Stencilled Backgrounds Tutorial

You can quickly and easily make some beautiful backgrounds for your cards with a few colours of Distress inks and a stencil. I would suggest choosing a stencil which has a small repeated pattern for these projects and you can use all or just part of the stencil to create the background.

Use good quality smooth white cardstock to stencil onto such as Sheena Stamping Card or Neenah cardstock, this will make the application and blending of the ink easier and produce better results. Cut your cardstock to size and tape the stencil in place on top of the card with low-tack tape to prevent it moving while you apply the inks. If you have a more detailed stencil or one with fine areas such as the one used on the ‘Just to Say’ card, I would recommend spraying the back of the stencil with a repositionable adhesive and sticking it to the card as the fine areas of the stencil can easily move when sponging on the inks.

Pick a few different Distress Ink colours and decide where you want the colours to go. Work a little of the ink into a Smoothie sponge or blending tool and begin applying the ink through the stencil using a circular motion. Add just a little colour to start with and build the colours up gradually so that they do not become too dark. You may want to lift the stencil carefully as you apply the inks to check how much colour is on the card – the colours may not look very dark but when you remove the stencil they can show quite bright against the white cardstock. Take your time to blend the inks when you change colours so that you have a soft blended colour rather than any lines. All you need to finish the cards are a few embellishments and a sentiment so that the stencilled background is the main feature of the card.

Choose your favourite colours to give this a go, you could create some beautiful rainbow effects or keep the colours simple with just two or three different shades.