Confession...

Every once in a while -- not often, I admit -- I break down and actually wash a stencil ... usually when I've used a 3-dimensional medium like molding paste with the stencil. 

Most recently, I washed my 9"X12" stencil Tangled Pods. 

As it happened, I had a blank white paper underneath the stencil during the cleaning (done with rubbing alcohol and a soft terrycloth rag.)  

When I lifted the stencil, I found this reverse print ...

... and I like it.  It will come in handy someday ... for something!

Happy Mother's Day to all my fellow mothers out there!

Flower Pot Decoration with Stencils

I decided to work my way up to the flower pot ...

First I did a test on foil paper.  Foil papers are great for use with stencils, even the slightly embossed foil papers that I found in my stash.

On a purple sheet of foil, I used metallic white paint with a Sofft Sponge to apply paint thru my 9"X12" stencil Boxed Vines.

Above:  BOXED VINES stencil is taped into place over the foil.  

 

Above:  Metallic white paint has been applied.

I wasn't thrilled with the results ... too messy-looking.

So, turning to the flower pot itself, I switched to a different medium -- spray.  Lots of spray paints would work for this, including the kinds that come in ready-to-use cans.  

But for this project, I chose to use acrylic inks and my Pat Dews mouth atomizer.  (Clicking on this link, you can watch a demo showing how to use this atomizer, which is sold online at Cheap Joe's Art Supplies.)

My flower pot is 5" in diameter -- I don't recommend trying to use this stencil on anything smaller.  The horizontal top section --

-- of Boxed Vines is exactly the right size to use twice on a 5-in. diameter flower pot.

 With masking tape, I secured the stencil to the flower pot.

Above:  back view of upside-down flower pot, stencil attached.

Above:  front view of right-side up flower pot, stencil attached.

First, I sprayed with green acrylic ink.

When that layer had dried, I sprayed a top layer of metallic blue acrylic ink.

Once this second layer was dry, I peeled off the stencil and re-applied it to the other side of the pot; then I repeated the double layer of sprays. 

While I had the spraying gear out, I used it on the foil sheet mentioned earlier, spraying lightly over the original stenciled pattern.  The spray did the trick -- concealing the messy look that I hadn't liked ...

Click on the above image to enlarge it.

Cut apart, the two panels above will work well in an art journal, maybe even on the journal cover, as topmost embellishments -- because that foil background adds pizzazz. 

Below is the finished flower pot.

ABOVE:  THE FINISHED FLOWER POT.

ABOVE:  EVEN THE STENCIL IS BEAUTIFUL!

 And the catch-all paper from underneath the flower pot turned out to be pretty enough to keep --

-- as a future background for a print made with the Gelli Plate.

I'll sign off showing another foil sheet that I stenciled.  This time the stencil was Mimosa.
  

   

Darlene Olivia McElroy

 Darlene Olivia McElroy is an artist whose name became important to me when I read a book she co-wrote, Surface Treatment Workshop. (It's a book I highly recommend -- available at SmileAmazon.)

Click on her name above to see her You Tube demo Demented Gold Leaf.  This video shows two ways to use stencils.  

First, she used stencils in a traditional way, with paint, to embellish the lower edge of the blue substrate she uses in this video.

That first step, already familiar to every stencil user, is not demonstrated in this video; instead, this demo focuses on her technique Demented Gold Leaf.  It's a cute title for her method of creating distressed gold leaf as a final step on a surface that's been prepared in advance.  

This is a short video well worth watching if you love to use stencils!