YaYa's Art Camp 2025

I am a happy YaYa to four (4) Granddaughters aged 10, 8, 6, & 4. I became a stepmom to 10-year-old twins (boy/girl) when I married their father over 25 years ago. Their families have each blessed us with two (2) girls, resulting in our stair-step grands. 

A couple of years ago, I started a tradition with the older girls called “YaYa’s Art Camp,” and it is something that they ask for when summer rolls around. Missing out on raising young children, I remain fascinated by the enthusiasm a kid has for making, getting messy, and learning new ways to create. Plus, a couple of hours together in the Studio leads to all kinds of wonderful conversations and memories. I work best 2:1, so I had the younger ones one week and the older ones the following week. 

The little ones enjoyed lots of painting projects and got a big kick out of mixing paints to make “their own” colors. My 6-year-old grand mixed a blue she called “Serene” and was very proud of her creation. They painted their first name letters, stools for their room, and used fabric markers on aprons.

In past years, when the older ones were their ages, their favorite activity (aside from painting their first name letters) was melting crayons on rocks. Super fun, satisfying, and easy. Simply find some rocks about as big as your hand and put them on a baking sheet at 200 degrees, roughly 30-45 minutes. Create a nest of kitchen towels in front of each kid and place a hot rock in it. Grab some crayons and let them go to town melting crayons on one rock at a time. The rock will stay warm for loads of experimentation. 

This year, for the older ones, I took inspiration from a couple of StencilGirl Designers! 

Kristin Peterson has a terrific tutorial for making fabric scrap bowls! These were a huge hit with the girls, and YaYa has a ton of fabric scraps! Kristin has a tutorial for making them here: Altered States Fabric Bowl

As you are probably aware, Carolyn Dube is a wizard at Gel Plate Printing. They ADORED making prints, and I was thankful that I had taken a couple of Carolyn’s workshops when I had Ephemera Paducah. The technique that made the girls gasp with glee was this one: 

The Beehive Stencil is by Margaret Peot L978 

Step 1 - Spread acrylic paint all over your plate and put a stencil on top of it. It’s easiest with a more open stencil rather than one with little bitty openings. 

Step 2 - Put a piece of paper on top of your stencil and rub the paint through the stencil onto the paper. You may have to use more than one piece of paper to essentially clear out the openings.

Step 3 - Leave your stencil in place and choose a different color paint. Brayer over the stencil and get paint down into the openings you have just cleared out.

Step 4 - Lift your stencil

Step 5 - Put a piece of paper down on your gel plate and lift your print

Step 6 - Ooooohhh and Aaaaahhhh over your print. I got a “YaYa, you are brilliant!!!”

Step 7 - Repeat

With Carolyn’s permission, here is a quick video I made of this technique. YaYa's Art Camp Gel Plate Printing

We spent about 2 hours making gel prints, as one does! I gave them each a color wheel, and we talked about using complementary and analogous colors in our prints. We then made a collage using torn-up pieces of our prints, and stenciled on top. When that was done, we painted the negative part of a simple image. 

The Stars come from a great StencilClub Stencil 05-2025

Carolyn Dube's word stencils are always on point. L923 & L924

Linda Edkins Wyatt has a great ATC stencil L852

Finally, we created some spooky art for Halloween, transforming thrift and antique store finds into terrifying scenes! They are so excited to decorate for Halloween this year. 

I hope this gave you some ideas for crafting with your grands or neighborhood kids. Make some memories!!

StencilGirl Stencils + Molding Paste = A Match Made in Heaven!

Hey there! I am Kristin Williams of Ephemera Paducah, home of the Everyday Artist! 

Nothing goes hand-in-hand as well as Molding Paste (same as Texture Paste, Grunge Paste, etc.) and Stencils. There. I said it. If you’ve never used it or haven’t used it in a while, this is the post for you.

Molding or texture paste dries hard and adds dimension to your surface design. 

This medium provides a wonderfully adventurous and welcoming surface for inks, fluid acrylics, regular acrylics, or whatever liquid medium you want to flow through it. If precision is your jam, quit reading. You cannot control this beast. You LITERALLY have to go with the flow.  

Before we get too far, if you want to watch a super real, mistakes and all, not a lot of talking video about my process, click here. For a description and photos, keep scrolling. 

