More Valentine Ideas using Surprising StencilGirl Stencils and Masks

Today, I'm using my 6" x 6" stencil Quilted Flower Garden to make a Valentine greeting card ...

I've chosen textured gold foil paper, using a free-hand cut heart-shape as a pattern.  I placed the pattern on the back-side of the textured gold paper, traced it with a pencil, and cut it out with fine-detail scissors from Fiskars. 

Quilted Flower Garden (used to create the background paper above) looks like this in its entirety --

Today's second Valentine --

-- stars a print made with yet another non-traditional-Valentine design:  Swaying Grasses (6" x 6".) 

Among the grasses is a red mini-heart created with one of the paper-crafting  shape-punches by Marvy.

The background is a hand-painted silver heart, glued to a 5" x 7" greeting card blank made by Strathmore; this one is the watercolor card, which is cut from sturdy 140-lb. paper.

The stencil Swaying Grasses in its entirety looks like this --

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Happy Almost Valentine's Day!

Deb Riddell is an artist who loves romance and combines it beautifully with nostalgia!

Deb created this art journal spread for her 2018 Valentine's Day and I'm delighted to re-post it once more --

Above:  Artist Deb Riddell used  a number of
StencilGirlProducts stencils in creating this two-page spread in her art journal.

Deb's two photos below show one stage of her working process, in which she used my 9" x 12" stencil  Vintage Script ... 

To better see the details of the two-page spread, please click on the above photos to enlarge them. 

Below is another photo of Deb's, a close-up detail ...

The Vintage Script stencil itself looks like this --

Thank you, Deb Riddell!  Now for some last-minute ideas for today--

Making last-minute Valentine greeting cards?  Don't have all the right colors of paint or paper on hand?  Valentines certainly can be traditional, but what's wrong with striking out in new directions?  I say nothing!  Feel free to use whatever's on hand!

Above:  Valentine made with Tiger Lily (6"x 6") Stencil and Two Vases (9" x 12") Stencil.

Above:  Valentine made with Webbed Medallion (6" x 6") Stencil.

Above:  Valentine made with Garden Montage (9" x 12) Stencil.

Above:  Valentine made with Tiger Lily (6"x 6") Stencil and Hot Air Balloon and Mask (available in 2 sizes.) 

Above:  Valentine made with Garden Montage (9" x 12) Stencil and Links (6" x 6") Stencil.

Stencils and masks featured above, in their entirety, look like this --

Webbed Medallion (6" x 6") mask

Links (6" x 6") Stencil

Two Vases (9" x 12") Stencil

Garden Montage (9" x 12) mask

Ready for more?

I made the embellishment for this Valentine card with air-dry clay, painting it with metallic acrylics after the clay had hardened.

Its background is a metallic bronze blank greeting card (JAMPaper.com) that I imprinted with acrylic paints using my 6" x 6" stencil Mimosa 6. 

The stencil itself looks like this:

  

It remains one of my favorite art-making tools; both my 9" x 12" and my 6" x 6" mimosa stencils were inspired by a beautiful young mimosa tree that lived in our front yard, until a fungus attacked it.  Here in NJ, mimosa is actually considered a weed; I've seen it growing wild along roadways and in at least two nearby coastal towns.  But every mimosa we've cultivated has fallen prey to this fungus.  Go figure! 

Today's last non-traditional Valentine --



-- stars a green-and-gold centerpiece-heart that I've cut from a print I made with my 9" X 12" stencil Two Fans -- a doodle-inspired design that looks like this:

And the green background paper on this unusual Valentine card was a Gelli Plate print made with my 9"X 12" stencil Borders 1, shown below. 

 

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Courting Cranes Dance on this Valentine

Not everyone would recognize this 6" x 6" stencil as being a silhouette of cranes doing their elegant dance of courting.

Dance of the Courting Cranes

So, in my approach to today's Valentine, I decided to emphasize the point by using traditional Valentine colors as well as adding a heart...

Above:  Having placed the mask half of this stencil onto the back-side of red paper that came pre-printed with a white floral pattern, I trace the shapes with a black marker. 

Below, I cut along the lines with Fiskars fine-detail scissors --

In the next photo, I've turned the paper right-side-up ...

And below, having used a gluestick to add the cut-out to a greeting card, I get out my paper-crafting heart punch from Marvy.

