Decorative Stenciled Gift Bag, Box and Bow

Oh hey my creative friends! Welcome to another adventure in art making. I'm Debi Adams and as some of you know, I come from a stamping/crafty/scrapbooking background.  Over the course of the past few years I have jumped into the mixed media field and love it! Nothing like a lot of layering goodness to make one a feel a part of the art.  As much as that is my go-to these days, I thought it might be a nice change of pace here on the blog to revisit the crafty approach by using stencils in their simplest forms.  What better way to show that look than with some fun gift wrap ideas.



For my first project, I have a gift tote that I made pretty much made from a card sealed up on the sides with a handle, but you can purchase a pre-made box or bag as well.  I stenciled the bag portion using Michelle Ward's X Rows stencil with black ink on white cardstock.



To create all the embellishments, I stenciled up a sheet of cardstock using Wendy Brightbill's Peony Blooms and Tim Holtz/Ranger's Oxide Inks. Oxide Inks are so creamy and blend really well together. They were perfect for making the rose a peachy-pink and the leaves a funky green.  For this particular project I used Picked Raspberry, Crushed Olive, Fossilized Amber and Carved Pumpkin.  And my new favorite applicator is a cosmetic brush, the kind with a zillion little bristles in it. (See it in the right hand corner).  Oh my.  (Try it. You will like it! Available on a lot of craft company sites and Amazon.) It makes the application so easy! Don't forget to dry the design with a heat tool at the end because Oxide inks like to stay wet.






Next, I die-cut the bow out from the stenciled paper. You can use a die-cut, as I did here. (Picture below to show what the die-cut pieces look like.)  I love Designer Brenda Walton's bow and Spellbinder's Bow-tique and used those. However, if you are not a die-cutter, there are a ton of similar patterns available online for free.  There are pre-cut bows and boxes available for purchase online as well, that you can apply the stencils onto directly. I fussy-cut some of the leaf images and used them under the bow on the box.

I also decorated a party favor box but applied the stencils directly onto the box rather than from a printed sheet of cardstock. It made it easy for placement purposes.






And don't forget to embellish the tissue paper...I used Wendy Brightbill's Floral Frolics for the background.



For something new, try embellishing the Peony Bloom with Oxide inks onto white cardstock,  then go back over it with glue and apply Fun Flock for dimension. I absolutely love the look of velvet.



Truly the possibilities are endless.  Here is a different color palette used on some different boxes.





Aren't we lucky to have so many great designs available through StencilGirl® that can stand on their own and be applied to a variety of items? Would love to see what you create.

Thanks for hanging with me today. Hope I challenged you to try something different.

XO,

Debi Adams


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Faux Ceramics Using StencilGirl® Stencils for Embellishments

Hi friends!  Excited to be back on the StencilGirl® blog.  Lots of good things happening in my neck of the woods. (So Cal).  I am in the midst of reworking my recently acquired house and I’m trying to update it on a minimal budget.  I’ve had a few rooms painted, moved some furniture around, and had a garage sale that allowed me to purchase some new, mid-century chairs (West Elm) that matched my real vintage, mid-century table.  It has actually been fun trying to repurpose, reuse, rework or buy used items, to create a home that reflects my style.  I also decided that I am going to start keeping and hanging some of my own art, something I have rarely done outside of my art room.  With the major stuff out of the way, I am now able to focus on the little details, like home decor pieces.  I am trying to keep it simple.  My kids don't want any of my cool, old vintage stuff (for real!) but I wanted a house that felt like my home.  So I came up with this idea.  Since I needed some ceramic vases for my fireplace mantel, I thought rather than buy them, I would make them myself, or rather “fake” them, spelled “f-a-u-x”.   I would go modern in look but blend with my mid-century, boho vibe. I think it made a nice compromise for both generations. Perhaps they might like to keep my art someday as opposed to my junk. Lol.  Here is what I ended up creating.  

I made four jars initially and went back and bought a few more jars for half price at the craft store because they were too much fun!  You can purchase jars from garage/estate sales or recycle the ones in your own home.  

You will need the following items:

StencilGirl® stencils of your Choice!  Most important :)  (The ones I used are listed at the bottom of this post and in the pic below.)

Glass Jars of Your Choice

Rubbing Alcohol

Gesso or Chalk Paint

Ink-optional

Texture Paste

Brushes

Watercolors and/or chalk paints of Your Choice ( I used mostly watercolors)

Misting Bottle with Water

Smudgee :) or Sponges

Old Credit Card or Knife

Matte or Glossy Sealer

I used rubbing alcohol on all the jars to clean them well, then I painted several coats of chalk paint on my jars.  You can also use gesso.  (Btw, too thin of chalk paint will cause the paint to come off the jar when misting the watercolors or blending paint colors together so make sure to apply a few coats and let them dry.)   

Now that the surface is prepped, it is play time.  For the largest jar, I played around with stencils by Carol Wiebe, Michelle Ward and me!  (I used paint and ink for the images.) To soften the designs,  I white-washed them with white paint using a smudgee.  Applying watercolors was next.  I really put them on thick in certain areas and then misted them lightly with water. I let them do their thing. So fun to watch!  When dry, you can add more colors.  Make sure to add highlights and contrasting colors so that your art pops.  I added splatter paint and Tim Holtz' Crackle stamp image to the jar too!  Spraying with a matte sealer to prevent the watercolors from bleeding was the finishing touch.