When I finish or nearly finish a journal, I ponder what I want on the front of it. Because of its versatility and interesting outcomes, most often I’ll reach for one of my favorite detailed stencils and some Molding Paste. I tend to do this at the end of completing a journal because it creates a bumpy surface and journaling, for me, is a messy process. I don’t want to mess up the front. 

You can also use it on paper (I have an affection for tags) as well as canvas or wood surfaces. I use the tags in my art journaling or collage. 

I mentioned grabbing a detailed stencil and this is my personal preference. I like all the little bits, textures, and shapes a detailed stencil provides. You can use any stencil with Molding Paste but beware the larger the area of the medium, the greater the risk for cracking or flaking during usage of it. 

Generally, I have a stack of deli paper on hand to put behind the covers of the journal creating a barrier for the pages within. It’s not foolproof, but it helps. 

Using either a palette knife or one of my favorite yellow Bondo scrapers I pick up at Harbor Freight I spread the paste through the stencil much like icing a cake. I hold it down with one hand and spread it with the other. 

OF NOTE!! Although I generally do not wash my stencils, I always have a pan of water handy when I am using stencils with Molding Paste. You don’t want that stuff to dry in your stencil and ruin it. You also don’t want to run the dirty water down your drain. Wash your stencil in the pan and then throw the pan water outside. 

Because I’ve heard of people being impatient and ruining their surfaces by painting or manipulating too soon, ahem, I let my paste dry on the surfaces overnight. A good trick is to work with it your last hour of the day making art and then leave it to dry. 

The next day I feel all over where I have applied Molding Paste without rubbing. I just lay my hand on the textured areas. If anything feels cold that means it is not yet dry. Once you can confirm all is dry, the fun starts. 

A twofer trick I’ve learned for this next step is to create a pile of book pages, ledger paper, scrapbook paper you hate, and other ephemera (10-12 pieces) and put it underneath where you are working. Trust me, there is a method to my madness. 

Get any kind of drippy medium - acrylic inks, sprays, fluid acrylic paints — and hold your piece above the pile. Squeeze some color directly on it and then attack with your water spray letting the drips fall where they may. Periodically toss your pile of drip-catching papers and blot your Molding Paste paper onto the pile. You can even pick up colors other than the one you are working with. 

By doing this, you end up with a great load of collage paper!

Once you get to a look you like with the runny mediums, set your work aside to dry. Separate your collage papers pile so they don’t stick together. 

 

Thanks for reading and as I said at the beginning, there is a warts and all process video you can take a look at here. 

To See or Not to See...Your Art Supplies

Hello! I am Kristin Williams and, like you, I have too many #$@^ art supplies. 

Amiright????? 

Recently I culled through, gifted, sold, tossed, and essentially liquidated the contents of my 2.500 s.f. shop & studio, Ephemera Paducah. For about 3 months I felt like I did nothing but make 87,532 micro-decisions each day. 

• Do I toss it? 
• Do I keep it? 
• Does it work?
• Does someone else want this?
• Where will I put it? 
• What will it go with? 
• Am I ever going to touch it again? 
• Do I want to touch it? 
• Will I remember where I put it? 
• Don’t I have another one of these?
• Is this the good one??
• Repeat. 

At the end of the days in December and November when my husband and I would have the dreaded “what do YOU want for dinner conversation,” I would be in the fetal position in the corner mumbling, “you pick you pick you pick you pick.” Actually, I was probably yelling, "A MANHATTAN!” but the incoherent mumbling makes for a better story. 

I survived and am on the other side. 

Thankfully I had great helpers, and wonderful customers who enjoyed a heck of a sale, and, just in time, two enterprising folks appeared out of the woodwork and purchased what was left lock, stock, and barrel. By early December the place was cleared out except for what I kept for personal use. 

Yeah, more micro-decisions. Where to put all the supplies I wanted to keep?

I ignored the piles as long as I could, but when my big dog TeeJay decided to snack on a tray of Acrylic Inks and took the title “Blue Dog” to a realistic level. I had to get busy. 

Sidebar — I don’t know about you, but I have to have something mindless going on in the background while working in my studio. A TV is an art supply for me. I am not ashamed. And, thankfully, as I was doing the business of integrating a gazillion supplies into my home studio in December, I was incredibly thankful for Hallmark Christmas movies. They got me through sorting pens and pencils by color and lifelessness because you can tune out and pick up in the next movie but not miss a thing.  

