Stenciled Ink Blending

Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog! I am part of the Altenew Educators Certification Program and one of the classes we are taking is Easy Ink Blending Techniques taught by Amy Lee. If you are new to ink blending or want new, easy ink blending tips, this is a great class! We had a challenge to create a background using ink blending. I love creating my own backgrounds, especially using a pastel rainbow theme.

Recently, I received the Altenew Layered Cupcake Stamp and Layered Cupcake Die set as a gift from my mother. It is such a cute set to give a 3D effect to the cupcake wrapper and icing. I knew exactly what I had in mind to create a light and simple card. I paired this stamp and die set with the Altenew Color Block Triangle Stencil. Let’s get into the card details!

I created a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 card base using 130lb heavy weight card stock I purchased off Amazon. I set the card base to the side and cut a 5 1/4 x 4 card panel. I laid the Altenew Colorblock Triangle stencil on the panel and taped the edges down with a repositionable purple crafting tape. I knew I wanted to make a pastel rainbow background. At the very top, I started with Altenew Peach Perfect Crisp Dye Ink. I used craft blending brushes and blended down about 1/4 of an inch. Next, I used Stampin’ Up Daffodil Delight Ink underneath the peach. I used the blending brush to blend the peach and the yellow together. I wanted to soften that yellow, so I used Stampin’ Up So Saffron Ink next. Then, I used Altenew Frayed Leaf Crisp Dye Ink for the light green color. I blended the top of the light green with the soft yellow. After the green, I used Altenew Cloudy Sky Crisp Dye Ink for a nice soft blue. I follwed this with Altenew Amethyst Crisp Dye Ink. Y’all, this is such a beautiful ink color. I highly recommend getting it. I finished the final strip with Altenew Pinkalicious Crisp Dye Ink. I let it sit for a few minutes to dry.

I removed the stencil from the panel and it turned out prettier than I had envisioned. The pastel rainbow was perfect! I cut a 5 1/4 x 4 inch piece of white craft foam and adhered it to the back of the stenciled panel. This craft foam is a great inexpensive way to create dimension to my cards. I set the panel to the side and started working on the cupcake.

This cupcake adds the perfect touch to this card! I stamped the cupcake image using the Altenew Layered Cupcake stamp using Altenew Permanent Black Ink. Next, using the color fill wrapper stamp, I inked it with Altenew Cloudy Sky Crisp Dye Ink for the lightest layer of the wrapper. I used the wrapper 3D stamp and Altenew Nimbus Crisp Dye Ink for a slightly darker shade to add the shadows. Then, I used the solid icing color fill stamp and applied Altenew Pink Diamond Crisp Dye Ink. This is a very light pink, but was exactly what I needed since the there are three layers to the icing. For the second layer of the icing, I used Altenew Pinkilicious Crisp Dye Ink. It comes in really handy if you use a Misti Stamp Tool for these layers to make sure you get it exactly where it needs to be. The final layer was stamped using Altenew Rubellite Crisp Dye Ink. Once I finished stamping each layer of the icing, the only portion left was to stamp the color of the cake. Since I love chocolate, it was only fitting the cake was chocolate using Stampin’ Up Soft Suede Ink and the Altenew cake filler stamp from the Layered Cupcake stamp set. Finally, I used the Altenew Layered Cupcake Die to cut it out.

I glued the stenciled background panel to the card base using Gina K Connect Glue. This is one of my favorite glues because it allows you to reposition it, but once it is dry, it is strong and clear! Then, I put small Stampin’ Up! Mini Dimensionals on the cupcake and placed it on the card panel. The final touch was stamping the Happy Birthday block stamp from the Altenew Label Love stamp set in Altenew Permanent Black Ink. I let it dry for a second and then cut out the label using my We R Memory Keepers Mini Guillotine Cutter. I used more mini dimensionals on the back of the sentiment strip and placed it above the cupcake.

This card was so colorful and I loved using the tips I learned from the Easy Ink Blending class. Really, it looks like decorative paper! Let me know what you think and other ways you use ink blending to create backgrounds.