It’s my first tutorial of the year with TCW Stencils and I really hope it’s been a great year for all of you so far. I wanted to share something colorful and happy to cheer you up and inspire you to create! It may be Winter but my heart is already longing Summer! In an attempt to warm up your creative hearts, here is a new step by step tutorial featuring this fun Valentine’s Day friendship card!

Some of the products used to create this project were sent by TCW Stencils and Therm O Web, nevertheless all opinions stated in this post are my own.

For this card I wanted to try out stenciling the same pattern several times to create a layered tone on tone background. I used 3 shades of pink pigment inks and one final layer with TCW’s beautiful Gold Gesso. I did use though the same stencil in both 12″x 12″ and 6″x 6″. To create this friendship Valentine’s card:

1. Use the TCW752 Graffiti Kisses  in 12″x 12″ to stencil a white card panel with a very light shade of pink pigment ink.

2. Place the same stencil again, shifting it a little bit, and use a medium shade of pink pigment ink to create a second stenciled layer.

3. Repeat step 2, this time with a darker shade of pink pigment ink.

4. For your last stenciled layer, use the 6″x 6″ TCW752 Graffiti Kisses and apply a thin layer of TCW9003 Gold Gesso. Gold Gesso is quite light textured so you could even apply it with a sponge or a brush for added texture.

5. Finally, to finish the background add die cuts to go with the theme. I used a large heart die cut, a word die cut from my upcoming SVG Valentine’s Word Bundle and even one of my digital stamp sentiments printed and foiled on vellum. I cut the word outline from Deco Foil™ PeelnStick Toner Sheets which I foiled with Therm O Web’s Rebekah Meier Designs Transfer Foil in Old Gold (Satin) and the detailed word from white cardstock and attached both pieces together with iCraft Mixed Media Adhesive. 

I love using Transfer Foil in Old Gold on my finishing elements when I’ve used any of the beautiful TCW gold media, since this foil color matches them perfectly!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post. I think this stencil is one of my new favorites and the fact that you can layer it over and over again without saturating your backgrounds is a wonderful thing! Make sure to follow us here on the blog and social media as we share more creative project ideas for Valentine’s. That’s all for now… Until next time!