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!
Like this project? Pin it and save for later | Curious about my project photography? Click for details.
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!
The tone on tone is my favorite. Thanks for sharing.
i love how you used the stencil in so many ways, and i esp liked that you showed us things that didnt work as well, sometimes i think it is only me that ruins a project, but reassured me that it can happen to us all, love all of the cards and that blue!
I love the look of the stencil with the crisp blue and white contrasts.
Beautiful cards! And love the experimentation with techniques.
I have a friend who collects the blue and white folk pottery… I must do a card like this for her… love it!
You’re one of my fave designers, Yana, and this week’s hop cards are just as great as ever!
So astoundingly gorgeous. Thank you for techniques
Wow! Elegant and beautiful cards!! Love them 🙂
beautiul cards … great techniques …
Blue is my favorite color so I love this set of beautiful cards! My favorite is the last one. TFS and Thanks for the chance!
Love love love these cards (and the stencil!), especially the last card, but also love the blending+embossing – so pretty! Thanks for the inspiration!
The folk art stencil is beautiful. Thank you for sharing I love the texture paste with this stencil.
Love the blue and white theme. Lots of artists have been using this stencil and making creative cards. This one is different.
Beautiful cards, love the intensity of your blues.
Cheers
Lisa
Love the use of the folk dance stencil…..
Thanks for showing the different ideas, even what didn’t work for you. Appreciate that.
Wow! Simply gorgeous!!!
LOVE the fact that you show the success and failure’s of cardmaking..so makes my heart sign that I as a novice can fail and succeed in the same way a professional does..thank you for what you do and keeping it real !!
Thanks for sharing your experiments. You achieved some lovely results and I want to try them with that stencil.
I love it when you show multiple ways to use one product. Getting the most out of these stamps, stencils and dies is important because they are not inexpensive! And each look is so different! Lovely!
Thanks for sharing all they ways you thought about using this amazing stencil (those that worked and those that didn’t come out quite the way you thought they would!). MUST try the paste on dark paper. The look is just so striking.
I love that you showed 4 ways of using the new Folk stencil. Cute cards!
Love your cards!
I love the Scandinavian feel you gave to these cards – the blue delft is just inspired! I am really loving that style – will definitely have to get this stencil for sure!
What a great teaching video … the good and bad results! I so enjoyed it and your gorgeous blue design. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
These are beautiful cards, love the colors you used!
Gorgeous cards! I love all the techniques you shared for this beautiful stencil….I did not realize how much you could do with one.
I love how the blue on white card turned out with the dry embossing around the inked background. Just so unique and pretty.
Hi Yana,
I love the dry embossing and the texture paste. Can’t wait to try these techniques myself. Thank you for the beautiful inspiration.
Take care
Tracy
I’ve used these techniques before but not for a while…must do them again! I absolutely love the blue ink color!
Gorgeous cards! Thanks for new ideas
Such beautiful cards! Thank you for the inspiration!
Hi! Love this! But I love you work always!!!
I have my eye on the sentiments set. I love what you did with them. thank you for sharing them.
So beautiful!
Enjoyed your video and all the ways to use this one stencil.
Thanks for the video – I really enjoyed seeing all the different ways you used this stencil!
I was intrigued by the 3 different ways that you used the stencil. I am eager to try those techniques as well
Thanks for sharing so many different ways to use the stencil and the challenges you had.
Wow stunning cards!!!
I am in love with your card Yana and need need need this stencil now!
Lovely cards. Thanks for showong different ways to use a stencil.
Gorgeous cards! I love the cohesiveness of the set! Just simply beautiful!
Your cards are beautiful,Yana” I especially like the one where you masked off part of the Folk Dance stencil and then created a border. I appreciate that you shared what didn’t work as well. It is a helpful reminder to learn and move on to the next idea.
I really love how well the texture paste makes the background stand out without being too busy, and the floral details added in with the liquid pearls are meant to be 🙂
So incredibly pretty. Your video was awesome. Thanks for sharing in your video about things that didn’t work for you as well.
Delightful! I love this stencil, and I completely agree about its Scandinavian feel. You got that Swedish blue just right, as well as the red and yellow accent colors to really emphasize that feel. Just lovely cards all around. Thanks so much for sharing!
Beautiful cards, this is such a stunning stencil!
I love seeing multiple takes on a product like this, including the ones that didn’t work out!!!
I didn’t know you could use stencils to dry emboss, thank you for sharing that technique. Excited to try texture paste too.
Thanks for the great ideas of using the stencil in another way. I also love the color blue you used!
Absolutely gorgeous! Love love love!