The coming cold months paired with the upcoming family-focused holiday season is a perfect recipe for heightened efforts on crafting! It’s one of the most wonderful times of year for making and preserving memories with those we love.
Silver Bells is one of the new, holiday themed paper collections available in the November–December catalog. Its timeless designs and neutral tones, including silver and gold foil accents on the coordinating 12″ x 12″ sticker sheet, are a must-have for an elegant spin on holiday classics.
Use the beautiful, patterned papers with intricate sticker accents and sentiments to create gorgeous scrapbook pages and cards, worthy of your holiday stories and loved ones.
Take things up a crafty notch by adding stamped accents and sentiments to the mix with stamp and die sets designed specifically for scrapbooking and cardmaking.
The Silver Bells—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts comes complete with titles, like “A December to Remember,” “Holiday Memories,” and “’Tis the Season,” as well as a beautiful ribbon bow and holly leaf branch.
The cardmaking stamp and dies set comes with several detailed ornament stamps and coordinating dies, in addition to a set of holiday bells and four classic holiday greetings: “Happy Holidays,” “Season’s Greetings,” “Wishing You Joy,” and “Warmest Wishes.”
As you continue to turn the pages in the new catalog, you’ll discover even more notable holiday-themed patterned papers, stamps sets, and products. One bundle of coordinating products that is sure to catch your attention is the gorgeous Thoughtful Holly Stamp + Thin Cuts + Stencils set!
These coordinating products were designed to create beautiful cards with minimal effort!
First, stamp the outline of the holly bouquet image, and then use the four stencils to selectively color the different sections of the intricate stamp with a blending brush and your choice of ink. Finally, if you didn’t stamp directly onto your project and are creating a dimensional accent, cut out the outline of the stamp with the coordinating die.
What’s especially great about so many of our products is that they work really well together, even if they are not all part of the same collection.
Pairing the neutral themed patterned papers from the Silver Bells collection, for example, with a bright colored holly bouquet created using the Thoughtful Holly stamp, stencils, and die, results in a stunning card!
There are so many exciting new products in the November–December catalog that just became available today, so make sure to flip through its pages on our website, or simply look through the What’s New menu. Stay warm, keep those hands busy, and create something beautiful for the upcoming season! Happy shopping!
Your artwork is one-of-a-kind, and that makes it priceless. Each of your creations represents a part of your own vision and an expression of your artistic self, and this is something to be celebrated! With this in mind, we’re here to show you how you can use one of our favorite stencil packs in your own artwork pieces, and how these seemingly static tools can be utilized for superb customization as you put your creative identity on the page! The stencils used in our showcased art today are from Stencil Pack 1, available in our 2022–2023 Core Products Catalog. Each of these stencils is used to great effect with an array of Distress Oxide™ ink pads, which can be applied in a variety of ways to beautify your artwork!
For those of you who may not be familiar with our stencils, let’s take a moment to go over some of the basics of what makes them great! To accommodate a wide variety of crafting interests, we create stencils in a variety of sizes, ranging from sizes to fit a standard card all the way up to 12” x 12” scrapbooking stencils! We manufacture all our stencils out of clear acetate material to ensure maximum visibility and control as you use them to apply colors and patterns to your artwork. With no guesswork involved, our transparent stencils are precise and easy to use, too! Stencils can be used not only to apply patterns, colors, or words over a large area, but they can be used to create smaller borders as well, which is a standout feature of our showcase artwork today.
We love to see all the amazing ways stencils can be used, and we’re excited to share a few of the incredible things stencils can do! One very specific detail we’ll be focused on today is how to layer stencils to achieve unbelievable effects! Let’s jump in and check it out!
Our first piece is a single 12” x 12” scrapbook page with a woodsy, exploration theme. One very unique aspect of this page is that all the details added to the background, borders, accents, and photo mats were done using stencils and Distress Oxide™ and Exclusive Inks™ ink pads. This page doesn’t use any stamps, stickers, and with the exception of one small tab at the top left corner of the page, there are no die-cuts, either! Each detail is unique and can easily be achieved with just a few applications of color through a couple of layered stencils.
