Embossing Paste and Stenciled Palm Trees

I love this technique and used it for some of my Christmas cards this year. 

Supplies:

Craft mat

Card stock

Masking Tape
Embossing Paste

Brass Stencil
Pallet Knife

Marvy Markers

Stencil Brush

Pallet
Glitter

Before you work with the paste, you might want use a stencil brush over the metal stencil to lay color inside the cuts. I tape the stencil to the card stock and the craft mat to hold it still.

Stenciled design

Clean off the stencil carefully, without bending it. Place the stencil on top of your card stock and tape the stencil to your craft mat on all 4 sides, using the masking tape. I like to tape it to the mat so it can't move around when applying the paste, you can tape it to just the card.

Using the pallet knife take some embossing paste and spread the paste over the stencil. Remove all the excess paste, you see the paste stays in the holes in the stencil. Clean the knife in warm water.

Carefully remove the masking tape from 3 sides of the stencil, make sure you don't move the stencil or you'll smudge the embossing paste!Take hold of the bottom edge of the stencil and carefully lift it towards the taped edge of the stencil, a bit like turning the page of a book. Undo the last piece of tape and clean your stencil straight away in warm water.

Place your embossed card onto a piece of scrap paper, being careful not to catch the embossing paste as you move it around. Now take your glitter and sprinkle it over the embossing paste, giving it a good covering. You can use more than one color glitter, just add one at a time, making sure to remove the excess before changing colors.Remove the excess glitter to reveal your finished stenciled image. Add additional trimings such as the little pearls I used to represent the coconuts on the trees. Leave to dry for 24 hours then mount onto your card.

You can color the embossing paste with marker color, then you don't need to use glitter. This is as effective, but the glitter is great for Christmas cards.

I had a couple of small stencils and a set of large cards with windows cut from them. I worked on the stencils and then glued the designs inside the card with the design facing out.

These are cute cards for any occasion!