How to create custom stencils for cardmaking

 

Hi crafting friends thanks for stopping by today as you click around the Totally Techniques International Stampin' Up! Demonstrator blog hop.  We are sharing ways to create your own custom stencils or masks as my US friends call them for using on your card making or even your scrapbooking and memory keeping projects.  

I have used an upcoming suite of products called the Tradtions of Christmas with two bundles, Christmas Greenery and Traditonal Labels along with Traditional Sparkling Sequins.  There is also a sparkly ribbon and stunning pack of specialty DSP that you will love.   You will see in time that this bundle isn't just for Christmas projects and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have during our preorder period.  The suite and many more Winter Mini products will be available from 3 September.   

My card today is simple, but modern even though the colours and images are very traditional.  It's easy to create and as you'll find in the video does what it says on the title! 

Please do subscribe to my youtube channel for more inspiration and ideas over the coming months. 

A little variation if you want to add a more vintage, traditional sentiment look.

Above is an alternative way to create a similar card with different margins on the layers and a different sentiment and dies from the Traditional Labels Bundle available from 3 September 2025.

 Enjoy our hop and browsing my shop. If you don't have a catalogue please email me for a digital copy or paper copy.

Happy stamping 

Zoe x

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Supply List

Stampin Write Markers

Available from 3 September

Blending Brushes

Meandering Meadows to brighten a dull dreary day

 

Hey Crafty Friends welcome to the October Totally Techniques blog hop. We are sharing the Bordered Sentiment technique.  It's very simple. All you need to do is create a mask across your design layer and then stamp above and below or if you do it vertically to the left and the right. 

For my mask I used some masking paper and first stamped the wheel barrow above the mask.  I adjusted my mask to then stamp below it allowing the mask to stop any part of the stamp image I didn't want to show.  If you look carefully you'll see I used the wheelbarrow stamp upside down to just stamp the flowers on my card.  Both images were stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and coloured with alcohol markers.

I used a strip of white card to go over the area originally masked.  I didn't quite get my initial wheelbarrow stamp to drive right on the line of this piece so stamped the wheels and cut the card to make the partial image connect with the full wheelbarrow.  A mishap recovered.   I finished by stamping my sentiment which is part of a new online exclusive stamp set and suite of products launching on 7 November called Meandering Meadows.  

I added a matt layer of Lemon Lime Twist card and some gold brushed dragonflies which are in this new suite and some gold thread to highlight the sentiment add on piece ie border it. 

It's been a busy week here with lots of local flooding. Thankfully we only had a small issue which pumped out quickly and is drying, but our thoughts are with those more badly hit.  

Take care all and keep stamping.  

Zoe x

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Lemon Lime Twist card

Stampin Blends - Alcohol Markers

Gold and Silver trim

Floating Elements Technique

 

To all my UK readers Happy Bank Holiday weekend.  I hope you have some great plans and that the sun shines on us all.  For everyone else happy weekend and have fun.

Our Totally Techniques crew are sharing cards made using the Floating Elements technique which is fun and can be done in several ways.  I've chosen to use vellum and card strips with some simply stamped images to create a pretty girly birthday card.

Start by cutting a piece of vellum that is bigger than the circle die you are going to cut as your floating island.  I used a large circle die from the Stylish Shapes dies.  

Carefully glue strips of card of varying widths across your piece of vellum again making sure that the strips are wider than the circle die you will use.  You can vary the depth between each strip of card too, but may wish to think about laying the circle die onto your card and vellum to see where the edge of the circle is likely to cut as it gives a different appearance if card is at the top or vellum.  Now you understand why I have added stamped images from the Sentimental Park stamp set at the bottom of my circle as it didn't look quite right with only vellum at the bottom edge.  

Once you are happy with where the circle will dissect the card and vellum , die cut your circle. To attach this to your card base or a matt layer if you so wish you need to add Stampin' dimensionals to the reverse of the circle making sure that you position them on the back of the card strips so that they don't show through the vellum.  

