Welcome to my creative online journal

Sunday 23 October 2011

Stencil 101 - Christmas & Halloween Tags

I haven't done a 'hands dirty' papercraft for quite a while and when making these tags today I realised how much I enjoyed it.  Gotta do more, many more!

These tags started as exercises in what type of inks, paints, tools and techniques work best with stencils.

I hadn't got any parcel tags or a die for a tag so I used a template and watercolour paper and cut each tag out individually.  I love the texture that shows through on the watercolour paper, it gives it that extra bit of interest.


The 'Stencil 101' is a free online course run by Julie Fan Fei Balzer of Balzer Designs (link in my sidebar, email her to join) and its fab!  My vast collection of stencils had been gathering dust because I couldn't work out how to use them properly and now I am having fun discovering how. 

One element I have particularly loved whilst making these was layering.

This tag has three layers - the 'R' was stencilled and cut out of the tag and some green textured paper was stuck on from behind.  I used red distress ink on the surface layer of the tag, plus some subtle stars with white shoe polish.  The third layer I made with Whiteout paint and punchinella, which made the teeny dimensional stars.  

Other news and I spotted that our High Street stationery & fun gizmo shop, Paperchase, have just started stocking Washi Tape!  Woohoo!   I can finally buy some without having to pay postage, yay!  Hope they stock it as an all year-round item and not just for Christmas.  

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments,
qwiksave

3 comments:

Carmen said...

I haven't done that sort of crafting in a long while either. I need to.

Love your tags, espesh the Halloween one but that close up of the 3 layered one is yum!

theboelemas@aol.com said...

Fantastic creations! I've been getting inky and painty this weekend and lovin it! Thanks for the link will pop over and take a look. xx

Nicky Stevenson said...

Hi Happy Days, Carmen. I forgot to leave an actual link to the course so I have now put the direct link in my sidebar to Stencil 101 (scroll down a bit to find it). Get stencilling!

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