  Finally, I punch out a white heart shape and glue it to the cut-out:

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Must Valentines Be Red and White?

I've made lots of red and white Valentines, but at times it's fun to liven things up with other cheerful colors....

The greeting card directly below started with a print made with my 6" x 6" stencil Bamboo Wall.  I used the same stencil in making the pink and blue vertical embellishment.

Small Tangled Pods (6" x 6") is the mask I used in printing the blue and purple background on the Valentine below.  Having some textured pale-gold paper on hand, I decided to cut a heart-shaped hole in it and glue the heart's leftovers at a diagonal across the card cover. 

The three-dimensional heart on the below card was printed with my 4" x 4" Palm Fronds Silhouette Stencil Mini.

On the multi-layered Valentine below, I started with a print made with Webbed Medallion (6" x 6" mask.)  Over that, I printed orange acrylic paint through my 9" x 12" mask Facets.  My last-step embellishments included a frame, assembled from scraps of old textured papers, and green hearts paper-punch cut from an old piece of sheet music stained green.  The very top heart, red and yellow, is a three-dimensional element. 

Small Tangled Pods (6" x 6") is the mask I for printing the background of the card below.  This background is two-toned because I used an old calendar photo as my substrate.  Over the print, I added three 3-dimensional hearts.

I used three more 3-dimensional hearts on the multi-layered Valentine below.  The background's starting point was a print made with my 6" x 6" Quilted Flower Garden.  Over that, I used blue acrylic paint with my 6" x 6" mask Garden at Nemours.  Besides the three hearts, the card's embellishment was made with my 9" x 12" stencil Ivy Frame 9.

The orange-and white background below is a print made with my 6" x 6" stencil Mimosa 6.  Atop that, I placed some old 3-dimensional elements that include a large 3-dimensional heart, decorated with a paper-punched blue heart.

Today's 3-dimensional hearts are the results of two techniques.  One of these techniques is detailed, with step-by-step photos, here.  The other technique is to buy the same wooden heart blanks as used here, but instead of covering their tops with stencil-prints or other papers, I've dipped them upside-down into swirls of leftover paints.  This makes for similar color schemes and unique designs on each heart.

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Vases Stencils

I've always loved the shapes of vases because, to my eye, the majority of them suggest the feminine form.  My 9" x 12" stencil Two Vases is one of two vase-design stencils I've developed for StencilGirl:

Two Vases

The other is my 9" x 12" Vases stencil --

Vases

It was Vases stencil that I grabbed when developing the background of the painting below:

Having painted that background with full-strength heavy-body acrylic paints, I decided to add a layer of water-diluted white gesso to "knock back" the original background, with the goal of making it look less prominent and more visually distant. 

After waiting for my background to dry, I used a sponge applicator to add heavy-body orange acrylic paint thru one of the two vases in my 9" x 12" stencil Two Vases, creating the dominant orange figure.

 With the same stencil and another sponge applicator, I added a faint green "echo"-image on the far right.  (You can click on the above photo to enlarge it and better see that detail.)

 After those acrylic paints had dried, I came up with a homemade stencil by freehand-drawing a smaller vase of the same shape as the dominant orange figure.  After drawing that outline on cardstock, I used fine-detail scissors to cut it out.  Then I mixed Golden Titanium White liquid acrylic paint equally with water, and added a little Golden Air Brush Medium.  I poured that mix into a mister bottle and sprayed the resulting white paint thru the opening I'd cut out. 

Below is an artwork-in-progress that I've begun using both stencils on the 9" x 12" stencil Two Vases.  This time, I used pale green spray paint that I developed in the same way as described above.




I use these homemade acrylic sprays rather than commercial sprays because this gives me freedom to mix any "hybrid" color combination that I want.

And, when working on canvas, I use acrylic spray paints because they are waterproof once dry.

BTW, if you like my 9" x 12" Vases stencil, you might also like my 9" x 12" stencil Two Fans....

9" x 12" stencil Two Fans

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Printing Plates made with Stencils

Some time ago, an artist friend and I made printing plates with scraps of sturdy matboard, molding paste and stencils, following these steps....

One at a time, I placed a stencil on the sturdy matboard (ultra-sturdy cardboard would work too) and taped the two together with masking tape.

Next, with an artist's spatula, I spread heavy modeling paste thru the openings of the stencil.  I lifted off the stencil immediately after using it, and placed it in a basin of water, for quick and easy clean-up later.  (When using 3-dimensional media like modeling paste, it's important to clean stencils, to keep all open areas in original condition.) 

