Day 12: Stencil Transformation – From Festive Bulb to Mixed Media Bloom

 Hello again,

Welcome back to Day 12 of my 52 Days of Stencils challenge! Today’s card is a perfect example of why you should never let the official packaging or theme of a craft tool dictate how you use it.

For Day 12, the deck gave me an intricate, elegant Christmas bulb stencil. It’s a beautiful design, but since it is May, I really wasn't in the mood to make a holiday card. Instead of putting it back, I looked closer at the geometric, symmetrical patterns inside the shape and realized it could easily be reimagined as an abstract mandala flower.

I secured my stencil and got to work ink blending with a gorgeous selection of Cloud 9 inks, building up the colors to look like vibrant, blooming petals. The symmetry of the ornament design lent itself perfectly to a stylized kaleidoscopic flower center.

Once the inking was done, I leaned heavily into the mixed-media side of things. I wanted to break up the clean lines of the stencil, so I randomly stamped distressed black circle outlines across the panel to add raw, grungy texture. To wrap up the project, I used a fine black journaling pen to hand-trace the edges of the petal shapes, giving my new abstract flower definition and a hand-drawn look.

I am so happy I took a risk on this one. It's incredibly satisfying to take a holiday supply and find a way to make it work for a bright, seasonal mixed-media project!

See you tomorrow for Day 13!

Natalia x