Coordinate!

In a mood to buy yourself a Christmas present?  (Don't forget, "Little Christmas" comes after Christmas -- so you have plenty of time!)

http://www.artpapersonline.com/ carries papers that coordinate beautifully with stencils by STENCILGIRL(TM) Products -- look at the examples below, and just imagine how you can use these papers with your stencil-prints, in art-journaling and lots of other paper arts!

If you have the Tribal Hand stencil by Lizzie Mayne --

 http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s180.htm

-- and/or the Arabesque stencil by Nathalie Kalbach --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l197.htm

and/or Swirly Floral by June Pfaff Daley --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l060.htm

--and/or my Wrought Iron Gate stencil --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l224.htm

-- you can coordinate with any or all of these ArtPapersOnline papers:

And if you have Twist Latice by Lizzie Mayne --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s152.htm

--and/or Net stencil by Mary Beth Shaw --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s129.htm --

you can pair prints from them with this paper:

 

Or this:

 

 

Again: Prints made with any Connection stencil by Andrew Borloz --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/category-s/1817.htm --

and/or Web stencil by Mary Beth Shaw --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l064.htm

and/or X & O Stencil by Andrew Borloz --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l108.htm

-- will coordinate beautifully with this ArtPapersOnline paper:

And one last example of great pairings--

The above ArtPapersOnline paper will coordinate nicely with all the circle stencils at STENCILGIRL(TM) Products; here are only a few examples:

Stitch a Doily by Maria McGuire--

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/Stitch-A-Doily-Stencil-p/s169.htm

Border Circles by Michelle Ward --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l003.htm

Random Circles by Mary Beth Shaw --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l071.htm

And many, many more!

As you scroll thru the ArtPapersOnline website, you will find other examples of happy pairings with prints made with stencils from STENCILGIRL(TM) Products.  Happy scrolling!



 

Did I Go Overboard?

Some of us -- you know who you are -- are thinking about Whitman's Samplers at this time of year, since they (and all their rich, high-calorie friends) will be staring you in the face every time you step into a grocery store.  Well, this is the inspiration for MY title STENCILGIRL(TM) Sampler, which I gave to this new artwork on canvas --

Okay, so maybe I got a little carried away ... but it was fun.  The bottom layer is molding paste and the top layers are acrylic paints.   In no particular order, these are the stencils I used:

Use Your Words by Carolyn Dube --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/Use-Your-Words-Stencil-p/l207.htm

Trivet B stencil by yours truly --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s167.htm

Optical Large by Michelle Ward--

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l040.htm

Blockout Overlap by Mary Beth Shaw --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l073.htm

my two Mimosa stencils (9"X12" and 6"X6")--

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l141.htm

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s126.htm

and a soon-to-be-released 9"X12" stencil that I titled Boxed Vines ...
just keep checking www.StencilGirlProducts.com.





 

Good News --

-- well, okay, it can't rival the news wrapped in the gift of Christmas, but it's a joy for me to announce the release of three new stencils of my design at STENCILGIRL(TM) Products:

Wrought Iron Gate--

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l224.htm

Feathers 9--

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l228.htm

Feathers 6--

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s178.htm

And, while you're on the STENCILGIRL(TM) website, check out the new stencils by Lizzie Mayne!  After I pulled my envious eyes back into their sockets, I placed these stencils at the top of my wish list!

Below is Wrought Iron Gate stencil, which measures 9"X12"--



Above is a faint print that I created with this brand-new stencil.  Here, I used the stencil to enliven the background in a much larger painting.  I layered Wrought Iron Gate over an orange print from one of the 3 borders on my Borders 1 stencil --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

-- and you'll be seeing more examples of my Wrought Iron Gate stencil in days to come.

Above is a "re-run" image, showing a water-and-ink marbled print created with my Feathers 6 stencil (measuring 6"X6".)  See my 11-27 post -- which appears below this post -- for the quick-and-easy steps taken to make these marbled prints.

I plan to use these two brand-new Feathers stencils in composite artworks that will include the use of my bird series of stencils:

Heron --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s175.htm

-- and Osprey Wings --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s176.htm

 

Not Another Re-Run!

Announcing my new 6"X6" Feathers stencil, available at www.StencilGirlProducts.com --

The above image shows my 6"X6" Feathers stencil -- but waiting in the wings is my 9"X12" Feathers stencil, which will differ from its 6"X6" little sister.

