stamping a perfect wreath

 The other night I was watching a video on Youtube on how to stamp a wreath using a Gina K designs stencil for stamping in circles.  The stencil reminded me of a spinning medallion card I made many, many years ago. So I decided to reproduce the front of that card again as it was identical  to the stencil.


 Besides that I have never seen Gina K 's products for sale in the UK, so purchasing her stencil could mean a very long wait for delivery and I wanted to try this technique now.
 You 'll need a Misty or Stamparatus or similar tool to achieve this technique.


Here's how I made my stencil.

Using  a piece of heavy weight card  cut down to 6X6 inches,  I drew diagonal lines from corner to corner to find the centre.

 I   marked the half way mark on each side and joined up the marks so all the lines crossed in the centre.

 Taking a large square die, I lined up all four corners of the die over the diagonal lines and cut out the centre.

I then lined up the die corners with the second set of lines  making sure all the corners to be cut out were of  equal size and ran it through the Big Shot again.

I ended up with the 8 pointed star shape aperture below.
The stencil is now ready for use.


Using the same die,  I cut out several squares of  card suitable for stamping and colouring.

I  placed the stencil in the Stamparatus then positioned one of the pieces of stamping card in the aperture and marked one corner with a cross in pencil so I could remember which corner I started in and so that the cross could be erased later.

So now I am ready to start stamping....this is when I discovered my stash of unmounted stamps is very  limited.
 I only found three small stamps suitable for this demonstration, none of them are very impressive, but they will do the job.

 I placed the stamp on the card in the first corner to be stamped.
 I closed the plate on the stamparatus to pick up the stamp. I then inked the stamp while on the plate, and closed the plate again to stamp the first image.




Leave the stamp in place  on the plate.

Lift the card and turn it so that the crossed corner matches up with the next notch in the aperture.
Ink the stamp again and close the plate again.
Keep turning the card stock in the (same direction)  matching the crossed corner with the next notch  in the stencil and stamp again....repeat these steps  until the circle is complete.

When you have completed the circle choose another small stamp  to go with the first and position it on the card stock between the previously stamped images and repeat all the steps again with your second stamp.

Had my stamps been solid images I would have stamped the leaves in green, but as the stamps I  used are outline stamps I had to colour the images in after stamping.

It doesn't look bad considering.

On my second example I used a  small pine branch to create the second wreath.

I didn't have any more small foliage to complete the pine needle wreath so I ended up drawing in the berries and extra foliage.

I have to say it was easier to do as the basic wreath was already in place.

Now you know how to make your own stencil and how use it to stamp a perfect wreath and it wont cost you more than a piece of card.