Sherry Canino's Beautiful Art

One of my favorite techniques, which I admit I don't use often enough, is in MaryBeth Shaw's second book, Stencil Girl:  Mixed Media Techniques for Making and Using Stencils.

Sherry Canino used this technique with part of my 9"x12" stencil  Feathers 9 and National Geographic pages ... with exciting results:

The Feathers 9 stencil in its entirety looks like this:

If you're ever in the Finger Lakes area of upstate NY, you're welcome to visit Sherry's store, Canino's Artistic Café, at 106 Metropolitan Park Drive, Liverpool, NY; Sherry offers workshops too.  Liverpool is a community on the north shore of Onondaga Lake, offering a range of one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants, as well as scenic lakeshore trails. 

Thanks for visiting!
 

A Parade of Greeting Cards made with Stencils

Today I'm posting a march of 5 greeting cards:




The above greeting card was made with Fern Fronds Silhouette Stencil Mini, which measures 4"x4".

The greeting card above was made with my 6"x6" stencil Heron.

The greeting card above and the greeting card below were made with my 6"x6" stencil Osprey Wings.



 

 

The collaged greeting card above was embellished with a partial print made with molding paste, spray paint and my 6"x6" Ferns 6 Stencil.  

 

Ferns 6 Stencil in its entirety looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting!

Still Stamping with the 4-inch Round Gelli Arts Plate and "Stencil Guts" from StencilGirlProducts.com

In another post, I provided a link to a Gelli Arts video that shows how to use stencils with the new Gelli Arts Plates that come in small sizes.  Now I've found an even better link from the same source --

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW5JNYzn6Dc

The backgrounds in my posts today were created using the plate this way. 

It's important to note that I keep the mask in the wet paint when pressing the inverted plate onto my substrate.  I don't remove it prior to making the print.  I find that this approach works better for me than if I were to remove the mask once it has made its imprint in the wet paint layer on the plate.  (When working with stencils, however, I do remove them from the wet plate before pulling a print.)

After creating those two backgrounds (using old encyclopedia pages as substrates), I pulled out red acrylic paint, an applicator sponge, and two of my 6"x6" stencils -- Heron, followed by Osprey Wings.

With those tools, I added the final touch of stenciled images, letting the mask-created imprints form a backdrop.

 

 

 

 

Here's hoping that still more batches of "Stencil Guts" masks will be again available at StencilGirlProducts.com!

Using the 4-Inch Round Gelli Plate with "Stencil Guts"

For an earlier post, I used my 8-inch round Gelli Arts Plate with "Stencil Guts," the currently sold-out masks from StencilGirlProducts.com. 

For today's post I switched to my 4-inch round Gelli Plate, which can be used in much the same way as a rubber stamp. 

The round plate is placed on an acrylic base and brayered with a layer of open acrylic paint; next, one or more masks are pressed into this wet paint.  Then the plate is turned over and firmly pressed -- wet side down -- to the substrate.  This easy process is shown here: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iK5GeXMMFI

It's important to note here that, for me, masks don't work exactly the same way as the stencils used in the above video.  Rather than remove the mask before making the print, I had more success when I kept the mask, or masks, on the Gelli Plate while inverting it and pressing it firmly to the substrate.

Because these masks stay securely in place on the plate, held there by the wet paint, this stamping-type technique can easily be used on any smooth surface -- clayboard, journal pages, etc. 

The surface doesn't even need to be horizontal.  These masks stay in place so well, in the wet paint on the plate, that they can be used vertically too.  Think walls, furniture, etc. 

Here are some of my prints:

In the above print, you can see that I removed some masks from still-wet paint and pressed them onto a paper that had been previously printed with the 4-inch round plate.  I did likewise in the print shown below.

For the prints shown here, my substrates were pages from old encyclopedias.  I chose pages that originally had drawings of birds of various kinds.  Many of those original birds got covered during the printing process ... but a few of them managed to stay visible even after multiple prints.

StencilGirl's New Masks and the Round 8-Inch Gelli Plate

Currently, the Mylar masks known as "Stencil Guts"  are sold-out at  www.StencilGirlProducts.com.  (These masks are automatically created when a laser cuts stencils that are designed with silhouette imagery.) 

In this new product category, birds are among the images offered.  I've used my 8" round Gelli Plate and two of these bird-shaped masks in creating this print; it's a pair of osprey flying across the setting sun:

This is admittedly a crude example of one way to use these new masks.  I plan to do a better job with my small circular Gelli Plate and some of the smaller bird masks.

The above masks were created from the making of my 6"x6" stencil Osprey Wings:

  Altho currently sold out, I think these masks will be offered again at StencilGirlProducts.com, once the supplies are replenished. 
 

