Stencilled Backgrounds featuring Simon Says Stamp's Clearstamps

Hello everyone! I hope you are well and enjoying some warm, sunny days. It is full on Spring in my little mountain city of Penticton in British Columbia. The orchards and vineyards are in full bloom! I admit to going for a couple of country drives to take in all the beauty! Food for the soul!

I have a series of 8 cards featuring Simon Says Stamp's Beautiful Day, Somewhere Over the Rainbows and Stronger Together on blended ink, stencilled backgrounds using Taylored Expressions Designer Masking Stencils. The cards are created in pairs; one with the blended ink in the card centre and the other featuring the inking as the background.

I created all eight backgrounds at once. A2 sized Bristol Smooth card stock panels were lined up with the etched alignment guides on the stencil and adhered with Pixie Spray, a repositionable adhesive, to ready the panels for ink blending. For the cards with the white centres, I used the outer portion of the set as a template to position the stencil.

The blended ink background was created with Mermaid, Lagoon, Peacock Feathers and Bundled Sage. I stamped images from Beautiful Day and Somewhere Over the Rainbows using Simon Says Stamp's Intense Black Ink. This ink is versatile and can be used for both watercolour and Copic colouring. The images were coloured with Copic markers: BG 49, 72, 75, 78, 90, 93, 96, 99, B02,04. Y13 and 18 were used for the flower centres with some stippling using W9 and 10. The main butterfly was painted with White Blizzard Nuvo drops and Black Nuvo drops were used for additional accents. Embellishments of Caribbean Ocean were used to highlight the flower and butterfly images.

The blended ink background was created with Festive Berries, Wilted Violet and Squeezed Lemonade. The floral images and sentiments from Somewhere Over the Rainbows and Stronger Together were embossed twice with gold embossing powder. The flowers were painted with red, light magenta and rosewood using Arteza pens. The sentiment on the panel with the central white space was stamped with the same inks used on the background to create a gradient. Sequins topped off with Morning Dew Nuvo drops embellished these cards.

The blended ink background was created with Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Seedless Preserves, and Antique Linen. The leafy images and sentiments from Stronger Together and Beautiful Day were embossed twice with gold embossing powder. The leaves were painted in purple and violet with Zig markers. These cards were embellished with Violet Galaxy Nuvo drops.

The blended ink background was created with Black Soot, Walnut Stain and Antique Linen. With the oval stencil still in place, the white centred card was stencilled with Glass Bead Glitter Gel using Simon Says Stamp's Waves Stencil. A small, separate panel ink blended with Antique Linen and Walnut Stain mounted on matte gold cardstock was used for the sentiment on this card. The images from Stronger Together were stamped and embossed on both cards twice with gold embossing powder. The images were coloured with Copic markers using BG 90, 93, 96 and 99 for the leaves and stems and E 42, 44, 49 for the flowers. The second card was stencilled with Simon Says Stamp's Raindrops Stencil using the same gel. When applying the gel, the sentiment area was avoided. The cards were embellished with Dark Walnut Nuvo drops.

Simon Says Stamp: Beautiful Day, Somewhere Over the Rainbows, Stronger Together, Raindrops Stencil, Waves Stencil, Intense Black Ink

Taylored Expressions: 6X6 Designer Masking Stencil- Rectangle, Square, Circle, Oval

Distress Oxide Inks: Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Antique Linen, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Bundled Sage, Festive Berries, Wilted Violet, Squeezed Lemonade, Walnut Stain

Copic Markers: W9, 10, BG 49, 72, 75, 78, 90, 93, 96, 99, B02,04, Y13, 18, E 42, 44, 49,

Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers: Purple 082, Deep Violet 084

Arteza Real Brush Pens: Red 101, Light Magenta 104, Rosewood 160

Nuvo Crystal Drops: Morning Dew, Black, Caribbean Ocean, Violet Galaxy, Dark Walnut

Nuvo Glitter Drops: White Blizzard

Strathmore Bristol Smooth Card Stock

Neenah Solar White 110ib Card Stock

Pixie Spray

Faber Castell Glass Bead Glitter Gel

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