StencilGirl Creative Team Member Louise Nelson and Her Unique Art Necklaces made with CLUSTERED LEAVES Stencil

StencilGirl Creative Team member Louise Nelson is a skilled jewelry artist who's made unique and eye-grabbing necklaces, using prints made with my 9" x 12" stencil Clustered Leaves --

my 9" x 12" stencil Clustered Leaves

Below are three of Louise's photos showing her beautiful, one-of-a kind necklaces --

To see all of Louise's photos and read her step-by-step directions, please visit here.

To keep up with Louise at Instagram, go here.

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To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils, please start here.

Canterbury Art Show

The annual Canterbury Art Show, in Rumson, NJ, will run Aug. 31 thru Sept. 3.  

This year, I received the blessing of having all three of my Jury Show entries accepted -- this has never happened before!

For two of those three, I have StencilGirl -- and designer Trish McKinney -- to thank!  

I used Trish's stencils Forked Bare Branch Background and Delicate Bare Branch and Twigs in creating these on stretched canvas with High Flow Acrylics by Golden --

I titled them Nikola I and Nikola II in honor of Nikola Tesla. 

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If you'd like to scroll thru the pages of my own StencilGirl stencils, please start here. 

Collage & Acrylic with 4 6" x 6" Stencils -- ORNAMENTAL IRON CURLS, SKI LIFT WORKS, PAVILION SHADOWS & SWATTON GRID STENCIL

Today's post features a collage-and-acrylic artwork on stretched canvas --

The outer-area's cool colors were created with Golden High Flow Acrylics, following a technique demonstrated by Pat Dews in her DVD Designing Great Starts with Texture and Form (available at Cheap Joe's Art Supplies.) 

The inner area is collage.  The papers I used were prints made with two of the same stencils that had been used on the outer edges -- Ornamental Iron Curls and Swatton Grid Stencil (both 6" x 6".)

Also used on the outer edges were two other 6" x 6" stencils -- Ski Lift Works and Pavilion Shadows.

These stencils in their entirety look like this --

Swatton Grid Stencil

Ornamental Iron Curls

Pavilion Shadows

Ski Lift Works

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To see the multiple pages of my stencils, please check here.

Using 9" x 12" stencils PRAYER FLAGS & THISTLES

I created this piece while taking an online class with Joan Fullerton. 

Part of Joan's painting process involves using stencils.  So in developing the background for today's piece, I used Prayer Flags stencil, shown here:

When it came time to build up a focal area in the painting, I chose another 9" x 12" stencil, Thistle --

-- but, rather than use the stencil as-is, with spaces between flowers and stalks, I decided I wanted an overlapping image.

So I used this stencil three times, lifting after each imprint.  After giving each imprint time to dry, I placed the stencil back onto the same area, bringing the images together ... the way they would appear if this were a bouquet being held in someone's hand.

The result:

For a completely different look, I cut the Prayer Flags stencil into pieces and used them to make a print --

-- and my next step was to cut the print down to fit on a greeting card cover.  The cut-down paper then became background for a photo I'd taken years ago --

To scroll thru my full line of StencilGirl stencils, please start here.

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Artist Marsha Valk & CLUSTERED LEAVES Stencil & Brand-New Columnist for StencilGirl Talk!

Artist Marsha Valk has been featured in an earlier blog post; at that time, she delighted me with the way she had used, among other StencilGirl stencils, my 9" x 12" stencil Clustered Leaves, with bright pink paint in developing this beautiful accordion-fold book.  With a print made using this stencil, she created a circular frame for "The moon was yellow and the night was young" -- 

Marsha Valk was recently selected by MaryBeth Shaw as one of the brand-new StencilGirl Columnists!  You can check out all the details here.

My stencil Clustered Leaves looks like this in its entirety --

Thanks for taking time to stop by today!  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils, please start here.

Marbling with Stencils! Starring Art by Irma Philmus!

Over the summer, my friend Mary Ann Russo hosted a play date at her home, inviting mutual friends of ours to join in on a marbling session.

One of these friends, Irma Philmus, went home at the day's end with these fantastic artworks under her arm --

In making these marbled pieces, Irma chose to use my 9" x 12" stencil Thistle.

Her approach was similar to one that I'd used several years ago ...

I'd chosen marbling inks, Boku-Undo, that can be found here:

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

The reason I had opted for this particular marbling process -- over the many other approaches to marbling -- was (1) I didn't need to prepare a special kind of floating liquid; nor (2) did I need to clean stencils afterward.  That made for quick preparation and quick clean-up -- leaving more time for having fun!

My method used plain water as the liquid upon which the marbling inks float.  

I started with Maria McGuire's beautiful 6"X 6" Stitch a Doily stencil-- 

Maria's doily stencil created the above design.

-- and the other stencils were mine: my 6"X 6" stencil Kaleid --
  as well as Two Fans (9" x 12") and Osprey Wings (6" x 6").

I used a disposable foil basin filled with water; to its surface I gently added inks -- first dipping brush tips into the inks, one by one, followed by touching these inked brush tips to the surface of the water.

Above:  Water in a foil basin with  floating blue and green inks that were swirling together.  These trails of ink had been added by brush tips dipped in the inks.

