Spellbinders Series: Stenciling

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping in today, for my fourth post in my Spellbinders series. If you missed the others, you can find them here, here and here. So...on the packaging on Spellbinders dies it reads "Cut, Emboss, Stencil." Today I am trying my hand at stenciling (and of course I did add some elements that were cut too). I have a very limited amount of dies, so I apologize that all my projects are using the same dies. My layout today uses the Wonderful Wings dies and the Grand Labels One dies.

But first let's start with the technique.

For my background, I decided to use my butterflies and some ink to create my own fun background. I simply laid the butterfly die on my paper and sponged ink around it, like so:

And repeated this several times with different colors, to create this:

Next I softened it a little by spraying my paper with water. It's kinda hard to see it in my pictures, but it did blend it better and give it more of a watercolor look.

Another thing I love to do with stencils is to use them for my stitching (have you noticed that I like to stitch?) So I first cut using my large label, and then I used the next size down as a stencil. I simply took a pencil and drew around the inside of the die.

I left it like that until I completed my layout, then my final touch was to go back and add stitching to where the pencil lines were visible. This way I didn't take time to stitch where it was going to be covered up.

So you want to see my completed layout using both of these techniques?

Here it is:

I thought it would be cool to add my journaling on the butterflies. :) The products I used are a mix, so I will add my supplies at the bottom of the post. One thing I did want to mention was that I was out of y's for my title, so I used upside down h's instead. You probably wouldn't have even known if I hadn't mentioned it. :)

Here are some close up's of my layout:

So it looks like I may be having surgery on my knee. :( I see my doctor again today and meet with a surgeon next to discuss it all, but my doctor recommends the surgery for my case (he says he doesn't for all). Any thoughts? A few of you have already commented on facebook...just wondering if anyone has any strong opinions on knee surgery?

And since you all know I am a reality tv show junkie...I just want to say that this has been a very disappointing week in "reality" world (and you know I've been laying on the couch a lot due to my knee so I've seen a lot of tv). I was very disappointed with America's Next Top Model and with X Factor. Anybody else agree?

Again, thanks for stopping in! Have a FANTASTIC day! :)

Supplies for "My Oh My" layout:

Papers--Pink Paislee, My Mind's Eye, Crate Paper. Dies and Die Cutting Machine--Spellbinders. Cardstock--American Crafts. Ink--Stampin' Up!. Butterfly Brads: Creative Charms, Chipboard Letters--My Little Shoebox, Lace--Hobby Lobby Stores, Floss--DMC, Pen--Sharpie.