My new relationship with Stencils

I was indifferent to using Stencils in paper craft. It’s a trend that comes through this hobby every couple of years and it’s resurgence in the last year makes it hard to avoid.

I am participating in Stenciled, an online card class hosted by several talented designers including Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner, Laura Bassen, and Julie Ebersole. After working through some of the content from Day 1, I’ve made a decision. I enjoy working with stencils.

I don’t know if it’s the design of the stencil or the use of many more techniques with complementary products, but with little effort and time, you can result in something simply amazing.

Here are my cards from the first half of Day 1. I used products I had on hand, including of course, WOW embossing powders.

 The above card technique was blending distress inks onto the stencil. I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Broken China, Peeled Paint and Spiced Marmalade. The sentiment is from Ali Edwards and the target heart stamp from Craft Smart.

For this card, I stamped through the stencil with Versamark ink. You need to be careful not to move the stencil while you're doing this. The ink is sticky and will pick up the stencil if you are not taping it down. Then I used three shades of WOW embossing powders in Azure, Blue and Lagoon to heat set the color onto the card. The stamped phone image is from Kelly Purkey and the sentiment from Clear Art Stamps.

This technique as the easiest. Tape down the stencil and mist. It's hard to see in the photo but the gradient was created from Tattered Angels' Viva Pink and Bronze and Maya Roads' Red Mist. The sentiment is from Ali Edwards.