Gina K Designs July Inspiration Blog Hop | Day 2 + Bonus Stencil Tutorial

Hello friends and welcome to Day 2 of the Gina K Designs Inspiration Blog Hop! Today we're featuring the two new stamp set - Wise Old Owl and Peony Wishes. We are also sharing some inspiration using the new Incentive Stamp Set - Grand Greetings. Just in case you missed it, yesterday during the Day 1 Blog Hop we featured projects using the new BoHo Flowers Mini Stamp Kit.

As always, the Cast and Crew of Gina K Designs will be sharing tons of amazing samples to inspire and delight you. You'll also have the chance to win a fabulous prize from Gina K Designs! You can check out all the details for the blog hop below.

You're A Hoot Card - Wise Old Owl Stamp Set

For this first card using the Wise Old Owl Stamp Set, I couldn't resist coloring up those adorable owls with some watercolor markers, die cutting them and then adding googlie eyes! I'm not normally a googlie eye type of gal, but these little guys just begged for them!

You're A Hoot card by Juliana Michaels featuring Wise Old Owl Stamp Set by Gina K Designs

Do you ever use googlie eyes on your projects? I think I may be doing this again in the future!

With Sympathy Card - Peony Wishes Stamp Set

Next up, I have a little change in direction with a sympathy card that I created using the Peony Wishes Stamp Set. I stamped and colored the gorgeous peony image with colored pencils. I then stamped the sentiment onto black cardstock and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.

With Sympathy card by Juliana Michaels featuring Peony Wishes Stamp Set by Gina K Designs

To give a touch of elegance, I used an embossing folder on the front panel. I really love the look that white embossed cardstock adds to a card when you're going for a more elegant design.

Bonus Stencil Tutorial

These next two cards use the current Incentive Stamp Set called Grand Greetings. To dress up the sentiments, I grabbed two of the new Gina K Designs Stencils. Keep reading to check out a quick tutorial on each of the techniques I used with them.

Happy Birthday card by Juliana Michaels featuring Grand Greeting Stamp Set by Gina K Designs and Two Color Stenciling Technique

1. Two Color Stenciling Technique

The Gina K Designs Floral Stencil just begged for two colors with its beautiful flowers and leaves. I thought it would be pretty to make the flowers pink and the leaves green.

To achieve this look, place your stencil on top of your paper. (I prefer to use watercolor paper when I'm working with Distress Ink.) Use low tack tape to cover the leaves. Make sure none of the flower sections are covered by the tape. Next, add ink to the flower sections using foam blending tools.

Two Color Stenciling Tutorial by Juliana Michaels using Gina K Designs Stencils and Ranger Distress Ink

Once you're finished adding color to the flowers, it's time to do the leaves. This time, cover the flower parts with the same tape and repeat the ink application process using green ink.

Yes, it's a little tedious to cover up the unwanted areas, however the effort is worth the final result if you ask me!

On this next card, I used the Gina K Designs Foliage Stencil with the Grand Greeting Stamp set.

Many Thanks card by Juliana Michaels featuring Grand Greeting Stamp Set by Gina K Designs and Two Layer Inking with Stencils Background Technique

2. Two Layer Ink Blending with Stencils

For this second technique with stencils, I decided to try something a little different than your standard ink application with a stencil. I thought it would be interesting to see how it would look to do some ink blending first and to then use the stencil on top of this. On this card, I used three different colors of blue ink to achieve a simple monochromatic effect, but you could also just use two ink pads.

Begin by inking the base of the card with two colors of lighter blue ink using foam blending tools. (Again, I used watercolor paper.) You want to apply the lighter colors to the base so that the second layer will show up against the lighter background. I applied Tumbled Glass first and then Salty Ocean to achieve a nice blend of colors.

Two Layer Ink Blending with Stencils Tutorial by Juliana Michaels using Gina K Designs Stencils and Ranger Distress Ink

Now it's time to use the stencil. Place the stencil on top of your paper. This time apply a darker blue ink to the stencil using a foam blending tool.

Go back over the stencil with the middle blue from the ink application that you used during the first round.

I really like the end result of the two layer ink blending and I'm pretty sure I'll be using it again in the future! I hope you enjoyed learning a couple new techniques to help you get even more out of your stencils.

Blog Hop + Giveaway

Would you like to win a $50 gift certificate to Gina K Designs? If your answer is yes, then all you have to do is visit each blog along the hop (listed below) and leave a comment. One lucky winner will receive a $50 Gina K Designs gift certificate.

Gina K
Beth Silaika
Cathy Tidwell
Chris Dayton
Claire Brennan
Donna Idlet
Juliana Michaels
Karen Hightower
Laurie Schmidlin
Melanie Muenchinger
Rema DeLeeuw
Sean Fetterman
Sheri Gilson
Silke Ledlow
Susie Moore
Theresa Momber

Supplies

Are you interested in the Gina K Designs supplies I used to create these cards? To make them easy for you to find, I have listed them below. Affiliate links are used at no additional cost to you and I've linked to them because I use them and love them!