Dreamweaver Stencil Autumnal Card

Today I am doing a little happy dance. I randomly won the Dreamweavers Dream it Up! blog challenge for "Christmas in August" simply by entering an ornament I had made using one of their fabby stencils. Each month they have these challenges and I am hoping to do more of them as I am just learning about using stencils. The challenges motivate me. I encourage you to play along. You do not need a blog to play - you can email a photo to Lynell and she will include it in the running. The winners are drawn randomly so even newbies like me have a chance to win stencils! Of course the hard part is deciding which one I want!

This month the challenge is "Awesome Autumn" and I have a card to share using this Dreamweavers Bare Trees Stencil LJ 849 that I won in another Dreamweavers blog contest:

The trees are the metal part - picture silver metal trees against black paper. The black shows through the openings in the stencil. Here's my card:

Card measures 4.25 X 5.5 inches. The sentiment is a
Waltzingmouse stamp on a Spellbinders Labels 14 die cut.

You might be wondering how I got the trees black when I used white cardstock for my base. I coated the entire stencil with black pigment ink, then ran it through my Cuttlebug machine to ink and embed the tree silhouettes into the white cardstock. After removing the stencil, I quickly sprinkled clear embossing powder on the ink and heat embossed the trees and border. The trees were now shiny. Then I used strips of low tack tape masks to section out "rays" in the background to sponge on Distress Inks. The embossed trees resisted the inks. I used the same inks to colour the die cut label while the cardstock was still in the die, leaving the white border. I mounted it on a barely visible bright lime green card front - which you might question, but looks smashing in real life! 

Check out the Dreamweavers Blog (right now they are showing fun techniques with glitter) and enter the Awesome Autumn challenge. You, too, could be a winner!