I'm kind of a sucker for birds and birdhouses, and so when Nathalie designed a birdhouse in the pines, I knew I had to have it.
I have a story about how this card was made. I had in my mind to try stencil stamping with this one, and there are some amazing Mandala stencils with this new collection. You can see other posts where I have done stencil stamping
here,
here and
here. If you want to see others, you can search for stencil stamping on my blog; there are a lot of posts.
I have been doing this technique for some time, and lately I have seen others also doing this, and they may call it something different. It's a technique where you ink up a panel liberally with dye ink (I always use Distress ink because it's so highly reactive with water). You then take a stencil (preferably one that has about the same plastic or metal to open areas) and spray the stencil well with water (I use water that has Perfect Pearl powder added to it for a little extra shine). You then place the wet stencil onto your inked cardstock, and cover it with a paper towel and press down. When you take off the paper towel and stencil, you have an image of your stencil in the ink.
To start, I used a piece of Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock, and brushed on Distress ink in Broken China and Shabby Shutters. The ink needs to be added pretty heavily, so I brushed on a lot. When I used to demo this technique at Art 'n Soul, I would use the mini inkpads and rub the ink on direct to paper. The more ink you put on your paper, the better the image will show up.
I wanted to experiment, so I decided to use a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock as well, just to see which one worked better.
The Neenah cardstock is on the right, and the watercolor cardstock is on the left. The thing about watercolor cardstock is that it isn't absorbent. It's supposed to be that way so that your watercolor will move around on the paper. It was hard to get a lot of color down, and then when I put the wet stencil on it, the color...well, moved around, as it's supposed to. This is a fun look, and the watercolor panel is the one I used for the card above with the birds and birdhouse.
The Neenah panel on the right turned out so pretty that I couldn't stamp over it. I just loved how perfectly the stencil image showed up on it.
So I made this card with the Neenah panel. I added a sentiment and some gems, and called it done.
The birdhouse image in the first card was stamped with Versamark ink. An important tip is to BE SURE your panel is dry before you try to put embossing powder on it. Since this was non-absorbent watercolor paper, the ink on it did not sink into the paper. It took some time for it to dry, using a heat tool. I kept testing whether it was dry by putting embossing powder on it (before I stamped the image). When the powder would stick, I brushed it off and kept drying it until no powder stuck to the card. Only then did I use a powder tool and then stamped the images with Versamark ink.
I love the Happy Holidays from our house to yours sentiment with the birds and birdhouse image. I used JudiKins Diamond White embossing powder for the stamping. Both cards were matted with Malmero Pearl Dark Blue cardstock.
Magenta Products used:
Other Products used:
Distress ink: Broken China, Shabby Shutters
Versamark ink
Perfect pearls powder
JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder
Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock
Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock
Malmero Pearl Dark Blue cardstock
Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle die set