To start off, we’ll take a look at the simpler elements of this “Explore” page. At either side, you’ll see a row of bold stacked arrows forming strong borders on either side. These borders help to frame the page and create a great foundation to build the page on. Moving in, we see that two photos form a major focal point of the page. One thing that really helps these photos stand out prominently from the background is the detailing on the photo mats behind the pictures.
These photos are mounted on Mink cardstock, and a wood grain pattern has been applied using one of the single layer stencils in Stencil Pack 1. This detail is subtle enough to not overwhelm the photos, but it still catches the eye and draws attention to the pictures. Just below the photos is a small section of stars applied using Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg Distress Oxide™ ink pads. We love how this small and simple inclusion has helped to further offset our photos and round out this page.
In addition to these more simple elements, our “Explore” page plays host to a variety of more involved stenciling techniques; the first one we’ll pick apart is the line of aspen trees behind our main title (more on the title in just a minute!).
To create this incredibly lifelike background element, we applied our base layer of color with a Pewter Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and our selection of Blending Brushes. Once this layer has dried, we’ve taken our secondary layering stencil and applied additional detailing with Charcoal ink. With this element, the transparent quality of our stencils comes in clutch, as the ability to see where the base layer is in relation to our secondary detailing layer allows for more precise alignment and a more polished end result!
Just in front of our treeline, we’ve got a gorgeous color-tiered “Explore” title, which is another primary focal point of the page! To create this title, we used a total of four layering stencils and ink pads to create this awesome effect! To start off, we applied the treeline you see along the bottom of the title, then layered in the rest of the title, using first the full letter stencil, then the half letter one, and finally the quarter letter stencil. Each layer was applied using a slightly darker color of ink to achieve the ultimate tiered look! To avoid smudging your artwork in progress, make sure to wait until each individual color layer has fully dried before applying your next layer.
The final standout feature we want to zero in on from the “Explore” page is the sunrise accent positioned along the right edge of the page. This piece was created using a single stencil, but rather than layering stenciled images, we’ve layered our colors using the masking technique. For this particular example, we used our 1” Masking Tape to block of ½” sections of color to prevent ink colors from bleeding into each other. Using this technique allows for a striped effect and a standout accent to finish this scrapbook page off! By combining so many beautiful stenciled elements, our “Explore” page is a great example of how a simple tool can be used to stunning effect!
Our second piece to review today is another travel-themed two-page layout, though this one is for more urban adventures!
Like our previous page, the photo mats on these pages have been detailed with stencil work, this time with a city-grid map pattern.
These photo mats were initially cut from Shortbread cardstock, with the pink coloration added by sponging Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide™ ink across the cardstock through the stencil. This stencil allows for a great deal of color to be applied through it, leaving thin lines of the original color to peek through. Once again, this unique appearance is a wonderful way to help draw attention to the photos without overpowering them.
As with our “Explore” page discussed above, this layout also incorporates a layered stencil border at the bottom edge of the pages, this time adding a city skyline to the page! To create this effect, we applied a light layer of Sapphire ink, and then used the two layers of the cityscape stencil with a combination of Pewter and Charcoal Exclusive Inks™ stamp pads. With this combination, we are left with a well-defined, dimensional skyline border to tie the pages together.
In the spaces above and around the photos, we applied a handful of stenciled stars and bursts, along with a few dots of Silver Liquid Pearls™ to break up the open space. (While the Liquid Pearls were not applied with the stencils, they still add a cool dimensional effect to the page!)
The final stand-out features of this layout are the suitcase accent, the ”Live, Love, Travel” title, and the 3-D continent feature, all of which were created using various stencils.
For our well-traveled suitcase, we applied a base layer of color with our grid stencil, then added our tags and corner-pin accents with other layered pieces of our stencil set. Once we finished applying our color and accents, we carefully trimmed the suitcase from the larger White Daisy cardstock piece to create an accent we could add wherever it suited us! The presence of this piece is a great way to reinforce the theme of the layout and provides a playful touch to these pages.
