StencilGirl® Talk: Jessica Gerstner

Friday, May 6, 2016

Color Lifting with StencilGirl Stencils and Water Soluble Oil Pastels

Hello crafty friends! It’s Jess Gerstner from JessCrafts.com. I am very excited to once again be guest designing for StencilGirl Products. I love working with stencils in my cardmaking. I also love how you can use stencils with many mixed media products to create great effects. So for today’s tutorial I am combining stencils with water soluble oil pastels.

Watch Color Lifting with StencilGirl Stencils on YouTube

I wanted to show you a technique that could be used to suit a variety of styles depending on the colors or stencil you use. So I have a few different cards with the same technique.

The video gives you a detailed tutorial but I’ve also written out the directions below for reference.

The stencils I featured on today’s cards are designed by Jessica Sporn: Cascading Feathers, the Scales, and Three Owls and a Branch.

To create these backgrounds I used watercolor paper and water soluble oil pastels to create a base layer. It is important to activate the base layer with water and dry it so that it does not react with the next step. After that, I completely covered the background with a dark color of oil pastel such as black or Prussian blue. Then I put the stencil over it and secured it with tape. In order to get the top layer off, I laid a thick baby wipe over the stencil and rubbed it with my finger. I found that for best results I had to do this two or three time. However the baby wipes that you use end of lifting the stencil design as well and would be great to use in other projects.

Thank you so much to StencilGirl for letting me join you and to all of you for checking out my projects. I hope that some of you will follow along with me on social media.

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/jesmoyer

Blog: http://jesscraftsblog.blogspot.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/instajesscrafts/

Friday, January 8, 2016

Guest Designer: Jessica Gerstner

Hello crafty friends! It’s Jess from JessCrafts.com. I am very excited to be guest designing for StencilGirl Products. I love working with stencils in my cardmaking. Creating unique fun backgrounds with stencils is the most common way I use stencils. I also love to include cutesy stamps in my cardmaking and so today I am sharing a video tutorial for how I created this fiery background for a Valentine’s Card featuring Jessica Sporn's Cascading Feathers stencil.

Stencils often look great on a white background but building up layers around them can give a background so much more interest. Of course you should always follow your inspiration when creating. While the stencil is named to have feathers I immediately saw flames and was able to create that look for my background. I could easily switch up the context and use the same stencil as intended to add texture to a bird.

To create this background I used watercolor paper and Distress Stains to create an ombre background. Then I put the stencil over it and blended in two different colors of red ink. To finish it off I flicked on some red stain. I love to make my projects cute and playful to I added this punny sentiment and a cute stamp.

Thank you so much to StencilGirl for letting me join you and to all of you for checking out my project. I hope that some of you will follow along with me on social media.