Finally decorate your circle as you wish and add some bling.  As I mentioned I stamped and diet some simple two step stamping images and added a sentiment.  I used some Pretty Peacock sequins to add sparkle.  

My colours include Lemon Lolly, Soft Seafood, Bubble Bath and Pretty Peacock.  

Enjoy checking out  the rest of the inspiration and technique tweaks and see you again soon.

Happy crafting 

Zoe x

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Supply List

Vellum A4 Cardstock

Stylish Shapes Dies

Sentimental Park stamp set

Sentimental Park Dies

Adhesive Backed Sequin Trio

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Fun bubble technique - Craft with your kids

Hi there hope you have had a good week and are ready for the weekend.  I'm sharing my card for the Totally Techniques Stampin' Up! demonstrator blog hop. We are sharing the Bubble Technique with you this month and you are in for some fun and believe it or not, but it isn't too messy either. 

You will need

Washing Up Liquid - Dish soap

Bowl - not your best china!

water

a straw

watercolour paper - fluid 100 

white card

Stampin' Up! ink refills - I used Afternoon Azure, Night of Navy and Real Red. 

You'll create sheets of bubbled card that you can then  use  as backgrounds or for die cutting.

Start by covering your workstation with a sheet of grid paper.  Then continue by putting a couple of centimetres depth of water in the bowl and a small squirt of washing up liquid.  Then add about a dozen drops of ink of your choice.  Take the straw and blow air into the water, washing up liquid and ink mix.  

Bubbles will form as shown in the picture. Take a piece of watercolour paper and lay it onto of the bubbles and hold it gently. As the bubbles pop move it over to another cluster of bubbles.  You'll get different sized  bubble pops depending on the bubble size. Therefore if you like a large open design be sure to keep adding air to make big bubbles.  If you pop any bubbles on the card once you turn it over you'll create a bubble shape too.  You can add more ink if it is too pale.  I started with the Azure Afternoon and then added some Night of Navy after a few sheets were created. I also tried it on Basic White card stock which worked fine, but avoid getting it too close to the smaller bubbles on top of the water edges. 

Allow your sheets to dry before die cutting shapes or using as backgrounds.

For the card above I used the Tailor-made Tags to cut lots of small tags to then create a pattern and stamped a sentiment on one.  I also used the Layering Leaves stamp set to stamp onto the bubble background and punch out one branch to add a focal point.  I added sequins to add some sparkle and silver pearls. The stamping is in Blackberry Bliss. 

After creating several blue sheets I added some Real Red.  This created a mix and eventually purple. 

Using a background to die cut flowers and one to create a background for them I made a second card adding layers of card, vellum and bubbled pieces onto a dry embossed but inked folder layer.  

For the leaves I made a bubble background using some retired pigment powders instead of ink bottles for the same technique.

Do check out everyone on the hop who will have some very different ideas for using the bubble technique.  

Last few days remaining for our Bonus Coupons - you'll get a £4.50 coupon for every £45 spent on product in July.  The coupons are emailed to you once you order and you can spend them in August. 

Thanks for dropping in and have an awesome weekend. 

Happy crafting 

Zoe x

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INK REFILLS 

Water colour fluid 100 paper

Tailor Made Tags Dies

Layering Leaves stamp set

 Paper Florist Dies

Bough Punch

Masking Techniques for card making

Welcome to our first Totally Techniques Blog Hop of 2023. This month we are sharing any type of masking technique. 

I've gone for using masking paper to create a scene with overlapping images and a sea bed as well as the sea above it. 

I started my card by tearing a strip of masking paper that was long enough to go right the way across my design layer.  I placed it with the torn edge towards the base of the layer but a few centimetres or inch or so away from the bottom of the layer.  I stamped using the background stamp Hand-drawn dots on top of a  layer of blending brush colour. I also used the pebble stamp from the stamp set Seaside Bay. 

Again using stamps from the set I added some images and also stamped some in second generation ink before no line water coloring them prior to die cutting them out with the Seaside Bay dies.  I added these to the design at the end using glue dots for a little dimension.

