Stamping through Stencils Tutorial

I love playing with my stencils and I enjoy finding ways to use them more often. Today's tutorial shows how to add an extra layer with stamps when you are stenciling.

Along with your favourite stencil, go ahead and gather an ink for your background and a darker ink for your stamping.  Plus a good background stamp, you can see I was indecisive when I gathered my supplies as I first picked both a bubble wrap stamp and a wood grained stamp - I did narrow it down to the wood grained stamp in the end.  I am also using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in "bundled sage" for my background and Memento ink in "Tuxedo black" for my stamping.  I am working on white textured cardstock as my base.

I was working off of a sketch, so I knew roughly where to add my stenciling but it's a good idea to 'dry fit' things first so you know exactly where you want to lay down your ink.

The first step is to simply add your background stenciling, wherever you want it on your background.  I lifted my stencils so that I could snap a photo for you.  I love the look of stenciling so much batter when I keep the edges loose and random.

Ideally you probably want to leave your stencil in place and work on a section at a time.

Now ink up your stamp, no need to be overly careful.  In fact, a little randomness with the ink will give you a great effect.

Now stamp over your stencil onto your pre-inked  areas.  Try not to stamp over the edges of your mask.  You do not want any hard lines, so a little random is better.  I actually prefer to use my background stamps without a block and hold them in a slightly curled position so that only strategic areas hit the paper.  One day I will figure out how to photograph that!  I will likely have to enlist another pair of hands.

Here are a couple of close up photos to show you the effect you are going for.  Wouldn't a text stamp be great for this, why couldn't I find mine??

I ended up creating a page with this background that I created. 

Here is a  close up shot of my background.

Supply List - American Crafts Cardstock; Create Paper patterned paper and chipboard; Fancy Pants die cuts; My Mind's Eye and Simple Stories enamel dots; Evalicious Flair; Tim Holtz distress ink; Memento ink; Staedtler pen; Heidi Swapp mask; Mr. Hue's mist in 'water colour' and 'manilla'; adhesives - Scotch ATG gun, Zip Dry, Tim Holtz tiny attacher.

Thanks so much for visiting today.
Laura
xo