Rotating Stencil to Create Background & a Giveaway

Hello! Welcome back to the BPM blog. I am featuring BPM stencils for the month of January. This is my second post this month. For today's card, I am doing a technique in which you rotate the stencil to create a unique background. This card also shows how the images on the stencil can be overlapped with each other. 

I used the medium sized BPM Monstera Leaves with Borders stencil. There is a larger stencil if you prefer that. 

One of the tricks in stenciling that I find useful is using a sticky mat to keep the paper and stencil from moving. If you don't have a sticky mat, using a tacky tape will also do. I use a paper tape to cover the open areas of the stencil that I don't want to blend ink to. I started with blending ink over the pebble-like openings of the stencil. I used a light hand in applying the ink. You can actually skip this step since the inked pebbles are hardly noticeable at the end. I just had this done so the panel has full coverage in case  there will be bare areas.

I moved the stencil up the panel to continue creating the background. I rotated the stencil 180 degrees to add some variation to the pattern. The great thing about using a stencil, aside from rotating to create a different design, you can also flip it for a mirror image.

The above photo is the first background pattern I created using the border portion of the stencil. I used a light gray ink.

I positioned the leaves on the center of the panel.

I applied ink on the stencil very lightly. Remember, it is easier to add more ink than remove ink once it is already on your paper. 

I went heavy with the ink on the centers of the leaves. Another option is to use a smaller tip brush to add details to the leaf.

I moved the stencil around and continued blending ink over the stencil. Since I used all green inks, I did not wipe off the stencil in between inks. I did not even clean up my brending blush. But I did go from lightest to darkest so I don't contaminate the light green ink with the dark green ink.

To clean the stencil, I spritz water over it and gently wipe it off with a dry rag.

I forgot to take a photo of the finished background panel before die cutting it. Hopefully, you get the idea of how it looks like uncut.

I die cut the sentiment on the stenciled background. My die sentiments cut a shadow which allowed me to add an outline effect on the die cut sentiment. BPM does not sell sentiment dies so feel free to substitute this with what you have in your stash or you can simply stamp a sentiment on the background.

On the black matte cardstock, I swiped a sticky ink on the part where the negative cut of the sentiment will line up. I brushed pearl powder to the sticky ink to add shimmer which showed through the spaces around the sentiment.

I also die cut additional scrap white cardstock with the sentiment die. I stacked this for some dimension. 

I hope you like today's project. I also have an old post discussing several ways to use a stencil: Creative Ways of Using a Stencil in case you are interested to learn other ways of using a stencil.

Visit our social media sites for more stamping fun!

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This is the second giveaway post. I am giving away a set of BPM stencils that was sent as extra to me by BPM's lovely owner, Kim (Thank you, Kim!). She agreed for me to offer it as a giveaway. To be eligible for the prize, go to my blog and leave a comment. To increase your chances of winning, please comment on my other BPM posts for January with the word 'Giveaway' on the blog title. There should be 3 posts total. Commenting ends on January 31, 11:59pm CST. A random winner will be selected from all posts and will be anounced on my BPM post on February 8. 

Have a blessed, brilliant and creative day!

Maria Giselle B.

of Maria Giselle's Creative Cuts