Stenciled Star Birthday Cards

Since I received the stencils in the Essentials 2023–2024 catalog, I am hooked on stenciling. What a wonderful way to take a piece of cardstock and make it unique to me with colors that I select for the image. I can also vary the amount of ink on my brush and the pressure I use to further make the image unique.

While I have posted other stenciled projects recently, this is one of the first stenciled projects I started. I pulled out of scraps to create with while I got a feel for how to best hold the brush, how much to ink the brush and how much pressure to use. I think it was little bit of fate that pushed this project aside because the It's Your Birthday Stamp + Thin Cuts (part of the National Stamping Month—Say It with Style special), had not been introduced yet when I started.

I used the same One Sheet Wonder idea as when I created the Halloween Cards I shared earlier this month. All of the colored cardstock were either stenciled or embossed so it would not be so plain.

Birthday Cards created with Stencil Pack 1

So the stenciled panels do not get lost on the card fronts, I inked the edges. I used It's Your Birthday Stamp + Thin Cuts on several of the cards above. On the first card I layered the Thin Cut on top of a square of Candy Apple so the sentiment did not get lost among the stars. I just trimmed the square to be about 5/16" larger than the Thin Cut piece. When I used the "Sending Birthday Hugs" stamp, I used low tack tape to mask the word "hugs" (I inked with the tape in place then used tweezers to remove the tape before stamping). I found the Just a Number Stamp Set with "wishes" and stamped that in place of "hugs". Since "wishes" was a little smaller, I used the star stamp from It's Your Birthday to fill in a little. I used the "left overs" from die cutting the Happy Birthday Thin Cut and backed it with white cardstock then I used a journaling pen to draw lines inside the cut (I wish the photo showed that piece better). The two cards at the bottom use the different sizes of the Stitched Fancy Brackets I created when showing how I made them in a previous blog post. The card on the left was stamped with The Good Life—Cardmaking and the card on the right uses Thoughtful Tokens—September Stamp of the Month.

Birthday Cards created with Stencil Pack 1

This group of cards were created very similar to the cards in the first photo. The happy birthday on the first card are from the Thin Cut with the blue cut layered on top of the yellow die cut so the yellow is just slightly peeking out like a shadow. The next card has a banner cut from Party Banners and a stamp from the Craft with Heart™ Cardmaking September–December 2019 subscription box stuck to a My Acrylix® Block to follow the arch of the cut; I also used a stamp from this set on the other Party Banners die cut.

I really like how I can pull supplies from my stash to mix with current products create a batch of cards where no two cards are too much alike. I will be giving this group of cards to the local senior citizens group; they have someone makes sure members receive a card at their luncheon when they are celebrating a birthday that month.
 

Supplies used:

• My Acrylix™ stamp sets: It's Your Birthday + Thin Cuts (CC9237) or It's Your Birthday (CC9233), The Good Life—Cardmaking (C1994), Thoughtful Tokens—September Stamp of the Month (S2309), Just a Number (D1514), stamp (C1804) from Craft with Heart™ Cardmaking subscription September–December 2019 (CHC4201) aka Cardmaking Starter Kit (Z4361) from the 2022 Startup Savings promotion
• Exclusive Inks™: Lemonade (Z6517), Candy Apple (Z6509), Bluebird (Z6508), Sapphire (Z2848)
• Thin Cuts: Stitched Fancy Brackets (Z3686), Party Banners (Z4152), Happy Birthday (Z3304)
• Stencils:
• Stencil Pack 1 (Z7040) or Stencil Bundle (Z5438) from Essentials 2023–2024
• Card Front Stencil Pack 1 (Z7042) or Card Front Stencil Bundle (Z5439) from Essentials 2023–2024
• Stencil Pack 2 (Z4339) or Stencil Bundle (Z4383) from Core Products 2021–2022
• Embossing Folders: Confetti Stars (Z3119)
• tools-ish: 1" Masking Tape (Z4606), Masking Tape Bundle (Z5444) or 4" Masking Tape (Z4607), Blending Brushes (Z4572)

Code to above product name appearance:

• text with link = this is a current product available on my eCommerce site at the time this post was published
• highlighted text with link = this is a product that was available on my eCommerce site when I created the paper craft(s) pictured above and the post was published; since it is on the retiring list and no longer appears in the current catalogs, or it was part of a promotion, it is available only while supplies last
• plain text = retired product no longer on my eCommerce site; if you really like a product, look for it at yard sales, on Facebook groups or other places people resale items

When you get creative the next time, be sure to check your supplies for a fun way to re-use or re-purpose items. I hope you like how I mixed and matched new products with older supplies.