Week 4: Stenciled Cards

During week 4 of the greeting card class we made stenciled cards with one option being stenciled bookmarks as an added decoration.

We have a large cabinet full of acrylic paints, so many of the card projects during the trimester take advantage of this resource. Some students really enjoy this creative freedom but others find the use of paints difficult.

The biggest challenge in using paints with stencils is getting a clear image without any smudges, blurs or bleeds. Here are some stenciling tips:

• To avoid blurs, use masking tape or repositionable spray to hold the stencil in place. (Masking tape can rip a card when being removed. To avoid this put the masking tape on your clothing first. This picks up some lint and reduces the stickiness of the tape.)
• To avoid smudges, cover any parts of the stencil not being used with masking tape. Cover exposed areas of the card with pieces of scrap paper or cardstock.
• Slightly dampen the sponge before loading it with paint.
• To avoid bleeding around the edges of the stencil, use as little paint as possible. To do this only use a few drops of paint and dab the sponge up and down several times in the small puddle. Next, test the paint on a scrap of paper by dabbing up and down a few times. The paint should be almost transparent on the first dab and grow darker as you dab more. If the paint doesn’t dry almost immediately, you are using too much.
• Dab straight up and down, no swirling, no pulling across like  a brush – just straight up and down. This will prevent paint bleeding under the edge of the stencil.

Here’s an example of a simple stenciled card featuring a fish stenciled in yellow paint on blue cardstock and rubberstamped sea grass accents.

The basic supplies needed to make a stenciled card like this one are a quarter-letter card blank, a stencil with a 2” image, colored cardstock, acrylic craft paint, a cosmetic sponge, a 4” to 6” plastic lid or tray, masking tape, and a damp paper towel. Here’s what to do (be sure to review the tips above):

1. Cut a 4” by 5 1/4” mat from green cardstock.
2. Cut a 3 1/4” square and two 1 1/2” by 1” rectangles from blue cardstock.
3. Cut a 2 1/4” square from scrap paper or cardstock.
4. Center the stencil image on the blue square and secure with masking tape.
5. Put a few drops of yellow paint on the plastic lid and load a dampened sponge with paint. Dab up and down on the stencil until the desired darkness and shading is reached. Remove the tape and remove the stencil by lifting straight up.
6. After the paint is dry, center the 2 1/4” square over the stenciled image. Secure it with a masking tape roll on the back of the square.
7. Create a border by dabbing the sponge along the edges. Remove the 2 1/4” square.
8. Stamp the images on the two small rectangles.
9. Assemble the card by gluing the stenciled image and stamped rectangles to the green mat , then gluing the mat to the card.

Wrap-up
We have many stencils available for the students in the class. The favorites are hearts, animals and flowers. Some stencils are best done in two or more colors and some lend themselves to colored pencils. In the next post I’ll explain how we make bookmarks and then add them as a decorative element on the card.

If you give this card a try, please let me know. I’m also interested in comments and suggestions.

Images of cards can be posted to the Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cardclass/

Feel free to share your favorite stencil card technique.