Printing the Day Away!

Good Morning Crafters

We have a very different kind of tutorial for you today.

Lindsay has worked really hard on putting this tutorial together and we hope you enjoy this.

Imagination Crafts Products

Honeycombe Stencil

Elemental Stencil

Harlequin Stencil

Flourish Stencil

Antique Bronze Sparkle Medium

For today's project I thought I would show you how to use your Imagination Crafts stencils and cheap foam sheets to make a printing plate and give you some examples of the sort of thing you can use your printing plate for.

1. I began by gathering the stencils and materials I wanted to use for my printing plate, I began using a pencil but later changed to using a biro as I was having a heavy handed day and kept breaking the pencil (either will work but the biro did turn out to be easier).

2. Next I  took the Diamond stencil and started drawing the pattern through on to the foam pad in random areas. You need to use a reasonable amount of pressure as you want the pen to squash down the foam in the areas you are drawing.

3. I then used the other stencils I had chosen to continue this all across the piece of foam until I was happy with it. (The other stencils I used were Elemental, Honeycomb and Flourish)

4. This is how my foam looked when I was finished. I have also taken a close up of one of the drawn section to try and the way the pen squashes the foam. 

5. I then used inktense bars to colour my printing plate but any water based inks could be used for this.

6. I then spritzed my colours on the printing plate using a spray bottle and water to activate the ink.  

7.  Next you lay your paper on to the printing plate and use a brayer (a rolling pin can work if you don't have brayer but you have to try and keep an even and firm pressure across the entire paper to get a good print). Roll the brayer over the paper with one hand whilst holding the paper in place with the other.

8. I tend to do lots of different pieces on to different types of card all in one go when I do this and I wanted to make a little matching set for this project so I printed several different pieces of card. I altered how much water I spritzed with and how much ink I put on to get different effects. I also printed on to Kraft card and a kraft paper bag and a hessian tote bag (putting a piece of cardboard inside the bag to keep it flat and prevent any ink soaking through to the other side).

9. When all the printing was done and dried I masked off pieces of the Elemental stencil with scrap paper so that only the heart design was showing.

10. I then used Antique Bronze Sparkle Medium through the stencil on to the tote bag in 3 places and on to a piece of white card and a piece of kraft card and left them to dry. 

11. Whilst my Sparkle Medium was drying I chose the printed papers I wanted to use, tore them to size using a ruler and layered them up on to dark card and added a piece of black ribbon to a couple of sections for decoration (and also layered up the Sparkle Medium hearts once they dried).

12. I made a couple of layered bows from black satin ribbon and then stuck all of the pieces in to place on my card base and kraft bag.

You can keep your foam plates once you have finished as they can be reused.

We hope that you have enjoyed Lindsay's tutorial.

Happy Crafting!