So Many New Things - Part 1

It's been six weeks since I posted here, so clearly summer has gotten away from me.  I walk past my craft room daily, longing to go in there and play for a while.  I read blogs, pin card ideas to Pinterest, and make lists of challenges that, for once, I'm going to participate in.  But free time is fleeting, and the task list is pressing, so the crafts will have to wait a little longer.

But have all of these preoccupations stopped me from shopping?  Of course not!

Looking at my summer loot (and going back to the Heirloom show in April), there are a lot of stencils, dry embossing folders, and the like, some stamps, and a few other assorted tools.  There are too many pictures to put in one post, so I'll split it into several.  Today:  stencils.

I'm not sure where we are on the stencil fad continuum, but I'm still pretty new to them.*  I think they have great potential for beautiful backgrounds, so I want to keep playing with them until I get the hang of them. 

Tim Holtz's layering stencils have great appeal because of their tag shape and easy storage.  I have about 10 of them, three of them recent additions:

Though the middle stencil is called Scribbles, to me the image is clearly art deco-style roses. I used it in a card from my last post.

I'm looking forward to using all three of these, especially with ombre inks and my air marker spritzer, which I'm only just starting to figure out how to use.

On a recent trip to New York, I made a special pilgrimage to the newly re-opened Moon Rose in Huntington.  The shop area is small, but packed with wonderful things.  Among my purchases were three stencils from The Crafter's Workshop.

Tea Remant - Actual size:  4x4

Trivet Remnant - Actual size:  4x4

Well-Rounded - Actual size:  6x6

I haven't seen many pictures of these three in action, so if you know of any, send them my way.  I love seeing what other people have done and using that as a jumping-off point for my work.

I would love to hear from you about how and if you're using stencils in your papercrafting.  Is dimensional paste avoidable (I'm resisting - it crosses the line of easy/messy for me)?  Do you have a favorite tool or method to apply ink over the stencil?

*In writing this post, I realized that I'm not really new to using stencils.  One of the themes I loved early on in my rubber stamping days was faux postage.  I made my own or used pre-made stencils to create banks of postage which featured heavily in my card-making.  I still love faux postage and the technique with the unlovely name, "inchies," but that's a post for another day...