Have you tried making your own stencils? It’s easier than you think. My friend is often requesting all kinds of cards from me and when I lack the resources for the theme she’s asking for I draw and cut my own stencils.
- Type of project: card
- Occasion: travelling
- Style: artistic/eclectic
- Techniques used: ink blending
- Decoration: none
- Main colour: turquoise
- Media used: Distress oxide ink pads, pens
- Equipment used: acetat, scissors, brushes for ink blending, stamps
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As I told you before, I love creating landscapes using inkblending, stencils and silhouette stamps. This time though, when asked to do a Japanese theme I got extra happy. I got a thing for Asian motives and styles!!
I’ve done a lot of cards drawing my own stencils. I often choose simple profiles, silhouettes using pictures on internet as my source and then placing acetat on top of the picture I choose and then drawing and cutting the contours. Easy peasy!
Through out the years I’ve made Batman, Darth Vader, specific landmarks, the skyline of Stockholm and fighter planes on cards this way. And now Mount Fuji of Japan:
It’s not a complex silhouette at all and thus made in a wink of an eye. Please note that I only placed the sun here, not cut it out. I used a separate circle for the sun after doing the mountain.
But before that I created the sky and the water, ink blending it with distress oxides. Then I placed the mountain stencil on the horizon. After that I placed the sun partly behind the mountain and added mirroring color into the water. I finished the background off by misting some water over it and some small small stains of white to make a starry sky.
Step two is to stamp grass, the bird (a crane possibly?) and the cherry blossom twig onto the background. I colored the flowers in pink with a watercolor pen.
Last but not least I draw the Japanese characters for Good Luck with a broad pen. I finished it off by drawing a frame around the panel and placing it on a card base.
Karin Åslund is from Sweden. Karin has been writing for TPC since 2020. Karin started paper crafting in 2005 and she makes cards, mini albums and do some Art Journaling. Her paper projects are often made in traditional Vintage or in a Whimsical style.