A little help from my friends!

I am ever so thankful for a virtual BOATLOAD of creative friends! January felt like it lasted 72 days this year, I've not been in a creative place in my head, and I was struggling to figure out something you gals might want to read about!

Luckily I signed up for Creative Jumpstart this year and boy did it do the trick!! I love the format of daily short videos and our fabulous Mary Beth Shaw is one of the instructors. Watching those helped get me out of my funk and inspired.

Another dear friend, Andrea Chebeleu, who owns and operates A Work of Heart Studio in San Jose, CA is an instructor in the series showcasing her project going all mixed media on a zippered canvas bag.

She and I love sharing class curriculums with each other as we are on opposite sides of the country and run the same kind of businesses.  I had a stash of canvas bags from previous conversations with her and thought my take on gussying one up might be a fun project.

Debi Adams is yet another special buddy, and when her line of mushroom-themed stencils came out, I swooned.  Aren't they adorable?!?!

Check your local art/craft store for the bags otherwise they are readily available on Amazon.

In a rare moment of restraint (for me) I chose a neutral color palette with my fav Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints. I used Debi's Tall Skinny Mushrooms L749 for one side of the pouch and chose a little trio of mushrooms from her ATC Mixup: Toadstools L748 for the other side. I highlighted with the eggshell color after stenciling with the neutral browns.

And, being me, I had to add a little stitching. I choose the mushroom with the longest stem and outlined it with backstitch with variegated floss. I used a little satin stitch on the cap.

On the opposite side, I decorated the mushroom caps using a different color and stitch for each one. I made French Knots, Cross Stitches and tiny Seed stitches on give them a little oomph.

On my second pouch, I decided I'd like a little color and used a scraper to spread on teals and greens on both sides. Using another ATC from Debi's Toadstool Mixup L738, I stenciled the same way, but also added highlights using a white pen. When adding highlights, I always try to imagine where the light source is and from what direction it's hitting my subject. I also added a few cross stitches to one cap.

On the other side of the painted pouch, I decided to use another friend's stencil, Valerie Sjodin's gorgeous Leafy Doodle Border L736. She was so clever in designing it! I used eggshell on top on my teal background for the top, the neutral on the green with the leaves, then went back to Debi's ATC sampler for the "Groovy" which finished it up quite well!

What a treat to borrow ideas and inspirations from so many creative friends. Now, to fill those pouches with art supplies.... xoxoxo

StencilClub Voices engage in mixed media madness with the January 2020 StencilClub set!

Hi! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Carol Baxter and I hope you are ready because our fabulous StencilClub Voices Geri Beam, Jessica Bullock, and Elain Huffman brought their talents and some new tools to the table with the first set of exclusive StencilClub stencils for 2020.

Geri Beam is up first with her new tool, a Cray-Pen by Surebonder. (You can get one from Dick Blick, Amazon or Walmart for about $11.00.) 

Basically, you melt crayons with the tube on the top of the tool and then draw.

I marked my fabric through the stencil with a pencil. Then I melted crayons of different colors and “drew” with color wax on top of lines. I used a heat gun to smooth the lines.

To finish the piece I just folded the fabric around an 8x10 inch frame, cut away extra fabric at corners and tightly tucked fabric in the back. No sewing needed.

Because the stencil is bigger than 8x10 inches, it wrapped nicely over the edges.

Wax, fabric, and stencils, oh my! What a fast and fun project.

Geri also stitched this cool pouch!

Jessica Bullock's Printed Tag and Art Journal

Jumbo tag created with stencil girl stencils January stencils and gelli plate printing with acrylics.

Art journal page made with acrylics, gesso, and metallic watercolors.

Elaine Huffman's Energized Pages

This is my second foray into the world of creating for Stencil ClubVoices - AND I get the stencils are designed by Mary Beth Shaw, lucky me! But my creative story is a series of mishaps starting with losing the stencils.

Back in December, when I had all the time in the world to create using the January 2020 Stencil Girl stencil set, I put those stencils somewhere “safe”, and couldn’t find them for three weeks when I found them at the bottom of a tote bag.   (Sidebar: does anyone else have way too many tote bags or bins with projects and good intentions in them? ) Now I can create! Smooth sailing from here right?  I’ve got the stencils and I’ve got some ideas and I’m ready to rock BUT Noooo...  I’m heading out of town and I’ll have to do this project with just what I bring with me and I decide to give myself a challenge.  I’ll bring just a few art supplies; a few small stencils,  a few rubber stamps, 3 stamp pads, a small “zip” of collage, white gesso, watercolor palette, paintbrushes and sponges, pencil case. That’s it.  Oh - forgot - I have a stack of “pre-energized” papers - I brought a few of those too.

Now the challenge to myself is to work with the stencils using watercolors and gesso instead of my usual array of paints. And you know what, I think it worked out okay. Here’s what I did, I got the watercolors all nice and mushy with water and then got a good puddle of dense color on my pallet (i used a foam plate), Then I put a puddle of white gesso on the pallet and mixed them together until I got the color I wanted. Then I stenciled using cosmetic sponges. It worked out well - a bit challenging to get deep colors but in the spirit of bringing a little as possible it worked out great!

You might be wondering what “pre-energized” paper is. Like most things, this is not an original idea and I learned this from Cherryl Moote. She takes big sheets of paper and gets some marks on them. It could be with paint, ink, marker - anything permanent (mediums that won’t move when you hit them with water again). This energizes the paper, gives you a place to start, rids the fear of the blank page! I love this method and use it both for big sheets of paper that I tear down and when I’m painting or gel printing I keep a new journal next to me and clean of my brayer or brush on those pristine white pages! I love having these papers for my starting point. Thumbing through them and picking one to start a new work from gets the creative juices flowing!

My process for my StencilClub Voices artworks was to start with an energized page, lay down a few collage pieces, then start layering using stencils, mark making, stamps, and more collage until I was pleased with the outcome.  The stencils are part of the rich texture of layer upon layer of paints and ink.  Many thanks to the teachers who have inspired me along the way.

Elaine can be found at www.tangleu.com

Carol Art Journaling with Tea

Hi there. It's Carol again. I can't decide if a tea bag is a tool or a medium. Let's call it both, shall we? I had seen Daniela Woolf and Wendy Akin do this and as I pulled my passion fruit teabag out of the mug where it had been steeping, I decided to give it a try.

The magenta/red tea printed as a sort of watered-down lilac or maybe Payne's Grey. While not the expected red or pink on mixed media paper it still made a gorgeous ghost print on the first piece of scrap (printer) paper I had handy.

This page spread might still be evolving as those cubes continue to tumble in my art journal. Each of the colored tissue bits on the left lift to reveal what I was feeling at the time I made the spread.

Want to see Mary Beth's Reveal? It's here. 

Need to join StencilClub? You can do that here.

StencilClub stencils ship on the 15th of each month and members can order past club sets.