Cricut Stencils and Sponging Technique

Just over a week ago, Close to My Heart released our latest idea book—Seasonal Expressions 2! If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can look through an online version on my website HERE. I know you’ll love it!

One of the paper collections in this idea book is called Little Dreamer, and it’s all about unicorns, magic, and dreams…which makes me think about a certain sponging technique I love that adds a dream-like magic to all your artwork. Since it is so perfect for this collection, I just had to share it with you!

In a nutshell, here’s the technique: Use titles or shapes cut with your Cricut® machine or with Thin Cuts metal dies as stencils for sponging ink onto your pages.

First, use a bit of adhesive to attach your title or shape to the page. Next use a sponge dauber or the round sponge to add ink over your title or shape, and then fade the ink into your paper. Once the ink is dry, carefully remove your stencil (if there is any adhesive residue, it’s a cinch to remove with our Rub & Remove™ eraser).

For our artwork, we found it worked best to use both the round sponge and sponge daubers. We used a sponge dauber for a more concentrated look, like you can see immediately around the title, and then the round sponge for fading the ink into the page.

Sponging Tip: If you haven’t used a round sponge before, you’ll want to cut out a pie-shaped wedge from the sponge rather than using the entire sponge. That way your sponging will be more precise, and you can get more use out of your sponge!

I recommend playing with the round sponge and sponge daubers, as well as various amounts of ink, on some scratch paper before sponging onto your artwork.

This stenciling technique is a great way to create unique backgrounds for your artwork. For this page, they attached three clouds to the page and sponged around them. After allowing the ink to dry, carefully removing the clouds, and removing any adhesive, we cut three more clouds and sponged around the edges. Then they popped them up with 3-D tape to give the page dimension. The final look sure is dreamy!

You can incorporate multiple colors into your stenciling! Here they used a scalloped piece for the stencil, and then sponged on a rainbow of colors. There are SO many possibilities!

I hope this post has inspired you to try stenciling on your artwork. It really is such a fun way to get in touch with your inner artist!

Remember to come shop with me at my website gals! Click HERE!

Have a fantabulous night ladies!

XOXO

Shauna