Happy Anniversary AJ Banner - Stencilling Techniques With Pie Lane Stencil Part 1

Hi Friends,

The one thing that binds the crafting community together is the love for beautiful craft supplies and the unsaid wish to own each and every craft tool out there. This post is about one such craft tool that I had been waiting to own since last 6 months. Yes. You heard it right 6 months. In October 2015 Maninder Kaur of Rainbow Craftykari had opened a pre-order of an Indian Brand Pie Lane and when she shared the brochure for Pie Lane with me, I went crazy for the brilliant stencil designs that were pocket friendly. The brochure had these beautiful A6 size Alphabet stencil designs that stole my heart away the moment I saw them. However, when I placed my order, I got to know that Pie Lane had delayed launch of the alphabet stencils for some time. Ever since then, I have asked Maninder every alternate month if Pie Lane Alphabet Stencils were coming out & the craft gods showered their love on me finally in last week of May 2016 and Maninder finally gave me the food news that the alphabet stencils were finally coming out :) Check the gorgeous designs below, I am sure you would love them :)

As soon as I knew I was getting these gorgeous stencils, I knew what was my 1st project going to be using these stencils :) A "Happy Anniversary" banner for my sister in law's 1st anniversary. 

Happy Anniversary AJ

There are endless possibilities of using these stencils and I was very eager to try out different styles and so I ended up using 17 different technique - yes different technique for each of the alphabets of "Happy Anniversary" + 1 technique for initials of the couples name "Abhishek & Jaya". I used a smooth but self designed (to resemble hand made paper) off white to make all the alphabets 

In this 1st part, I am sharing the techniques used for "Happy" In Part 2, I have shared the techniques used in word "Anniversary". In Part 3, I have shared the technique used for the initials "AJ" and how we brought the banner together. 

Techniques used for "HAPPY"

Filling in the design directly - Stencilling Tutorial/ Technique

Alphabet H: Filling in the design directly: The most simple technique- fill it in with a pen or pencil. I used Gelly Roll Moonlight 10 - Fluo Orange Pen (XPGB#405) to make alphabet "H". Outline the design with the Gelly roll pen and lift the stencil away before filling in the colour. The Gelly roll pens take time to dry and if you do not lift the stencil before filling in the colour and if the stencil moves even a little, your design can get ruined. So just outline the design, lift away the stencil and fill in the colour. Once I had the H ready, I felt it needed some red, and so I outlined the entire alphabet using Red Steadler Triplus fineliner

Additional Tips: You can use any pen or pencil or crayons for this technique. Each medium will leave you with a different texture

Water Colour Stencilling Tutorial/ Technique

Alphabet A: Watercolour Technique: I Love water colours and so used the same for alphabet A. Using a 01 Black Sakura Micro, I traced the design "A". I used Sakura Micron Pen for outline as they are waterproof . Then I lifted the stencil and water coloured it using 2 shades of green from Sakura 24 colour water colour pen set (Pen number #27 & #29)

Additional Tip: You could any other water colour medium such as your distress or artistry inks, water colour cakes, peerless water colour sheet or Faber Castell Gelatos

Ink Spray Stencilling Tutorial/ Technique

Alphabet P: Use Ink Spray technique: This was the most trickiest technique of the 17 techniques. I used Fried brick distress ink and with help of a blending tool, I filled the space through stencil to get a solid "P" design. Thereafter, without lifting the stencil, I gave 3-4 light spray of Hampton Art Ascents Scented Spray Ink "Cinnamon" from a distance of 12-14  inches and immediately, but carefully lifted the stencil away. Once the spray was dried, I outlined it using the Steadler Triplus Red Fine liner. After the design had dried, I wanted some more shine apart from the shine from the spray and so I added Pie Lane glitter ball number 18 with some glue on the design

Additional Tips: Do not spray from a very close distance as the ink can bleed through the design. You can use "Cosmic Shimmer Mists" or "Dylusions Ink Sprays" or any other ink sprays. You could also directly spray through the design without giving a distress background.

Texture Paste Stencilling Tutorial/ Technique

Alphabet P:  Texture paste technique: Texture paste and stencils are a match made in heaven. For alphabet P, I took some Ranger texture paste on my craft mat with help of a plastic spatula and mixed it with Cosmic Shimmer Mist "Meadow Lush" to get the beautiful green colour. Once I had the right colour texture paste ready, I applied the same with help of spatula through my stencil design to get the gorgeous green P

Additional Tips: Its always nice when making coloured texture paste to have 2-3 projects handy to avoid wastage. Also, you can use distress re-inkers or acrylic colours to add colour to your texture paste

Embossing powder Stencilling Tutorial/ Technique

Alphabet Y: Embossing powder technique: All crafters love embossing powder. So, with help of a sponge finger dauber, I applied Ranger Perfect medium (you can use any embossing ink) through the stencil design. Once the design was covered well with Ranger perfect medium, I lifted the stencil away and sprinkled "WOW Apple Red" Embossing powder and heat set it with a heat gun. I love the bright and shinny look of how Y turned out 

Hope you have enjoyed Part 1 of the stencilling techniques. Continue to Part 2, to read about stencilling techniques used to create "Anniversary" and Part 3, to read about stencilling techniques used to create initials AJ and how we put the banner together.

Please do leave your comments & love.

Love,
Dr. Neha Sanwalka
Crafty Flirtations