Swans!

The exquisite elegance of swans has always captured my attention.  I was drawing swan silhouettes for years and years before the happy day that I discovered StencilGirlProducts.com.  So of course when the idea for ATC Mixup Swatton # 2 came along, I wanted to work from one of my many swan silhouettes....

ATC Mixup Swatton # 2 (9" x 12") -- 9 stencils and 2 bonus masks in sturdy Mylar

... hence the stencil and matching mask in the lower right corner above.


As I worked with these two artist-trading-card-sized art-making tools -- the swan stencil and its matching mask -- I found myself making some refrigerator magnets.  Below are two of them, both created with the swan mask.

Above:  This imprint was created on a thin sheet of translucent plastic using a technique in the Absentee Artist chapter of Creative Paper Craft by Nancy Welch.  After the paint dried, I cut out an irregular paint-stained "frame" around the swan; next, I used Super Glue to add a round magnet to its back.  I placed the magnet where the paint was the darkest to keep the magnet invisible from the front.

Above:  This is the mask itself, painted and re-purposed as a refrigerator magnet.  After the paint dried, I used Super Glue to add a round magnet to its back.  I placed the magnet where the paint was the darkest to keep the magnet invisible from the front.

Next up:  An example of swan imagery created by my having first traced inside the stencil's opening with a watercolor pencil; then, with fine detail scissors, I cut around the outline to release the silhouette from its original background  of blue foil laminated paper that came with its own imprinted texture.  The new background, shown below, is novelty paper that came marbled with rich metallic copper, gold and silver.  Surrounding this marbled paper is a thin border of metallic bronze cardstock.

Pictured below, a 5" x 7" greeting card cover of two layers.  To create the top layer, I placed the Artist Trading Card-sized stencil atop glossy black cardstock.  With a sponge dauber, I applied acrylic interference paint thru the stencil.  After the paint dried, I cut out the image using Fiskars Paper Edgers.  (The paint color was labeled as "red" but because Interference paint's reflective quality, the imprint appears as pink in some lighting environments.)

Today's final two swans, below, were made in the same way:  Sponge daubers applied heavy-body acrylic paint through the stencil.

Above:  The background is glossy black cardstock previously dabbled with metallic red and blue acrylic paints.  The foreground swan was added with heavy-body Titanium White acrylic paint.

Bouquets of thanks for stopping here today!  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.