Stretching your Stencils

One of the techniques I teach in my Craftsy class involves selectively cutting out portions of stencils to create a totally different design.

I had some time this weekend to just play and I pulled out my Parquet stencil.

It's rotated 45 degrees, and then I traced and then used a cutting knife to remove these alternating triangle portions.  I love what a different look this is.

Since I wasn't really planning ahead, I ended up with a cut out area that wasn't quite symmetical.  If I had planned ahead, I would have made it symmetrical and used it on the horizontal, adding the sentiment in the center.  But, I was flying by the seat of my pants here, so.....



I knew I wanted to pop the panel up over some black cardstock, but I wanted some brightness, too, so I cut three 1" squares of colored cardstock to add behind the squares/diamonds.  I found the perfect patterned paper to accent the design from an old BG 6x6 pad.

A simple partial sentiment from Calathea was embossed on black to finish this off.

I love this technique because it allows you to take one thing and create something totally different.  Hope you're inspired to take a fresh look at your stencils!