Stencil Techniques – Altenew Water Builder Stencil

Hello friends! I’m back with a card inspired by another great class from Altenew. Celebrations Stencil Techniques is taught by Laurel Beard and is packed with unique tips for using stencils. One technique she used was to stamp with a stencil. I honestly never considered using a stencil that way so of course I had to give it a try.

For this card, I actually started with the background because I knew I wanted to try stamping with my Water Builder stencil. This technique requires water so I grabbed a sheet of watercolor paper. I placed that panel of watercolor paper onto my Waffle Flower Grip Mat in preparation for the technique. Next, I grabbed a couple ink cube colors, Altenew Fresh Dye ink in Sea Breeze and Mountain Mist. Off to the side, I swiped that ink directly onto my Water Builder stencil, varying the color randomly. Once I had fully covered the stencil with ink, I misted with water using this cute glass spray bottle from Amazon. You just want to use a light mist otherwise you’ll just end up with a mess.

With my stencil fully misted with water, I carefully lifted it up by the corners, flipped it so the ink side was facing down, and placed it on top of my watercolor paper. Be careful not to shift it too much unless that’s the look you’re going for. Once it was placed onto my panel, I placed a paper towel on top and used that to press the stencil down firmly onto the paper. Then I lifted my stencil directly up off my panel to reveal the cool water color pattern left behind.

For my card front, I chose to use the Beautiful Day stamp set for my focal image. I stamped the floral and leaf images as follows and die cut using the coordinating dies. I did not use the first solid layering stamp in either the flowers or the leaves. Those sections remained white as you can see above.

I really wanted to use some arches on this card so I grabbed my Essential Arches from Spellbinders. I chose two dies. One to cut the stencil stamped background and then a second slightly larger one to cut a pool colored cardstock mat for that stenciled panel. I adhered those two panels together using Art Glitter glue and then adhered to my Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb A2 card base. Then I arranged my floral images at the top of that panel and adhered with foam adhesive squares from Simon Says Stamp. I placed the three of the leaf images around the floral images and glued those down leaving the ends of the leaves free to bend up for some dimension.

For my sentiment, I used the Classic Greetings stamp and die set. It’s such a great stamp set to have on hand for any occasion. I recommend prepping a lot of sentiments ahead of time so you can just grab whatever you need and add it to a card. Anyone else make cards and wait to add the sentiment until you know what you need to use it for? If you don’t, you totally should. There have been many times where I wanted to use a specific card for a specific person but the sentiment didn’t really match the reason I wanted to send it. So now, I make some cards without sentiments and add those when I know who the recipient will be.

I added silver rhinestone embellishments around my sentiments just to dress it up a bit. You like those? Want to know where you can get them for yourself? I would LOVE to tell you. I really would. However, I’ve had them for so long that I have no idea where they came from. If you want something similar, I LOVE the embellishments from Trinity Stamps and the Silver Twinkle Rhinestones embellishments would be perfect.

For all you mathematicians, you were probably wondering where the fourth leaf image went. Well, I used it on the inside! I used the same two arches to make a mat and a card insert. On the white panel, I glued the leaf image and trimmed the excess. Then I adhered that to the pool cardstock arch and placed on the inside of the card using liquid glue.

And that’s a wrap! I hope you found some inspiration here to try something new with your stencils. If you want more tips and tricks, head over to Altenew and check out their crafting classes. You’re sure to find something to find your needs. I appreciate you stopping by today. Now go get creative!

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4 Comments

  1. Beautiful card Jen. The subtle stenciled background adds the right amount of interest without overpowering the pretty florals. Nicely done!

  2. Jenn, I love the layout! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your work! I highly encourage you to share your work in the AECP Family group and the Altenew Fan Group. This is where Altenew Marketing keeps a lookout for folks to invite to hops, etc. Also remember to share your previous assignments, and do it soon!

    1. Oh wow! Thank you! That means so much. I shared all my submissions thus far in both groups. I appreciate you letting me know!

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