Sweet Stampin' ~ Use A Stencil

Oh my, this week has flown by so fast! The kiddos are on school break, so it's go go go entertaining them! But as always, I LOVE having them at home. In fact, I got so caught up in them this week, I totally forgot it was a 'Team Abi' week to post! So I've pulled this sweet creation together rather quickly today. But I have to say, I LOVE it! I've been wanting to use this sweet stamp set ever since it arrived in the post. I bought the Dies for this set from a lovely crafty pal who was destashing them, so I was able to cut out the wee ellie's very easily. Thank you Sue.

Here's the first wee cutie. From a lovely Mama Elephant set called Fly With Me illustrated by artist Aida Zamora. I LOVE her enchanting characters and have been following her on Instagram for a while, so I was super excited when I realised she had some images available through Mama Elephant! 

Here's the second ellie I used on this card. The set actually has four sweet wee Ellie's in it floating on balloons. But these two worked perfectly for my creation today. Our theme this week at Sweet Stampin' is actually to use a 'stencil', so I've used my handmade 'clouds' stencil. I use this whenever I'm creating cloudy backgrounds. It's my 'go to' stencil, which was very easily made with a cloudy edge die. I used Salted Ocean Distress Ink and a stencil brush to create the clouds. I don't do it often enough and forget to 'dust off' the excess first, so there are ocasional 'splodges'. But avoiding that comes with practice and I don't do enough!

The sentiment I've used for this card, actually came with another Mama Elephant stamp set called Love Quotes and as this is actually intended for my sweet niece who recently turned 6 months old, I thought this sentiment was just the sweetest to finish this card. I'd actually made her another card for the occasion, but when I'd finished this, I just knew it was meant for her!

As you can see in the pic above, I've popped the wee ellie's up on foam for a bit of dimension, but stamped the sentiment directly on the base. I've distressed the edges of the cloudy paper for that added bit of interest. The ellie's and their balloons were coloured with Copic Markers and if you'd like a peek at the process of creating this card, you can click through on the 'Read More' link at the bottom of the post to take you to the tutorial. Be sure to stop by the challenge blog to see what my teamies got up to, their stenciling is fabulous!

Sending you hugs and wishing you a happy, crafty weekend. I'll be back very soon with a special post later today in honour of World Cardmaking Day! So watch for that!! xoxo

Challenge Entries:

Love To Craft: #27 ~ Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge: #40 ~ Anything Goes

Sparkles Monthly Challenge: #108 ~ Dies & Punches

Always Happy Birthday: October ~ Anything Birthday Goes

Sunny Day Challenge: Sep/Oct Challenge ~ Anything Goes with an Animal

Short Photo Tutorial

Here is a short looksie at how I created the clouds and the Copic colours I used for the different elements. Not a full tutorial, just a few pics...

I used an older La La Land Cloud Border Die to create this. I've die cut it in the past to create a template, but because this one has a stitched border. I found from a previous attempt, that my stencil brush can ocassionally sneak some ink in those little holes. So I've actually traced the edge of the die and freehand cut it to avoid the holes. I lay the template down at different angles to achieve a more random look to the clouds. 

This is the die I used above, but any die of a similar nature would work and I believe there are some great masks with cloud borders available now too. Or you can go old school and freehand draw and cut a similar template.

Here are the Copic colours I used to colour the little elephants. The pic above shows all four from the set. I've coloured the other two and will use them on a later creation. I used the R85 & R81 for their ears and R30 for their wee cheeks.

I played around with the pink a bit. For the wee elephant shown in the pic above I used the combo you see here, which gave it a slightly more purply pink tone. But in the two I used on my card, I dropped the V12 and got a rather more pink finish, using the V05 to deepen the base.

This was the combo I used on the little purple balloon for the wee elephant that is holding two balloons. I also added some white gel pen to the balloons for that patch of shine you often see on balloon drawings. 

Thanks for clicking through for these extra details. That's it, short and sweet. Just a few extra detes for those who are interested. Hugs and happy crafting, Wends xoxo