Watercolor Stencil Technique

The large masking stencil included in the Club Scrap Oopsie Daisy kit can help bring out your inner artist. Just follow these simple steps to make a fun, custom paper for a layout or card . . .

1. Place the masking stencil onto a protected work surface and mist with water. (Make sure etched label side is facing down.)

2. Color the moist surface of the stencil with Faber-Castell Gelatos.

3. Press a plain sheet of paper onto the colored stencil. Re-mist and color the stencil as needed and repeat. Heat set the layout or allow the paper to dry completely before going to the next step. (If you're saying to yourself, "That's horrid," please withhold your final judgement until completing the project!)

4. Cover the watercolored area with the stencil and sponge Earth ink around the edges with an ink applicator.

5. Repeat for each daisy. This step defines the edges and adds a drop shadow.

6. Use a fine tip black pen to outline each daisy leaf with a double line. For best results, work quickly and casually with long pen strokes.

7. Add small circles to fill in the center of each flower.

8. Stamp the splatter image from the Borders & Backgrounds UM sheet onto the paper with Earth and Topaz inks. The image is a new favorite because it creates an authentically random look without the mess.

9. Trim the artwork to 11x11". Scoot the paper past the edge of your work surface and rub Earth ink around the perimeter to frame the piece.

10. Select papers to matte the art panel. I went a little nutty here with three mattes, but I couldn't resist.

11. Stamp the "daisy" definition from the Collection UM with Earth ink.

12. Finish the layout with a matted photo and embellishments from the collection.

Give it a try. It will be fun!

Tricia

Big Deal Stencil Techniques--Part Two

On yesterday's post, I shared two stencil techniques for the Big Deal Lite stencil. Are you ready for two more? (If you followed the preparation steps outlined in yesterday's post, you should still have one black and one white panel left.)

Ombre Ink Technique

1. Use a foam tip applicator and dye inks to add a variety of color to the painted black panel.

2. Rubber stamp the panel with India Black Ink and small text image.

Text stamp from Up, Up & Away CS UM

3. Add a stamped greeting and layer the panel onto a 5x7" card base.

Gelato Baby Wipe Color Infusion

1. Color the white paint on white panel with Faber-Castell Gelatos.

2.  Activate and spread color with a water brush.

3. Use a moist baby wipe to remove excess color from the painted stenciled shapes.

 4. Stamp sentiment onto the panel and layer onto a coordinating matte and 5x7" card base.

Sentiment stamp from Big Deal Greeting UM

I hope you enjoyed all four of the stenciled background techniques. Which one do you think you'll try first? Leave me a comment below!

Enjoy,

Kay at Club Scrap

Big Deal Stencil Techniques--Part One

If you're a Lite member, your Big Deal kit leaves the warehouse today and it includes this fun pattern stencil. I came up with at least four ways to use the stencil, and I can't wait to share them with you!

Big Deal Lite Stencil

One stencil, four ways!

To create the awesome stenciled backgrounds shown above, there's a little prep work that will need to be done first.

Preparation
1. Use a card stock scrap or old credit card to spread white acrylic paint over the stencil as shown in the photo below. Do this step on a total of three 4.25x6.25" black panels and one 4.25x6.25" white panel.

 2. Set panels aside to dry, and clean the paint from the stencil.

Here are two great techniques you can use on your newly-created stenciled panels. (Stay tuned for my blog post tomorrow when I'll share the other two backgrounds I created.)

One Heart Highlight

1.  Select one heart to color with a marker. (I used Faber-Castell's Big Brush colors.)

2. Use a craft knife to cut around the bottom half of the heart.

3. Insert a stamped sentiment beneath the bottom edge of the heart.

4. Further embellish with mists and layer onto a 5x7" card base.

Sentiment from Big Deal Collection UM

Stamped On Stencil

1. Stamp the prepared panel with a small text image and India Black ink.

 2. Try a variation by stenciling onto a white panel with black ink. Stamp the text image with White Pigment ink. I used the Up, Up & Away Collection UM plate for the perfect text image.

 3. Add a sentiment from the Big Deal Collection UM and layer onto 5x7" card base.

Did you know that today is Random Act of Kindness (RAK) Day? We want to celebrate by encouraging our readers to participate in a RAK today, too! Do you know someone who needs some cheering up, a hug, or a note to say you are thinking of them? It only takes a moment to brighten someone's day!

As our RAK for YOU, we're giving away two $25 gift certificates to one lucky random drawing winner: One for the winner, and one as a RAK for someone they know.

To participate in the giveaway, leave a comment below, naming who you'd pick to receive the RAK gift certificate, and why. If your comment is chosen, you'll receive a $25 gift certificate to our online store for yourself, AND a second $25 GC to give away. Comment must be submitted by 11:59pm Central today (Monday, February 17). Winner will be announced here on the blog on Wednesday, February 19. *****Please make sure we can tell who you are in your comment in case you're the winner!*****

Enjoy,

Kay at Club Scrap

What to do with all of those tags?

It's fun to create artwork on manila tags. The stock is durable and such a pretty shade of ivory. They're small-ish, smooth and take well to paint, watercolors, inks, stamps.

They're great for demos at trade shows.

After a season at various Scrapbook Expos throughout the Midwest, I have quite a pile 'o tags! Many of them had artwork created with the Spring Chorus stencils and the WOW Spring Unmounted Stamps along with Gelatos and Big Brush Markers from Faber-Castell.

I spent a little bit of time on Saturday morning sifting through the tags and stamping them with a quote from the upcoming Fire & Ice unmounted stamp collection. (Spoiler alert!)

Then today, in a whirlwind ninety-minute card-making frenzy, I managed to complete a nice stack of beautiful "A2" cards.

Here's how:

1. Trim the tags horizontally at 5.5" and vertically at 3". (This will take off the reinforced hole at the top.)

2. Prep a coordinating stack of 5.5x8.5" scored and folded card bases.

3. Trim a complementary matte for the tags to 3.25x5.5". 

4. Add a simple embellishment from your stash to each card, if you're in the mood.

5. Hand the cards to Kay Williamson and say, "Hey, can you take a few pictures of these?"

Well, you can skip step five. 

But I needed to do that step so you could enjoy the results! I had two batches of cards in two color schemes.

I diverted from the pattern listed in the steps above on this one . . .

And there 'ya have it. Twelve cards in 90 minutes combined with a few days of playtime. I still have about 200 tags to go. But now that I have a system . . . 

I hope your week is splendidly creative!

Tricia