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All of the cards, layouts, handmade items and art work displayed on this website are copyright to me, Lynne Mizera. Of course I hope to inspire and encourage you and would be morethan happy for you to use any of my work to that end; however, please respect me and my work and do not directly copy any of my projects without crediting me or enter any of my work into any magazines or competitions without my express written permission. All my cards, layouts, projects and art work are not to be used by any commercial enterprise for any financial, marketing or commercial gain.

Friday, January 12, 2018

Using Your Glue Gun to Create Stencils!

Hello and happy day everyone!  Today we are starting a New Challenge over at the Sisterhood for Snarky Stampers, and Edna Says: "T" is for Technique! Now, if you are a regular visitor to my little blog space you know that I LOVE to try and share new and wonderful ways to use what you already have on hand in different, and sometimes unusual ways.
... and that is what I am going to share with you today - So raise your hand if you have one (or six?) hot glue guns hidden away in a drawer collecting dust.  I Do! I Do!
 
But I pulled them out at Christmas and discovered, totally by accident, that the hot glue on my craft mat, once dried, peels off easily and perfectly intact - and my creative brain exploded with ideas!  "Why can't I make my own stencils with hot glue?  But I CAN!"

Now I am not the first person to discover this and if you search YouTube you will find many, many videos of people sharing this technique, but for a few minutes it felt good to think that it was ME that discovered this wonderful way to make me some background stencils using stuff I already have!
So in a whole bunch of photos to follow I am sharing my process, a few of the backgrounds I created and of course a few cards I made using those backgrounds... Enjoy!!
Use a craft mat and a hot glue gun, that's pretty much it!  I sectioned off an area with masking tape to create a 6x8 inch stencil space, but it really was not necessary... I free handed the first few; circles are totally easy and for me, so are hearts... just make sure everything is attached.
 
Here is the circle stencil after it had cooled and some backgrounds I created using it with my sprays.  Usually I do not use my sprays with stencils because I am never happy with the results, but because the glue stencil is so heavy it worked beautifully with my sprays, very little seeped underneath, like it usually does.  I was quite pleased with how these backgrounds turned out.
Then I decided to get fancy and instead of winging it I drew a pattern on my craft mat with a marker. (Note: Do NOT use your alcohol ink markers if you want to remove the pattern from your craft mat after you are done.) 
It worked beautifully and I used this stencil to create a background in my art journal.  I love the lumpy, bumpy, imperfect-ness of this pattern.

I think I had the most fun with the two heart stencils I made, a vertical and a horizontal, and using all my red, pink, fuchsia and gold sprays...

I am not sure which I like better, the backgrounds I created or the inky paper towels that are left behind - SWOON!
So, if you are not hung up on perfect images, there really is really no limit to what you can create with your glue gun.   I think I will try to make some word stencils my next go around.  And now here are the cards I created using these backgrounds.

Suzi Blu - Mademoiselle
You might think that the colors are too vibrant and the patterns too loud, but actually those same colors and patterns enhance the images I painted and cut out and mounted on these card bases... Note:  All images used are Unity Stamps created by Suzi Blu.


Suzi Blu - Serenity Angel
 
Suzi Blu - Chickadee and Me

Suzi Blu - Spring Flower Chic

Suzi Blu - Gypsy Warrior
Suzi Blu - Party Love
Suzi Blu - Serenity Angel

Suzi Blu - You Are Loved
So that's it for today... quite enough for one read I think.  I hope you enjoyed this New-To-Me Technique and that it inspires you to pull out that old glue gun and give it a try.  And if it does, why not link up your New Technique-inspired project to our "T" is for Technique Challenge... you have until Friday, January 26th and we always choose a Queen of Snark and her Princesses.

As always, thank you for popping in to see what I am up to and please do leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing. 

Lynne Mizera, 














8 comments:

  1. Oooh WoWza !!! That is just awesome. :-O I never thought of doing that so am going to give this a try out :-D xxxxxxx

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  2. OMG! Wow, Lynne, you are so crazy talented! What fabulous backgrounds and what an amazing technique too. I love Suzi blue stamps (must go find them in my stash) and they look stunning on those backgrounds! This must be one of the sistahs best challenges yet... We've all had such a blast, Jo x

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  3. What awesome stencils and cards, great tutorial and now I can make a heart background for myself. Thanks for sharing your talents with us.

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  4. Oh what an amazing technique, I'm going to need to scrape an inch of dust off my glue gun and give this a try!

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  5. What a treat..Loved reading your post and learnt something completely new, to me so thank you for the wonderful inspiration. So creative and such fun x

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  6. What a great idea!! Thanks for sharing this technique and your own creativity!!’

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  7. I may not have _quite_ as many glue guns as you, Lynne, but as a former teacher, I do have a few! (Teachers buying their own supplies, shocking, I know...) What a great idea! And like you, I'm rarely happy with sprays and plastic stencils, so this is definitely something to try. Your resulting cards are gorgeous!!!

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  8. Wow! Just WOW! Lynne your homemade stencils are awesome, and the resulting cards amazing! Also, 6 glue guns?!!!!

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