Following the Thread of Your Idea: Making a Die-Stencil

Yesterday I did a post using this tiny owl die from the new nested owl die set (DG751). Yes, I have "lost" it once again and can't seem to help myself working with this new die set...I think I'm addicted to dies, at least I am this month.

For those of you who would like to win this set leave a comment on my blog and we will have a random winner chosen on Thursday. I'll even throw in some sticky paper scrap...(really have a lot of that and the pieces are quite large) that I have been using through my machine with the dies. A bonus for me, as I have been blogging about the dies, has been that you have been giving me inspiration and ideas.

Cazzy mentioned yesterday that she visualized using the tiny owl die to make an "all over" stencil design to use with the embossing paste. I thought I would show my version of doing that...thank you for the inspiration. BTW Cazzy, if you have time please do your vision or version and join our die challenge this month for a chance to win a stencil of your own choosing. If you don't have this die use something else that inspires you. I love to get ideas from other people and brainstorm when it comes to creating.

So...how did I make my stencil?  I wanted to do it on a material that was tough enough to paste-emboss on, clean the stencil and use it again for stenciling color onto the paste. So I have some of Mercart's metal pieces around which can be die-cut beautifully and as you know I LOVE metal stencils, they are sturdy and can be used again and again. The metal isn't as tough as the metal of our stencils, but better than cardstock and as I said it die-cuts beautifully, so there is no problem getting the pieces to come out. To create a grid pattern I used our diamond grid stencil (LJ882) which I simply ran through the embossing machine just as if I were dry embossing a piece of paper. The stacking method is: thick white plate, stencil face down, metal piece on top (instead of cardstock), rubber embossing mat, two acrylic plates-then crank through your embossing machine....I used a Big Shot. 

My piece of metal is coated black on one side. Once it was run through the machine, I sanded it a bit so the grid lines can be more easily seen. Next I ran it through the machine again on it's own without the stencil. This not only flattens the design and makes it easier to position the small owl on the grid, you can now easily see the grid marks.  Next tape the die down on the center diamond using removable tape and run it through the machine to die-cut your first owl...this time without the rubber mat and a couple of chipboard shims between the thick white plate and the first acrylic mat. The other thing to remember is: when you put the dies through your machine, sandwich the die and your material to be cut between the two acrylic plates. I always use one set of acrylic plates just for die cutting so you don't warp or scratch your acrylic plates that you have for dry embossing your stencils. Now repeat this process four more times, moving to a different part of the diamond grid and you have created a 4 x 5 stencil for using with your embossing paste. 

I turned my stencil over and used a palette knife (DPK) and paste spreader (LM2010) with the Matte Yellow Embossing Paste (DMYP). The Matte Yellow, the Matte Black and our Original Embossing Paste all have a porous surface that is wonderful to stencil on top of once it is dry. The texture of these pastes is a bit rough, but that only adds to the beauty of this paste. This means it will absorb just about any medium. When you are paste-embossing this tiny owl be sure to pull the paste spreader from the top to the bottom, because his beak is a little fragile. If we had designed this as a stencil we would have probably anchored that beak somehow, but since it is made from the die..."it is what it is" and you need to make this allowance otherwise the paste may seep under your created die-stencil if you go from the bottom to the top. When this is dry (give it a good half hour to dry OR you can hasten the drying time by placing it on an electric skillet-it will dry in 10-15 minutes this way) you are now ready to add color and use your die-stencil as a tool to add the bright circus colors. If I had made my stencil from just a piece of cardstock it probably would have fallen apart with the moisture of the paste, but being made out of metal means you can use it more than once and with several mediums.

What type of medium can you use on our matte embossing pastes? You can use Distress Inks, Archival Inks, Staz-On Inks, Dye Inks, hybrid inks, and today I will be using Imagine Crafts pigment inks which are from a pad called Splendor. I have been selling these ink pads for years because you have 12 colors at your fingertips at one time. I love using our soft tipped stencil brushes (GHB). Notice in the foreground I am using a small hole in the stencil shield called Picasso (LL332). This way I am able to stencil the eyes of the owls so that the color doesn't mix into areas where you don't want that particular color....this is why we call it a stencil shield.

When you are finished stenciling with the pigment inks cleaning them off the metal stencil is just a matter of placing a paper towel underneath the stencil and wiping it with a dry paper towel from the top to bottom direction until the metal stencil is clean. Again the reason for doing the cleaning of this particular stencil from top to bottom is so that you don't bend or tear his beak by rubbing too hard.

I used our nested decorative frame set (DD001) and placed them on the now pasted and colored owls positioning them with removable tape (RMT). Then run them through the machine with the stacking method mentioned earlier for die-cutting.

I glued the first background piece flat against the metallic copper piece of cardstock. Then I used one thickness of foam tape for the next largest piece and for the next two layers I added another thickness of the mounting tape each time so you are making a mountain with each subsequent layer. On the last piece which happens to be the smallest one ...I wanted this to be my focal point, so I went back to having just two layers of mounting tape, so it would dip in instead. Kind of a fun look...CASEd this layering idea from design team member Louise Healy! Thanks Louise for sharing!

I tried to angle this a bit so you can get a different perspective. Thank you, Cazzy, for the inspiration...hope all of you will join our challenge this month on using dies. Remember it doesn't have to be a Dreamweaver die, but something to inspire me and our fellow crafters, and you remember it qualifies you for being a random winner of a stencil of your choosing!

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