 After these inks have been added, the next step, shown below, was to GENTLY float a stencil on the surface of the water:

Above-- Maria McGuire's doily stencil floating on the water in the basin.



The following step:  I placed printmaking paper gently atop the water's surface, sandwiching the stencil between the paper and the floating inks.  In the above shot, you see the paper from its bottom/back-side, while its "face" is downward, resting on the unseen floating stencil and the unseen inked water under the stencil.  

My last step was to lift the printmaking paper, turn is over to be face-up and set it aside on a flat surface to dry -- and that's all there was to it!

Above:  This print was made with my 9"X12" stencil Two Fans.

 Above is a marbled print using my 6"x6" stencil Osprey Wings.

Above is a marbled print using my 6"X6" stencil Kaleid.

Above:  Marbled background created with 6" x 6" stencil Kaleid.  Foreground collaged stained stencils include parts of 9" x 12" It's Jungle Out There, 6" x 6" stencil Mimosa 6, and part of Lizzie Mayne's Shattered Stencil. 

Above:  Made with my 6" x 6" stencil Feathers 6.

3 CAUTIONS:   (1) I found that it works best to use fresh, dry stencils for each and every dip.  Wet stencils don't float as well on the surface of the water.  So have a lot of stencils at hand! 

(2) As soon as the paper gets saturated -- a matter of seconds -- immediately lift it from the surface of the water.  Long soaks are not needed, and they tend to disrupt the stencil design.

(3)  With this technique, the best results come from using stencils that are 6" x 6" or 4" x 4".

You can scroll thru the StencilGirl pages showing all my stencils starting  here.  Thanks for visiting!  To follow this blog by email, please use that option, available in the upper right.

Video! CLUSTERED LEAVES Stencil, Sherry Canino and a Gelli Plate!

Here's a video done by Sherry Canino using my 9" x 12" stencil Clustered Leaves--

https://youtu.be/iDf2YSolNzk

If visiting upstate NY in the Finger Lakes area, be sure to stop in at Canino's Artistic Cafe! -- 106 Metropolitan Pk. Drive, Liverpool, NY.

You can keep up with Sherry online here.

Clustered Leaves Stencil looks like this --

To scroll thru the pages of all my StencilGirl stencils, please start on this page.

Thanks for stopping by at my blog today!

Artist Kate Palmer doing Fantastic Work with 4" x 4" Stencil PALM FRONDS SILHOUETTE MINI

Using this link, you can travel back in time to a now-ended blog hop that featured a full line-up of artists, including Kate Palmer.  Kate delighted me by using one of my stencils -- 4" x 4" Palm Fronds Silhouette Mini, -- along with Lindy's art-making powders and sprays.  (In Kate's top photo below, you can also see her using the Colorbox Stylus Tool for pressing color thru stencil openings -- in this way, she gets a print with all the fine details of the stencil.)   Kate's results were breathtaking!

Click here to see Kate Palmer's step-by-step demo-video.

Many thanks to Kate!  And to you my blog readers!

To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils, please visit here.

To keep current on all upcoming StencilGirl blog hops and their giveaways, check here. 

FANTASIA 9" x 12" Stencil

Above is the imprint left on a stretched canvas after I'd used multiple shades of acrylic paint with my 9" x 12" stencil Fantasia.

After the stencil had a build-up of stain from projects like this, I decided to cut it into pieces so I could use them as collage elements on another stretched canvas --

Here are art samples of other prints I've made with this stencil ....

The three similar pieces above were all made with the subtractive/reductive technique.  Want directions, with step-by-step photos, for this technique?  Just check here.

My Fantasia stencil in its entirety looks like this --

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

To scroll thru the pages of my full line of StencilGirl stencils, please go to this page.

Gift Bags Decorated with Stencil-Prints!

I've made the happy discovery that plain white gift bags can be bought very cheaply!  If I remember correctly, I found mine at AmazonSmile.com.  But I've also seen them at art/craft stores like Michaels.

For this project I've made on pages from old encyclopedias.  I chose pages with botanical illustrations so there would be some rhyme-and-reason to the finished look.  To make these first three prints below, I used my 6" x 6" Ginkgo stencil.

Below are two similar prints, made with my 6" x 6" stencil Silhouette of a Wildflower Bouquet.

After the prints dried, I cut them out, then used a gluestick to add them to both sides of the gift bags.  Below are several giftbags created this way...

Above:  Another 6" x 6" stencil, Swatton Flowers Version 1, was used to make this print.

Above:  Silhouette of a Wildflower Bouquet Stencil (also 6" x 6") was used to make this print.

Above:  This print was made with 9' x 12" Thistles Stencil, placed over a print originally made with 9" x 12" Fantasia Stencil and 6" x 6" Tiger Lily stencil.  These details can be better seen if you click on this image to enlarge it.

At least three other members of StencilGirl Stencil Club have been brave enough to print with stencils directly onto giftbags!  That's a great idea.  But my giftbags were not completely flat when folded shut, so I chose this easier approach.   

My full line of stencils, including ones used today, are on StencilGirl.com pages that start here.

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