SSS Receding Squares Stencil

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

It's been quiet here lately, I've been busy with crafty things, but nothing I can share yet.  Lots of new designs coming your way later in the year, and also prepping for a new release next week.  I did get a chance to create a couple of quick cards using my Receding Squares stencil though.

I think it's really interesting how innovations change the way we use products.  A few years back stencils mostly meant that I was using sprays or paste.  I used blending tools some, but not like I do these days with the advent of blending brushes.  For these cards, I'm throwing it back to the old days.  I love the variegated look you get from sprays, plus it's so much faster! 

I used Uncharted Mariner and Speckled Egg Distress Sprays and watercolor paper.  There's so much great color/product on the stencil when you use the sprays, it is a shame to just clean it off, so when I removed the stencil each time, I laid it directly onto a second piece of watercolor paper to create the panel that was used for the card on the right.  The pattern doesn't come out as defined, but still a fun background.

For the sentiments, I pulled out a couple of products that work very well with geometric backgrounds.  I used the Block Alpha Words for the card on the left stamping the sentiment itself with Dusk ink and the negative portions with Speckled Egg.

For the card on the right, I went with a sentiment from the XL Stacked Greetings set.  The sentiments for both the cards were popped up with foam tape for a bit of dimension.

That's all for me today, thanks for stopping by!

SSS You Are My Favorite Release, Receding Square Stencil

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

There's a new release over at Simon Says Stamp today, the You are My Favorite release.  I've got two new designs in the release, including this Receding Squares stencil. 

I'm very happy with how this design turned out, partly because it's a single stencil, so easy on the budget.  The stencil creates this great optical illusion of receding blocks and is very simple to use.  Place your stencil, ink it up, then remove it and flip it taking the top right corner and essentially turning it down towards the bottom left corner.  Then ink again.  Really easy!

I had a great time playing with it and created these cards very quickly.

This first card was very straightforward to create.  The stencil was initially inked with Morning, then flipped and inked with Dusk.  The panel was trimmed down, adhered to my card base, and for a sentiment, I used the Just a Note dies.

For the next card, I used two different shades for each inking, masking off the different parts, so the parallograms were inked with Morning, and the triangles with Dusk, the stencil was flipped, and then the paralellograms were inked with Dusk, while the triangles were inked with Night.  A darker blue mat and sentiment from the Clean Line Stacks set completed the card.

I love a gray monochromatic card, so for this card, I pulled out the Pawsitively Saturated Ink Trio 20, using two shades of gray for each layer.  I inked in an ombre/gradated manner, so lighter at the top, and darker at the bottom.  Flannel and Earl were used for the first inking, and then Earl and Charcoal for the second inking.  The sentiment is from the Well Wishes set, and I added a secondary sentiment from the Reverse Well Wishes sentiment strips.

This next card was similarly inked, two shades for each inking.  I used Blush and Paprika for the first inking, and Sherbet and Pucker after flipping the stencil.  I accidentally did not line the stencil up exactly for the second inking, so there's a bit of space between the shapes, but I actually loved how that turned out.

The sentiment is from the Yay You set, and I added a few enamel dots for a little extra something.

Finally, for the last card, I inked with Blush on some light pink cardstock, and then spread Ranger Metallic White texture paste through the stencil once flipped for the second portion of the pattern.  The Love You sentiment was cut twice from white cardstock and once from Matte Silver, adhered together and then directly to the stenciled panel.  A few clear moonstone embellishments were added as well.

I hope this gives you some good ideas for how to use these stencils. 

Be sure to head over to Simon to check out the full release!