I just wanted to show you another use for spray-paint, this time to stencil light card stock for making gift tags. One of the days that I was spraying the gilded leaves, I thought I'd spray a strip of card stock, too. I just wanted to paint an edge down a long strip, so I could cut the strip into small card size rectangles. In order to keep the center portion of the strip free of paint, I used some painters tape.
This is a tip that I learned from my artist daughter. She uses painters tape when marking out an edge on a leaf of watercolor paper, sort of a frame for a work. Painters tape that is adhered to paper, as is, will likely damage the paper when removing it. So, one needs to make the tape slightly less-sticky. To do that, my daughter showed me how she presses the sticky side of the tape against a sweatshirt, t-shirt, or jeans' leg (basically any fabric that is slightly linty). The sticky side of the tape will pick up a small amount of lint, but still be able to adhere to paper. Once the artwork is completed, the tape pulls off the paper, leaving the paper in good shape, instead of peeling off the top layer of the paper with the tape.
So, to make these gilded-edge gift cards, I used a long strip of lightweight poster board that I had in my stack of scrap papers/board. I made a long strip of painters tape slightly less sticky by pressing onto my jeans' leg 2 or 3 times. Then I pressed the tape down the center of my board.
I sprayed the strip, tape and all, and allowed the paint to dry. Upon peeling the painters tape off, I was left with a long strip of board that is edged in gold paint.
Once the strip was edged in gold, I cut it into sections to fold into small gift enclosure cards. Tip to fold stiff card stock: lightly score the top side of card, along the intended fold line with a craft knife, box cutter, or kitchen paring knife. The stock will fold neatly along the scored line.
I embellished my small cards with small, gold-painted leaves, attached with a glue dot. Rubber stamps or felt pens could also be used to include a simple message on the front of the card.
