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Stencilling Techniques
for Card Making

Expand your card making repertoire by adding stencilling techniques to your handmade cards.  

Stencils are thin plastic sheets with patterns, images or letter cutouts.

They are a great way to create card backgrounds and to add texture and colour. Even better they are reasonably priced and widely available. 

There are so many designs to choose from!

Floral....geometric....retro.....to clouds and rain drops!

Let's look at some ways you can use them.....

Ink Blending

Your first step is to prepare your card and stencil.  

• Place your stencil over the top of the card

• Turn over and fix the edges of the stencil with low tack tape to the back of the card.  This will stop the stencil sliding off the card.

• Turn both over and fix the outside of your stencil to your craft mat - again to avoid slippage.

Use a blender tool, blender brush, sponge or dauber to lightly blend the ink over the stencil.  

Remove your stencil to see the finished pattern or image on the card.  

Embossing Paste

Embossing paste is an excellent way to add texture to your cards.

It is a thick paste that can be applied evenly over your card and stencil with a palette knife.  When dried it you are left with the raised pattern of the stencil.

After applying the paste remove the stencil straight away from the card as it dry quickly. Clean immediately with water.

The butterfly card was made with a brick effect stencil and shimmery white embossing paste from Stampin Up! 

Embossing paste is available in a variety of beautiful colours and finishes...opaque, translucent, glittery, crackle and metallic.

Mix your own custom colours with coloured ink and embossing paste. 

The mandala was made with a mandala stencil and shimmery white embossing paste mixed with cracked pistachio distress oxide ink.

The card was completed with a die cut Hello from Altenew.

Double Stencilling Technique

This fun technique uses two stencils together.  I first ink blended the mega rose stencil from Altenew with wild honey distress oxide ink and allowed this to dry.

Using my Wendy Vecchi Make Art STAY-tion I lined up the mega rose back over the blending and added the mini tiny circles stencil from the Crafters Workshop over the top.

Once these were secure I ink blended over both stencils with carved pumpkin distress oxide ink.

This is a really cool technique but to step it up a bit more I used the spotlight technique to add a bit more dimension with the carved pumpkin distress oxide ink.

After ink blending the second image I die cut a circle and added it to the main image popped up with foam.

To complete the card I added a die cut "Hello" from Altenew (cut 3 times) and mounted it on a metallic copper layer before adhering to a card base.

Other Stencilling Techniques

• Heat emboss your stencil image by using Versamark ink and embossing powder.

• Dry emboss your stencil in a die cutting machine and embossing mat to create a letterpress effect.

• Create a Bokeh effect background.  Blend different colours onto a card background.  Use a circle stencil to sponge white craft ink over and through the stencil to blur the colours.

• Create a shadow effect by first ink blending with your stencil and then stencilling again on top in a different colour and the stencil off set from the original image.

• Have fun with a Gelli pad, stencils and acrylic paints for unique and completely different backgrounds.

• Create your own stencils with die cuts and punches eg: circles, stars

1. Home
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2. Card Making Techniques
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3. Stencilling Techniques