Stenciled and Full of Love

I always love stenciled backgrounds.  The current Stampin’ Up! Catalog has a wonderful set of stencils (what Stampin’ Up! calls “Decorative Masks”).  The newest set, Artistic Mix Decorative Masks, includes 5 beautiful designs that offer so many possibilities for some unique designs.  I need to keep these out on my craft table so that I use them more!  I think that you might find the same thing!

Isn’t this lovely with that classic “clean and simple” design?  Think of all the color combinations that you can come up with to highlight a center focal point design.

There are very few card cuts for this one – but it doesn’t take away from the richness of the design:

I used the Thick White Cardstock so that this would be a single layer card.  With a Blending Brush and Fresh Freesia ink pad, I placed the plaid Decorative Mask on top of the folded card face and gently applied the color.  Remember to apply ink lightly and in a swirling motion.  It is always possible to darken the intensity of the color – but it is almost impossible to lighten it.

I will often tape the card to a Teflon mat and then tape the stencil on top so that my fingers don’t get inky or smear the coloring process.  Stampin’ Up! offers a Silicone Craft Sheet that works very well.

I stamped the letter and flowers image from Full of Love to a scrap of Basic White cardstock.  My coloring is very simple, with the darker shade of each color applied to shadow the flowers and leaves and the lighter shade of the Stampin’ Blends filling in the rest of the image.  It is always a surprise to me that they look so dimensional even when I am not particularly good at coloring!  (This goes back to that old adage about great tools assisting in creating cool art pieces!) 

My colors for this image included Soft Succulent, Polished Pink, Pale Papaya, and Fresh Freesia.

While some folks don’t like to fussy cut, I happen to find it very relaxing – under the right circumstances.  If it is a TV kind of night, I love it!  If I need a card in the next half hour?  Not so much.  I made a number of these images and colored them.  Then I had a mini-movie night with my pups, Belle and Bree, and cut all of them.

I mounted the image in the middle of the card, using Stampin’ Dimensionals to give it some pop.  With the banner die from Stylish Shapes, I cut a black banner with an embossed “Hello” message in white powder.

I think that Stampin’ Up! has the best white embossing powder on the market – and I’ve tried a lot of different brands in my fairly long history of cardmaking.  It is included in the Stampin’ Emboss Basics set, along with black and clear powders.  All of these are excellent.  But white embossing powder that is fine enough to create detailed embossed images is a rare find on the market!

I stamped the inside sentiment from the same Full of Love set, directly to the Thick White cardstock interior.  (Just be careful that you stamp it on the right panel…guess why I even mention that!). 

And that’s it!  A crisp, beautiful card to say hello and connect with a friend.  This is also a great potential design to create gift card sets for birthday or holiday gifts…it is getting to be that time of year, after all!

Thanks so much for stopping in to see today’s design!  You will see a few other possibilities with this adorable stamp set.  I think that it could easily be overlooked when the design potential is just great!

And as I think about it, this is a good set to start your card making career, if this is a new adventure.  You can create a very simple design at first.  Add some bling to it – or a pretty ribbon bow.  Then upgrade it with heat embossing – or the stenciling – or dry embossing a background design (and that is a hint about an upcoming design!).  The possibilities are endless with this single stamp set – especially if you are still experimenting to see if you even like cardmaking.

Thanks so much for stopping in today to look at my card. Here is a list of the products that I used for this version of Full of Love: