Easy to Resist

Some time ago, my friend Cindy Powell and I were exchanging ideas about different ways of creating resists.  I think she's the one who gave me the idea to trace around the openings of a stencil with a Sharpie oil pen -- available at Smile.Amazon.com -- and following this with a coat or two of acrylic paint.

These were my results:

 

 The image above and the image below were both made with Mary Beth Shaw's 9"X12" stencil Blackout Overlap.

 

 The page below was made with my 9"X12" stencil Ivy 9.

Speaking of Mary Beth Shaw -- her 6"X6" stencil Leaf Diamond works nicely when paired with my 6"X6" stencil Quilted Flower Garden.  Try using them together, and see what I mean!

Repeating Pattern Stencils -- Readymade and Customized

At http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/category-s/1932.htm, you will find a new category-grouping of stencils:  Repeating Designs. 

A repeating pattern stencil enables an artist to lift the stencil after its first print, then place it back onto the printing surface and easily line it up with the earlier print -- to maintain even, seamless spacing of the overall finished design.  This can be done endlessly to cover a surface of any size.  It's commonly used by artists working in the fiber arts but it's gaining popularity among those into the paper arts, too.  I suspect the whole idea started back in ancient Egypt with hieroglyphic reliefs along the walls.

My stencils Quilted Flower Garden and Facets fall into this special new category.  Here's how the technique works:

Above:  Having made the first print (on the right) I've lifted the stencil.  In the upper left is the sponge dauber I used to apply the acrylic paint thru the stencil. 

Above:  I've placed the stencil down again, lining it up exactly with the first print.  I recommend using masking tape to get exact alignment.

Above:  I've lifted the stencil after making the second print.  Notice there is a space gap between these two prints.  I could choose to make the third, fourth, fifth, etc., prints with this same space gap between each print.  Or, I could approach the whole project, from step one, by eliminating that space gap.  To do that, I would simply overlap the stencil over the original print, as show below: 

Above is a distance shot, showing the stencil overlapping the original print along one edge.  Below is a close-up which shows this better.

I chose to make my second print using a color-blend that differed from the original print.  If I were to repeat this process again and again, I would continue to create color-blends across the entire printed surface, which could end up any overall size that I want.  But this is just an option, to create variety.  Repeating pattern stencils are often used with no variation in color.

Now that I've shown how the repeating pattern technique works, I'll show how some stencils easily lend themselves to customization, so they can be used in the same way. 

For example, you can create long narrow Repeating Pattern Stencils with my stencil Borders #1, simply by cutting this stencil into 3 equal strips.  Just place the stencil over a self-healing cutting mat pre-printed with a measurement grid.  The below photo, and its close-up that follows, show the stencil lined up with the measurements and grid-lines on the cutting mat.

Once the stencil is lined up where you want it, place a ruler where you want to cut the new stencil edge.  Use the mat's guidelines to keep the ruler straight and, with a Sharpie pen, draw a cutting line.  You can then lift off the stencil and cut it with scissors -- but better yet, for a perfect cut, you can leave the stencil and ruler on the cutting mat, and cut along the line with an X-acto knife.

Likewise, you can easily customize my 9"X12" stencil Wrought Iron Gate to make it a Repeating Pattern Stencil.  Just line it up on the cutting mat and cut off the "ornament" at the top of the "gate."  Below, I've used a ruler with a metal edge that will be useful in the next step, when I will use my X-acto knife to do the cut.  But for now, I'm just drawing the guideline for the cut:

Above:  I've placed the stencil onto the cutting mat, lining it up with the measuring grid pre-printed on the mat.  Those blue lines helped me place the ruler exactly where I wanted, to draw a line between the ornate "gate top" and the rest of the stencil.  This is shown better in the close-up below:

Click on the above image to enlarge it.  This will help you better see the ornate "gate top" that is to be cut off.

The above photo shows the ruler pulled away from the line that I've drawn.  The cut will be made here.

One important thing to note is that this stencil customization gives you an edge-free design.  This kind of raw-edged stencil is more fragile, but the lack of an outer border makes it easier to align prints side-by-side, for a seamless overall effect.

Stencils are tools to be personalized any way you want to achieve your unique artistic goals!

NEW NEW NEW -- FERN FRONDS SILHOUETTE

My just-released Fern Fronds Silhouette is a mini of 4"X4" that packs a big wallop despite its petite size.

In all, I have 6 newly released stencils; each is being posted with projects/techniques under a cluster title-prefix "NEW NEW NEW."

Here are two just-finished Gelli Plate prints, created with two of the 6 new stencils.

Fern Fronds Silhouette (4"X4") was used here --

And here, in another Gelli Plate print, I've used both Fern Fronds Silhouette (on the left) and, on the right, Quilted Flower Garden.  Greater detail is shown when you click on this image to enlarge it--

Please check out all of my NEW NEW NEW posts, for detailed projects using my 6 brand-new stencils at www.StencilGirlProducts.com -- to see all of them, you will need to click on "Older Posts" at the bottom of this web-page.  Thanks!

NEW NEW NEW Cluster -- I Wasn't Satisfied Until ...

... finally, as my last step in this project, I tried Craft-T's Metallic Rub-ons (available at Amazon.com, Walmart and other venues) ...

But before taking that final step, the two of us -- my just-released 6"X6" stencil Quilted Flower Garden and I -- had a hard time working together on this particular project. 

The bumpy journey started with inspiration from my subscription to Cloth Paper Scissors e-newsletter, which reminded me of the near-prehistoric technique of using colorless wax as a resist.

As my substrate, I chose a previously-painted sheet of newsprint.

Unable to find my clear wax crayon (last used when dinosaurs roamed), I settled for a dollar-store white wax candle.  I rubbed it liberally across Quilted Flower Garden, using one hand to hold the stencil in place on the painted newsprint.  I found this stencil ideal for this project because it has no loose-ended designs; all parts of the pattern are attached, enabling me to rub from all directions and to press down hard to get wax into every open area of the stencil -- as shown below, first in full-size and then in close-up detail --

This resulted in a nice build-up of patterned wax on the paper, when I lifted the stencil off.

This build-up is circled in green in the photo below --

The above photo also shows my next step, which was to add opaque yellow acrylic paint.  While the paint was still wet, I buffed off some with a paper towel.  (A soft terrycloth rag would have worked too.)  This is what resulted--

Unhappy with those results, I added a generous dose of dye-based liquid color.  (I used Adirondack Color Wash.)  While that was still wet, I sprayed it with rubbing alcohol.  This is shown in the two photos below; the second photo is a close-up.

I loved the results when they were still wet, as shown above, but after the liquid had dried, disappointment came sneaking in.

But new inspiration pulled me out of the gloom.  I reached for the metallic rub-ons mentioned at the top of this post.  That was when things started to click for me--

Above:  I've begun to rub on silver metallic with a plastic-gloved fingertip.

Above:  a close-up of the metallic silver section.

Above:  a close-up of the red metallic section.

This brand-new 6"X6" stencil Quilted Flower Garden is available at www.StencilGirlProducts.com.  Please check out all my posts clustered into the corral that I call NEW NEW NEW -- it's a lengthy cluster that features each of my 6 brand-new releases in my continuing botanical-themed series.  A variety of techniques/projects are covered. To see all posts, please click on "Older Posts" at the bottom of this web-page.  Thanks for stopping by!

NEW NEW NEW Cluster, re 6 Botanical Stencils Now Released -- Modeling Paste or Heavy Body Acrylic Paint or Blended Fibers Paste + Spray Paints = Stencil Fun

While happily announcing my 6 brand-new stencil releases at www.StencilGirlProducts.com, I've created a fresh version of my modeling-paste-with-spray-paint technique, complete with step-by-step instructions and photos.  In addition to modeling paste, I've tried other dimension- building media, as you will see below.

In this photo sequence, I show how I made several 6"X6" greeting cards with my newly released stencil Quilted Flower Garden.  First, I taped the greeting card into place (over a sheet of freezer paper, shiny side up.) 

 Next, I spread a layer of modeling paste over the stencil --

While the modeling paste was still wet, I sprayed it with liquid watercolor as shown below.  Click on this image to enlarge it -- and take note that, with the spray of liquid watercolor, the stencil has suddenly become a mask.  Its presence masks off parts of the design so that the color-spray can't reach them.

Right after spraying, I lifted off the stencil and placed it, wet side down, on another paper, making a ghost print. Then I washed the stencil before the modeling paste could dry.

 

I did this project 3 times; the first time, as shown above, I used modeling paste ... and got these results:

Click on the above image to enlarge it.  The enlargement better shows the 3D look achieved with the modeling paste.  It also shows the areas that were masked off by the stencil during the color-spraying.

 On the next go-'round, I used Titanium White heavy body acrylic paint with the same stencil and the same sequence of steps, with these results --

 On the third greeting card, I used Blended Fibers Texture Gel Medium to get the results below --

And now I'll show the ghost-prints I made when I flipped the still-wet stencil and pressed it, wet side down, to other papers:

And below is my Office Supervisor, who inspected the work every step of the way ... then showed her excited appreciation by falling asleep.