 

The above image was created using my brand-new 6"X6" Feathers stencil.

 

I'll start this re-run of an earlier post by providing a link --

 

http://www.interweavestore.com/marbled-fabric-surface-design-dvd ,

 

-- which advertises a DVD that goes into depth on the topic of floating stencils atop marbling liquid, creating a combination stencil-and-marbled look on fabric. 

I'm not into fabric arts, but I tried this idea on printing papers -- the type of paper recommended in this short online video --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J410yQ7PI1E   Please do watch this short video online, for complete directions.  I haven't included every detailed step in the photo captions below, but it all comes together once you see the video.

That recommended paper, copperplate paper, is a type of printmaking paper which can be found here, but is also available elsewhere:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/copperplate-paper/

And the marbling inks, Boku-Undo, can be found here:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/aitoh-boku-undo-suminagashi-marbling-kit/

The reason I went with this particular process and these particular materials was that I knew they would work well with my stencils -- without generating a need to clean the stencils afterward.  (Yes, I'm lazy!)  There are many methods for marbling paper and fabric, with a
corresponding wide variety of liquids required for each marbling method.

This particular method uses plain water as the liquid upon which the marbling inks float.  That makes for quick preparation and quick clean-up -- leaving more time for having fun!

 

To continue reading this post, please click on Older Posts below and scroll down to October 8, 2013.  The Search feature in the sidebar might get your there, too.

Why So Many --

-- greeting card covers?

Because a small local -- yet very lively -- museum, Monmouth Museum --

 http://monmouthmuseum.org/

-- is now carrying my STENCILGIRL(TM) stencils.   I'm making greeting cards to sell in their gift-shop, alongside the stencils, as a way of showing gift-shop browsers just a fraction of the ways in which stencils can be used in art-making.  Before wrapping these cards and sending them on their merry way, I'm scanning them so I can trot them out, here ...

 The above greeting card cover is a collage starring a cut-out from a Gelli Plate print that used my 6"X6" Seaweed stencil on a substrate of Asian  newsprint previously dry-brushed with acrylics.  This stencil is available here:  http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s099.htm

Is It Just Me?

Okay, I've already admitted I'm a heavy-handed artist.  But does anyone else agree that the little foam "mittens" that come with the Pan Pastel applicator will wear out before you're finished with even the very first usage?  I switched almost immediately to using a blending stick, a.k.a., blending stump (carried by Jerry's Artarama, Dick Blick Art Supplies, and many others) as well as the type of cotton swab that has one or both ends pointed (such as the Fran Wilson Makeup Eye-Tees.)  It's true, too, that foam-topped plastic makeup applicators can be found in some dollar stores -- but those proved as flimsy, for this purpose, as the one that came with the Pan Pastels. 

The top image above shows two greeting card covers cut from marbeled printmaking papers (first shown in their entirety in my posts of October 20, when I listed the steps to take in marbling paper previously stenciled with white modeling paste.)

Second in place is a close-up of a heron-cover greeting card.  This shows the effect achieved using the tools I've listed above, with Pan Pastels.

Back when the heron first emerged from the marbling bath, it resembled the heron in the similar print below:

Both herons were created via spreading white modeling paste across my 6"X6" Heron stencil, letting it dry, and dipping the printmaking paper into marbling solution.  And in both cases, the marbled background held so little contrast with the white heron that the resulting image was too subtle for my liking.  This is the reason that I have now outlined the uppermost heron in pink, using a wide-tipped Sharpie, before going in with Pan Pastels -- I wanted to create contrast to make the heron "pop."  

In the top photo you can see the white oil pastel crayon that I used to highlight areas of the heron.  If you click the heron to enlarge the image, you can see where the ridges of the dried modeling paste have formed texture that "caught" the white of the oil pastel crayon.

The right-side greeting card, in the top photo above, was created with the same modeling paste, applied thru my 9"X12" Steampunk stencil onto printmaking paper; after the paste dried, the paper was marbled.  (For full details describing that process, scroll down to click on OLDER POSTS, then scroll to the multiple posts dated October 20.)

The 6"X6" Heron stencil is available here:

 http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s175.htm

The 9"X12" Steampunk stencil is available here:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l201.htm



 

"Seaweed" Rides Again ... With a Sidekick from "Borders #1"

Still more greeting card covers --  the first one, made with my 6"X6" Seaweed stencil --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s099.htm

I made the above collaged greeting card with an irregular cut-out of stripe-patterned handmade paper purchased long ago; for this card, I switched to using the "back" of this novelty paper.  My Seaweed stencil was used with orange acrylic paint on a Gelli Plate, with a substrate of newsprint previously dry- rushed with pale aqua acrylic paint.

