Make a Halloween Fabric Garland

Hello Everyone, it's Martha again with a Halloween project that I hope you'll like. I love Halloween so I thought I'd give this idea a try. Of course, you can adapt this project to any holiday or no holiday at all. 

I usually start projects with a general idea of what I want to make, then let them evolve as I go along. With that thought, I took out the stencils I wanted to use and some fabrics. I'll list all of the supplies I used down below.

I don't like to measure unless it's absolutely necessary so I mostly eyeballed everything during this process. I tore the muslin fabric into rectangular shapes because I had originally planned to fold over the tops of these pieces to make the openings through which I would thread the string to hang the garland. That plan "evolved" as I went along, but I'll describe that later.

Then I started stenciling on the muslin fabric pieces with acrylic paints. 

I was liking this so far, but decided that I needed some additional color and interest on some of these pieces. I added this warning sign in orange to this one.

I stenciled some of the designs with gesso first to make the second color stand out more from the background.

At some point during the stenciling I realized that I could make five pieces with the stencils I chose, but  needed more than that for a garland so I made two of each piece.

I was happy with my pieces so far but thought they needed more so here is where my plan changed a bit. I decided to put the muslin pieces on top of some fun fabrics. I tore the fun Halloween fabrics into long rectangular pieces and tore down the muslin pieces into more of a square shape that would fit nicely onto the colorful fabrics. Again I just eyeballed everything. I planned on folding over the tops of the colorful fabrics to make that opening for the string to hang the garland. I also pulled out some ribbons to further decorate my pieces.

I did then fold over the top of each piece and sewed around the stenciled muslin pieces. Instead of machine stitching I think some hand stitching around these pieces would look great too.

I used Fabri-Tac to glue the ribbons on and just snipped off the ends with my scissors. 

I'm almost finished! I chose this string and threaded it through the openings at the top of each piece with this large paper clip.  I was forced to break out my ruler for this part. I measured one piece then multiplied by the number of pieces (ten in this case). I then added an extra three inches on each side of the pieces (you'll see why below), added more inches to make sure I had enough string on each end to hang this thing, then doubled all of that. My string is quite thin so I wanted to double it. That's a lot of measuring! 

I added some ribbons in between each piece. This is what I had originally intended to use the fabrics for but thought the ribbons added a nicer contrast.

And with that my project is finished! I tried it on my bookshelf which looks nice. Then I hung it over a window and I love it there. Did I mention I love Halloween?? The garland fits right in with my decorations. 

I hope you'll give this project a try!

Supplies Used:

Industrial Signage

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Industrial-Signage-DeeDee-Catron-p/ll1107.htm

Industrial Wordage 

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Industrial-Wordage-DeeDee-Catron-p/sa1057.htm

June 2021 Stencil Club June Pfaff Daley

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-club-june-2021-june-pfaff-daley-early-art-2-s/2159.htm

Webbed Medallion

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-webbed-medallion-cecilia-swatton-p/s522.htm

Gross Anatomy Inside My Head

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-head-pam-carriker-p/s272.htm

Twist Lattice Stencil

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-twist-lattice-lizzie-mayne-p/s152.htm

Jackwitch Mini

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Jackwitch-Mini-Jennifer-Evans-p/m225.htm

Fabrics

Acrylic Paints

Foam Wedge Sponges

Ribbons

Sewing Machine

String

Scissors

Glue ( I used Fabri-Tac)

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Decorate a Metal Tin With a Mini Journal Inside

Hi Friends, it's Martha with a project that I have been wanting to tackle for a while now. I've decorated a metal tin that contains a mini journal inside. First I gathered some of my supplies to start gel printing on wet strength tissue paper. You could probably use regular tissue paper but be extra careful since it is more delicate. Deli paper could probably work too. 

I chose the paint colors in the picture above because I knew I wanted to use vintage black and white photos in this project and wanted colors that coordinated with this theme. I put some paint colors and stencils down on the gel plate and made a few prints. Then I lightly sanded the tin thinking that would help to adhere the tissue paper better. To be honest I'm not sure this is a necessary step but it can't hurt!

I started tearing pieces of tissue paper and using matte medium to adhere them to the outside of the tin making sure to use matte medium under and over the pieces. When the outside was dry I worked on the inside of the tin until all parts were covered in tissue paper. I tore off or cut the pieces of tissue hanging over the sides.

The stencils I used on the gel plate didn't show up well because there wasn't enough contrast in the paint colors I chose. So I decided to use a couple of stencils on the outside of the tin selecting a paint color (Paynes Gray) that I knew would show up and coordinate with my current color scheme.

I also used some gold paint to tidy up the edges of the tin.

Time to work on my mini journal. I used khadi paper to make my journal but you can use any type of paper you'd like - there are lots of options. Because I don't like to measure I used the tin to mark the approximate size of my journal. Note that since the lines indicate the size of the outside of the tin, I did tear the paper inside the lines I drew. I also doubled the width because I folded each paper in half to create the journal. 

Once the pages were torn to the correct size (I folded them in half and made sure they fit inside the tin) I rounded the corners of each page. Then it was time to add some color. I used Golden High Flow Acrylics in the same paint colors I used on the gel plate. I added the high flow on the papers, spritzed them with water and let them drip and move around the pages. I did that for both sides of the papers. You could also achieve this effect with sprays, inks or watered down acrylic paint.

