HLS December Watercolour Challenge - With an Optional Twist of Stencil

I don't usually think of watercolouring and stencils together, but I know quite a few people do.  Time for me to try something different.  For this, I turned to a beautiful stencil by Tim Holtz called Holly Bough.

I have this wonderful die which has words creating a Christmas tree.  Under those words are a number of gift boxes.  Well, I didn't want to use those gift boxes and so, once I had made my die-cut out of Basic Black cardstock, I carefully snipped away all but those words.  Then I took a piece of Mixed Media paper and watercoloured six "stripes" all stacked on top of each other so that each would show under a separate word.  Once that was dry, I glued on the die-cut of black words over the colours.  For the star on top, I die-cut it once more from Gold Foil and glued the gold star inside the hollow star.

But the optional twist for this challenge is stencil, right?  Well for that I turned to the Tim Holtz stencil and added a holly twig to the top left and bottom right corners, using my Call Me Clover and Real Red inks and an Aqua Painter.  The woody part is Soft Suede ink and finishes it off nicely, doesn't it?

I tried several colours of cardstock as my base but to my eye the Basic Black suited it best.  I love the way it echoes the black word tree in the centre.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

I hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers October Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of stencil.