DIY Stenciled Ombre Background

Hello friends! It’s been a minute since I have updated you on my Altenew Educator’s Certification Program (AECP) journey. Well, I made it out of level one, and now I’m back with my first class of level two. I took the course, Beyond Basic Backgrounds this week to grease the wheels. I really enjoyed this class because I love making inky backgrounds, but this made me think of other ways to create them.

I’m using a technique I learned using dies to create a DIY stencil. I think it is important when creating a stencil or background to give the illusion that elements are moving on and off the page, which I accomplished by placing some of the dies hanging off the edge. In addition to my stencil, I chose to feature an ombre effect by blending inks from dark to light (top to bottom). Let’s take a look at the project and then we will get into to it more!

I will link below a video of me creating this card, but I still want to discuss my process. I used the foliage dies from the Majestic Bloom set and placed them so that the larger dies were coming from the top and getting smaller as they moved down the panel. I used heavy cardstock to create my stencil by running it through my die cutting machine. I then taped the DIY stencil onto a smooth piece of cardstock measuring 4.25 x 5.5 inches and blended over it in an ombre style technique. I used Altenew Crisp Dye Inks in the colors, Cosmic Berry, Puffy Heart, and Rose Quartz to create this blend. You will notice another design element as well, I have the darkest color corresponding to the larger leaves blending to the lightest with the smallest leaves. This gives the appearance of cascading leaves.

After the inks were blended then I heat set them because my next step was heat embossing the outline images of the Majestic Bloom foliage stamps. Using a Misti tool, I stamped them with embossing ink and then applied the gold embossing powder. Once that cooled I used an emboss resist technique and blended the same colors of ink over the card panel. I also added a sentiment and gold splatter to finish the front panel off.

Please check out my process video and consider liking and subscribing!

Just a small disclaimer! All items used in all of my projects are (or have been) purchased with my own funds, but this does not include design team items that I have received or otherwise stated.

You can connect with me here:
IG @joywilsonink
Pinterest
Youtube