Hello there! Thank you for stopping by to help celebrate the new release from Simon Says Stamp – all about Love! I’ve already shared one card & video tutorial on my blog yesterday – check it out for more inspiration and have 4 more projects to share today!
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VIDEO TUTORIAL
As always, I filmed a video tutorial showing how to create this project from start to finish. I’m hoping you’ll enjoy it. Watch it below or on my Youtube channel.
Like this video? Please give it a big thumbs up (you can do this on Youtube video page right under the video) and share with a crafty friend! Leave me a comment too, I love hearing from you!
CARD DETAILS – INK BLENDING + DRY EMBOSSING
I love working with stencils as there’s just a ton of things that they can be used for. One of the ways to use it, the most common way, is to apply ink through the stencil to create a beautiful background. I used Simon’s Deep Sea ink, it’s a nice deep blue, and blended color through the Folk Dance stencil onto my paper to create a bold background.
This particular design looked very Scandinavian to me, and I associate blue with this style so I knew I wanted to use a lot of blue, mainly blue color for my cards today. I blended this ink rather heavily onto the paper and I just went with one solid color. If you have smaller ink blending tools, like little daubers, you can do selective ink blending and blend the flowers in red and yellow and keep the leaves blue.
You can also dry emboss with the stencil – its like en embossing folder, it can emboss your paper but the impression is not going to be as deep. I used my Platinum die cutting machine from Spellbinders to dry emboss my ink blended background as well as just a piece of white cardstock with the help of the stencil.
I just love this look of white on white – there’s just nothing quite like it. You can also try it on colored cardstock, but white is a winner in my book.
CARD DETAILS – TEXTURE PASTE
Another thing I like to use my stencils with is texture paste. I used texture paste from Ranger and applied a very heavy layer of my paste onto Soft Navy cardstock from Simon Says Stamp – still going for that white and blue look.
I loved the result, I got dimension, I got texture – I basically got everything I wanted from this background with this paste.
CARD DETAILS – ALTERING THE STENCIL WITH MASKING
One last thing I wanted to share is using just parts of a stencil. I masked some areas of my stencil so that I could change up the look. This stencil has a pattern to it – there are repeating elements on it, and I wanted to break it up apart without actually physically breaking the stencil; I wanted to use these elements separately to create a different arrangement on my background. I still used the same elements, I simply changed how they were arranged on my background.
This handmade card uses Nuvo Drops to create flower centers. Want to see 4 other ways you can use Nuvo Drops from Tonic Studios in card making? Check out this article – 5 Ways to Use Nuvo Drops.
I blended the same Soft Navy ink and formed a floral frame keeping the central part of my panel white. I think I had the most fun creating this background – as it gave me a completely different look to my card.
I also added a bit of color this background by using my Nuvo drops in yellow, red and gray. I used gray for the filler dots – so any blue dots that weren’t flower centers I coated a lot of those in gray and than used yellow as the flower center for large flowers and red for the small flowers. And I loved how I was able to easily add color to this background. And this also helped me to cover up some of the imperfect blending spots that I had on my card.
The sentiments for all 4 of my projects came from an older stamp set from Simon – I heat embossed them in white embossing powder onto blue cardstock, trimmed into strips and foam mounted onto the cards.
GIVEAWAY! (NOW CLOSED)
Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop from the blog comment section. So leave a comment below for your chance to win! Winners will be announced on Simon’s blog on Wednesday.
HOP ALONG WITH US!
Simon Says Stamp Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Kristina Werner
Laura Bassen
Yana Smakula – you are here!
Debby Hughes
Nina-Marie Trapani
Nichol Spohr
Suzy Plantamura
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Heather Ruwe
Lisa Addesa
SUPPLIES
I’m listing the products I used below. Click on the link to go directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support
 Simon Says Stencils Folk Dance Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Clear Stamps Kind Flowers Shop at: SSS |
 Spellbinders Platinum Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS |
 Hero Arts White Embossing Powder PW110 Shop at: SSS |
 Hero Arts Heat Embossing Gun PW200 Shop at: SSS |
 Neenah 110 Lb Solar White Cardstock Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stam Deep Sea Dye Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stamp Embossing Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy Cardstock Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stamp White Pigment Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Spellbinders Magnetic Handy Mat Shop at: SSS |
 Ranger Mini Round Foam Refils Shop at: SSS |
 Ranger Mini Round Ink Blending Tools Shop at: SSS |
 Tsukineko 6 Sponge Daubers Tools Shop at: SSS |
 Ranger Texture Paste Shop at: SSS |
 Tonic Metal Palette Knife Shop at: SSS |
 Tonic Oyster Gray Nuvo Crystal Drops Shop at: SSS |
 Tonic English Mustard Nuvo Crystal Drops Shop at: SSS |
 Tonic Red Berry Gloss Nuvo Crystal Drops Shop at: SSS |
 ScraPerfect Crafting Pouch Shop at: SSS |
 Tonic Studios 8.5 Inch Paper Trimmer Shop at: SSS |
 Scor-tape 2 1/2 Inch Crafting Tape Shop at: SSS |
 White Fun Foam 12 Pack 9 x 12 Shop at: SSS |
 Scrapbook Adhesives White Foam Squares Shop at: SSS |
PIN THIS PROJECT
Are you on Pinterest? I’d love for your to pin this project if you like it! Thanks!
