Once Thanksgiving has come and gone, I can no longer control myself. You can hand me an Easter basket, pumpkin, and a pool noodle and I would need to find a way to make a Christmas project out of it. So when the new “Groovin’ 60s” stencils were released a bit ago, I couldn’t stop seeing Christmas…and decided wintry watercolor bubbles were the way to go.
Pardon the terrible photo. I was crafting late at night in a poorly lit studio again, but decided the embarrassment was worth it to show you how I created this background. Using the “Circles of Your Mind” stencil, I first traced a swoosh of circles across my watercolor cardstock with Spectrum Aqua markers in pretty wintry colors (Orchid, Marine, Kingfisher, Aquamarine, and Charcoal). Then, with a very wet brush, I dragged the color in the outline towards the center of each, leaving a sopping wet circle in its place to dry on its own.
Once dry, the result was this imperfect, swirly pattern within a thin, dark outline that I thought resembled bubbles. To contrast the watercolored, airy feel of the background, I added a mat and sentiment (“Seasonal Sentiment” dies) cut from Silver Luxury Mirror Card.
I cut the sentiment from white craft foam as well and added this layer underneath to pop the “Merry Christmas” up and gives it tons of impact. It’s a simple card, but I love the light and modern feel it has!
Do you use everyday stencils in your holiday crafting?