Handmade stencils

I was itching to do some DIY and struck upon this a few weeks back when I was ogling mixed media projects online with a crazy obsession.. Well, before trying these designs above, I started with simple ones:

 (had used this one on my son's birthday album cover page.. wasn't quick enough to wash the acrylic off.. u have any tips for this?)

Did this with a craft knife on some plastic folders that we usually get in stationery stores ( cost just 6 Rs. and each was cut into four pieces for all the stencils above!) The hearts was the first one I cut and it shows in the pic that I wasn't deft with the knife to begin with, right? :-)

But once I got the hang of it, the rest patterns were a breeze.. I just drew the image on a piece of paper and placed the plastic sheet on top of it and went through with my knife.. Well, everything placed on a thick newspaper bed to avoid the floor getting the scratches, of course!

Li'l N's Birthday album

This is one MEGA project I was (and still continue to.. for the stamping and embellishments) working on for weeks together.. Each page is a project in itself and I used the opportunity to learn quite a few techniques.. I have finished some of the pages.. here's the stack:

And a sample of the insides:

(The decoration at  home was entirely done by me and balloons were blown by my father-in-law.. will add more pics of it later)

For the cover page, I have painted the background with acrylics on canvas, used some homemade texture paste and hand-cut stencil for the squares.. painted on it with pearl metallic acrylics (matching his outfit) and used wooden store-bought alphabet. The '1' is handcut and painted, again to match his outfit that day..  :-)

Will keep uploading pics now and then as I keep completing the album...