Love that stencil and all the different ways you used it.
Must have that deep sea blue ink … gorgeous cards
I always love how you finish off with that POP of color!
Wow! You are such a pro Yana! Love them all…especially the white embossing paste on that pretty blue card stock!!
Thanks so much, Yana, for all these awesome ideas. I forget about my stencils & after seeing these amazing creations, I’m putting them right on my desk! My favorite of the four is the masked center card but they are all wonderful.
Love how you used the stencil and gave several ways for us to the same. Beautiful results.
Love the colors and designs! Deep Sea is now on my list of inks to purchase. Thanks for your beautiful examples and for being a part of the blog hop!
Love your designs, especially the masked stencil technique.
Thank you for sharing, can’t wait to use some of the stencils I have.
Since I’m Norwegian, I loved this tutorial. That deep dark blue ink was stunning on the white card stock. I love that you share your mistakes and what you’d do the next time. Although I’m not a stencil user, I can see new ways to use my dies and thus stencil with them. Thanks for sharing.
What a clever way to use your stencil and get more use out of it!
Love the blue and white cards. Exceptional job!
Thank you so much for showing us different ways to use the same product! I often get stuck in a rut and end up making the same thing over and over again. This way, I can use more of my supplies! Which of course means that all get to go buy more!
This stencil is so pretty and I love the different looks you achieved using it. I especially love the last card with the Nouvo drops – those few pops of color just took it to the next level for me.
Wow! These are great cards! I love the variety you came up with.
I officially want that stencil now! I didn’t know you could emboss with a stencil like that, either. Thanks for showing me a new way to use them!
I love the looks you got from this one stencil! I especially loved the last one you added the extra color too and did the selective coloring on. Thanks so much for sharing, even the “oops” one.
That stencil is a must have! Love the blue-and-white look…
Absolutely beautiful!
I like how you used the stencil in so many different ways!
Wow, amazing how many different looks you can get with one stencil.
What beautiful cards.
Thank you for sharing your techniques and ideas. It’s great to be reminded of all the fun things you can do with stencils.
Wonderful ideas. I love that you keep the not so good pieces in the video. I’d probably figure a way to use part of the piece vs. throwing it away. Thanks for all the techniques. I will be stretching my stencil uses.
This is really a beautiful blue! I love what you’ve done on both cards –
love your card ideas !
Thanks for sharing. Love the Scandanavian flare!
Beautiful cards! Love that Deep Sea ink! I like that you used the stencil in several different ways.
Love the blue and white and the way you used that pretty floral stencil!
The blue and white are a great color combination! Love the way you used that pretty floral stencil!
These cards are al stunning! Thanks for sharing these great techniques!
Thanks for the great ideas on the use of one stencil 4 ways. Truly terrific. Love the looks of all the options. Great Job.
Beautiful cards! Love that stencil!
I love your choice of color combos !
[margessw(at)icloud(dot)com]
Love your cards, they are beautiful!
Fabulous cards!
Gorgeous cards! I love those blues!
Thank you Yana for sharing your techniques for using one stencil in several different ways. I appreciate the tutorial as sometimes it is hard to imagine how to use a stencil again once you have already used it. I loved the blue colours you used. Your cards are honest and magnificent. Karen
gorgeous!!!
I so much appreciate how you showed us 4 (plus–counting the not so successful attempts) ways to use the stencil. It made me see how versatile a stencil can be. Your cards are lovely.
I love this set of cards you made! Each one is beautiful and really showcases the techniques that you used!
These are my kind of cards – i like the look of each of them, and each technique is one I love. I’d be tempted to use detail daubers to make it look like an ikea print xD
Very pretty, I really like the white on white one especially.
Great cards. I love the use of stencils. I am fast realizing how beneficial stencils are in card making.
Gorgeous cards, I can’t choose a favorite, I love the shade of blue that you used!
Oh I LOVE blue and white! Of course your creations are always soooo wonderful! Thank you fifvthe inspiration!
I agree with the Scandinavian vibe of this stencil, and your color choice is perfect. Beautiful backgrounds. Would never have thought to do the frame that way. So cool! Thank you!
Thanks so much for sharing your great ideas for this stencil. Your cards are beautiful.:)
I love the shade of blue!!
Love the innovative idea of masking the stencil and the card you designed with it.food for thought.Thank you.