stencils!

i went into michael's today to pick up yarn (red heart super savers are 2 for 5!) and noticed that they finally had the martha stewart paints in. not all of the michael's here in town have had the line; i've been hoarding my glitter paints from it until they started offering it closer by.

(i can hoard no more!) (if you haven't tried the martha glitter paint, i highly suggest it)

i ended up getting a stencil set - 8.99 and I used my coupon, always a plus. i was a little leery about buying them because they aren't really meant for paper but i'm so, so pleased with how they worked out.

i bought the fair isle dots set. i've marked each image with what i used so that you can see the difference in product. i just used basic manilla tags. i love that these stencils are adhesive back and they didn't seem to stick to the paper when i was ready to pull them up. they wiped down easily with a baby wipe and did not lose any stickiness when i put them back on their storage sheet.

i used 3 of the border stencils and the tattered angels rudolph glimmer mist (that was a seasonal thing)


for this one, i just laid out a few random stencils and used the festive berries distress pad (also another limited edition but still available) i used the foam for this tag and am quite pleased with the detail.

this one is the broken china distress stain. to be honest, i just assumed that the stain would run under the stencil, but that sticky back is really great and there was no mess. even the detail is clear. not as crisp as the ink, but still pretty clear for a stain.

i am in love with the jenni bowlin dabber line -- this one is weather vane. this is also my favorite stencil in the set and i've already got a few ideas what to do with it.

i also used a random assortment of them in my art journal for today's page and i had the same results: crisp, clear images done with paint dabbers and no issues peeling the stencils off the paper.

{note: this isn't any kind of paid advertisement or review. i just happened upon the stencils while shopping and thought i'd share my results with others. i know i have a hard time spending money on new products if i don't see how they work before hand.}