into the pool.  The weather aside, we are heading into the fall/winter holidays and I heard someone mention last weekend that Christmas was 90 days away.  Eeeeck!   It's time to get busy with our holiday cards.

Today's sketch is by our Team Leader, Deborah March, and it's perfect for two of my favorite stencils (in truth, the stencil that I'm working with turns out to be that day's favorite!).

And here's my card

To begin, paste emboss the spider web (LJ816) and raven (LL3015) with glossy black embossing paste (DGKP), and set aside to dry.  When dry, cut the spider web into quarters and adhere to patterned paper.  Trim the raven, add coordinating mat, and adhere to the center of the card.  Add punched trim to the side and you're done.  One Halloween card done; many more to assemble.

I hope you've enjoyed today's sketch challenge.  Be sure to stop by the other design team blogs (listed in the side bar) to see what they've been working on and please leave a comment.  We love hearing from you.  Then, why not play along with us this week? We'd love to see what your take on the sketch.  Don't forget to post your creation on the DREAM it UP! blog using Mr. Linky.

See you next week,
Liz

Designer's Choice on Dream Scheme Thursday

The calendar says tomorrow is the first day of Autumn, but you would never know it by the weather.  We've had warm summer days in the 80s-90s with no fog, so maybe now those last few tomatoes will finally ripen. 

For today's post, I wanted to do something in keeping with the seasons, the fall colors,  the (hopefully) cooler weather, and that led me to this beautiful Japanese Maple stencil (LJ906).  The warm orange-red colors of the leaves are a perfect reminder of the changing seasons.  I was amazed at how quickly this card came together.

I dry embossed the stencil and, with the stencil still in place, applied several different inks from a pale yellow to a darker reddish brown to get the desired shading.   There was a little too much white space for me, even after trimming the image to a smaller card size, so I punched a strip of patterned paper using EK Success Lattice Chain punch.  Then, after carefully cutting around the outside edge of the leaves, I adhered the smaller piece to the left side of the card base, layered the punched piece on top, and then positioned the larger piece on the right side so that it fit the card with just a small bit of patterned paper showing in the background.  Couldn't have been easier.  Give it a try . . . I think you'll like it.

Since this is a "free" week, but sure to check the other Dream Team blogs for more ideas and inspiration.  And don't forget to stop on over at the DREAM it UP! blog and leave us a note.  We love hearing from you.

Happy crafting,
Liz

Dream Scheme Thursday Color Challenge

Dream Teamer Lee Kellogg provided the colors for this week's challenge: lime green and gray.  These are colors I'm not usually drawn to, but it's good for me to get out of my comfort zone and, as a result, I have lots of ideas to work on.  Here's my card:

I never throw away paper scraps and, over time, I've collected quite a stash of photo paper.   I've been playing with the scraps and find that they take well to a variety of inks. The background was made by dry-embossing photo paper with the Houndstooth stencil (LJ913), sanding the raised edges and applying Ranger's Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters and Pumice Stone with the applicator tool.  When applying the inks, remember to begin with a circular motion off the edge of the paper and work toward the middle. 

The Hot Air Balloon (LL3003) was dry-embossed on black metal  and, again, the raised edges were sanded to expose the gray base.   I used a Copic marker (New Leaf) to add color to the stencil and smoothed it out with the applicator tool.

The sentiment is from a set that most likely came from Michael's dollar bin; the brads are by Basic Gray.

There you have it.  Be sure to check out the other Dream Team members' blogs, listed on the right, to see what they've been working on.  And don't forget to let us see your work by linking to the Dreamweaver Stencils bog, DREAM it UP!

See you next week,
Liz

Designer's Choice on Dream Scheme Thursday

WOW!   If you followed along with us last week for the Dreamweaver/Woodware UK blog hop, you saw some amazing projects and techniques from the very talented design teams.  So many ideas, so little time!

And in time, the holidays will be here before we know it.   Every year I make elaborate plans, endless lists and time-lines so that, in theory, by early December, the tree will be trimmed, gifts wrapped, cards mailed (my design team sisters know how well that went last year) and I will be able to enjoy the holidays and not do all-nighters trying to get things done.   Hope springs eternal, right?  Well this year is no different, though I do have a head start on the cards.  Here's what I'm talking about.

