Stenciled Happy Birthday

Day 4 of My Favorite Things' Summer School (Session 1) dealt with complementary colors. I chose yellow & violet for my color scheme. I also used a technique I'd learned from Jennifer McGuire, on using masks with stencils.

I cut a piece of masking paper to 4x5.25", the same size as my white card front panel. After I marked the vertical center on the masking paper, I lined up a "Straight Heart" die from Nellie's Choice, and die cut a heart. I adhered the negative part of the mask to my panel, laid the "Star Grid" stencil from MFT over it, and taped the stencil in place. I inked part of the heart with Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink, and the other part with Wilted Violet Distress ink. I made sure to leave a soft-edged narrow gap between the colors, so I wouldn't end up with brown from the two colors mixing.

After I removed my stencil, I adhered the positive heart mask in place inside the opening of the surrounding masking paper. I removed the negative portion, and repositioned the stencil. I was able to see the stenciled design through the mask well enough to line up the stencil with what I'd already done. Without reloading my blending foams with ink, I inked over the the rest of the panel, leaving a softer, paler look.

When I had finished the outer stenciling, I replaced the negative portion of the mask around the heart, removed the heart mask, and inked over the stenciling with the same colors of ink (leaving the stencil off this time), just slightly, to make sure the heart shape stood out from the background design. Then I removed my mask and worked on the greeting.

I die cut the greeting from plum cardstock that I'd backed with Stick It adhesive. I used MFT's "Cause for Celebration" die set. After I'd die cut the words, I carefully removed them from the negative space, and adhered them lightly to my card panel. Once I had them centered, I burnished them with my bone folder, to make sure they were really stuck down firmly.

After I matted my panel with a 4.25x5.5" piece of cream cardstock, I adhered that to a white A2 card base. I used Nuvo Crystal Drops in Buttermilk, Dandelion Yellow, & Crushed Grape, to add some faux enamel dots around the greeting. I let those dry for about 24 hours, and my card was done!