Creating a Stencil with Dies

Hello,

This weeks Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge seems very apt, “April Showers Bring May Flowers”, as since Tuesday, it has been rained a lot where I live in England. Last year, I made quite a few ATC (Artists Trading Cards), though, I never traded them! However, this quote reminded me of them and I thought I would try making one again. To me, “April showers bring May flowers” seems like a quote with meaning  – you’ve got to put up with the rain to gain the flowers.

I started die cutting the fourth smallest My Favourite Things Rectangle from hot pressed watercolour paper, then splattered the page with Daler-Rowney masking fluid. When that had dried, I dropped watercolour onto the page [Cobalt Blue, Turquoise Blue, Indanthrene Blue, Violet, Emerald Green, Yellow-Green]. After waiting (again!) for the paint to dry, I peeled away the masking fluid.

TIP: You can tell if the paint is really dry by feeling the page, if the page is cold to touch… its not dry.

I made the stencil with acetate and the Spellbinders Bluebell die, I ran them both through the die cutting machine. I used the Tim Holtz Mini Ink Blending Tool along with these ink, in this order: Hero Arts Lemon Yellow, Hero Arts Lime Green, Mama Elephant Pacific Blue, HobbyCraft Christmas Red, and a little Mama Elephant Blush. I also used these colours around the edge in the same order. For the message, I typed “April showers bring May flowers” on the computer, found and old “distressed” background and printed it off. I brushed black in against the edges of each section of the quote before gluing it down. In the white spaces where the masking fluid had been, I added glossy accents to give the raindrops a bit of “shine”.

It has been really nice making an ATC again, and using the products I got for card making, to create it.

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon,

Emma x