Calendar Birds

Hi, Lynn here with a different way to use your stencils.  Instead of inking through the stencil, try inking the stencil and using it like a stamp!

I used this technique to make a set of tags, one for each month of the year.

Using water colour paper cut a piece 8 cm x 16 cm and snip the top corners to make a tag shape. I used an existing Ranger Inkessentials Craft Tags #8 as a template.

Choose a stencil and on a craft sheet, ink the surface with a selection of water based inks. For this tag I used Tim Holtz Layering stencil THS050 and four shades of Distress Ink (Iced Spruce, Faded Jeans, Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean).

Use a water mister to spritz inked stencil with water to create droplets of ink on the surface.

Place the paper over the stencil, or the stencil over the paper, either way seems to work well, press firmly over the paper and stencil.

Separate and allow the paper to dry or speed up the process with a heat gun. Clean off the stencil.

Every one turns out a little differently:

The next step is to add images to the tag, I chose to use Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous - Bird Crazy and Crazy Things stamps sets. These were also stamped onto water colour paper using an Onyx Black VersaFine ink pad and coloured using Distress Inks, by inking onto the craft sheet and using a brush and water to paint the images.

Cut the bird and accessories out using scissors or the matching dies, no need to worry about cutting the fine details, such as the feet. Stamp the image again in place on the tag, the cut image can be glued in place over this image - reuniting the bird with his feet again!

To prevent the bird from floating in space, tear some paper to make a mask and ink some ground for the bird to stand on.

Punch a hole in the top of the tag and add matching ribbon, twine or fibers. I made a set of these tags - one for each month of the year. I used a Sizzlet decorative strip alphabet die - Typeset, for the lettering.

I also added bling, Stickles and embossing powders. For the May tag I added some stamped images using JOFY stamps.

Now I am the process of creating cards using these completed tags.

Thank you for looking.
Lynn x
Just flown back with the finished cards:

Thanks
Lynn x