BHG Pumpkin Carving Pattern Cards

Hey all!

Yesterday I shared a couple links to some nifty free Pumpkin Carving patterns from BH&G.  Today I promised to share some fun cards using these patterns and here they are!

These were the patterns I printed.  Since the originals were intended for pumpkins I printed these at 50% and which made them perfect for my cards.

The first thing you'll need to do is carefully cut the center of the image out with an exacto knife.   I know I know...many people don't like using an exacto knife but I love them.  With a bit of practice you'll be an old pro at it :)  Below are some tips I've learned over the years.

Tips:

*ALWAYS use an extremely sharp blade!  If you're blade isn't sharp it will tear the paper instead of cut.  You simply won't get a nice clean cut line.

* DON'T use too much pressure!  You're cutting through paper, not bone!!!   This is the biggest mistake people make.  If you use too much pressure it will again tear the paper and you'll have to start over!

* I find that if I hold the knife like a pencil it helps me control the knife better.   It will help with the pressure issue above too!

* Cut tiny close cuts first - the more intact the paper/stencil the easier it is to make tiny, tight cuts.  Save the larger straighter cuts for last.  You don't have to follow the outline all at one time... for example in the raven below I made the tiny feather cuts first, then I went back around the rest of the bird for the easier straight cuts.

* Turn and/or Move the paper as needed!!!  You don't have to tie yourself up in knots trying to follow the curves of the image.  Simply remove the knife, turn the paper as needed and continue cutting.

* If possible use a self healing cutting mat to cut on.  IF you don't have a cutting mat, use a piece of thicker chipboard under your image.  This does 2 things...it protects your work surface (and everything under your image) and it also helps the knife glide through the paper better w/o dulling your knife blade.

And here is what my raven stencil look like after I cut it out....

Temporarily adhere the negative part of the stencil to your card foundation.  Stamp various Halloween images in the open area of the Raven as shown below....

Now to add definition, ink the edges with desired color of ink.  I like to use Distress Ink and the Ink Blending Tool (big surprise huh?).

And here is what it looks like so far....

You'll have to wait and see what the finished card looks like till the end - lol....

Next we'll be using the positive image.

Place the positive image (mask) on your card panel.  Pounce a bit of the TOTALLY awesome Picket Fence Distress Stain onto a foam for the IBT.  Pat the cardstock all the way around the image as shown.

Now take the negative stencil and place it over the card panel.  You can now stamp over this stencil...

and here is how they both turned out!!!

Pretty cool aren't they?

And to think they were made using

FREE

Pumpkin Carving Stencils!!!

Sure beats spending 5.00 - 10.00 for plastic stencils huh?

Now, just think of all the other cool images you could use for stencils.

One that pops in my mind first and foremost is coloring pages!!!

Opens up a whole new realm in card making huh?