The above collaged greeting card takes us back to my 9"X12" Swatton Borders #1 Stencil, which I used with aqua acrylic paint on a brayer-applied orange background.  This was glued (Tombow Glue Stick) to a frame-background of that same striped paper, this time with the striped side facing outward.

This stencil, which contains 3 individual borders, is available at STENCILGIRLPRODUCTS(TM) -- http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

More Greeting Card Covers

 

Above is an image that I showed in an earlier post, when I went into detail describing a way to use stencils as resists when marbling papers.  The two stencils used here are, L to R:

 

Trivet B Stencil --  http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s167.htm

 

and

 

Trivet C Stencil -- awaiting release at www.StencilGirlProducts.com.

 

Below are two greeting card covers I've made using cut-outs from that marbled paper.

 

 

The top greeting card cover is self-framed via this method:  I moistened its 4 edges with a paintbrush dipped into clean water, then ran a watercolor pencil all around the rim.  See below: 

 

 

 

A water-based marker would have worked, too.  The brushed-on water makes the edges willing to soak up pigment in a lovely haphazard way.

 My final step was to come in with a marker-pen and draw lines to trace some contours of the patterns created thru stenciling and marbling.

Cleaning Stencils & More New Images made using STENCILGIRL(TM) Stencils I've Designed

Now, I know some of you are way ahead of me on this, but I just learned something that makes me happy.  I had been soaking my just-used-with-acrylic-paint stencils in a basin of water, this being a temporary measure to keep the paint from sticking on, while I continued having fun with more paint applications.  Then, at the unfortunate end of play-time, I would bring out the stencils, one by one, and gently scrub them dry with paper towels.  I would do this while pressing each stencil to newsprint, and occasionally this cleaning of the stencil would transfer a nice ghost image onto the newsprint.  That was a surprise-bonus when it happened. 

But I had trouble with this cleaning method.  It consumed too much time (have I mentioned I'm an impatient artist?) and it led to damage of some details in my more intricate designs.

Having watched one of Mary Beth Shaw's two brand-new DVDs --

http://www.northlightshop.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=mary+beth+shaw+dvd

-- I learned that no water-soak was needed if I were to simply use a baby wipe right after using the stencil with acrylic paint.  This did indeed speed the process ...

... but unlike Mary Beth, I have a heavy hand.  So the problem remained: My brute-force cleansing could damage finely detailed areas of some stencils.

Then the light bulb went off -- my eureka moment!  I placed the stencil, still wet with just-used acrylic paint, onto the usual newsprint.  Next I dipped a plain sponge brayer into clean water, and rolled the brayer over the stencil.  Voila!  It worked beautifully without inflicting any damage!  In some cases I still wanted to gently pat the stencil with a paper towel, before setting it aside to dry thoroughly, but was a quick, easy step to take -- thus pleasing the side of my personality that is, um, impatient.

These inexpensive sponge brayers are probably already familiar to everyone; they are sold at stores that sell house paint, at Dick Blick, at some dollar stores, etc.  Many of them are designed to be throw-aways, but I get lots of use out of mine, before they bite the dust.

Above and below are two greeting card covers, created with collage, using cut-outs from prints made with my "Swatton Borders #1 Stencil."  The top greeting card uses some handmade striped paper that I bought long, long ago.  The bottom card's background is a monoprint that I made, folding a piece of glossy cardstock over a dollop of water-thinned aqua acrylic paint. 

This stencil is available here:  http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

Thanks for stopping by...  And many thanks to each of you who have been leaving comments on earlier posts.  Your kindness warms my heart.

 

Re-Run Season Already?

Now that this STENCILGIRL(TM) stencil is available online, I'm re-running an older post ... with a little editing to update it:

One of my new 6"X6" stencils features a pair of soaring osprey (fish hawks) and bears the title Osprey Wings:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s176.htm

 This particular design happens to be one I developed a long time ago, after taking photos at Sandy Hook National Park, NJ, a long peninsula jutting up between a wide double-bay and the Atlantic, with the NYC skyline as background.

