Yes, we’re already thinking of the Christmas season around here! This month I’ve got new stamps and stencils out from PaperArtsy, and wanted to share a fun way to use them with acrylic paint and embossing powder!
Note: I’m working on a sturdy smooth white cardstock for this technique, namely PaperArtsy’s Smoothy Card. You’ll want something that can take the abuse of paint and embossing.
First, paint the background with swipes of Butter acrylic paint. I just squeeze the paint from the bottle across the cardstock, then use a brayer to smooth it out. Let it dry completely. Make a watery wash of Sargasso paint and brayer it on top. Let the piece dry.
Place the stencil on top of the painted background and position the pine bough at an angle at the top right. You might find it helps to mask off the other areas of the stencil with post-it notes.
Press an embossing inkpad through the pine bough onto the cardstock. Remove the stencil by lifting straight up, then sprinkle with gold embossing powder and heat-set. Repeat to emboss the pine bough randomly on the background. Note: Yes, you can ink through the pine bough several times in one go and then add the embossing powder on top of the entire piece—it’s up to you.
Clean off the stencil, then position the scuffed circle down and repeat the process to emboss with black. Ink the edges of the cardstock with embossing ink and emboss with gold, then mat on white card. 
The stamped focal is from two stamp sets: ESN 29 for the December 25 focal, and ESN30 for the “delivering Christmas joy” sentiment.
I stamped the December 25 motif with black onto white cardstock and accented the pine boughs with Sargasso, then painted the frame with Cherry Red. I gold-embossed the edges, mounted it onto black, and glued it to the painted and embossed background. I wrapped the piece with gold embroidery thread.
The sentiment was stamped onto Slimed-painted cardstock and die cut into an oval before being adhered with foam tape. Add a bow and some gemstones and you’ve got a festive focal element for your design!
Want to see more? Pop on over to the PaperArtsy blog to see more projects using this new collection of stamps and stencils. In the meantime, here are the stamps and stencil I used today:
All PaperArtsy Eclectica stamps and stencils are available internationally through PaperArtsy retailers. Click here and scroll to the bottom to see the list of retailers and find the one nearest you.
