Making your own Christmas cards with stencils
By Verity Gill & Lorna Edwards
Here at grannynet we have been scratching our heads trying to think of an ideal activity for you to introduce your grandchildren to at this time of year. And then it came to us - making Christmas cards! Because of their simplicity, versatility and beautiful results, we thought we would show you how to make stencil Christmas Cards this year.
After the successful results of our wall stencilling as featured in our last "Being Creative" article, we called on Henny at Henny Donovan Motif, the most beautiful stencil experts, to show you how to make the most of your stencilling experience. As always, we did it ourselves to get in on the fun!!
We suggest that you should take a look at the Henny Donovan Motif website for really good tips, advice and for all the products you need, but in the meantime we thought we would give you a quick synopsis of our stencilling experience and some useful tips so that you can achieve the best possible results.
What you will need:
- Stencils - there are a beautiful and diverse range available, when deciding on a design think first about whether the effect you want is delicate or quite bold.
- Paints - think about whether you want something fun like metallic or glitter paints, or something more classic. Make sure you involve your grandchild in choosing these colours - they will then really feel part of the process. The gold metallic paint made great stars for the top of our Christmas trees!
- Masking tape - to attach the stencil to your chosen surface. Make sure however that you do not stick down too hard as you may tear the card when you remove it.
- Spray adhesive - believe us this is worth the investment as the pattern can really bleed without it. However, be careful not to over use the spray as it can make the cards sticky. Also, you only really need to use the spray once for every 15-20 cards.
- Brushes and sponges - it is really fun to experiment with both, so we would recommend buying a range. We found the sponges really useful as you can cut them into all sorts of shapes and sizes.
- Instructions - Henny Donovan Motif send really comprehensive instructions with your stencils and equipment. We followed most of the recommendations and when we didn't, we found things didn't go quite to plan!
- DO involve your grandchild in the decisions as to which stencils, paints and equipment to purchase.
- DO really think about what kind of designs you would like - and buy the equipment to go with that design. We found that smaller brushes and sponges work well with delicate designs.
- DO practice on paper before you start on the final cards.
- DO use lightweight rubber gloves when washing the stencils if you are worried about your hands or nails.
- DON'T forget the spray adhesive - but don't use too much with the card.
- DON'T be afraid to experiment. We found that cutting up the sponges worked well for us with the otherwise fiddly bits!
- DO be patient, especially between colours and layers. We found that it was all so much fun that we wanted to rush, but the best results really do come to those who wait.
- DO use a hairdryer as you can do many more cards in a shorter space of time.