Stenciling again!

Seriously, July already?  I must have been busy, but it's all a blur!  I have started stenciling again, and today I am sharing a cupcake card I made.  New techniques for me--stenciling on black background first of all and second of all using one of the newer plastic stencils for the background.  Here is the card, and yes, I know it's not perfect, but I like it:

Grrrr--just finding my pictures has suddenly become a gigantic problem!  You think you know a system, and then all the rules change!  But I did find it!

I stenciled the cupcakes using white embossing paste (regular) onto black cardstock using a Dreamweaver stencil.  After the stenciling was dry, I then replaced the  clean stencil on top of it and dabbed on color with stencil brushes and applicators.  I found out that you really need a heavy coat of the white embossing paste on the black paper!  You can see my efforts don't quite measure up!  But hey, I'm just getting started again after a year or so!

Oh, I used pigment inks, so it took days for the ink to dry.  But the color pop is WOW!

The background confetti is stenciled in the same way, but with a plastic stencil from Hero Arts (yes, new!) on white card.  It took forever to replace the clean stencil onto the pasted card because you have to puzzle out which way it goes!  But I like the look and will definitely make some more cards like this one.  But better!  I may stick to white cardstock for a while until I get my groove on.

BTW I ordered several more  Dreamweaver stencils from Stencil with Style.  They are going out of business and you can probably only get these brass stencils in future from Stampendous, and a limited number of images at that.  Stencils are disappearing from the Stencil with Style website at a pretty good clip as inventory is reduced.  I love my stencils!  I now have a dedicated drawer in my craft room for them.  I even have an old timey lightbox!  There are tons of techniques to try!

Thanks for looking!  I'll be in my craft room.......

Re-discovering Brass Stencils

When I participated in Stamp a faire this last weekend, I re-discovered some toys I had previously put away:  my brass stencils!  So I dragged all of these out, including my light box, and had a little fun.  Here is the first card I made, using the faux ceramic tile technique:

This vase is stenciled onto light blue cardstock, with the diamond accent stencil adding pattern.  It took me a long time to figure out what to do, since I had not done this technique in a long while.  And I can't find my video from Dreamweaver Stencils.  I had a very good video showing all the steps, but I don't know where I put it.
    But I persevered, and I think the results are quite lovely.  The Hero Arts greenery stamp is stamped with Bamboo Leaves Memento ink over the diamond stencil.  I sponged clear embossing ink over the top of the vase and heat embossed with clear powder.  That step really made the blue of the paper pop.  (In a day or two, when I am finished with another card using the same technique, I'll show again this lovely light blue paper.)
   I used the vase stencil to make a background "frame" for the image using a tiny print scrapbook paper.  What do you think about the duck?  Should I lose it?  I am undecided.  I think the card needs something there, but I am not sure about the proportion of the duck.
         Here is a list of the supplies I used:  green Hero Arts notecard, green print from Basic Grey 6" Kioshi pad, Dreamweaver vase and diamond pattern stencil, Dreamweaver regular embossing paste,  light table, Hero Arts Exotic Bloom (H5424), Memento Bamboo Leaves ink, Colorbox Top Boss clear embossing ink, Toybox duck rubber stamp with Memento black ink on white card, Copic markers,
        This card looks cool in tone and peaceful.  I am thinking I might make some wall art from the stencils in this same manner.