Celebration: Stencil Techniques - AECP Journey

Today I have 2 new cards made for my latest class on my AECP journey and it's all about stencil techniques. This class was taught by the lovely Laurel Beard. I do really enjoy watching her videos...she is always so creative and very down to earth. This class she taught us several different ways to use our stencils...there are so many techniques you can do with these very unassuming but incredibly verstatile tools. Every crafter/card maker needs at least 1 or 5 of these in their craft toolbox and there are so many different ones out there as well!  Both of my cards use the same main stencil, Altenew's Mega Bloom, but have very different looks.

ETA...I have lost some photos, so some posts don;t have as many. 

This first one I cut down a piece of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock to 4.25"x5.5" and adhered the stencil to it, using some post it tape. The Post It tape is a low tack tape, that is great for adhering stencils to your paper or for masking off areas when watercolouring and/or ink blending, as when you remove the tape it comes off cleanly nor does it tear your paper. I then took 3 different colours of ink - Dew Drops, Aqualicious and Teal Cave and started blending using my blending brushes. I started with the lightest colour of the 3 at the top of the flower and blended down from there, to give it a soft ombre look. Once I was happy with my ink blending, I left the stencil in place as I was then going to add some Transparent Gloss Texture Paste over top, to give it some added dimension. Once that was all applied and I was happy with it, I removed the stencil and cleaned it off promptly. I was going to leave it as is, because once dried it has a lovely glossy sheen to it, however I felt that it needed a little bit more to it and this is where I made a bit of a oopsy, but noone will know but me...and you as well since I'm telling you.

So while it was still wet I wanted to take give it that little bit extra, so I sprinkled on some iridescent glitter...or at least what I thought was glitter lol. Well it turns out that Rangers Distress Stickles Clear Rock Candy glitter and WOW's Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Powder look EXACTLY the same. So I proceeded to sprinkle on the embossing powder (thinking it was glitter) and set it aside to dry. At least I've found another use for embossing powder if you don't want to get out your heat gun lol. The transparent gloss texture paste allows you to see through to the ink blending perfectly, even with the glitter/embossing powder. I left it to dry for 24 hours, so I knew for sure that it was completely dry. I trimmed a bit off both sides and top and bottom and added a strip of black and white diagonal paper from My Favorite Things. I then added the front panel to a white card base using foam tape and picked a sentiment from Altenew's Painted Butterflies stamp set. I added a thin strip of black cardstock to the sentiment strip, to tie in the black and white diagonal strip down the side.

All that was left was to pop up the sentiment on the card front using a piece of black foam tape and add a bit more sparkle to it, using my fave sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. I used a few of the sparkling clear and a few of which I cannot remember the name of (I really need to label them when I get them). And that's it! I wish you could see how pretty the sparkle is! You can see it a bit in the photo..it's a bit more subtle of a shimmer and perfect!

Card #2

My second card uses a few of the same supplies but delivers a different end result. I started again by adhering the stencil to my cardstock, but started off ink blending using only 1 colour to start with and for this I went with Rose Quartz ink. Once I was done with the first layer of ink blending I left the stencil in place and got out a second stencil, Elegant Swirls, to layer over top. I adhered that in place with tape and started ink blending with Puffy Heart.

 

I was pleasantly surprised when I removed the 2 stencils, as I wasn't too sure how it was going to look. It's definitely a bit different but a lovely look to the flower. I then adhered a small strip of the same black and white diagonal paper to the side and adhered the inked panel to the card base, I decided not to pop this one up using foam tape and kept it flush to the card base. I choose a sentiment from The Ton. I felt this sentiment was perfect for this flower, as it's definitely a bit different with its elegant swirls.

I  added the same little black strip to the sentiment to help it stand out and popped that up using foam tape. I added a few different sized sequins from the Ballerina mix from Lucys Little Things...they are the perfect soft pink and matched perfectly. I love the look with the stencil over top of the over one! Gives it a new and fresh look and makes the flower different in its own special and unique way. So many possibilities now to explore!

I love how although they are using the same stencil, they give you 2 different looks. There are so many more wonderful techniques that Laurel taught that I still need to try out! I'm definitely walking away from this class with more knowledge and arsenal in my stencil crafting book. I have many more things to try and make using them! It's all about trial and error too and the second card with the stenciling over top of the first was one of those cases. But it gave me an end result I was pretty happy with! So just go for it an dgive it a try! I learned some new techniques and also a new use for heat embossing powder without needing to heat it...who knew!

Thank you so much for stopping by today and spending a little bit of your day with me! I'd love to hear what you think of good or bad down below in the comments. Once again, thank you and until next time...take some time out to get crafty and have a great day!

Supplies Used:

• Altenew Mega Bloom stencil
• Altenew Elegant Swirls stencil
• Altenew Painted Butterflies stamp set
• Altenew Jet Black, Dew Drops, Aqualicious, Teal Cave, Rose Quartz and Puffy Heart inks
• The Ton Timeless Icons Sentiment stamp set
• Ranger Texture Paste Transparent Gloss
• WOW Embossing Powder Neutral Ultra Shimmer
• My Favorite Things Black & White Striped 6x6 paper pad
• Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb cardstock
• random white card base
• Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear and misc sequins
• Lucys Little Things Ballerina Mix sequins
• Taylored Expressions Blending Brushes
• 3M foam tape
• Misc. black foam tape
• Ranger Multi Medium Matte