Stencil fun - for Paperilla blog

Hi!

I love stencils. I'm one of those crafters who thinks that you cannot have too many stencils. I have quite a nice collection of stencils and masks from various designers; different kinds of designs for different kinds of occasions. I don't have just one favourite brand nor one favourite designer, and in many cases I like to mix and match i.e. use stencils from several companies for one project. 

For this below card I used a lovely leaf stencil from Donna Downey collection. This card was very quick and simple to make, and it did not require many special tools nor supplies: Just a leaf stencil, green stamping inks, texture stamp, and some leftover pieces of flower patterned paper. Instead of using a ready made stencil I could have die-cut the leaf stencil using my favourite Sizzix leaf die 'Garden Greens' from a piece of foil or leftover packing material. With the self-made stencil the result would have been just as nice!

The leaves on the card background were stencilled using green Distress ink. The stencil had three leaf patterns next to each other, and for making the inking task easier I covered parts of the stencil with masking tape. For this I suggest you use some low-quality masking tape that does not cling too heavily on your stencil; you don't want to break the stencil when removing the tape!

For creating a mirrored leaf pattern I first inked one stem, then cleaned the mask, and turned it around for inking the other half of the design. After inking I stamped some random texts on the leaves through the stencil for creating more details on the card.

The finishing touches were done with black acrylic paint: I mixed a drop of paint with water and splashed small dots on the card.

The flowers are fussy cut from a leftover paper piece that had flowers on it. Before gluing the flowers down on the card front I pressed the flower petals with a stylus. This created a nice a 3D look for the flowers.

I mat the card front on a piece of dark red cardstock, and trimmed around the edges leaving 1-2 mm border the card front.

For this card I simply draw the sentiment text on the card front, using a black marker. Stamping the greeting text would have been an option too, but this time I thought the hand-written text was just perfect for this project.

Wishing you a great week!
Hugs,