Borders 1 Stencil Still Available at STENCILGIRL(TM) Products

Above is a close-up detail from the "rainbow print" that I made, below:

I made the above print (on a painted-over newsprint background) using a sponge brayer and a "rainbow" of colors created with acrylic paints.  The paints were too much on the liquid side, so some unsightly seepage-under-the-stencil happened in some areas.  Do as I say ... not as I do!  Use heavy body paints, the less runny the better.

The above artwork was created with my 9"X12" stencil Borders 1, which is still available here:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Modeling Paste + Titanium White Acrylic Paint + Spray Paint + Stencils = Fun!

STENCILGIRL(TM)Products stencils used in step one below:  6"X6" Grid, 6"X6" Links, and 9"X12" Borders 2.


Above:  Stencils have been secured to background papers with masking tape.



I use the Pat Dews atomizer, purchased from Cheap Joe's Art Supplies online.  I clean the atomizer thoroughly after each use.



Above and Below:  I have been sprayed the stencils with a mouth atomizer and acrylic inks. 
 



To the left:  I've cut out two 6"X6" backgrounds from the spray-and-stencil prints.

Below: With masking tape, my Cats stencil has been secured to one of these two background papers, and, with an artist's spatula, I've mixed equal parts Titanium white acrylic (heavy body) paint with light modeling paste.

Above:  I've spread the paint-paste mix thru the stencil, lifted off the stencil, and placed it immediately into a basin of soak-water.  I will clean the stencil later with paper towels.

Below are similar artworks created with the same mix of modeling paste and heavy body paint (Titanium White); the first two were created with my 9"X12" stencil Borders 2 --

This is a close-up detail of one border created from my 3-border stencil Borders 1,  which measures 9"X12".  After the paste-paint mixture had dried, I brushed on orange-yellow blending chalk.

After creating this border with my "9"X12" stencil Borders 2,  I applied yellow-orange oil pastel crayon, once the  paste-paint mixture had dried.

The two substrates shown above began as white cardstock; I then embellished them with  monoprints of mauve acrylic paint, which created the wavy backgrounds.

Below:  final versions, as greeting card covers:


This cat, made with my 6"X6" stencil Cats, was painted with glitter glue, after the paste-paint mixture had dried.  My substrate had been previously embellished with spray paint thru my 6"X6" stencil Links.

This osprey, made with my 6"X6" stencil Osprey Wings, was created with the same paste-paint mixture.  After that dried, I used oil pastel crayon to outline the figure.  The substrate had been prepared earlier, with spray paint thru my 6"X6" stencil Grid.  

The Cats stencil (6"X6") is found here:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/Cats-Stencil-Cecilia-Swatton-p/s183.htm

Borders 1 stencil (9"X12") is found here:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

Borders 2 stencil (9"X12") is found here:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l221.htm

Osprey Wings (6"X6") is here:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s176.htm

Grid (6"X6") is here:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s077.htm

Links (6"X6") is here:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s079.htm

Note:  Whenever you see a blue stencil being used, this is a prototype which is sent to designers at STENCILGIRL(TM)Products.  Stencils that you purchase are made from a heavier and sturdier acetate which is translucent white.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Good News --

-- well, okay, it can't rival the news wrapped in the gift of Christmas, but it's a joy for me to announce the release of three new stencils of my design at STENCILGIRL(TM) Products:

Wrought Iron Gate--

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l224.htm

Feathers 9--

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l228.htm

Feathers 6--

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s178.htm

And, while you're on the STENCILGIRL(TM) website, check out the new stencils by Lizzie Mayne!  After I pulled my envious eyes back into their sockets, I placed these stencils at the top of my wish list!

Below is Wrought Iron Gate stencil, which measures 9"X12"--



Above is a faint print that I created with this brand-new stencil.  Here, I used the stencil to enliven the background in a much larger painting.  I layered Wrought Iron Gate over an orange print from one of the 3 borders on my Borders 1 stencil --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

-- and you'll be seeing more examples of my Wrought Iron Gate stencil in days to come.