At first, I thought I needed either everything either out of sight, shoving bins into existing furniture and closets, or arranged in cute carts I could rotate as I needed. Since TeeJay is head level with the top of the carts, and art supplies are so delicious, I had to scrap that concept. 

Also, I know myself. If I can’t see it when I am working, I am not going to use it. Having all the acrylic paints boxed up in a piece of furniture across the room from my desk was not going to work for me. 

Mary Beth Shaw to the rescue! She had gone through the exact same mental exercise of “to see or not see” her Art supplies (prior to the horrible incident of frozen pipes bursting in her studio in December). I hopped in the truck and ran up to St. Louis to see her organizational methods for myself, and fell in love. 

Off to The Container Store we went for clear stackable drawers, (which she reported to me post studio flooding, stayed dry inside). Once home I rearranged the existing furniture in my home studio and created a nest around my desk where I can twist in my chair and grab 90% of what I will use for mixed media — art crayons, paints, pens, brushes, etc. all at hand in a cozy, well-lit space.

I set up my sewing machine in a separate area and moved another piece of storage furniture to house everything fiber. — fabric, thread, notions, and tools. Sorting fabric is my next big thing but I am happy to report that I am still in love with my thread sorting system incorporating the Target felt baskets. 

Using the 12” x 12” clamshells always on sale at Micheals or clear zippered pouches, I have my “specialty” packs together stored in furniture rather than out. For instance, I keep all the items needed to carve stamps together. And, I incorporated my favorite re-use of big cans of tomatoes for quick-grab or stuff items on my desk. One of these cans is a fabulous choice for those paper bits you can’t bear to throw away. 

I am more compact in my Tennessee Studio. I love looking at this piece and have diligently labeled the drawers with a Signo Uni-ball and blue tape. It obviously is the opposite of “to see” but I can read what’s in each drawer. I also try to limit the number of supplies there as the space is so much smaller. I end up packing what I am working on back and forth to the two locations.

As for stencil storage, I do what works for me which is a giant drawer in Kentucky and a clamshell box in Tennessee. I swear the process of culling through them with my hands is part of my creative process. I love it when I sort through them and trip across the perfect stencil -- something that happens every time. I keep a ratty baggie of my favorite ATCs, Minis, and 6x6s together for travel and couch art journaling. 

Other than some of the obvious things like keeping ‘Likes with Likes,” gifting or tossing something as soon as you realize you are not going to use it, having a place for all categories of supplies to live, and labeling as you need to, I don’t have any other words of wisdom other than "to thine own self be true!" I wish I could be creative in a beautifully curated studio, but that intimidates me more than inspires me. 

Thanks for reading! If you’ve got a favorite Art Supply Storage tip please add it in the comments!!

Life-Changing Tips, Techniques, and Advice

Hello StencilGirl Friends! I am Kristin Williams, the owner of Ephemera Paducah, an Art Workshop Space and Retail Store in western Kentucky. At the end of July, we hosted our annual Art Journaling Weekend — a fun event designed for art journalers to convene and share tips, techniques, and basically have no responsibilities other than to work on their journals over the course of three days. 

I love Art Journaling Weekend as it allows me to journal over the course of three days and learn new tips & techniques from really cool, talented, and kind people. 

I queried some of my art teacher friends for “Life Changing Tips, Techniques or Tools” to share with the attendees. Also, as a group, we compiled we shared during the course of the weekend learning from each other. 

In no particular order, here are the teacher and group Life-Changing tips: 

• Have an ugly page? Stencil over it. Just cover that sucker with paint and start over. 
• Love black or gold gesso through a stencil on Tissue Paper? It's delicious, right? Try Modeling or some kind of Texture Paste through a stencil on Tissue Paper. Life changing. Catherine Rains was posting about this a few months ago on Instagram. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Mary Beth has recently been using Tempera Paint Sticks in journaling and shared that tip. They are a cheap, fun, fast-drying, and robust way to start a page. My favorite way to use them, aside from fun starting dots, (the hot pink and green "grass") was to choose a stencil with tiny holes and mush the gel through them. So satisfying and it achieved a great texture and look. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Both Carolyn Dube and I like to use silicon scrapers rather than paintbrushes for mediums. She likes the Catalyst Blades, and I love the yellow Bondo Scrapers from Harbor Freight. It cuts down on wasting mediums and cleaning. Win-Win.
  
