Watercolor "Stencil Stamping" Technique Tutorial

Welcome! I would like to share a background technique I call Watercolor "Stencil Stamping."  It is a good way to get more mileage out of your stencils.  It is easy to do and because it is watercolor, you get a little bit different result each time.

Here is my completed card and a close up of the focal point.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Materials Needed:

You will need a dye ink, stencil, water spritzer and paper towels.  Distress inks work really well with this technique!  It is important to have everything out ahead of time.  I am showing watercolor paper here, but you can use regular cardstock if you want.  If you want a pearlized look, you can add a little perfect pearls into your water.

Directions:

Press your inkpad directly on the stencil to get a fairly even coverage. You can use more than one color if you wish.

Spritz the stencil with water as evenly as you can. You will want to experiment a little with how much works for you.  Have your piece of cardstock ready in a clean, dry area nearby.

This is where you want to be ready to work quickly.  You will now pick up the stencil, turn it over onto your cardstock (remember, this cardstock is already set out in a dry spot). Take a clean paper towel and immediately place over the entire work and press the watery ink in evenly.  Some of the extra ink will soak into the paper towel.

After a moment or two, pick up your paper towel and stencil to reveal the pattern. Let dry completely.  

Like I said earlier, you may need to practice just a little bit to see how much water to use and how to move the wet, inky stencil over to your cardstock.   You may prefer a really watery look.  There is no correct look, it depends on what you like. If you get a very, very blotchy result that does not look even, you probably needed to add a touch more water to the stencil.  Don't worry, you will get the hang of it!  And if the entire thing doesn't look how you want, cut half off and use it anyhow as patterned paper.

Here is a photo of some that I did on regular white cardstock.  It really looks good on either type of paper, but watercolor paper is just a bit more forgiving.  

I hope that you found this tutorial helpful and might want to try this technique out!  

Cleaning tips and variations:

When using a dark ink color, you could stain your stencil.  I had this happen with a deep pink and was easily able to remove the ink from the stencil with alcohol from the medicine cabinet.  

Yes, you could also do the same technique with some spray stains and skip the inkpad altogether!  Try whatever you have on hand.  

Supplies I used in this project: 

Colorbox Art Screens stencil - Lovely

Gina K Designs Ink - Applemint and Innocent pink

Gina K Designs Better With You stamp set

Versamark Ink and White detail powder

GKD AppleMint cardstock

Watercolor cardstock

Vellum paper

Spellbinders scalloped Labels One

GKD Patterned paper

Perfect pearls in water brushed over the flower

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comments!