Above is a "re-run" image, showing a water-and-ink marbled print created with my Feathers 6 stencil (measuring 6"X6".)  See my 11-27 post -- which appears below this post -- for the quick-and-easy steps taken to make these marbled prints.

I plan to use these two brand-new Feathers stencils in composite artworks that will include the use of my bird series of stencils:

Heron --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s175.htm

-- and Osprey Wings --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s176.htm

 

"Seaweed" Rides Again ... With a Sidekick from "Borders #1"

Still more greeting card covers --  the first one, made with my 6"X6" Seaweed stencil --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s099.htm

I made the above collaged greeting card with an irregular cut-out of stripe-patterned handmade paper purchased long ago; for this card, I switched to using the "back" of this novelty paper.  My Seaweed stencil was used with orange acrylic paint on a Gelli Plate, with a substrate of newsprint previously dry- rushed with pale aqua acrylic paint.

The above collaged greeting card takes us back to my 9"X12" Swatton Borders #1 Stencil, which I used with aqua acrylic paint on a brayer-applied orange background.  This was glued (Tombow Glue Stick) to a frame-background of that same striped paper, this time with the striped side facing outward.

This stencil, which contains 3 individual borders, is available at STENCILGIRLPRODUCTS(TM) -- http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

Cleaning Stencils & More New Images made using STENCILGIRL(TM) Stencils I've Designed

Now, I know some of you are way ahead of me on this, but I just learned something that makes me happy.  I had been soaking my just-used-with-acrylic-paint stencils in a basin of water, this being a temporary measure to keep the paint from sticking on, while I continued having fun with more paint applications.  Then, at the unfortunate end of play-time, I would bring out the stencils, one by one, and gently scrub them dry with paper towels.  I would do this while pressing each stencil to newsprint, and occasionally this cleaning of the stencil would transfer a nice ghost image onto the newsprint.  That was a surprise-bonus when it happened. 

But I had trouble with this cleaning method.  It consumed too much time (have I mentioned I'm an impatient artist?) and it led to damage of some details in my more intricate designs.

Having watched one of Mary Beth Shaw's two brand-new DVDs --

http://www.northlightshop.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=mary+beth+shaw+dvd

-- I learned that no water-soak was needed if I were to simply use a baby wipe right after using the stencil with acrylic paint.  This did indeed speed the process ...

... but unlike Mary Beth, I have a heavy hand.  So the problem remained: My brute-force cleansing could damage finely detailed areas of some stencils.

Then the light bulb went off -- my eureka moment!  I placed the stencil, still wet with just-used acrylic paint, onto the usual newsprint.  Next I dipped a plain sponge brayer into clean water, and rolled the brayer over the stencil.  Voila!  It worked beautifully without inflicting any damage!  In some cases I still wanted to gently pat the stencil with a paper towel, before setting it aside to dry thoroughly, but was a quick, easy step to take -- thus pleasing the side of my personality that is, um, impatient.

These inexpensive sponge brayers are probably already familiar to everyone; they are sold at stores that sell house paint, at Dick Blick, at some dollar stores, etc.  Many of them are designed to be throw-aways, but I get lots of use out of mine, before they bite the dust.

Above and below are two greeting card covers, created with collage, using cut-outs from prints made with my "Swatton Borders #1 Stencil."  The top greeting card uses some handmade striped paper that I bought long, long ago.  The bottom card's background is a monoprint that I made, folding a piece of glossy cardstock over a dollop of water-thinned aqua acrylic paint. 

This stencil is available here:  http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

Thanks for stopping by...  And many thanks to each of you who have been leaving comments on earlier posts.  Your kindness warms my heart.

 

More about My 4 Brand-New Stencils Now Available at StencilGirlProducts.com



Above, repeating my last post, is the brand-new 9"X12" Swatton Borders #1 Stencil.

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm



Above is a sideways view of the brand-new 9"X12" Swatton Borders #2 Stencil -- shown horizontally to perhaps better display the middle border of keys.  The bottom border -- or far-right border, when this stencil is seen vertically -- is a Steampunk-ish design.

