stencils - Right as Rain

Penny Black Spring Celebration!

Happy Spring for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere! Today, I’m sharing a spring-themed card inspired by a card design of Heather Telford’s.

To begin, I stamped the Penny Black Sweetness [#40-208] background stamp on watercolor paper with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I applied several Distress Ink colors to the floral area. Any ink that went on to the embossed area was easily wiped away. After the panel dried, I ironed off the embossing. I cut the panel into squares, arranging them on a card base. I applied white embossing paste through a one-time stencil I created with one of the dragonflies in the Flutters [#51-006] die cut set. I finished the card with a sentiment stamped in gold ink from the Special Wishes [#30-229] set. I tried a couple of other color inks, including green and cocoa brown, before choosing the gold ink for the sentiment. I wanted something soft and elegant.

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I’m delighted to be sharing cards in an upcoming “Three Steps” feature to club members.

three steps

Penny Black Cityscape Scene

Ever since seeing Julie Ebersole’s fabulous card, using the Penny Black “A Day in Paris” stamp set, in the Online Card Classes CAS 3 course, I’ve been wanting to made a card with a scene.

Using stamps from the Penny Black Fashion Tweet [#30-233] set and a stencil made with the Penny Black Silver Linings [#51-033] die cut, I created a birthday card.

The car, the cake, a few of the windows, and the horizon line were painted with various stamp inks and a brush. I used as little water as possible since the card base is cardstock, rather than watercolor paper. For the clouds, I used a sponge dauber to apply ink through the stencil I made with the die cut. (It’s the smaller of the two clouds in the set.)

To finish the card, I stamped the “#celebrate” sentiment, included with the stamp set, on a red cardstock rectangle, which I adhered inside the card. This card makes me want to say “beep, beep”!

CAS3: Day Nine

I took the day off yesterday from the Clean & Simple Cardmaking 3 class. Well, technically, I tried a few things that didn’t work out the way I’d planned. One of those “fails” is incorporated into today’s card, which is based on the one shared in class by Debby Hughes.

CAS3: Day Nine I made a few changes with the way I created my card. Rather than stamp and color a butterfly, as Debby did, I die cut a butterfly (Memory Box Vivienne Butterfly) that I inlaid into the panel. I backed the front panel with a heat-embossed and watercolored panel using the Penny Black Sweetness stamp (that was a project from yesterday which didn’t go according to plan). The butterfly was also cut from watercolor paper onto which I had scribbled some Distress ink. The front panel was stamped with a sentiment from the Hero Arts “Enjoy Today” set. I adding embossing paste with a Simon Says Stamp stencil.

I made the white panel three times. The first time I added some spray drops, as Debby did, and I didn’t like the effect at all. The second time, I got embossing paste in places I didn’t want! Third time’s a charm I guess!

CAS3: Day Four

With the new format of the Online Card Classes, we’re given a second day to work on the techniques introduced, along with additional inspiration. So today I moved away from the inlaid die cuts (although I’m still obsessing about them!) and tried out the technique shown in class by Jennifer McGuire.

I masked the sides of the card panel and the heart shape with masking paper. I used the Memory Box Rhapsody stencil to apply Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey and Ripe Persimmon Distress Inks. After carefully removing the masking paper, I stamped the sentiment from the Hero Arts Fancy Basics set with Hero Arts dye ink. Normally I stamp my sentiment first, because I often boo-boo the stamping of the sentiment! But in this case, it would have made the process much more difficult, so I practiced stamping the sentiment several times before committing to the card panel!

Penny Black Stenciling on Watercolor

When I saw Alexandra’s use of the Penny Black Verdant stencil on a watercolored background, I couldn’t wait to try the technique. She included her panel on a scrapbooking page; I adhered mine to a cardstock base for a card.

I created my watercolor background with a combination of Distress Inks in shades of blue. I picked the ink up from my craft mat, after diluting it a bit, and brushed the ink onto the watercolor paper. After the watercolor panel dried, I carefully taped the Penny Black Verdant stencil [#25-003] and applied Faber Castell Whipped Spackle. The embossing paste dries quite quickly. I die cut the “Hugs” from Penny Black’s Love Expressions [#51-025] set twice to give the sentiment a bit more depth.

What’s fun about this technique is that every card is different!