To match the color scheme on the outside of the tin, I used Paynes Gray paint to stencil on each page. Again I stenciled on both sides of the papers. I wanted to create an interesting background for the vintage photos I planned to use. After the stenciling I added some spatters of gold, still following the color theme of the tin.

We're in the home stretch now! I gathered some vintage photos and bits of laces and ribbons to add a focal point to each page. Deciding which photo and which piece of lace to use is really a matter of opinion. I auditioned different pieces to decide which ones I thought worked well together on each page. As I was auditioning the photos, I decided to add a torn scrap of book page behind each photo. You can see that in the pictures of the inside of the journal below. To adhere the images and fibers, I used Dries Clear Art Glitter Glue (does not contain any glitter-that's just the name). Any strong glue would work.

I also added some pieces to decorate the top of the tin. Finally I tied a piece of ribbon around my pages to easily bind my mini journal.  With that my project is complete!

I do hope you enjoyed this project and will give it a try! All supplies I used are listed below.

Supplies Used:

Waves 6 Stencil https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Waves-6-erri-Stegmiller-p/s087.htm

ATC Mixup Missigman #1 https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-ATC-Mixup-MissigmanArt-Marks-Rae-Missigman-p/l792.htm

Vintag Ledger Script Small https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Vintage-Ledger-Script-Small-Jennifer-Evans-p/s827.htm

Acrylic Paints

Gel Plate & Brayer

Wet Strength Tissue Paper

Metal Tin

Sandpaper

Matte Medium

Khadi Paper

Ruler

Gold Paint Spray

Golden High Flow Acrylics

Vintage Photos

Scraps of laces, ribbons, etc.

Book Pages

Glue (I used Dries Clear Art Glitter)

Follo me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@madebymartha

Decorate a Journal Cover Using Stenciled Address Labels

Hi art friends, it's Martha and I'm excited to share a project today for my second StencilGirl blog post! This is an idea that was inspired by a mixed media artist named Cat Hand. I saw her video sharing this technique about 10 years ago when I first started doing mixed media and thought it would be fun to try it again. There is a link to her video down below.

I'm decorating a book cover using stenciled address labels. The first step is to choose a book you would like to use and paint the cover. I happened to choose a book that has a cover similar in color to the painted background I wanted. 

Next, it's time to add paint to those label sheets. I decided a mid-century modern theme would be cool for my book cover. Here are the paint colors and stencils that I chose to use.  I've listed the supplies below.

I used standard white mailing labels as you can see. For my project I wanted an off white background on the labels so I used a brayer to cover two label sheets with Titan Buff paint.

The next step is to decide in which order to use the paint colors and stencil shapes. Something to keep in mind if you are trying this project is which shapes and colors you want to stand out and which ones you want to be more in the background. If you are unsure practice first on a piece of copy paper. That's what I did. 

I decided to use the yellow color and this stencil as the first one in the background. This is the lightest paint color I used and it will look nice as a background color. I will use darker colors as I go along which will stand out more.

Next is the orange color. As you can see, I taped off the part of the stencils that I wanted to use. Another tip is to vary the shapes and sizes of the images.

This shape in green adds a nice contrast to the pattern and colors I have so far. Note that I am overlapping some of the shapes. I don't want to cover every single part of my labels but do want to spread out the shapes and colors so that when I pull off the individual labels they will have a nice variety of colors.

Continuing with this curly shape in dark blue. I want these next stenciled parts to stand out more. 

A rectangular shape in magenta is next - another nice contrast to what I have so far. 

Finally, I stenciled the shape that I wanted to stand out the most in turquoise. I love the way these colorful sheets look so far!

The last step before I start adhering the labels to my book cover is to outline and add marks to some (not all) of the shapes with a gold pen. This is optional of course, but I like this look for my project.

Here's a close up of one of the label sheets. As usual it's difficult to photograph the shiny gold, but hopefully you get a good idea of what they look like.

I used a thin layer of gel matte medium to adhere the labels. Starting on the right side of the cover I moved left in perpendicular rows toward the spine. Each row is staggered a bit and I left a small gap in between each label to create a tile like pattern.

This is what the front of my book cover looks like before I trimmed the top and bottom. I let that dry really well then followed the same process on the back cover, leaving the spine area open. 

Here is what my final project looks like. I like to add a closure to most of my journals (also an optional step) so I attached a couple of charms to a black elastic. I wanted to keep it simple so as not to detract from the busy and colorful patterns on the cover. I really love the way this bright and happy cover turned out! I have not worked on the inside yet, but plan to use the pages on the inside of this book to do some art journaling. I hope you're inspired to give this a try. There are so many different options with colors and styles.

Suplies Used:

Hardcover book

Paint

Address labesls

Stencils

Make up sponges 

Paint marker

Gel matte medium

Scissors

Stencils Used:

Mid Century Modern Vibe 2 https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Mid-Century-Modern-Vibe-2-Jennifer-Evans-p/s584.htm

Mid Century Rocks and Leaves https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-MidCentury-Mod-Rocks-Leaves-Jennifer-Evans-p/s586.htm

Slices 6  https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-slices-6-terri-stegmiller-p/s094.htm

I recorded my process if you'd like to watch the video:

Cat Hand inspiration video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvEYq7O2ImU&t=14s

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https://www.instagram.com/mymixedmediafun/

https://www.youtube.com/@madebymartha