Mad for Dreamweavers and Gelli!

This month's Dreamwaver challenge to honor March Madness is to go MAD. Anything goes, and the more outside-of-the-box, the better. This year, Dreamweaver is aiming to play with non-traditional challenges whenever possible. A chance to break out all of our I-never-quite-knew-what-to-do-with-these-products stash, and to look at Dreamweaver stencils in a whole new creative light!

So what does going MAD mean for me? Well, it means playing product "I just had to have" several months ago that still sits in the bag it came home in! (I bet you have a few things like this!). For me, it is my Gelli Plate.

I pulled prints from my Gelli plate 3 times each time varying the pink, yellow and orange colors along with the stencils. The stencils I used are:

• LX 7002 Plaid
• LX 7011 Big Dots
• LG 713 Amsterdam Flourish
• LJ 902 Black Eyed Susan and 
• LJ 916 Butterfly

Remember, these stencils and all Dreamweaver products can always be bought at Stencil with Style if you don't have a local store or they don't carry Dreamweaver product (and first you should tell them then need to!)

 After I had several backgrounds that l liked. I chose one and created this calendar base. I kept the design very simple and didn't add a lot of embellishments because the background paper was so beautiful and had such interest that I didn't want to detract from it.

I started out by first wrapping the print around a piece of heavy chipboard and then paste embossing the LL548 Daisies stencil over the print. This is what it looked like before adding color to the paste embossing. (If you look closely at the upper right corner, you should be able to see a faint print of the butterfly stencil). 

Part of me likes the Daisies unpainted, much more contrast. What do you think?

Once the paste was dry, I repositioned the stencil and colored the daisy with my acrylic paints. I then punched corner slots (using another unused product--an old Fiskars slot punch!) in the black mat and adhered that to the printed board with foam tape. After inserting the calender it was done. And the best part is that next month, I can change the calendar. Now I just need to start working on one for the fall and winter months! (I'm thinking of starting with the LJ 849 Bare Trees and LX 7020 Leafless Tree stencils)

Now please hop on over to the other Dreamers and leave them some love. Hopefully their madness will inspire you to step outside of your comfort zone and go a little mad!

Georgia Sommers Guest Artist

Lea Kimmel
Louise Healy
Terrece Siddoway
Wendy Jordan
Pam Hornschu

Thanks for stopping by. I'll hope you'll come back next Tuesday (April 1) when I'll have a giveaway to go with a little announcement and at least a new creation to share.

Appreciating life

Hello all,

I know I've been a bit MIA lately. I over-committed myself these past few months and was working full-time, going to school full-time, and pathetically trying to stay active on the Dreamweaver Dream Team. I must admit that I pretty much failed in that last area.  I'm glad to report that the winter term is over and I survived! One of my classes was a painting class and here is one of my paintings from that class. (Be nice, I'm a very beginning painter!)

 

I painted this as part of my final project where we had to paint two related paintings. The other is the same image just painted on a lighter background and the sunflower has more orange in it. I definitely liked the contrast on this better than the lighter background. I'm not completely happy with this, the arrangement of the some of the petals could be reworked but....

I chose to paint a sunflower because at the end of the term I was pretty burnt out and was looking forward to a relaxing week of spring break. This was my foray to getting my mind clear and ready for that.

Now that I am somewhat recovered, I'll be posting a bit more frequently. In fact on this Thursday as part of the Dreamweaver March Madness challenge! Thanks for checking in and please stop by on Thursday. I've gone outside of my comfort zone and created something not typical for me.

Until we meet again, may all your days be filled with sunflowers!