Big News at www.StencilGirlProducts.com! Join in the Blog Hop Giveaway at www.stencilgirltalk.com!

Big news!  Join in the fun giveaway blog hop at www.stencilgirltalk.com!



BUTTERFLY JOURNEYS BY CAROLYN DUBE

The above stencil -- the stunning creation of Carolyn Dube -- is one source of beautiful "Stencil Guts" butterfly masks now available at www.StencilGirlProducts.com. 

Back before Carolyn developed this stencil, and before today's super-big launch of StencilGirlProducts' "Stencil Guts" masks, I had created similar masks, which I had used while taking an online Gelli Plate workshop with Jane Davies. 

The print at the top of this post came from that online workshop; I'm posting it just to give an idea of what can be created with these brand-new "Stencil Guts" -- the possibilities are endless!
  
This groundbreaking new product at StencilGirlProducts.com  is automatically created when select stencils are being laser-cut.  By select stencils, I mean stencils like these:

CATS

and



HERON

and

OSPREY WINGS STENCIL

and



BUTTERFLY JOURNEYS BY CAROLYN DUBE

Join in a fun giveaway blog hop showing off these new "Stencil Guts" masks!  Today, visit www.stencilgirltalk.com!  
 

FEATHERS and VASES ... and a Plug about Big News Coming from StencilGirlProducts.com!

 

Please click on the above image to better see details.

Today's post is a new 3-piece collage made from two Gelli Plate prints.  The green-gold background was made with my 9"x12" stencil Vases --

And the three orange-green geometric collage pieces were cut from another Gelli Plate print that I'd made using my 9"x12" stencil Feathers 9 --

Note:  Feathers 9 has a "little sister" stencil measuring 6"x6 --

Above:  Feathers 6.

Stay tuned for news of a special Blog Hop Giveaway to announce a new product at www.StencilGirlsProducts.com!  The big day will be March 22 and the place to visit will be www.stencilgirltalk.com!  

String Gel Texture and Hidden Imprints

This recently completed 12"x12" stretched canvas has a "secret underground..."

... as these close-ups show: 

Clicking on the above close-up to enlarge it, you can see, on the left, a faint imprint made with my 6"x6" stencil Palm Fronds Silhouette Small. On the right, you can see a faint imprint made with my 9"x12" stencil Prayer Flags. 

Ditto for the above, except that here you see a faint imprint made with Prayer Flags.

Ditto -- Prayer Flags.

Ditto -- Prayer Flags.

The Prayer Flags stencil itself looks like this:

And the 6"x6" Palm Fronds Silhouette Stencil Small looks like this:

The original painting, created with these 2 stencils and a few layers of paint, had not turned out to suit me -- so I painted over it with a water-thinned layer of white gesso.  Then I started the new painting that appears at the top of this post by drizzling string gel over the surface and letting it dry.  Then I began adding new layers of paint, using sea sponges.  This kind of flexible applicator gave me the freedom to blend colors and to apply thin layers were desired. 

BOXED VINES in Collages

In November and December, I took an online workshop given by Jane Davies.  Below is one of the pieces I did for this workshop.  For its finishing touch, I used a cut-out from a Gelli Plate print that I had created using my 9"x12" stencil Boxed Vines...

I used another cut-out from the same Gelli Plate print in a new collage, here --

The stencil itself looks like this:

Thanks for visiting!

FACETS Stencil in the Hands of Artist Jennifer Armstrong!

My 9"x12" stencil Facets was used in an art journal by artist Jennifer Armstrong:

I applaud Jennifer's creative use of this stencil!

The stencil itself looks like this:

The faces in Jennifer's art were made with Pam Carriker's 9"x12" stencil Face Map Front.

Jennifer applied soft graphite pencil thru the stencils' openings, then used a blending stump to soften areas.  Next, she removed/lightened areas with a power eraser.  This is a variation of the reductive/subtractive method that I've posted about here:

http://heartworkbycecilia.blogspot.com/2014/06/new-new-new-hows-your-subraction.html

... and here:

http://heartworkbycecilia.blogspot.com/2014/06/steampunk-still-steaming-along.html

... and here:

http://heartworkbycecilia.blogspot.com/2015/03/9x12-stencil-tangled-pods.html

As these earlier posts show, the basic technique is the same, but -- as Jennifer Armstrong has shown -- there are many ways to introduce variety.  Besides Jenn Mason, another artist who first introduced this technique to me, is my friend Cindy Powell.

Thanks for visiting!
 

Mimosa Stencils in Two Sizes

Elise Bky, one of the members of the StencilGirl Stencil Club, has created a beautiful 3-dimensional artwork using one of my two Mimosa stencils  in the central upper area:

This is what the 6"x6" Mimosa stencil looks like:

And here is the 9"x12" Mimosa stencil:

Thanks for visiting!