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l221.htm

Above is the brand-new 6"X6" stencil Osprey Wings.

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s176.htm

Above is the brand-new 6"X6" stencil Heron.

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s175.htm

These brand-new stencils are available via the individual links above, or the link below can be used to reach all 4 on one webpage:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/category-s/1832.htm

And now for some artwork examples:

Above is a sheet of glossy cardstock that I monoprinted with pastel acrylic paints; then, after dry-time, I imprinted it with orange acrylic paint, using part of the third border in the 9"X12" Swatton Borders #1 Stencil .  I chose to mask off the boxed part of this border, using Frogtape, a temporary-hold painter's tape.  Sometimes I mistakenly call it Green Frog because it's green and because at times my brain seems no bigger than a frog's!  My apologies to the tape's manufacturer, ShurTech!

http://frogtape.com/  (I don't receive compensation for this plug, but I feel guilty for having mis-labeled their product, probably multiple times!)

The above close-up of an abstract artwork of mine shows my use of 2 of the 3 borders included in the brand-new 9"X12" Swatton Borders #2 Stencil.  Note that the Steampunk-ish border is used multiple times on the left side of this image.  Dry-time was allowed between applications of acrylic paint in assorted colors.

Above is another monoprint -- this one, achieved using Citrasolv on a page from a National Geographic magazine -- later imprinted with my brand-new 6"X6" stencil Heron.  Note that I manually filled in the area of the design where the heron's legs meet its body.  For me, the easiest way to do this is to use a small pointed paintbrush and the same shade of acrylic paint that was used thru the stencil to imprint the heron.  This manual addition was tricky since I had opted to blend the heron's color from orange to muted purple.  That color-merge was done by using two different sponge brayers, one loaded with orange paint and the other loaded with muted purple.  Orange was applied first. Then I came in with the muted purple and rolled the brayer lightly over the area where the orange merges into the purple.

 

Cheap Joe's Art Supplies 2014 Reference Catalog

I've received good news -- one of my abstract artworks on canvas will be included in the Cheap Joe's Art Supplies 2014 catalog.  If I remember correctly, these catalogs come out during December of each preceding year.  I was stunned when I saw the other artworks selected for this catalog, because they are outstanding!  My hat is off to those other artists!

This is the artwork of mine that was chosen:

Working with acrylic paints, I used stamps, brushes and a brand-new stencil of my design that's now available here --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

Entitled Swatton Borders #1 Stencil, this 9"X12" stencil includes 3 borders:

 
I enjoy designing all of my stencils for STENCILGIRL(TM), yet this one was especially fun.   I love swirls, curls and swoops!

In a much older post, part of this stencil's far-right border was featured in another piece of my art.  In that example, I used the inner swirls of this design, leaving off the outer half-box.  It's easy to mask off part of a stencil design, using painters' temporary-hold tape, so as to use only the part you want in each particular application.  I like Frog tape, but there is a blue masking tape that works well, too.  Mary Beth Shaw uses it in one (or both) of her new DVDs, mentioned in recent posts.

Now Available at StencilGirlProducts(TM) -- 4 Brand-New Designs!

Announcing the arrival of --

Swatton Borders #1 Stencil --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

-- and Swatton Borders #2 Stencil --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l221.htm

-- and Heron Stencil --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s175.htm

-- and Osprey Wings Stencil --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s176.htm

-- and I will soon post more examples of artwork using these brand-new stencils.  In older posts, I have already shown examples of art featuring Heron and Osprey Wings.  Another artwork using Osprey Wings is coming up ...

Back to Christmas & the Now-Available Borders Stencil #1...

Click on the above image to enlarge it.

Back to talking about my now-released 9"X12" stencil

Swatton Borders #1 Stencil --

 

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/l220.htm

 

-- I hadn't planned this, when creating this stencil design, but I've discovered that each of its 3 borders is just the right width for making candles for my handmade Christmas cards.  It's a quick and easy process to roll a paint-loaded sponge brayer across red background paper, with the stencil sandwiched in the middle.  The resulting stencil-print automatically creates its own useful cutting-line -- important to me, since I no longer trust my paper-cutter whose blade had gone cockeyed.  (And to tell a further truth, the paper-cutter is buried under a basketful of art supplies.)  The two edges of the border-design are easy to cut along and end up with a fairly straight line.

 

The "flame" is cut from some novelty paper that's white with gold thread stitched into it, in a squiggle pattern.  It's a beautiful pattern, altho you can't tell from this small cut-out.  I would tell you the source of that novelty paper, but it was a gift years ago, from someone who bought it at Costco.  It's probably no longer carried there.

 

New Stencils Coming up for Release at www.StencilGirlProducts.com ...

... include Borders 1, Borders 2, Borders 3, Wrought Iron Gate, Heron and Osprey Wings. 

The two bird silhouettes are 6"X6" and have been featured in artwork in earlier posts, below this post.

The others are 9"X12" and one of them, Borders 1, was featured in artwork in an earlier post, also below.

Now to show Borders 2 and 3 in action:

Since each of the Borders series of stencils contains three borders per stencil, it's easy to overlay one border design with another.  I've done just that in the two examples above -- detail-shots of an abstract artwork in progress, on canvas.   Here, I have used a sponge-top pounce-type applicator with acrylic paints.

I used the same approach to add this overlay pattern in this detail-shot of another work-in-progress; here, I was working with the Borders 3 stencil:

 Borders 2 stencil (soon to be released):

 Borders 3 stencil (soon to be released):

And finally, below is shown a subtle, translucent white (Zinc White) overlay that I created with the same type of stencil brush and acrylic paint, using my soon-to-be-released stencil Wrought Iron Gate:

9"X12" soon-to-be-released stencil Wrought Iron Gate

 

An Art Journal Page Designed with Part of One Border on the 3-Part "Borders 1" stencil, Soon to be Released

In this facsimile of an art journal page, the background paper was created by monoprinting, as detailed in the post below this post.

After this background paint has dried, the next step is to place over it one of the three borders in my soon-to-be-released 9"X12" stencil Borders 1 (www.StencilGirlProducts.com.)  In this particular example, I took the option of using only part of the border -- this border-design includes decorative bars; these decorative bars can either be included -- or, as shown here, the bars can be masked off (on the stencil itself, using masking tape.)  This is just one example of the creative freedom that's part of the fun of art-making with stencils.

The Borders 1 stencil:

To watch a video of monoprinting using a sheet of glass or Plexiglas, go to:  http://www.goldenpaints.com/technicaldata/monoprnt.php

Note that the speaker on this video says you have the option of using "open acrylic" paints to prolong the printing time and to facilitate easier lifting of the finished monoprint.  I agree this is a good idea for beginners.  These samples of mine, however, were created with normal acrylic paints.  I started using open acrylics when I bought my Gelli Plate.
 

Border Stencils are Coming!

More new stencils that I've designed will be coming available at www.StencilGirlProducts.com; below, I've used one of them, Borders 1, to add design elements to this abstract-on-canvas work-in-progress ...

 

Borders 1 is a 9"X12" stencil made up of three separate borders; each border is 11 1/4" long and 2" wide.  Art journaling and the book arts had been on my mind when I had designed my border series (alongside the Borders 1 stencil is a Borders 2 as well as well as a Borders 3, all with the same 3-border-per-stencil format.) 

 

But when -- to my delight -- my stencil-prototypes arrived yesterday, I decided to apply them to some of my works-in-progress:  abstracts on canvas that I am readying for a local solo art show that will last thruout October.

 

In the unfinished piece above, one of the stencil-created borders was used to make the orange vertical pattern in the upper right.  Another border, from the same stencil, was used in creating the dark orange pattern that runs horizontally inward from the far left, less than halfway down the left side.

 

I chose those two patterns because, to my eye, they play nicely with the patterns established earlier, when I used a rubber stamp.  (If you see this post, Mary Ann, you will recognize the stamp!  Marge, I'm sending a bouquet of thank-you's up to you!)

 

The Borders #1 Stencil: