Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Altered Address File Cards by Belen Sotelo





Hi everyone. Belen Sotelo here, with my very first CreativeTeam Tuesday post for StencilGirl. I'm excited to be here and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share my love of mixed media and stencils with you. 

I find that having bits of my art out on display in my studio helps keeps my creative energy flowing and reminds me of techniques I've tried or colors I've enjoyed combining. Since much of my art is tucked away in art journals, I wanted to find way to make this possible. Altered address file cards, that I could keep out on my desk,  seemed the perfect solution.

Today I'll share how I used some of my favorite StencilGirl Stencils and art supplies to create a few mixed media cards to add to my file card tray.



I used a mixture of acrylic sprays and heavy body paints, painty papers, cardstock, a brayer and 4x4 stencils. I love the size of these stencils, they're great for working on smaller projects! These are the supplies that were out and within arms reach, but you can use whatever you have handy.



Give your cards a quick shmear of gesso. Here I used white as well as clear.





Once the gesso is dry, it's time to add a few layers of color. I used acrylic sprays and just gave each card a few layers. To vary the texture, some layers I rolled on with a brayer and others I pounced off with a dry paper towel. This isn't meant to be perfect or neat, it's just to add a base layer that we can build on.



Once you have some color on your file cards, let it dry a bit. I gave mine a quick shot with the heat gun.



And now it's time to stencil. This is my fave part! Dab paint through your stencils to add more layers and create texture. Here I used:








I also used the stencils from the May 2017 Woman of Mystery StencilClub subscription. These were designed by by Pam Carriker. I enjoy mixing and matching stencils. You can layer them, flip them, and spin them to get some cool effects.



I used some card stock and painty papers to cut wonky circles to my file cards using gel medium. For this card I used 2 additional stencils:






Now for some mark making. I used a variety or pens and markers for this. You can add as many or as few marks as you'd like.


I sometimes like to add text to my file cards. You can stencil them on or use stickers, like these here from Tim Holtz.






Now that my altered cards were done, all that was left to do was to add them to my card tray and enjoy them!



Thank you for allowing me to share this project with you. I wish you a beautiful week full of color.
Happy Stenciling!
xo,
Belen

12 comments:

  1. I love what you did... I especially love the size of the index cards you are working on. I am sure it will be a great display piece once you have more cards in that beautiful index card box. I think that would be a size card I would like to work in. What size is the index card? thanks Gabriele brattypaddy(at)yahoo (dotcom)

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    1. These cards are approx 3 1/4 × 4 and such a nice size to work on.

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  2. This looks so easy and fun!
    Can you tell me what brand of acrylic sprays those are? My old eyes can't read the label.

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    1. Hi, absolutely I can. They're Marabu Art Spray Acrylic Paints.

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  3. Great project and tutorial! I now am searching for one of those trays so I can make cards - love !

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    1. Thank you, Laura! I hope you've had some luck locating a tray.

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  4. Excellent first post - CONGRATULATIONS! These are gloriously amazing! I love your great colors and stencils - wow! I really like that you can change the cards you look at each day, too - such a wonderful, versatile and unique idea! Thank you also for the amazing detail and photos, I will try it too :)

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    1. Barbee, thank you so much for the wonderful feedback!

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  5. What a wonderful addition you are to an already stellar Stencil Girl creative team! I'll be looking forward to more posts and tutorials from you. Thank you so much for sharing and all the details...*cheers*

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    1. Oh my goodness, Sue... Thank you! I'm honored to be a part of such a creative team and to be sharing my art with you all.

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  6. The cards are awesome! Love all the layers and texture. The bright colors will be perfect to see on a daily basis and you make me want to run to my craft room and create with the hopes of mine turning out half as beautiful.

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    1. Thank you BrendaLea. Hearing that I've made you want to get painty is awesome!

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