This newly released stencil (LX7003) is one of my favorites.  For this card, I used the copper metallic embossing paste on ivory Stardream paper.  Layer it with background papers of your choice and you're done.  You could use any of the metallic embossing pastes and change background papers to complement the paste or you could cover the image with gold leaf.

Bonus:  use Lynell's power pasting technique, demonstrated on the Embossing Paste Techniques for Artful Cardmaking DVD,  for even faster pasting.

Happy crafting,
Liz

And the winner is . . . .

#12 Daria who said "What fun! You did a fabulous job."  

Congratulations, Daria.  To collect your piece of Dreamweaver goodness, please send your mailing address to Lynell Harlow at lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com and she will send your prize.

Thanks to all who left comments.  This has been an amazing week of hopping back and forth across the pond and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have.  I've added the Woodware team's blogs to my Google reader, so you can be sure I'll be checking in frequently to see what other great ideas they're sharing.  And please come back on Thursday for more Dreamweaver Dream Team projects.

Happy crafting,
Liz

Blog Hopping with the Dreamweaver and Woodware Design Teams

The Dreamweaver design team is partying with the UK Woodware design team to bring you innovative ways to use our wonderful Dreamweaver Stencils and supplies all week long!  By the end of the week, you'll have seen stencils used in inspiration ways you just couldn't have imagined, and you'll see that, although our stencils are wonderful for paper crafting, they have SO MANY other uses too.  We'll have several posts a day for you, beginning today, Monday, August 29th, through Saturday, September 3rd.  At the end of our celebration, each designer will randomly select a winner from all blog comments to receive a free Dreamweaver stencil.  We look forward to you partying along with us.

Here's my entry for today.  Garden party, anyone?   For me, it's more like "gardening party," but who said you can't be stylish while pulling weeds?

 Stenciling on straw couldn't be easier.  I used the Black Eyed Susan stencil (LJ902) and blocked out the placement on the brim, using one or two flowers to fill in the blank spaces.  Then, following my template, I applied white embossing paste to every other section.   When that paste had dried, I paste embossed the remaining sections.   The ribbon band was a piece of cake.   Cut ribbon to fit and, starting at one end, paste emboss a single flower as many times as needed.  Since you are only pasting one flower at a time, it's not necessary to wait for the first one to dry before starting on the next flower.

When dry, replace the stencil and apply Splendor Inks by Tsukineko in your desired colors.  I attached the ribbon using fabric glue and added a bow to cover the two ends.  

You can find all the supplies I used and more here and right here.

If you've just joined the hop, here are the designers who have posted today:
Debbie at http://debfs.blogspot.com
Deborah at http://upcyclingmylife.blogspot.com
Kristi at http://www.kristiscreativecafe.blogspot.com
Liz at http://blackcatsstudios.blogspot.com    (you're here)

That's it for today.  Come back tomorrow and start at Lynell's blog DREAM it UP!  Lynell has also listed all of the hoppers on her blog, so it's a good place to go to if you get lost or miss a day (we know that won't happen, but just in case) and need to catch up.

I hope you've enjoyed the hopping with us and don't forget hop tomorrow through Saturday!

Happy Crafting,
Liz

Designer's Choice on Dream Scheme Thursday

They've predicted a warming trend through the weekend, so of course my thoughts turn to cool drinks with lots and lots of ice.  In the paper crafting world, that would be snowflakes and ice skates, using  Dreamweaver's  new ice skates stencil in shiny, icy silver metal.   Take a look . . .

The background is the snowflake stencil (LJ819) paste embossed with translucent embossing paste.  After removing and washing the stencil, I sprinkled clear glitter over the paste while it was still wet.  After it was completely dry, I brushed off the excess glitter with a soft brush.

For the skates (LL3016), I dry embossed the metal first by running it through a personal die cutting machine and then, with the stencil still in place, went over the fine details with the small end of a stylus to give more definition.  Then, I turned the embossed metal over and applied regular embossing paste to the back to keep the details crisp and dent-free.  When dry, I cut it out and attached it to the snowflake panel. 

Please be sure to visit the other team blogs listed on the sidebar on the right for more ideas and inspiration, and don't forget to stop by the Dreamweaver blog, DREAM it UP!

AND, SAVING THE BEST 'TIL LAST . . . a special blog hop begins next Monday where you will be seeing some very different kinds of projects.  I won't say any more right now, just be sure to mark your calendar and check back next week to see what we've been working on.

Happy crafting,
Liz