day 3 ARTplorations stencil blog hop

Welcome to day 3 of the ARTplorations stencil blog hop. We are exploring the plethora of beautiful designs available in the shop. My card uses Daisy Dance, which was designed to work with the daisy image from Bloom Sketches too.

On a side note, have you seen Shery's card ? I was completely stumped when I saw it until I read how she'd created it using the stencil and stamp.

Here's the basic idea. You create a BG. Lay the stencil over it and fill the "holes" around the daisies - with gesso or a darker ink. Then you remove the stencil and stamp with the daisy image.

But you know me. No basics for me. I had seen LeeAnne C.'s card and was enamored with the pale pastel colors achieveable with her technique. So.

Go ahead and check out her tutorial. But come back, OK? You'll enjoy my story ;)

So. I inked up the stencil with yellow and orange Distress Inks, spritzed it and "stamped" it onto watercolor CS. Dabbed up the excess water. That's how I got the pastel yellow/orange daisies. Cool, eh?

Then I put the stencil down and inked the daisy centers with yellow and orange and around the daisies with Shaded Lilac DI and around the center daisy with SSS Lavender too. Some water splatters. A touch of Perfect Pearls mixed with water for shimmer. So far so good.

Now I am the first to admit that I am the worst at spatial thinking. As in, horrible. So when I got to the point that I decided I needed some white on my BG and so I would heat emboss the daisies white, but after five minutes couldn't figure out how to make the stamp line up with my yellow daisies... well then I remembered that I suck at spatial thinking! Or should I just say at planning!

Cuz I had "stamped" the daisies with the "reverse" of the stencil (yes, there is a front and back)! Which is null problemo, unless you want to come back and use the stamp ;)

So. My touches of white took the form of a grungy center from STAMPlorations Mixed Media Grunge. And I heat embossed a sentiment from Fond Expressions onto vellum, die cut the edge with MFT Snow Drifts and added some washi up top and at the bottom for oomph.

Ya live, ya learn.

Check out my teamies' beautiful projects and the prizes up for grabs here. Have a look. We hope you are enjoying this week of stencil inspiration. Oh, and mark your calendars for June 29th. STAMPlorations is turning TWO and we will be celebrating for a week!