Make your own stencil

Taking off from yesterday's blog, here's the next step to make your own stencil. I'm doing this with the stamp I used yesterday, but the possibilities are endless. You could print anything from the internet, use any photo, tear a page out of a magazine. The more you do this, the more you will love it!

Using Glossy Accents or Diamond Glaze, or any substance like that, run a layer around the parts of the picture that you want to be your stencil.



You don't even have to stay inside the lines!



In fact, you can make up your own lines....draw whatever you want! If you get some big blobs like this, just take a toothpick and smooth them out.



When the first layer is dry, then add a second layer right on top of it. It will appear quite thick. That's what you want. Now, of course, you can do this with just a single layer, but I think 2 layers makes a much more defined stencil.



When it is completely dry, run it through your Wizard using the embossing sandwich:

White emboss mat
stencil
metal or paper
tan polymer pad
white cut mat

You can also do this same technique in any of the other diecut systems....Sizzix and the Cuttlebug now both have rubber mats that are available to purchase as well.

You can see here that the flower embossed into the metal:



Lightly sand the top off using one of those fingernail buffing blocks. The silver will show through the painted metal.



Finally, add it to a card or layout, or just use it as an embellishment!



A couple of hints: 1. If you cut up a soda can, the inside of it is just about the cheapest metal around! And there's one brand of Coors Gold beer cans that have a wonderful turquoise inside to them! Great to emboss using this technique. 2. You can do this also with heavy duty aluminum foil....and then color it using alcohol inks!

This is just a simple flower...but again, the possibilities are just endless! One more way to use your diecut systems...without a die in sight!