So you've bought all these lovely dies to die cut pretty shapes like flowers, butterflies, hexagons, circles and.....you get the idea. No sooner did you receive your beautiful shipment of new dies and the next craze hits the scrapbooking world - stencils.
tip #2 - turn your die cuts into stencils

1. Use your die to cut your shape out of the selected cardstock. Ink, emboss or use as you please.

2. Use the left over piece together with a sponge applicator and ink pad to ink through the cut out section directly onto the background of your layouts, cards, tags and even on white spaces on photographs.

Tips and tricks

This is the cheapest stencil you will ever own and you can throw it away without feeling guilty when it gets mucked up.
To cover an entire background, simply rotate and move the stencil and ink again using different colours and different mediums.
Avoid inking over the straight edges - and if you are scared you will, then simply extedn your stencil with some clear acetate or cardboard around the outside edges only.
you can also die cut your shapes out of a larger piece of acetate for a more permanent and durable stencil that will last for longer.

i can create beautiful unique stencils to my hearts content - i have the equipment i might as well use it to the max.