Use a Stencil ...... HLS Mixed Media Challenge

Hello challenge fans,

It's time to get this year's HLS Mixed Media Challenges underway, and for the first one of 2016 the theme is to use ........

A Stencil

There's lots of ways to use stencils ..... use them with inks or paint, or texture paste,  Use them on a Gelli Plate to create fab backgrounds, or run them through an embossing machine and use them like an embossing folder.  Check out the HLS Blog, there you'll find links to some really great tutorials on how to get the most from your stencils.... have fun!!

One of my favourite stencil designs is the brick wall ...... here I've used it with some texture paste to create my background, add a touch of dimension to my card ......

Using Distress Inks I added a touch of colour to a piece of white card ..... Tea Dye and Vintage Photo.  I then spritzed with some water to remove some of the ink and randomly stamped on top using the text from the HLS Thinking of You set

I then took my Brick Wall Stencil placed it over the card and applied Texture Paste through it .... notice I didn't cover the whole of the card, I steered clear of where I'd stamped the text.

Once the paste was dry I went back in with my Distress Inks to add some colour to the brick wall .... same colours as before, and spritzed with water again

I stamped one of the butterflies from the HLS Butterfly Birthday set onto a leftover piece of card from my 'bit box', I thought the colours looked quite nice against the background.  

I wrapped some gold thread around the bottom of the card and attached the butterfly over the top.

Using my fingers,  I applied just a touch of glue randomly over the brick wall and around the edge of the card and then covered it with some gilding flake ..... see how it catches the light and adds a little bit more interest

To finish off I added a sentiment from the Thinking of You set ..... love this font!

Now it's over to you ..... why not give our Mixed Media Challenge a go.  It's basically Anything Goes as long as you've used a stencil.

The challenge as always is sponsored by the Happy Little Stampers Store

and the lucky winner will receive one Happy Little Stampers stamp set.

What are you waiting for ...... start creating!!

Before I go ...... I want to mention some changes that are happening to Blogger! 

Thanks my lovely friend Loll for the heads up about this ...... and the link to all the details.

As of January 11th  2016 only Google account holders will be able to follow blogs with Blogger. Also, Blogger will remove any followers, without a Google account, from the blogs they are following!  If you would liked to read the announcement in full you can find it here.

So ...... if you DON'T have a Google account and you are one of my lovely Followers now, and you would  like to continue to follow my blog (I do hope this is the case) then you have a couple of choices ......

You can create a Google Account.  If you choose this option you will have to become a Follower again.   All previous Followers who didn't have an account will be permanently removed from my Followers List by Google (sigh!)

If you don't want to open a Google account then you can still follow my blog via email (there's a sign-up button on the left hand side), or you can follow me on Bloglovin'.  Hope this makes sense.  

Thanks to the lovely Loll for the heads up about these changes

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio until next time