For our 3-D continent feature, we selected the corresponding stencil and placed it over our base page, attaching it temporarily with washi tape to keep it in place. Once we secured our stencil, we turned to an old friend, Opaque Matte Texture Paste.
To apply the paste to our base page, we picked up small amounts with a palette knife and applied it to the base page, through the continents section of our stencil, which leaves us with a section of raised continents. We left the stencil in place until the paste had dried, after which we revisited it to add color over the top with a Shortbread ink pad and a sponge. This technique allows you to easily build and vary the color throughout for an even more unique experience!
The “Live, Love, Travel” title was created with a combination of texture paste and cardstock, with the addition of black ink sponged over the texture paste, and Shortbread ink applied to the cardstock lettering. Just like the continent feature, we applied our texture paste lettering through our selected title stencil, allowed it to dry, and then applied color with a Black Soot Distress Oxide™ ink pad to help it stand out. For additional flair, we then used our stencil and a pencil to lightly trace “TRAVEL” onto a piece of White Daisy cardstock, cut out the letters, and sponged Shortbread ink over them for a light color. (You could also trim the letters out of Shortbread cardstock for a similar effect.)
Once we had finished preparations for our cardstock letters, we placed them over the texture paste letters, placing them just off-center to give them a drop shadow effect. With all of these effects combined, the “Live, Love, Travel” layout becomes an unforgettable addition to this art piece! Hungry for even more artwork examples featuring stencils? Check out another stencil technique on page 87 of our Core Products Catalog, with this vibrant 2-page “Love You” layout:
The bulk of this layout was detailed using a floral stencil option from Stencil Pack 2. By sponging and blending color from multiple Distress Oxide™ ink pads, we achieved a delicate ombre effect across both pages. Thanks to this ornate background, we were able to keep the remainder of this layout fairly simple, with just a few other pieces of layered cardstock and a handful of acrylicshapes, die-cuts, and clear sparkles making up the rest of this layout’s design. With the stenciled section covering such a large area, the “Love You” layout is another beautiful and unique example of what stenciling can do.
Whether you layer them, apply them to large areas, or use them to create small accents, stencils are a truly sensational way to add out-of-this-world detail to your artwork. We’re always excited to see all the amazing things crafters do with our stencils! Which stencil detail from today’s post was your favorite? Leave a comment below and tell us all about it!
Stencils are a very useful tool to keep handy for adding dimensional elements and general flair to handmade artwork. Today we are taking a closer look at our newest collection of stencils and will show you how some of them were intentionally designed to work in more than just one way!
All of our stencils are made from reusable clear plastic stencil sheets cut in unique designs for use with a variety of media and art techniques. If you’re familiar with the Close To My Heart catalogs or website, you’ll recognize these grey image representations. Because these clear stencil sheets are hard to photograph, we will be using digital grey images to show you the stencil designs. The parts that are grey represent the plastic stencil film and the white parts are the cutout portions of the design, where your media would go through onto your project.
These nine designs you see here are each cut into 12″ x 12″ stencil sheets.
The first three stencils (Stencil Pack 1) are designed to fit smaller spaces and create borders.
The next three stencils (Stencil Pack 2) are for creating larger patterns and designs.
These last three (Stencil Pack 3) is what we want to look into a bit further today.
You can certainly use all three of these stencils to create the patterns as you see them, but they are capable of so much more with just a few simple tricks.
For starters, the flare on the left has so much potential! Look at how we used it in a scrapbook layout.
To achieve this multicolored flare, we laid the stencil on our papers and sponged color through it, as usual.
To add the second layer of flares, we flipped the stencil over and turned it! (Make sure you clean your stencil before flipping it over!)
You can add as many layers of different colored flares as you’d like (there’s a limit, but we haven’t done the math 🤓), just keep turning and flipping that stencil so that the lines fall in a different place every time.
