Blue and Gold Fish Seaweed Stencil Card with Masked Characters

A project from our live show MONDAY MADNESS - Join Simon from AVAGO-INK for his latest products and Inspiration - Broadcast 8th Aug 22 · 08/08/2022 · watch it from 2:00

A layered square card featuring a gold stencilled seaweed background on blue cardstock, with stamped and hand-painted fish, octopus and shark characters protected by paper masks, and a split sentiment. The design combines stencilling, stamping, masking and watercolour blending techniques.

You will need

Avago-ink Designs - Stencil - Seaweed Swirls - 100122FSEE IT Versafine Ink Pad - Onyx Black - 300921CSEE IT Avago-ink Designs - A5 Stamp - Twine & Bubbles - 100122BSEE IT

DOWNLOAD THIS GUIDE (PDF)

Step by step

1. Secure a piece of blue cardstock to your work surface with tape, ensuring it fits within your stencil. ▶ watch 2:15
2. Activate the gold confetti ink by adding a small amount of water to create a creamy texture. ▶ watch 3:00
3. Use a damp sponge to apply the gold paint through the seaweed stencil, working from the edges towards the centre and rotating the card to build up the pattern. ▶ watch 3:30
4. Remove the stencil and allow the gold background to dry, then mount it onto a larger gold-backed card base. ▶ watch 5:30
5. Cut three white card strips measuring 5.5 by 1.5 inches and prepare matching gold backing strips slightly larger. ▶ watch 8:00
6. Stamp fish and octopus characters onto the white strips using black Versafine ink, positioning them to face different directions. ▶ watch 8:30
7. Create paper masks by cutting out the same shapes as your stamped characters and place them over the stamped images for protection. ▶ watch 9:45
8. Stamp large bubble clusters from the bubble and twine collection over the masked characters using black ink to break up the white areas. ▶ watch 10:45
9. Apply blue pigment ink around the masked characters using a blending technique, darkening the edges and fading towards the centre. ▶ watch 12:15
10. Remove the masks to reveal crisp white character outlines, then add gold paint highlights to selected areas using a wet brush. ▶ watch 14:30
11. Heat set the painted elements with a heat gun to prevent smudging. ▶ watch 15:00
12. Mount each decorated strip onto its gold backing, then attach all three to the stencilled background using foam pads for dimension. ▶ watch 19:15
13. Stamp the 'Catch You Later' sentiment onto white card, cut it into two pieces, mount each onto blue card with gold backing, and position down the centre of the card. ▶ watch 22:00

Tips from the show

• Keep the paint damp but not too wet to avoid bleeding through stencil lines and achieve crisp edges.
• Save your paper masks in a wallet with your stamps so you can reuse them for future projects.
• Break up sentiment text into separate pieces and mount them off-centre to create a more interesting composition and showcase the background design.

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