Practical Scrappers: On Trend with Stencils (and Birthdays!)

Happy Monday! This is the start of a super busy week starting with the Broncos Monday night game tonight. Always a big one in the Peeples house. Can't miss a chance to watch the Raiders go down in flames. :) Homecoming is this week as well and that means a full calendars worth of activities for the high schooler. Can't wait to see him all decked out in his outfit Friday night.

Today you are lucky enough to get two posts in one. Somehow last week Blogger screwed up and the post I had scheduled for last Monday never happened. So I am going to share this weeks project as well as the one that should have shown up last Monday. First up is a layout I made using stencils. Stencils have become pretty popular and there are tons of ways you can use them. I chose to pull out my gesso and Tim Holtz distress pads to use with a Studio Calico stencil I recently purchased. 

I love the texture this adds to the layout. You can see it so much better in real life, but the gesso gives a little bit of dimension to the page and adds that visual interest. I tried to get the gesso on pretty thick to make sure the bubbles came out clear. After the gesso dried I dabbed a makeup sponge onto my ink pad and rubbed over the dried gesso. The gesso resists the ink pretty well so you get that great contrast. 

You can kind of see the roughness of the gesso here. That is the texture that I love so much. I think next time I will try a thicker modeling paste to see how that works. I think I've found a new technique and tool that I am definitely falling in love with! How about you? Do you work with stencils and what is your favorite way to use them? Share your ideas!!

Last Monday's On Trend was all about the birthdays. I definitely was glad to work on that one as we are in the midst of major birthday season for our families. Seems like we are celebrating just about every week! I chose to beef up my card supply and used my washi supply to help out. Here are the three birthday cards I created.

Love that washi! So practical and so fun to use. All these cards took were a little washi, a little ink, some stamps and a few embellishments. Simple to make and super cute. 

Don't forget to head over and check out the On Trend post at Practical Scrappers. There are some great looking projects on the blog.

Be back soon!

Lisa