Happy New Year's Eve! It's Carly and with the new year upon us I've been thinking about things I would like to do in 2016. I want to send more mail in 2016! Many of my best friends are too far away and I want to let them know how often I'm thinking about them and sending love their way. Nothing says "I love you" like a handmade card right?
With that in mind (and because I'm currently obsessed with stencils), I searched The Classroom archives for stencil card ideas. I found this amazing idea by Julia:
Stenciling on Black by Julia Stainton
Gorgeous right? I couldn't wait to try it and here's what I came up with:
1. I started with a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 piece of black cardstock. I secured it to my non-stick craft mat with Micropore tape and then secured my stencil on top.
2. I applied white pigment ink with an ink blending tool because as I learned from Julia's post, pigment ink is key when working on black cardstock.
I loved the result! It had that great chalkboard-effect that I adore.
3. I decided to use the Essentials by Ellen Bold Blooms Matching and Bold Blossom die sets on top of my stenciled background so I created colored cardstock with Distress ink and a blending tool (pink & green colored cardstock would work great too). For my petals I used Distress ink Abandoned Coral and Festive Berries. For my leaves I used Twisted Citron and Cracked Pistachio.
4. After inking my cardstock, I die cut the smaller flower & leaf from the Bold Blossom set. Then I die cut the coordinating flower & leaf from the Bold Blooms Matching set with Solar White cardstock. Then I used a Quickie glue pen to adhere them together (I love the Quickie pen for tiny pieces).
5. On the inside flap of a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 Solar White card, I adhered a strip of gold glitter paper.
6. I trimmed just a little bit of the card front and stenciled panel down so the gold glitter paper would show through.
7. I stamped a little sentiment from the Essentials by Ellen Fancy Thanks stamp set on Solar White. I trimmed my sentiment into a strip and tore the edge. On the torn edge, I added some Gold Stickles.
8. Then I glued everything together - my stenciled panel on my card, my sentiment strip & leaves on top of that and finally my flower in a nest of gold thread.
See you in 2016!
xo, Carly