To add more colour and dimension I used the aperture created by die cutting the seaweed pieces from masking paper.  I used a blending brush to add the colour and it also allowed me to overlap the different pieces and create shading and depth.  By moving the homemade stencil about it gives you the opportunity to change the direction of the weed. 

I love this bundle of products and in particular the flat adhesive backed pearls that are so pretty.  They really add to my die cut shell and give more sparkle to the sea bed along with a touch of Wink of Stella to the crab's shell. 

I added a layer of card stock stamped with the shells as a matt layer and then matted the whole design onto a Merry Merlot (I always think that sounds so inviting tee hee) as the card base. It's a colour that I don't often use but I was really pleased how it turned out on this card for the seaweed, base card and I also added touches when watercoloring the crab, not to mention the single simple image stamped inside the card. 

I used the same matting technique for the sentiment from Party Puffins stamp set.  The idea of a seaside scene reminds me of summer and pushes the winter chills out the mind. Roll on Spring.

Remember Saleabration is our biggest promotion of the year and ends on Tuesday 28 Feb so if you have an order of £45 or more don't forget to visit my shop so that you can grab yourself a free gift too while the promotion lasts. 

Thanks for visiting me and I hope you'll head off to see the other fab designs from my friends around the globe on our Stampin' Up! blog hop.  

View more ideas with Seaside Bay.

Warm hugs

Zoe x

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Seaside Bay Bundle

flat adhesive-backed pearls

Blending Brushes

Wink of Stella

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Tips for using watercolour pencils for cardmaking with the Totally Techniques Team

The weather slipped into winter here in the UK, but at least as I type this the sun is shining and the sky is blue and I have a card to welcome you with cheery colours and pretty flowers from the Full of Love stamp set.  The Totally Techniques team members are sharing ideas for using watercolour pencils this month.  Our Stampin' Up! pencils come in two assortments so you can start with either depending upon your favourite colour choices and hopefully when you fall in love with them you'll want both assortments.  As with everything Stampin' Up! they coordinate with our colour families and so will coordinate with your card, ink and embellishments. 

For my share today I started by stamping in black Staz On ink around the edge of a piece of Fluid 100 watercolour paper.  If you look at the stamp set below you'll see that I used the stamp with the letter in the centre and only partially stamped on the border of the paper.  

I then used the pencils to add some colour to the image but not completely covering it.  You can create light and shade by the level of pressure you put on your pencil in the first place and then using a blending pen can drag colour to the uncoloured areas of a flower or leaf.  This reduces the intensity of the colour, but also can leave bold colour on the original application. The great thing is that you can use various shades of one colour also to blend with the pen to create even more depth or you can use a single colour.  The next step is to use a mixture of colours, but I didn't need to do that with my design as the single colours worked really well giving bold and pretty contrasts to each element. 

Once I had coloured the outer border I set to on the focal envelope.  I stamped this on an additional piece of watercolour paper and coloured it before fussy cutting the image out.  I've then stuck it onto the middle of my border piece raising it up with Stampin' dimensionals. My sentiment is from the same set and is simply white heat embossed onto a piece of Gorgeous Grape card to connect with my matt layer of the same colour.

The pencils are very cheap way to grow your colour spectrum and all you need is a good pencil sharper and possibly a stamp case to keep them safe.  It's best not to drop them to protect the colour inside the pencil.  I would never claim to be a great colourer but I'm very pleased with how this turned out and very minimal colouring skill is required so great for beginners and more experienced crafters to use.  

For regular readers to my blog you'll know I like a little bling so my finishing touch was to add some Wink of Stella which you can just about spot in the final picture and so

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me In-color opal rounds.  

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the hop via the thumbnails or link below. 

Happy weekend Zoe x

Supplies Used available in my Stampin' Up! shop

Full of Love stamp set

Watercolour Pencils 

Blender Pens

Fluid 100 watercolour paper

in color opal rounds