  
  
  
  
• Dina Wakley suggested these Life-Changing Tips and I agree whole-heartedly:
• Leave white space. One of the participants had lovely pages that had organic borders of about 2 inches of white space and it made for beautiful work. I strive to leave white space and love it when I do. However, often I fail…
• OVERLAP elements to create cohesion.
• Have a value change in your color scheme (lights and darks). One way to see if you have this is to take a photo of your work and then edit it to Monochrome. You will immediately see if you have value changes on your page.
  
  
  
  
  
• Rae Missigman will scrape through any paint — watercolor included — with a skewer, chopstick, a stick from the yard, etc. while it is wet. Lovely marks occur!  
• Did you know you can use a Gel Plate with Fabric? Yup. And then you can glue that fabric in your journals? Yup. No rules. Life-Changing. 
• If you haven’t tried a dip pen since the Calligraphy portion of your High School Art Class (that was me) try them with some India ink or Acrylic Ink for mark-making. 
• Show off your art! Buy a clear phone case and change it out with YOUR ART. Brilliant. 
• I shared one of the absolute very best pieces of advice I picked up from an early workshop at Ephemera Paducah when Mary Beth and Pam Carriker taught. I asked, “when do you know you are done?” (With a page, painting, etc.) They answered, “as soon as you think you are done, stop. Walk away. Come back the next day and see if you still agree.” That advice has saved me from ruining some pieces I really like. 
• Want to stitch through some painty pages in your journal? Take a thumbtack and a little piece of cardboard on the back of your page to pre-punch holes. This will save you from tearing up your pages. 
• Need a quick focal point for a beautiful background? Fussy cut a photo of a model from a fashion magazine and then cover it with black gesso. Voila! 
• Struggle with composition? Sit with a sketchpad and a favorite magazine. Rough sketch ads that appeal to you as those graphic designers know what they are doing. You will gain some muscle memory and begin to recognize why designs you like work. 

And, want to know the most impactful, best, most Life-Changing Tip? 

It's the most important one....

Cultivate an Art Tribe.

There is nothing like making art with friends in person, on Zoom, in a round-robin, in a Facebook Group — there are so many ways. 

At our Art Journaling weekend there was a table of Art Friends at the start of the weekend who meet up as often as they can — sometimes waiting years to see each other — and another table that became art friends over the course of the weekend who before leaving were creating Facebook Groups and sharing social media handles so they could stay in touch. 

It was beautiful. 

And that leads me to Life-Changing Events. 

I turned 60 in late June. I had a number of friends who made it a pretty big deal, let me tell ya. 

I knew friends were coming in from out-of-town and an intimate dinner was being planned for me (which included my favorites like a fancy cocktail called a Dirty Shirley, roast Turkey, dressing, fresh tomatoes, and Valerie Pollard’s Coconut Cake). 

What I didn’t know was that these busy bees conspired to make me a quilt. 

Isn’t it gorgeous??

They each received a Quilt Square (some did two) created by Rose Hughes from fabrics in Valerie Pollard's stash. They then spent weeks stenciling, stitching, embellishing, and making works of art to combine at a later time. 

I opened each Quilt Square at my dinner party in front of everyone and the Art Tribe got to see each others' work for the first time. The next morning I laid out the nine (9) Blocks and Lisa Visel stitched them together while we all had a morning art date. Rene Dees added the binding and Lisa finished it up with the quilting. 

Look at these. 

Mary Beth Shaw, Lisa Visel, and Valerie Pollard's beautiful work. 

Dianne Adams, Valerie Pollard, and Rene Dees blew me away. 

Rose Hughes, Allison Revetta, and Rene Dees' stitched masterpieces. 

Aren’t they gorgeous??????????? The thoughtfulness is overwhelming. The craftsmanship is superb. And the details like using my stencils, images of the shop, the 333 is the shop address, incorporating stitches I had taught them, and of course, commemorating the big 6-0 made for the most memorable birthday. 

Develop an Art Tribe. It’s the most important and impactful Life-Changing Tip I can give you. 

Xoxoxo 

Kristin