Holly Craze!

The new Holly stencil from Dreamweaver (LL3005) is so versatile. I don't know which techinique is my favorite with it, so I will show you several that I have created so far.





















The first was done with Blue Glossy Embossing Paste, with Crackle Paste over it after it dried. When the Crackle Paste was dry, I used Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy and Rocket Red to color the image. I just love the nice crackling you get in the open area of the leaves.

This one is the faux Cloisonne technique. Paste the holly with gold embossing paste and let it dry. Place the clean stencil back over the gold paste and use pigment inks to color the image. Remove the stencil and sprinkle UTEE over the design. Tap off the extra embossing powder and heat gently to set the powder. Repeat with another layer of color and UTEE if you want a smoother finish.












The shadow technique does not work well with every stencil, but it is beautiful with this Holly sprig. To get the shadow effect, tape your stencil to your paper and use small stencil brushes to color your image (I used Brilliance Thyme ink on the whole image, including the berries). You want to shadow with a fairly dark color to get the best effect. Clean your stencil and place it back over your colored image, then carefully shift it up and to the right about 1/16" to 1/8". Tape your stencil back down and use the Regular Embossing Paste (white matte) over the image. Remove the stencil and immediately sprinkle the paste with Crystal glitter. Let dry. Place your clean stencil on the dry white paste and carefully color the berries with red ink and use your picasso (LL332) to add some veins on the leaves. The red pin in the ribbon was originally white. I used my COPIC markers to color it to match.

Hope these inspire you to try a technique you haven't done before, or forgot you knew how to do!

Happy Creating,
Louise