I'm in love with stenciling to colour

I was really lucky to get the first Craft Your Life kit from Altenew (Seasonal Blooms) which was released way back in  July 2021. It sold out in the States I think overnight but luckily for me they re-released it and Meetu from Krafters Cart got me a set. As my craft room was in a box for the majority of last year with moving I finally found some time to have a play with the set in the last month.

It's a great concept as it comes with layering stencils (3 in total) so you can colour in the stamped image or just use the stencil to colour. You may have to use post it notes to cover up some of the flowers or leaves but it is still so much faster than colouring in using other mediums and looks fab. The set also came with dies and a co-ordinating embossing folder but it upsets me that the EF is not really identical to the large stamped image and it could have been as it's damn close but still adds some more dimension. 

The first time I played I used the following Stampin' Up! inks and a blending brush
Yellows: Daffodil Delight and Mango Melody
Purples: Gorgeous Grape and Highland Heather
Greens: Granny Apple Green and Old Olive
Browns: Soft Suede and Early Espresso

The large image has been die cut out, embossed and actually snipped in half to make a 5 x 5" square card

The next time I played with it all was a few weeks later and everything that could go wrong did go wrong but it still turned out amazingly and both cards have been sent away to happy recipients.

I actually thought when I made this card I had lost a stencil as I thought there were 4 stencils but I had covered the tulips up with post it notes and I couldn't understand why I didn't have a stencil to colour in one set of the tulip petals, so I ended up colouring them in with Copics, luckily I had used Memento Black to stamp out my image and then I had to use my Copics to add more depth to the leaves and in the end I also used a B000 to outline as the white on the Grapefruit Grove card stock (SU!) looked wrong. I also used the now retired Subtle embossing folder (SU!) on  the Grapefruit Grove card stock.

The next boo boo was I thought I would lightly spray the image with some Shimmer Spray and oops Memento Black is not waterproof so had a few runs so placed the jewels strategically to hide the worst runs.

The card looked so happy and cheery in real life I had no problems posting it away to a friend who loved it!

Before I launched into the Altenew set I had a go at a much more simple stencil and matching stamp called Butterflies (#TEHN53) from Taylored Expressions, it was so easy and so effective it's why I had no hesitation in going we can do it with the Craft Your Life set. This set comes with just 2 stencils.

Again I have just used SU! inks to colour but I can't remember what colours and I've just used thick Whisper White to stencil/stamp on. 

I thoroughly love both these sets and I also squirreled away from SENZ last year 2 sets from PinkFresh Studios I haven't played with so hopefully I will colour them up real soon and share.

 ✿ Karen ✿