StencilClub Voices Create with the Shaw-Apter At the Improv Mash-Up Set

From Jewelry to Cards this month's StencilClub Voices, Sherie Weiser Eddy, Marge Taylor, Lucy Medeiros Tyson, and I, Carol Baxter, have an explosion of inspirational ideas for you!

Jewelry? Yes!
Paintings? You bet!
Cards? Quite a few.

They began with:

Join StencilClub

Sherie's Mixed Media Take-Out, Necklace, 

and Stenciled Paper

Sherie says: First up is an upcycled Chinese take out food container. (Washed and bleached, of course!) I gessoed both sides, then stenciled it with acrylic paints in lots of layers. The last layer is gold foil: I used tacky-when-dry medium through stencils and adhered gold foil. The chain is made of Sari ribbon, fabric wrapped vintage key, vintage tag, and beads.

Necklace: This was stenciled with acrylic paints on bleached muslin. Then I added eyelets with my Crop-A-Dile, and strung 2 rows of beads. On each end of the necklace I used bits of fabric I dyed with Tumeric and machine stitched it on. The two reddish beads on the second strand are lava beads. Used for holding essential oils, which I added.

“Your Voice Matters” This is a piece of my recent eco-dyed paper stenciled with the left-over acrylic paints and some Dina Wakley gloss sprays. 

Marge's Art Journal Page and Mixed Media Tags

Marge says: For the journal page, I often tear interesting words and phrases from magazines, to use at a later time. It felt like a good time to use this particular sentiment.

I also made the set of tags, and then thought I’d like to make a card to accompany the tags.

Lucy's Vibrant Paintings

Lucy says: I love mixed media, so I was excited to get August 2020 stencils from Seth Apter for StencilClub. I love the large grid stencil with the circles interspersed at intervals, the smaller stencils have a variety of mark-making shapes you can use in a variety of ways. I used multiple products, acrylic paint and inks, texture paste, collage, Neocolor II water-soluble crayons, Posca paint pens, and Pan Pastels. I also used some extra stencils by Seth Apter Recede M285 and Valarie Sjoden Celtic Spirals L764.  

The Zen of Improv Note Card Making with Carol

My goal one recent weekend afternoon was to use cards I had started and put down and create something, either simple or complex, that was snail mail worthy.

I must say, At the Improv is a go-to set for integration.

These first two have just the dancers in orange, so I used the large At the Improv stencil to put the ballerina silhouette behind the "window" and the leaping dancer in front. Then I embellished just a bit with gel pens and the small Improv stencil.

I began with several partially painted backgrounds and one with words, which I honestly did not think was salvageable. Mary Beth knows best and when she says to keep painting. Bronze paint knocked just enough of the sloppiness from a black crayon out.

I was listening to the song Jet Lag by Joss Stone while cutting and gluing and painting these last two cards. She was singing about how love makes you feel crazy bad and crazy good. Red, black, tan, and white came together just as I hoped. I used a craft knife to cut layers.

Want to create with At the Improv? Here are the details.

Send a little sunshine with a card - ideas for you!

Are you home? Missing friends?

Houses Stencil by Jamie Fingal

A handmade card implies more than I was thinking about you, a card encompasses how you feel and the time you took to make it unique.

2-Step Stencils

Tea and birthday gatherings are not lost forever. 

Teacups & Teapot Stencil by Jessica Sporn

Sooner than it might feel like, homes will once again be gathering places.

Habitat Decor Stencil by Angela Cartwright

And you can invite people to your castle in reality rather than virtually.

Once Upon a Time Stencil by Carolyn Dube

Until then, why not reach out with a greeting card and a matching envelope?

Half Rings Stencils by Andrew Borloz

Who wouldn't like a feathered friend in a card? What does this little bird spy? You could reveal it inside the card!

Birds & Bunnies Stencil by Margaret Peot

Make some elements so you'll have them on hand.

Journey Stencil by Roxanne Evans Stout

And if birds are featured, you know they love a flower garden!

Curlicue Dance Stencil by Janet Joehlin

While we are on the subject of florals, these stencils are perfectly pretty for backgrounds:

Stencils by Melanie Testa

Tag, you're it! Make a card for someone you care about who lives far or near.

Iron Grate Layer Me Stencil by Carolyn Dube

Silly Silas & Sigmond Stencil by Carolyn Dube

Check out all the fabulous StencilGirl stencils!

It's a colorful March when StencilClub Voices create with Mail Art!

Greetings to you!

Oh, how our StencilClub Voices push me to discover new ways to use stencils and retry some faves. I hope you will feel pushed in a good way when you see the art produced by their creative minds and hands with Mail Art ~ the March 2019 StencilClub set Created by Ann Butler.
     Carol B.

