Super Saturday at Magenta: Happy Zen Birthday

Hi! I'm over at the Magenta blog today and you can see that post here.

I think we can all agree that guy cards are the hardest to make. I learned this new technique called "reverse stenciling" from Rina and Gina Krupsky on a Gina K Designs video. You can see their video here.

Basically, it involves creating a background by blending inks onto a white piece of cardstock. You then apply black ink through your stencil. It's easy and really ingenious. I feel like this looks almost like a stamp. In reality it's a stencil from the Magenta Zen Trio stencil collection, inspired by some Zentangle patterns I drew for them.

I chose 3 colors of Distress ink to blend for this card. You can see that I wasn't too careful about blending perfectly; it really will not matter. I did splash some water droplets onto the panel.

I then taped the panel to the stencil and applied black ink using a blending brush. I used Versafine ink, and later on another card I tried Distress Black Soot (after a friend said that she had had success with the Distress ink). I admit that this part seemed a little messy to me and I had to use some of my spray alcohol to clean my stencils (especially with the Versafine) There is a resin in Versafine ink, and it did not want to clean off the stencil - even with soap and water. Alcohol worked fine to clean it.

Here's my finished background piece. I absolutely love how this turns out. I will do some more with other types of stencils. This one is perfect for a guy card, and will be for my 15 year old grandson. This technique will also work just fine for any kind of card you are making, depending on the stencil.

A tip is that if you choose a stencil with more plastic than openings, you will have a more colorful result. If you choose one with thin plastic lines and big openings, you will have a lot of black on your panel. I like the pretty, blended colors to show.

To finish my card, I cut a square of black cardstock and stamped the sentiment from the Magenta Wishing You Happy Birthday set with Versamark and embossed in white. I actually cut the Happy Birthday off the bottom of this stamp to use it separately. You can, of course still use the pieces together if you do this.

I die cut the panel with my new favorite, The Greetery Crimped Frame die, and mounted it onto a black mat panel and then onto a base card.

I attached the sentiment to mimic the diamond shape of the stencil pattern, and adhered it with foam tape to pop it up a little. I added 3 gems for just a bit of sparkle.

My grandsons are so sweet and always remark on my cards. On some recent cards, one of them said "Thanks for the Birthday cards. I like the art in the cards..." This one gets cards for life ;-)

Magenta Products Used:

TM54 Zen Trio

07.1034.I

Other Products Used:

Distress Ink: Fossilized Amber,

Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean

Versafine ink

Blending brushes

The Greetery GD-M-016 Crimped Frame Die

Versamark ink

JudiKins Opaque White embossing powder

PTI True Black cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Rainbow jewels from Lucy's Little Things