Learn how to use the other two 12″ x 12″ stencils from this group, as well as a similar card front stencil, with our Creative Arts manager, Karen, in the video below!
These stencils are also made from the same clear plastic stencil sheets as our larger stencils; however, they are sized to fit the front of a standard 4¼” x 5½” card. As you can see, all of these designs can be used as they are. That bottom row of designs (Card Front Stencil Pack 3) is extra special.
In the video, Karen shows us how to create a plaid background by flipping the horizontal stripe patterned stencil for a second set of diagonal stripes in a perpendicular direction. What you may not have known, is that the two remaining stencils can be stacked to create a combined, and more intricate, pattern!
All of these stencil designs are so versatile and can be used for a wide variety of projects. And, what we find is extra great about stencils—they can be reused repeatedly and rapidly to create new and unique cards and layouts, time and time again!
If you have yet to dabble in the world of stencil design, this is a great place to start! Even if you are a seasoned pro, maybe we’ll share something that you haven’t thought of yet. Either way, stick with us and then share with us some of your thoughts and ideas in the comment section that follows!
A stencil is a material with a cut-out design to which you apply your choice of pigment in order to transfer the design onto a separate surface. The benefits of using a stencil range from helping those of us who struggle with drawing a straight line ( ✋🏼 we’re all welcome here!) to those of us who like to create and duplicate intricate patterns, time and time again, quickly and with ease.
Stencils can be made of all sorts of materials and created in a myriad of ways. What we share here is just a sliver of the possibilities these multifaceted tools are capable of.
MATERIAL OPTIONS
The very first step in stencil design is determining the product you want to use for your stencil. You can purchase ready-made stencils or create your own. If you are creating your own, consider the following information about these popular materials:
(Cricut® Shape: #M40FD89)
Stencil Sheets. Our stencil sheets are made from a medium weight stencil film. They can be machine cut, die cut, or paper punched and used with wet and dry applications. The see-through quality of stencil sheets, makes stencil placement easy—this is especially useful if you are layering images. Stencil sheets are the most durable way to go if you are hoping to reuse a stencil over and over again.
Cardstock. Stencils cut from cardstock have a limited use but are very economical. Placement can be tricky, however, since you can’t see through the stencil. Cardstock is great for edge stencils and positive shapes.
VellumPaper. Vellum stencils work a lot like those cut from stencil sheets, but with one major drawback. These can only be used for dry applications and cannot be washed off. They are also not as durable as stencil sheets.
TIPS FOR USING MACHINE-CUT STENCILS
1. Get the most out of machine-cut stencils by choosing layered shapes. Always keep all of the negative pieces and store them together with the stencil. You never know when you may want to use one of these pieces for additional texture, color, or dimension in your art.
(Cricut® Shape: #M1011BC)
2. Use the contour feature (in Cricut Design Space™) to make multiple stencils from a single image. Block out different parts of the image for each of the different stencils. This will allow you to create unique designs, but also to easily separate colors in different sections of the image if you want to use the stencils together, like we did with the two flower cards you see here.
(Cricut® Shape: #M418DFA)
3. Use basic shapes to weld images onto and to restructure shapes for easier stenciling. To create the cloud stencils, above, we welded cloud shapes (#M418DFA) onto a rectangle base. If your shapes don’t quite cover the size “base” you need or want, remember that you can easily duplicate and resize your shapes to make them work. When you are using a stencil like this one, move it around on the page as you add the color, or flip it over and use the back, to create variety from the one stencil pattern.
TIPS FOR USING DIE-CUT STENCILS
4. Just like we suggested for machine-cut stencils, keep both the positive and negative pieces that are made when you cut a stencil from a Thin Cuts die. They may be used for different looks and effects.
5. Create stencils from stamp coordinating Thin Cuts, too! You can use these alone or to add dimension to a stamped image.
The butterfly above was sponged with color then stamped. Use these sorts of stencils directly on your projects or cut them out, like we did here.
6. Make letter and word stencils out of stencil sheets. You want these to be as durable as possible because these generally get used a lot.
7. Keep the separate letters of favorite “words” together in a storage envelope for quick access. Make sure to keep the negative space pieces as well. Take a look at the letters “a,” “p,” and “o,” below. Easily attach these to your stencil with a small amount of adhesive tape to have ready to place and use when needed.
8. Explore different media to use with your stencils.
If you use alcohol markers, these can bleed slightly past your stencil image, as you see in the red Y. Metallic markers are another option. These work especially well on darker papers (see the Y on black cardstock). For a more textured look, consider heat embossing. Using embossing ink pens, like on the Y on the blue cardstock, you can have a more controlled inking experience, like you would with a marker. Use your stencils to create dimensional, shadow effects, too. In the case of the Y on the green cardstock above, we used the negative stencil shape to color in a black shadow with a journaling pen, then attached a die-cut paper Y on top, slightly offset.
TIPS FOR USING SPECIALTY INKS WITH STENCILS
9. Achieve a subtle shadow, watermark-type look by using embossing ink with your stencils. You can dab the VersaMark™ ink pad straight through your stencil and onto your art, or have a more controlled inking experience using embossing ink pens.
10. Use inks from our Exclusive Inks™ re-inker bottles or ink squeezed out from our shimmer brushes with a sponge or dauber. Add the ink to an all-purpose mat and pick it up with a sponge (or dauber), then pounce the sponge on a scratch piece of paper to remove some of the excess ink before adding it to your project through the stencil.
Of course, you can use a shimmer brush directly on your artwork, too, without squeezing out the ink, for a brushed on ink effect. It will look different than the pounced-with-a-sponge look. Similarly, you can also use a waterbrush to brush on the Exclusive Inks™.
Now that we’ve given you a few tips on how to make and use stencils, let’s explore a few ideas on how to store them. In the video below, our Creative Arts Manager, Karen, shares several tips:
Stencils are a great way to quickly and easily add dimensional elements and general pizzazz to artwork. Do you use stencils? Let us know in the comments below how you incorporate this versatile tool in your art!
Great artwork is built on the inclusion of many small elements, all coming together for a stunning end result! Watercolor is an incredibly easy and effective way to boost the overall aesthetic of your artwork, resulting in a truly professional appearance while still keeping it uniquely “you.”
When most people hear “watercolor,” they may picture intricate images painted free-hand by a skilled and experienced artist. Today, however, we’re going to show you a variety of different ways you can easily apply watercolor techniques to your artwork, some of which may even surprise you! Watercolor is a skill anyone can practice and use to up the ante in their own artwork, and the techniques we’re sharing with you are great for beginners and experts alike!
All of the artwork we’ll be showing you today was made using papers, stickers, and embellishments from our beautiful Daisy Meadows collection.
This bright paper suite lends itself well to watercolor and is a great starting point for anyone who may be new to this beautiful medium!
Artistic splattering is a great way to break up a plain background, and it’s incredibly quick and easy to add to any artistic project!
To create these fun splatters, take a wet waterbrush, pick up some paint from your watercolor paint palette, and gently tap the brush on top of your index finger, holding it over the general area where you’d like the splatters to land.
(Tip: Use a piece of scratch paper to cover any parts of the page you don’t want to be splattered.)
Here, we’ve combined the splattering technique with some light stamping and complemented it all with a few small stickers and Daisy Meadows Dots. When these elements are combined, you go from a plain white background to a multi-textured one!
Another way to incorporate watercolor into your artwork is to create a painted border around the perimeter of your scrapbook pages.
To create a painted border like this one, lightly make a few long strokes around the edges of the page, taking care to not let your hand wander toward the center. A simple watercolor element like this is a wonderful way to brighten up a modest background!
The next technique on our list shows you how to use watercolor paints to create eye-catching elements and accents in the foreground of your projects. In the page pictured below, we used watercolor paints to add soft color not only to the floral accents by the photos, but also for the bright swash in the title.
