Poinsettia Floral Spray with DIY Stencil

Good morning!  It's Lindsey here, and I'm excited to be guest designing this month.  This week is full of inspiration using stencils.  Today I'm taking a creative approach to that and using a stencil I made with the Canopy Leaf Dies.

First, I pulled out a sheet of acetate and cut the largest Canopy Leaf Die out of the center.  I wanted to make sure I had plenty of space on the sides of the negative cut, so I could easily blend ink without worrying that it would bleed onto unwanted parts of my card base. 

Then I used a foam ink blender to blend green ink on the leaves and smaller ink blending brushes to blend the red berries and green stems. In the delicate areas (like the stems) it's important to dab or tap on the ink instead of using a circular blending motion, so you don't lift or bend the stencil. 

I repeated the stencil design twice, adding an additional berry stem to the top leaf sprig to fill in the space a little more.  While the stencil was still in place, I generously flicked on snow using white acrylic paint and a clean toothbrush. (Yes, you read that correctly. A paintbrush works as well, but a toothbrush does a great job at making lots of itty bitty flecks of paint).  Set it aside to dry.

To create the poinsettia floral spray, I cut one of the Blooming Noel Effortless Artistry Papers with the coordinating Blooming Noel Dies.  Then I generously covered it with snowy white paint flecks.  After the paint dried, I piled gold pearls in various sizes in the flower center, gluing some on top of each other for dimension. The stenciled base layer anchors the floral arrangement, and I adhered the poinsettia with foam tape where the two stenciled leaf sprigs meet.

Next I die-cut two of the smaller Canopy Leaf Die out of gold cardstock.  I tucked one full stem under the top of the poinsettia, and trimmed the other leaf sprig into smaller pieces, so I could tuck them into two places at the bottom of my poinsettia.  

By stenciling the first layer and adding die cuts on top, it allows you to create extra depth without as much bulk (which is helpful for mailing). 

Finally, I chose a sentiment from the Festive Flora Wreath Stamp Set. I stamped and embossed it using gold embossing powder and die cut it with the coordinating Festive Floral Wreath Dies.  Don't you just love the font in this set?!

I stacked two pieces of foam tape on top of each other to create added height, and used them to pop up the sentiment onto my card.  

This card is full of rich colors and layers and I can't help but smile every time I look at it.  Thanks so much for joining me today!  I hope you leave feeling inspired to create.