The above image, which features one of the two osprey silhouettes on this new stencil, was created long ago in Photoshop.  But I could have created the exact same results using this new stencil -- I simply would have placed the Osprey Wings stencil atop yellow-to-purple paper, traced the outline, cut out the silhouette, and adhered it to a piece of background paper.  Or I could have created the osprey via the alternate (and slower) method described in my recent post that showed the heron image on a Citrasolv-monoprinted background paper.

This background paper started life as a sheet of black glossy cardstock.  I then pressed it, glossy-side-down, to a sheet of Plexiglas* randomly spread with aqua and blue acrylic paints.  I twisted the sheet of cardstock a few times before lifting it off the Plexiglas and setting it aside to dry.  This method of monoprinting often yields results that remind me of seawater.  This particular piece of paper made me think of soaring over ocean waves, looking down ... so it was natural to add the osprey gliding along below the artist's hypothetical viewpoint, watching for a fish.

*Another option would have been to use a Gelli Plate, which would have worked equally well or better.

One More Artwork from my Brand-New 6"X6" stencil "Osprey Wings"

The above is a Gelli Plate print, using my Osprey Wings stencil and a twig of pressed and dried evergreen.  (It was supposed to come out looking like a bird flying toward a distant tree.  Not sure that worked the way I had hoped!)  If you click on the above image you can see that the background paper (Asian newsprint) was first printed with a dollar-store plastic lace placemat used as a stamp.  This stencil is available here:

 http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s176.htm

Still More Artwork using my Brand-New STENCILGIRL(TM) Stencils ...

Above is an example of a monoprint on glossy cardstock, first allowed to dry, then used as a background to be imprinted with a design from a stencil -- here, my brand-new 6"X6" stencil Osprey Wings.

Above is another final-result example of the same stencil being having been used, this time as a resist during the process of marbling with Boku-Undo inks.  This process was detailed in an older post.  Note:  Yellow shades, on white background, yield a subtle-looking final product, since there is little contrast between white and yellow.

Above is another subtle piece, created with the use of my brand-new 6"X6" Heron stencil, molding paste, monoprinting and ink marbling.  This process was described at length in an older post.

Here again is the link for purchase of these two stencils:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/category-s/1832.htm

 

More about My 4 Brand-New Stencils Now Available at StencilGirlProducts.com



Above, repeating my last post, is the brand-new 9"X12" Swatton Borders #1 Stencil.

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm



Above is a sideways view of the brand-new 9"X12" Swatton Borders #2 Stencil -- shown horizontally to perhaps better display the middle border of keys.  The bottom border -- or far-right border, when this stencil is seen vertically -- is a Steampunk-ish design.

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l221.htm

Above is the brand-new 6"X6" stencil Osprey Wings.

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s176.htm

Above is the brand-new 6"X6" stencil Heron.

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s175.htm

These brand-new stencils are available via the individual links above, or the link below can be used to reach all 4 on one webpage:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/category-s/1832.htm

And now for some artwork examples:

Above is a sheet of glossy cardstock that I monoprinted with pastel acrylic paints; then, after dry-time, I imprinted it with orange acrylic paint, using part of the third border in the 9"X12" Swatton Borders #1 Stencil .  I chose to mask off the boxed part of this border, using Frogtape, a temporary-hold painter's tape.  Sometimes I mistakenly call it Green Frog because it's green and because at times my brain seems no bigger than a frog's!  My apologies to the tape's manufacturer, ShurTech!

http://frogtape.com/  (I don't receive compensation for this plug, but I feel guilty for having mis-labeled their product, probably multiple times!)

The above close-up of an abstract artwork of mine shows my use of 2 of the 3 borders included in the brand-new 9"X12" Swatton Borders #2 Stencil.  Note that the Steampunk-ish border is used multiple times on the left side of this image.  Dry-time was allowed between applications of acrylic paint in assorted colors.

Above is another monoprint -- this one, achieved using Citrasolv on a page from a National Geographic magazine -- later imprinted with my brand-new 6"X6" stencil Heron.  Note that I manually filled in the area of the design where the heron's legs meet its body.  For me, the easiest way to do this is to use a small pointed paintbrush and the same shade of acrylic paint that was used thru the stencil to imprint the heron.  This manual addition was tricky since I had opted to blend the heron's color from orange to muted purple.  That color-merge was done by using two different sponge brayers, one loaded with orange paint and the other loaded with muted purple.  Orange was applied first. Then I came in with the muted purple and rolled the brayer lightly over the area where the orange merges into the purple.