This vibrant addition draws the eye to the title, allowing for a natural, flowing progression as viewers take in the rest of the page.
(Tip: To achieve a flawless swash effect, add the watercolor paint and let it dry completely before stamping. This way, you can adjust the color to get it just right, and you’ll avoid smearing the ink on the stamped image.)
For the delicate floral accents, you can easily achieve a gentle fade by concentrating the paintbrush along the outer edges of the stamped image, creating an outline. Then, clean the brush, wet it, and softly brush the color toward the center of the image. If watercolor paints aren’t your preferred watercolor medium, this effect can also be achieved using watercolor pencils.
Another fun way to up your watercolor game is to play around with various color saturations and pigment shades.
For a more pigmented effect on your initial coat, consider using a dry brush to pick up your wet paint. Wet bristles will pick up less paint, resulting in a lighter pigment, so starting with a wet paint well and a dry brush will allow you to achieve a darker color right from the get-go!
You can also adjust the color saturation as needed, but this process takes a bit of patience. To get the best results, wait for the first layer of paint to dry fully before going in for a second coat.
For a more abstract approach to watercolor painting, consider using a smooshing technique!
Like you’d do with a swash, you’ll want to apply your watercolor pigments to the paper before stamping. To add a smushed watercolor element, apply your watercolor paint to the page or accent in a more abstract form.
Once you’ve applied your color, you’ll take a plastic bag and smoosh it on top of the paper where the paint has been applied, mixing the colors together. This results in a beautifully blended texture, which will be ready for you to stamp on top of once it’s fully dry.
(Tip: You can save the acetate wrapping from a new stamp pad, or any other new product, and use that for your smooshing!)
One last technique we’ll share with you today is stencil painting. This technique is one of the easiest things you can do to add watercolor to your scrapbooking pages or cards.
This technique is also a fantastic way to express your own unique creativity, as you can cut your own stencil patterns for this watercolor element! To create your own stencil, cut a design into cardstock using your favorite cutting machine. If you’d like to reuse your stencil, cut your design on Stencil Sheets, so you can design and create your own stencils and use them for multiple projects! (For pre-designed stencils, check these out!)
When you use a stencil to add watercolor to your artwork, use strips of washi tape to hold it in place while you paint over it. This will ensure a more uniform appearance with fewer unwanted smears.
Once your stencil is secured in place with washi tape, use your waterbrush to gently wash over the stencil. This technique may result in some light bleeding, rougher edges, or blotching, which gives it a beautiful, perfectly imperfect look!
Did you see any techniques today that you can’t wait to try? Leave a comment below to tell us about your favorite watercolor technique and how you incorporate it into your own artwork!
We’ve been having some fun with texture paste recently, and we wanted to show you how you can too!
With three unique finishes—opaque matte, transparent matte, and transparent gloss—texture paste is a great way to add some three-dimensional flair to any project. Texture paste is extremely versatile and can be used on most surfaces to create, you guessed it, texture! From your gorgeous scrapbook layouts to a beautiful handmade card, texture paste is just what you need to set your crafts apart. We can’t wait to share these awesome ideas with you, so grab your texture paste and get ready for a crafting experience like no other! (Some of the effects are a little harder to see in photos, but we promise, they really pop in person!) 🙂
Texture paste is quick and easy to apply, although you will need to allow ample time for it to dry. There are a few different ways to apply texture paste; one of the quickest and easiest is to use a palette knife or other spreading tool to freehand smear it onto the surface of your paper, or whatever material you plan to use. (Imagine you’re buttering a nice, hot piece of toast!) By using the palette knife, you can easily control the thickness and resulting appearance of the paste.
Tip: If you want a smoother finish, be sure to use a steady hand as you apply the paste. For an impasto effect, you can apply the paste with patting or even gentle slapping motions.
For this card, we spread a semi-thick layer of opaque matte texture paste on the background. We didn’t fuss over it too much, resulting in a layer of varying thickness to add an extra pop!
