Ornament Quintet

Over the weekend I created a large-ish batch of these cards to send this year. The best part is that there aren’t super special tools required to do this, so you can give it a try, too!

I used a non-Stampin’ Up! stencil that has various sized circle openings to create my overlapping ornaments. However, you can achieve the same look using circle dies or punches with masking paper. I have 3 different sized circles for my ornaments, but you can do whatever you want. I started with the center ornament, which was the largest of the 3 circles that I used. Then I used the smallest circle for the Garden Green circle that slightly overlaps the Poppy Parade one. I added three more circles at various heights and sizes so that I had a collection of ornaments that spanned across the front panel of the card, each of them overlapping a little with the ones next to it.

To replicate this without the stencil, use the punch or die to cut out the center of a piece of the masking paper. You will use the negative as the mask for your blending on the card. I do suggest that you create a separate mask for each of the colors to avoid blending in another color by accident. I used a ruler to find the center line of the panel so I could center horizontally the Poppy Parade circle. I drew a faint pencil line so I could do that alignment, which was easily erased once my ink was applied and dried. Place the mask for the center circle so that the pencil line is centered at the top. Tip – draw a pencil line on the mask through the center of the circle that you can use to line up with the faint line you drew on the white panel. Once your mask is down, use a blending brush to apply ink. I’ll share a tip on that in a minute. Use a very light touch, and apply ink from the bottom upward so that all of the ornaments are darkest on the bottom. Once the ornament is the way that you want it, remove the mask and erase the pencil line. Then add the mask for one of the ornaments that is next to the center one – have it slightly overlap and at a different height. Apply a different color ink with a different blending brush in the same way that you did the previous one. Repeat 3 more times until you have all 5 ornaments across the panel.

Here’s my tip for blending success: I use a glass mat as a work surface for blending. This allows me to pick up ink with my blending brush from the ink pad and then rub on the glass mat first before applying it to the paper. This will remove the excess ink if your ink pad is really juicy, and distribute the ink on the blending brush more uniformly. Also, don’t be afraid to test on scrap paper before your project. It is always best to gradually blend in ink because it can’t be removed if too much gets added at once.

The stamp for the hanger with the bow isn’t long enough for any of my ornaments, so I used the Early Espresso marker and a ruler to extend the hanger to the top of the white paper. I also added Wink of Stella to the second ornament from the left (Pool Party) and the ornament on the far right (Granny Apple Green). It never shows up well in the photograph, but it is nice and shimmery IRL.

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