Fun with Stencils VIP Challenge

Welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps VIP Group Stamp-A-Thon! I am hosting challenge #5 Fun with Stencils. I challenge you to create a card using one of the stencil techniques below. You have through Friday August 20th to post your creations in the special album in the VIP group. There is a special sale this weekend for VIP members only, info posted in the group.

I wanted to play with stencils and give you a couple of fun and easy techniques to use to create your cards. I had lots of fun trying some new things myself! I hope you will join in the fun this week!

 

 

Technique #1 is called laying down ink first. You can use dye or distress (reg or oxides) inks.

 

Start your background by laying down the lightest color ink first. Then, lay your stencil over the top and tape down. Next, ink up your stencil with a darker shade of the first color. This creates a nice tone on tone look. For this card, I used regular white cardstock.

Supplies: Delighfully Delicate Stencil, Happy Day, All About You(retired oops), Sprout and Parsely ink, VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink, white and black cardstock, clear embossing powder, Watercolor Brush Markers(Altenew), foam tape and rectangle stitched edge die.

 

Technique #2 is called stamping with your stencil with water. You will need to use distress inks or other water reactive inks for this one. 

 

Start your background by laying down your ink first making sure to blend where they meet. Then, spray the backside of your stencil with water and in one quick motion flip it on top of the cardstock and press down. Next, lay a paper towel over the top of the stencil to blot off extra water and let sit so the water reacts with the ink. I didn't let mine sit too long 45-60 secs. Finally, take the stencil off and set aside to dry.

What this does is it fades the solid areas around the stencil openings allowing the stencil openings to be darker. I really like how it varies the light on the solid part of the stencil. I also discovered it works best on bolder/darker ink colors as you can see with the background on the left in the photo. 

Supplies: Starry Night Stencil, Peace Be Still, Strathmore Bristol Smooth, chipped sapphire and faded jeans distress oxide inks, VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink, paper towels, white pigment ink, white embossing powder, stitched edge rectangle die, foam tape, watercolor brush pens(Arteza) and paintbrush(for splatters).

 

 

 

 Technique #3 is called stamping with your stencil with ink. I used dye inks for this background.

Start by swiping your ink across the stencil always starting with your lightest color first. Then, spray the stencil with water, place your cardstock facedown and press down all around. Next, lift off and set aside to dry(resist urge to blot), spray your stencil again and lay another piece of cardstock down to get a second generation stencil stamped background, set aside to dry.

Supplies: Grunge Dots Stencil, Nature Silhouettes, Faith, Strathmore Bristol Smooth, Buttercup, Parsley and Oceanside inks, VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink, white and black cardstock, foam tape and stitched edge rectangle die.

I didn't think about doing a second generation of the background until after I completed the first version and was already working on my second one. As you can see from the photo below, the first generation is much bolder than the second one. I like them both and I really like getting two backgrounds from one inking session. The background on the right I replaced Parsley with Honeysuckle ink. I spayed too much water so it ran more, but I like how it looks once it dried. Prior to drying it just looked like a hot mess. Oh, and resist the urge to blot. Trust me!

I hope you have enjoyed these fun stencil techniques and you give one or more of them a try.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Karen 

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Dotted Flowers

Hello Everyone! I have seen the dotted coloring technique with markers and really wanted to give it a try, but I don't own any markers. So I took a look at my collection and got super excited when I realized the Happy Day set had a stamp with three small dots in it and an idea was born. 

I actually created these dotted flowers last month, but never got around to making cards with them. I decided to utilize them this month and incorporate two of the new April Release's, Butterfly Background and Everyday Greetings 2. 

 

 

I stamped the flowers with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink on white cardstock. Because this ink can stay wet for a while for embossing I decided to heat set them so I could get started on the dot stamping. I picked three different, yet coordinating colors, starting with the lightest color first.

First color, notice I don't cover the entire space with color.

 

Second color, fill in more while still leaving white space for the third color.

Third color, now you really start to see it coming together. At this point, I went back to the first color and repeated the steps. I continued to do this until I was happy with how it looked.

I repeated this process with three different greens for the leaves and fussy cut the images. I stamped the sentiment from Encouraging Thoughts with black ink on Kraft and layered a piece of Summer Sun cardstock behind it . I stamped the Butterfly Background with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink on Kraft as well. I die cut the butterfly panel, along with pattern paper and more Summer Sun. I assembled as seen and popped the flowers and sentiment strip up with foam tape.

 

For my second card, the flowers were done in three different blues. The Butterfly Background was stamped in Aqua Sky on white cardstock and die cut. I stamped the sentiment from Everyday Greetings 2 on the same color blue cardstock as the base. I assembled as seen, pooping the white panel up with foam tape and adding three small pearls to the front.

I had a blast creating dotted flowers and made a whole bunch of them. If you own the Happy Day set I hope you will give it a try and share your creations in the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps VIP Group on Facebook. 

 

I hope you have enjoyed today's cards and thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Your Kindness

Good morning Sweet 'n Sassy Stamp friends! Today I am excited to share this card with you. I recently received the sentiment set Kindness Matters and I am so glad I finally got it. I love the mix of fonts and different ways to put the sentiments together! 

I paired the sentiment set with a few other goodies to create this bright and bold thank you card. I started by creating the background with the Delightfully Delicate Stencil and picked raspberry distress oxide ink on white cardstock. I love this stencil! I layered the white panel on black and attached to a pink passion card base.

Then, I cut one of the bookmarks from Bookmarks & More Dies, trimmed it to fit the stenciled panel and stamped the sentiments from Kindness Matters with VeraFine Clair Nocturne ink. Next, I embossed the three flowers from Happy Day with VersaMark and black embossing powder on white cardstock. I colored them with watercolor brush pens and fussy cut out. Finally, I attached the flowers popping the two bigger flowers up with foam tape.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed today's card and thanks for stopping by!

Karen