MULTICOLORED BIRTHDAY

 Do you like working with stencils -- or masks, as Stampin' Up! refers to them? They are truly fun to work with and can be used in a plethora of ways.

Starting with a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of white cardstock, I used sticky notes to hold the stencil in place over the paper. I used a Blending Brush to add the colors, starting with the lightest color and working towards the darkest. I started out with a light hand so I had room to increase the intensity of the color in certain areas. As you already probably know, it's best to start out light, working to dark because once you have a dark hue laid down, there's no going back.

The ink colors I used were Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Coastal Cabana and Flirty Flamingo. A few of these colors don't always play well together, so you have to be careful not to create mud. One way you can avoid mud is to let a color dry before you add another. That seems to help a little bit. In this combination of colors, it was the Granny Apple Green and Flirty Flamingo that could have potentially caused problems.

Once I was satisfied with the color I'd added, I carefully pulled the stencil away, and this is what I ended up with:

With careful blending and a nice assortment of pleasing colors, I ended up with a piece that was so cheerful and almost-perfect. In order to maintain that fresh look, I decided to keep the rest of the card simple and uncluttered.

I took three white sequins and used a Stampin' Blend in Dark Parakeet Party to color them in to coordinate well with the card.

I decided to use black for my sentiment so it really stood out from the busy background. The "happy birthday" was made up of stamps from the delightful set, Biggest Wish, found on page 40 of the Annual Catalog. Check out that set! You can get so many wonderful combinations for a sentiment.

To pick up another color from the stenciling, I mounted it to a Flirty Flamingo card base.

With minimal effort and materials, I ended up with a card that is simple, but striking in its appearance.

Have you dug out any stencils/masks lately? How did you use them?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.

- L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables -

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Multicolored

Smiles.