Love Letter to My Heart ~ Vanessa Bennett

"It’s a love letter to my heart. It’s there to remind me that Love Conquers All," Vanessa said.

But Vanessa didn't love it so she turned it onto bookmarks.

"Even something you don’t love can turn into something you do!" she says.

Layered Dimensional Card ~ Kim Kendell

Kim Kendell made a delightfully layered greeting card. (We are glad she is staying wild!)

Jointed Paper Doll ~ Linda Wyatt

When Linda Wyatt saw the March Stencil Club set by Ann Butler she was reminded of the special dresses and hats her mother made for her at Easter. Linda says, "The stencils also reminded me that my first calling, as an artist, was fabric design." 

You can read more about her process on her blog post, Summer of Love Envelopes and Paper Doll.

Puns for My Art Journal ~ Carol B.

Fence, Curls, Lattice, Daisy. I may have gone a little crazy with the large stencil.

Library checkout cards and pockets in my stash = goofy, odd acrylic/pen/washi pockets to glue into my art journal when a page comes up that needs one.

If you're on Facebook, check out the March 1 saved livestream. 
Mary Beth made abstract art with the Mail Art set Ann Butler made for March 2019 StencilClub members. 

There's a technique or two you might not have thought of in the video too.

You can check out Ann's stencil reveal post here and you can sign up for StencilClub here.

You can go caroling with cards all year long - acrylic, pen and ink greetings by Carol

Listening to Christmas Carols and making cards. Yup. That's been me for about a week. I have made about 60 so far. Don't stop me now!

It started with the need to make a few Christmas cards.

I had a card (I now wish I had saved to show you but I made tags out of it instead.) with the red part like the one below, except it looked like nothing great but I thought if I did it again, I'd have a tree.

Trimmed with acrylics, Papermate Inkjoy Black pen, Signo Uniball White pen, and Traci Bautista's Tropical Floral Stencil.

Then it turned into gifts sets of 4 to 8 cards. I did mix and match at first.

Acrylics, white pen, and Carolyn Dube's Dance of This Life Stencil.

Acrylics, white & black pens, a bit of washi, Mary Beth Shaw's Chain Mail, Jessica Sporn's Hands, and Tracey Lyn Huskamp's Rabbits Stencils.

There are a couple of alphabet stencils that would work for this. I used Chunky Alphas by Joanne Shaper. I added washi tape (You can find it at Gwen Lafleur's store) for contrast. Next, I drew with a pen around the letters I wanted to highlight. Ps & Qs (as in mind them) worked for this one. Others I marked up "HI" and "OK".

The yellow in the chunky letters is distress crayon.

Obviously, doodling can take a lot of time:

There is pink marker work and also some white pen work that you can see if you were looking at the actual card. The stencil is from StencilClub - Jessica Sporn's Feelin' Groovy set.

Or just a little where I drew super simple butterflies:

ATC Mixup by Jennifer Evans is the stencil.

Other than the Christmas card, this one took the longest.

Pink and green markers, green gel pen, yellow distress crayon on randomly painted acrylics. StencilClub: In the Garden by Terri Stegmiller.

I made a couple of notebooks on the same theme complete with flying pigs randomly (annoyingly?) stenciled in different places on a few of the pages. The piggies are rubber stamps designed by Sandee Setliff.

I left the insides of all my cards blank except for this one that seemed to warrant something more:

Black pen traced around acrylics, stenciled with Your Thoughts by Pam Carriker.

My BIG tip: When you make a card you like, make a few more. You can always vary them a little so you don't get bored.

I got a totally different look on these 2 cards by the ways I added green and yellow paint and how I used my brown gel pen.

Mid Century Modern Rocks and Leaves Stencil by Jennifer Evans

Here's the thing about card making: You get not only better as you go but ideas will steadily begin to percolate!

I have a book of business letter samples from maybe the 70s. Perfect for card making.

I liked this round in the small of from Pam's Woman of Mystery StencilClub set. I thought about outlining the words "love" and "hope" from the circle but then I thought I would need to do all of the loopy lettering and, well, I had to call a halt somewhere.

Ink the round edges in green.

And, if you do as I did and clean up part of your office the next day (looking for circle cutter I never found) in the midst of your card making, ephemera might appear that you have no idea whence it came.

I think these are my faves. At least at the moment. I want to make some in black and white.

My BIG tip: When you make a card you like, make a few more. You can always vary them a little so you don't get bored.

I hope I have inspired you to go make a few sets of cards. I challenge you to pull out your stencils and look at ones that would suit your card-making style.

My last tip: Save some for yourself because you might need to send an actual hand-written missive to a friend or five you love in the coming year!

If you want to delve into card making in a much more 3D manner, check out Debi Adams' online course at StencilGirlStudio!