After the modeling paste was dry -- this can take a full day, depending on climate and the thickness of the layer of medium -- I covered the entire matboard, including the raised design, with gloss liquid medium.  This was a two-step process because the edges and the back needed to be covered as well, after the top side had time to dry thoroughly.  The goal is to seal the matboard and its raised surface to make a sturdy tool able to tolerate repeated use with acrylic paints and other wet media.

What I did with each of these new printing plates was to brayer a layer of acrylic paint over the Gelli Plate, then to press the printing plate -- with its 3-dimensional pattern down -- onto the acrylic paint.  

After I'd lifted the printing plate, an impression remained in the still-wet acrylic paint covering the Gelli Plate.  

I then placed paper onto the plate and burnished its entire back surface with my hands, before pulling the print.  Prints made this way have been incorporated into my collages.

Below is one of the papers printed this way:

Above:  Paper printed with my printing plate made with 9"X 12" stencil Mimosa

What surprised me was that, after printing papers with these plates, I decided that the plates themselves may eventually get cut up to make collage elements.

This is what 3 of those printing plates look like:  

The printing plate above was made with my 9"X 12" stencil Mimosa.

Above is the printing plate made with my 6"X 6" stencil Trivet B.



Above is my favorite printing plate of the three, made with my stencil 6"X 6" Mimosa. 

Although I call them printing plates, they work equally well as rubbing plates.  Rubbing plates can be used with thin but sturdy papers; however, the more popular use for them lies in the arena of the fabric arts:  A piece of fabric is placed over the plate; then the surface of the fabric is rubbed with a Shiva stick (an oil-based product that resembles a jumbo-sized crayon.)  The result is called a dry rubbing.  

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Artist and Teacher Carolyn Dube with 6" x 6" stencil SWATTON FLOWERS VERSION 2.

StencilGirl's own Carolyn Dube gave me the honor of using one of my stencils in one of her how-to videos -- here.  Her stencil of choice was my Swatton Flowers Version 2. Carolyn gives great stencil-using tips on this video, which is actually Part 1 of 2.  Part 1 shows how she creates a continuous print with this stencil.  In Part 2, she shows what she's done with the paper she created.  Part 2 is here.

Swatton Flowers Version 2

To find Carolyn Dube's blog, A Colorful Journey, go here.  My sincere thanks to Carolyn for choosing this stencil and showing us how to use it in creating a continuous pattern.  Her videos are must-see!  

Be Scared No More! Etching Plate Printing Simplified

The phrase "etching plate" used to scare me, since I have no formal background in printing.  

But somehow I've stumbled onto a simplified version, and I had fun working with it. 

To follow along with me, you might want to use a mounting board of craft foam and an artist's stylus/burnishing tool (pictured below, it's dark green and white).  Instead of this stylus/burnishing tool, you can use a ballpoint pen. 

If you can't find self-adhesive craft foam mounting boards, you can use a sheet of plain craft foam -- just glue it onto any kind of sturdy cardboard.  Or, if feeling brave, you can try using the sheet of craft foam by itself, without any kind of backing. 

The photo directly above shows my 9" x 12" Vases stencil (stained green) that has been placed over a sheet of white craft foam. 

9" x 12" Vases

With one hand, I held the stencil-and-craft-foam "sandwich" together by pressing them firmly down onto my work surface.  

Holding the stylus/burnisher with my other hand, I drew thru the squiggle-line openings that form one of the vases.

Next, I lifted off the stencil to show the craft foam that had been under it -- now "etched" with the vase design.  You can cick on the image below to enlarge it and better see these lines:

My following step was to take the top off a Distress Ink pad, and rub the pad onto the "etched" plate.  I then spritzed the newly inked surface of the craft foam with water, as shown below --

I placed white cardstock over this damp surface and used my hands to press the cardstock evenly across the entire inked surface.  Then I lifted the cardstock, pulling the first print, shown below....

Deciding to go for a stronger image, I tried another inkpad color, repeating the sequence, and pulled the print on the far right, below:

To better see details in these two printed papers, you can click on the above image to enlarge it.


BTW, if you like my 9" x 12" Vases stencil, you might also like my 9" x 12" stencil Two Fans....

9" x 12" stencil Two Fans

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