Skull And Cross Buns | Using Pigment Powders with Stencils | Video

Compensated post – see disclaimer at the end.

Skull and Cross Buns was on television again recently! Unfortunately with the delay in postage lately I wasn’t able to get my goodies in time to make anything new for the show. Now that the new stencils have finally got to me though, I wanted to show some examples of how to use them. I’ve previously shared a video and blog post all about ways to use stencils. This time I thought I’d specifically share ways to use pigment powders with stencils.

The four brand new stencils that I use in this post and video are currently available through Hochanda as part of a pick-and-mix, choose 3 bundle along with a bunch of older stencils. Likewise there’s a pick-and-mix, choose 2 bundle for stamps. If you’ve not purchased from Hochanda before you can save £5 on your first order with the code HOCHTV5.

Technique 1 – Simply Sprinkle (Sunny Hello card)

I started with the Twisted Ray stencil for my first card, and using Nuvo Shimmer Powder in Sunray Crosette. I positioned the stencil onto some watercolour paper, sprinkled on the powder, and spritzed with water. The colour wasn’t quite intense enough so I sprinkled more of the powder onto the wet paper. Once I was happy with it I also pressed another piece of watercolour paper onto the stencil to get a monoprint, which gives me a second piece to work with and reduces wastage.

Once the panel was dry I die cut it with one of the Kat Scrappiness Never Ending Rectangle Dies, and topped it onto a mat of grey. I stamped “hello summer” and a flower from the Tropical Party stamp set with Twilight ink onto a snippet of soft yellow card which I then die cut with a circle, and adhered to the centre of the rays, before finally assembling my card.

Challenges:

Digi Choosday – Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

Technique 2 – Modeling Paste (Masculine Hello card)

I went for a more masculine design with the Elongated Triangles stencil. This time I used Storm Cloud Shimmer Powder. I began with a piece of grey card (actually more like paper, which wasn’t the easiest to work with! I’d recommend using something a bit sturdier) and coloured it with the shimmer powder. I then dried it and positioned my stencil into place over the paper. I used a palette knife to apply the modeling paste (I couldn’t find a link for the one I have, but here’s a similar kind) and left it to try again. Once it was fully dry I added more of the pigment powder to darken up the spaces between the modeling paste.

I finished the card by heat embossing the hello from Quirky Sentiments onto some vellum and wrapping it around my stenciled panel. I then added it on top of a pearlised white panel on a black card base.

Challenges:

Creatalicious Challenges – Anything Goes and Optional: Add Texture

Dragonfly Dreams Challenge – No Patterned Paper

Polkadoodles Craft Challenge – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Play With Paint

Technique 3 – Easy Painting (Tropical Island card)

The third technique is painting with pigment powders. This time I used Brusho instead of the Nuvo Shimmer Powder, but the technique would work with those too. I positioned the Rainbow Pattern stencil (which doesn’t have to be used as a rainbow!) onto some watercolour card as I had with the first card. This time instead of sprinkling the powder over the stencil I sprinkled a small amount onto my craft mat then added some water to create a liquid paint. I used a paintbrush to paint through the openings on the stencil. When the panel was dry I also used the leftover paint to add some splatters to it.

I finished this card by again die cutting with a stencil die and matting it, this time on black. I used some more of the black to create the sentiment strip, using the same Hello sentiment as before. I added stitched detail with a white gel pen, and finished off with a little embellishment from the Tropical Party Embellish set.

Challenges:

Allsorts Challenge – Something Beginning With B (Brusho)

Double D Challenge – Stitches

Inkspirational Challenge – Painting or Colouring

Mod Squad Challenge – Silhouette

NBUS Challenge – Never Before Used Schtuff (the stencil!)

Papercraft Business Challenge – Ocean/Water

Through The Craft Room Door – Anything Goes

Technique 4 – Lifting & Tracing (Jungle Birthday card)

As with my second card my final card started by adding colour with the pigment powder and without the stencil. I went back to the Nuvo Shimmer Powder on this one, using Green Parade, but also mixing in some of the Sea Green Brusho. Once I had a nice coverage on my watercolour paper and had allowed it to dry I put the Rainbow Half stencil over the top, and this is another example of stretching the stencil beyond the obvious as I’m not using it for a rainbow. I wanted to do colour lifting, and I’ve seen this done with a baby wipe. I tried pressing the baby wipe through the stencil and it didn’t seem to make a difference, so I switched to swiping with the baby wipe which did work. I did have to be very careful not to press too hard so as not to pill the paper.

As well as the colour lifting technique I traced the stencil. I was initially going to use gold but it wasn’t working very well so I switched to white. A sturdier design (such as the Rainbow Pattern) would probably work better for this as I had a bit of trouble with the stencil moving when the pen pressed against it. Alternatively if you have a stencil adhesive spray (such as Pixie Spray) that could help with holding it in place. When I’d finished the tracing I removed the stencil and doodled leaves to turn the bows of the rainbow pattern into vines.

I completed this card by trimming down the panel into triangles and popping it up on a white panel. I added a birthday sentiment from Quirky Sentiments and a coloured and fussy cut parrot from Tropical Party.

Challenges:

CAS Mix Up Challenge – Stencil Tracing

Dream Factory Challenge – Jumanji (edit: where it was a top pick!)

Freshly Made Sketches – Sketch

Incy Wincy Designs – Curvy

……….

There you have it! Four fun techniques for using pigment powders with the four fabulous new stencils. Of course you can use these techniques with other stencils too. Which one was your favourite technique? And which was your favourite card? If you know of any other ways to use pigment powders with stencils I’d love to hear them!

Love,

Lady Joyful

P.S., use code DESIGNTEAM when you purchase from Skull and Cross Buns to save 10% on your order!

*Affiliate links may have been used in this post. For more details on affiliate links as well as other ways to support me, visit this page.*