Making Waves

Yesterday, Mariana shared two fabulous ideas for using the Waves Stencil and today I'm back to share three more ways to use this versatile stencil. More often than not, I use my stencils to create full and partial backgrounds on my cards instead of patterned paper. And what I really love about stencils is the variety of both soft and bold patterns that you can create by simply changing your ink and paper colors.

I was eager to use the new [hero_product_link sku="SA075" text="Waves Stencil"] to create a background for an ocean-themed shaker card. I started by completely covering one side of the stencil with three colors of blue distress inks and then misting the inked stencil to allow the the inks to partially blend. I placed the wet stencil onto a panel of [hero_product_link sku="PS610" text="white layering paper"] and then gently blotted over the stencil with a paper towel to remove any excess water. The result is a beautiful, rolling sea background.

To create the shaker element, I die cut a circle from the stenciled panel, as well as a trimmed piece of craft foam, and set them aside. I stamped a starfish from the [hero_product_link sku="CL956" text="Color Layering Seahorse"] set, trimmed it with the [hero_product_link sku="DI185" text="matching die"], and adhered it to the center of the card base with foam tape. Then, I secured a piece of acetate and the piece of die-cut craft foam to the back of the stenciled panel, laid a few sequins on the card by the starfish, and adhered the panel to the card front. I finished the card with a [hero_product_link sku="PW110" text="white"] embossed sentiment from the [hero_product_link sku="CL945" text="Color Layering Goldfish"] set, an additional starfish, and a [hero_product_link sku="DI185" text="die-cut"] [hero_product_link sku="CL956" text="seahorse"] that I stamped with [hero_product_link sku="AF275" text="Soft Vanilla"], [hero_product_link sku="AF242" text="Soft Cantaloupe"], and [hero_product_link sku="AF214" text=" Cup O' Joe"] inks.

While I still had my supplies on my work table, I used the same [hero_product_link sku="SA075" text="Waves Stencil"] to create two additional backgrounds on [hero_product_link sku="PS623" text="blue layering paper"]. For this card, I simply secured my stencil and paper to my work surface with tape, and then applied [hero_product_link sku="AF249" text="white ink"] onto the blue paper through the stencil with a foam applicator. I love the white ink on the blue paper as it resembles whitecaps on ocean waves. To finish the design, I added a [hero_product_link sku="DC178" text="thank you sentiment"], a bit of vellum and a twine bow.

For one last look, I made a monochromatic background using two of the new Bold Inks, [hero_product_link sku="AF339" text="Aquatic"] and [hero_product_link sku="AF340" text="Deep Ocean"]. With these names, I suspected that these two inks, used with the [hero_product_link sku="SA075" text="Waves Stencil"] on blue layering paper, would create a realistic, deep ocean background. I finished the card by stamping the [hero_product_link sku="DC178" text="sentiment"] on a watercolored, cardstock circle and then clustering a few stamped images and gems around the message.

After making these three water backgrounds, I'm eager to explore using the [hero_product_link sku="SA075" text="Waves Stencil"] to create backgrounds of green hills, sandy beaches and even white, snow drifts.

Wishing you a wonderful and inspired day,