Stencils and Spray Stains- STAMPlorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 2

Yesterday was a good day.  It's day 3 of the vacation and we popped down to the Twin Cities to visit my family. My last Christmas presents were finally delivered!! Yes, I know it's March. I've told you once that I'm a procrastinator, so this should come as no surprise. I'd purchased an inflatable robotic R2D2 for my little nephew and it was definitely the star of the show. Picture four toddlers squealing and chasing around a robot... If you're not smiling then not even Obi Wan Kenobi can help you because you have no heart!

But today is also a good day because it's day two of the ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop! I've read through all of the kind comments you've left and they've made my day! I promise after vacation I will return the visits! 

I've gone over embossing paste and stencils, and Distress Paints and stencils and today's bloggy post will cover:

SPRAY STAINS

There are some really cool effects you can achieve with spray stains, amazing depth of field, grungy awesomeness. My design today, however, is going to highlight the cleaner side of stains. In my tutorial, the spray stains I use are red and gold, but you'll see that my final card is actually blue and green. That's because I really didn't like the red and gold's finished look for the type of card I was going for, so I switched to blue. I didn't take pictures the second time around... mostly because I'm lazy! :) 

The first thing to do is tape down your stencil to create a firm hold. I chose to use the Oh My Stars! ARTplorations Stencil.  Position your spray and douse your cardstock. You want to be careful not to get too much liquid going, because it may leak underneath your stencil. 

The image on the left was when I used my stencil normally. My loving ahem* crazy ahem* Aunt Jerrie asked me if you could use the negative somehow and the short answer is YES! I took the excess ink that was on my stencil, flipped it over, and rubbed it on the card stock - that's how I got the look on the right side. 

After I made these two examples, I just didn't really like the colors for what I was trying to achieve so I switched to a blue spray, and inked the panel's background with Peeled Paint Distress Inks. 

I outlined the stars with a white marker and then colored up the cupcake from the SKETCHED: Cupcake set. I even added some tiny star "sprinkles" to the cupcake. Voila! A bright birthday card that's perfect for a boy or a girl!! 

I'm linking my creation to the following excellent challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday - B is for (Birthday!!) 

Inkspirational Challenge - Sprinkle

Cupcake Inspirations Color challenge: 

 

You should totally check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here.

This is an awesome blog hop and Shery, the owner of STAMPlorations, is giving away over $75 dollars in prizes!! You'll see some great inspiration AND have tons of chances to win some goodies. It's a win-win really.
Also - if you make a card that features stencils (ANY brand) you can enter it into the Stamps and Stencils challenge for another chance to win some prizes!

Thanks for hopping along!