Another application technique we’ve been having fun with is stencil application. By using stencils, you can incorporate all sorts of fun, textured shapes into your artwork.
For this page, we used the opaque matte paste mixed with a drop of New England Ivy re-inker and a Swiss-dot stencil to create the dotted effect. By spreading texture paste evenly across the stencil, we were left with neat rows of perfect little dots, giving this page a truly unique look! Once the paste dried, we used a Gold Shimmer Brush to add a little sparkle and shine.
Sometimes, a project just screams for colored texture. To achieve the perfect pigment for your paste, we have a few tips, tricks, and techniques we know you’ll love!
If you’re wanting a light, pastel hue, try mixing some watercolor paint into the paste. This method allows you to easily control and adjust the pigment of your texture paste.
For a deeper, richer color, try a re-inker. Simply add a few drops of re-inker to the texture paste sample and mix thoroughly to achieve the desired effect.
Want some sparkle in your texture paste effect? Shimmer brushes are a great way to add a little glitter and subtle glam to your texture paste! Squeeze the shimmer brush gently to get a few drops into the paste and mix well. You can also use glittery embossing powder to make the shine a little more obvious.
Tip: It’s always a good idea to do a small swatch test before using colored texture paste in your project to make sure you’ve achieved the color you were hoping for.
Although the application process is fairly quick, you will need to allow for drying time to ensure that the paste is fully set and dry before you move on to the next steps of your project. One way to speed up this process is by heat setting. Not only does heat setting help the paste to dry and solidify more quickly, it also puffs it up slightly, resulting in a smoother, almost pillowy finish. If you want to explore this option, then by all means, break out your heat tool! If you want to keep the stucco-esque finish, you’ll just need to be patient for a bit 😉 . Although this does require more time to dry, we think it’s 100% worth it!
There is so much that can be done with texture paste. What are you guys creating with these artistic tools and medium? Leave a comment and let us know!
Just over a week ago, we released our latest idea book—Seasonal Expressions 2! If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can look through an online version or even download it as a PDF here. We know you’ll love it!
One of the paper collections in this idea book is called Little Dreamer, and it’s all about unicorns, magic, and dreams…which got us thinking about a certain sponging technique we love that adds a dream-like magic to all your artwork. Since it is so perfect for this collection, we just had to share it with you!
In a nutshell, here’s the technique: Use titles or shapes cut with your Cricut® machine or with Thin Cuts metal dies as stencils for sponging ink onto your pages.
First, use a bit of adhesive to attach your title or shape to the page. Next use a sponge dauber or the round sponge to add ink over your title or shape, and then fade the ink into your paper. Once the ink is dry, carefully remove your stencil (if there is any adhesive residue, it’s a cinch to remove with our Rub & Remove™ eraser).
For our artwork, we found it worked best to use both the round sponge and sponge daubers. We used a sponge dauber for a more concentrated look, like you can see immediately around our title, and then the round sponge for fading the ink into the page.
Sponging Tip: If you haven’t used a round sponge before, you’ll want to cut out a pie-shaped wedge from the sponge rather than using the entire sponge. That way your sponging will be more precise, and you can get more use out of your sponge!
We recommend playing with the round sponge and sponge daubers, as well as various amounts of ink, on some scratch paper before sponging onto your artwork.
This stenciling technique is a great way to create unique backgrounds for your artwork. For this page, we attached three clouds to the page and sponged around them. After allowing the ink to dry, carefully removing the clouds, and removing any adhesive, we cut three more clouds and sponged around the edges. Then we popped them up with 3-D tape to give the page dimension. The final look sure is dreamy!
You can incorporate multiple colors into your stenciling! Here we used a scalloped piece for our stencil, and then sponged on a rainbow of colors. There are SO many possibilities!
We hope this post has inspired you to try stenciling on your artwork. It really is such a fun way to get in touch with your inner artist!
Which page is your favorite? Tell us in the comments below! 🙂
