Tag Archives: DIY stencil

Birthday Card Using Custom Stencils

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I’m absolutely loving the recent trend of using stencils to create interesting backgrounds on hand made cards. I have had my Silhouette Cameo for probably 8 years, but I haven’t pulled it out recently to make anything. After seeing stencils used by so many popular paper crafters, I decided to try to make my own using my Cameo. At first, I used transparent page dividers from a dollar store. They were okay, but I found a great stencil product on Amazon that had a bit more weight to it, so now I’m using those.

It was really fun coming up with some designs. I’ve been sticking to more simple (less intricate) designs for now.

Here is a card I made using a pair of hexagon stencils…

I started with my larger hexagon stencil and ink blended Festive Berries, Wild Honey, Twisted Citron and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide Inks. Once dry, I went back over using my smaller hexagon stencil with the same Distress Ink colors. It definitely is a bit more noticeable on the actual card than it is in this photo.

For the sentiment, I used My Favorite Things Birthday Wishes die. Using spray adhesive, I attached it onto a large strip of vellum. To balance the black greeting, I matted the background piece with black card stock. I used foam tape to mount it onto a Neenah Solar White 110# card base.

The card still needed a bit of embellishment, so I added some Nuvo Drops in Ebony, Caribbean Ocean and Ripened Pumpkin. After watching one of Cathy Zielske’s 10 minute design videos, I chose to place the drops in a triangular shape to tie it all together.

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A Celebrate or Birthday Card Using a DIY Stencil

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It’s really funny how most everything old becomes new again.  Card making is no different.  Stencils are back, although for some, they really never left.  I love stencils because they are a relatively cheap way to add to your craft stash, and there are so many ways that they can be used.  Even better, you can actually make your own for almost nothing if you have a cutting machine.

(Side note…to make my own stencils, I use dollar store plastic notebook dividers and my Silhouette Cameo machine.  You can find so many basic shapes in the design store, or even make your own.  This plastic material cuts beautifully using the stencil material cut settings already set in your machine.)

I had already made a few stencils several weeks ago, so I decided to give one of them a try…a balloon stencil.

Here’s what I came up with…

My Empty Nest Creations DIY Stencil Celebrate Card

This one was really simple to make, but I just love the bright colors with the black & white sentiment.

Using my home made balloon stencil, I ink blended 5 balloons using Worn Lipstick, Peacock Feathers, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and Wilted Violet Distress Oxides.  I love the fact that no masking is needed.  It’s perfectly okay, in fact it’s more realistic, to have the balloons peeking through.  Once the balloons were dry, I drew the strings with a Micron marker and a ruler.

All that was left was die cutting my Celebrate sentiment using Neat & Tangled’s Celebrate die with black and white scrap card stock and stamping the smaller sentiment using Winnie & Walter’s Sentimental: Gift stamp set.  The final step was to pop the Celebrate die cut with some dimensional tape.

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