The medium jar was actually my first vision.  I did everything that I did at the beginning of the first jar but instead of painting on an image, I applied texture paste to the jar using my Mushroom Gills stencil. In order for the image to be put all the way around the jar, I had to wait for each one to dry. However, I “may” have used my heat tool to help the process along. ;). I added more watercolors to the mushrooms after they had dried and then lightly splattered paint all over.  This one got misted with the glossy sealer. 

And finally the little one was only painted and misted on the bottom, which resulted in a kind of marble effect.  Loved that!  Very trendy and modern. I then added one of the images from my ATC Mixup collection with texture paste, let it dry and sprayed in with a matte sealer.  You can also repaint the flowers with the same color of chalk paint so that the image looks like it was made from clay. 

Super happy with how easy they were to create.  Thinking these might make some great gifts? Ah, but for now, these particular ones are staying on my mantel.  I am certain you can come up with a ton of ways to embellish jars with stencils. I can see the possibilities of gold leafing on daisies of that small jar. Hmmmm. Hoping you will play and post what you create! 

XO,

Debi Adams

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Stencils Used:

SC-09-2018 Carol Wiebe-Caves & Ladders

LO14-Michelle Ward-Circle Rays

S736-Debi Adams-Mushroom Gills

L748-Debi Adams-ATC Mixup: Toadstools

Shibori, Stencils and Frisket, Yes Please!

Hi everyone! Happy to be joining you on the StencilGirl Talk blog today.  I’m Debi Adams and I thought I would share one of my favorite art forms, Shibori, albeit a slightly different technique/application and, use of stencils, of course.  My approach to both stencils and Shibori is to go modern and trendy. Although stencils are used for lots of layering and are very beautiful, they can also be used in their basic form without much application and be very clean. Since I am redoing the spare room in my house to reflect shibori and a bit of boho, I thought I would make some art to go on the walls.   

I love watercolors a lot and decided to create the shibori-look using watercolors on watercolor paper, and the non-dyed portion, using frisket.  Frisket is a liquid that when applied, blocks out watercolor from seeping through paper and retains the underlying color of paper, in this case, white. It is a lot of fun. (For a layered look, you can add a color to the base or ephemera paper to the substrate before applying the frisket).  For my substrate, I chose Arches Watercolor paper.  It’s my favorite and by far the most successful look when watercoloring but you can use other watercolor papers as well.  

I laid my stencil down on top of the watercolor paper. You can tape it down if you like, or not.  (The stencils and all supplies are at the bottom of this post.) I picked these (mostly) repeating, patterned stencils because I felt that they closely resembled the shibori-tied or folded-look, however, you can use almost any stencil.  Use a foam brush and apply the frisket.  Frisket dries quickly so it’s important to get a good coat on the first time around and move quickly to cover the entire stencil. When done, remove stencil and wash off the frisket from the stencil immediately.  I toss the brushes because they are harder to clean and for the most part, are inexpensive. 

When completely dry, 5 minutes or so, it is safe to watercolor.  I like Winsor Newton brand and since Shibori is generally a blue dye, I used a deep blue color.  I misted my substrate first then began applying paint. I added more blue coverage here and there so it gave the appearance of inconsistent dying.   Once my substrate was covered, I let it dry. It can take a while if you used a lot of water, which I generally do.  

After the paper is dry, use a frisket eraser to remove all the frisket and reveal the white paper that has been left behind. 

That’s it!  Easy.  And what did I make with all the patterns? Take a peek… 

I love the simplicity of these wood frames. It's organic and draws attention to the art.  Perfect for my room!

And consider making it even more modern and classy just by using gold frames. 

And then you can always mesh all of these ATC pieces together...

And a trio always looks nice and impactful, I mean, once you're on a roll, why not? 

Maybe even a foursome?

Don't forget about other possibilities of using your art in your home. Think of  greeting cards, place cards, invitations, etc.  Oh you so got this! Thanks for popping in. 

XO,

Debi Adams

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If card making interests you, check out my StencilGirl® online course here!  It's available to play whenever/where ever you are!

Supplies:

StencilGirl® Stencils:

L655 ATC Mix Up by Andrew Borloz

SC-02-2018-Grandmother's Kitchen by Kristie Taylor

S431-Barbed Wire by Mary Beth Shaw

M190 3-Ring-Seth Apter

Other:

Arches 140 lb. Cold Press Watercolor Paper

Windsor & Newton  Watercolour, Indanthrene Blue-Series 3 A

Foam Brush

Frisket & Frisket Eraser

Watercolor Brush of your Choice

Water Mister

A Summer Project Using the 50 States Stencils

Hi friends! I’m Debi Adams and I am loving the change of weather. Well, I'm a So. Cal girl so I can say that a little more easily than some of you, though we have had our share of cold weather this year. However, I believe things will be heating up and with summer quickly approaching, there’s no better time than now to consider doing a new project, perhaps one that can be worked on long term, over the next few months. I received these 50 State stencils by June Pfaff Daley a while back and have been wanting to create something with them and decided this would be perfect activity, kind of like the jig saw puzzle you leave out on the table.   Just a few states every day or every week and by summer's end (or sooner!), I should be done! (You"ll need to stay tuned as I will be continually adding to this art piece.)  This is definitely a work in progress. I love that mixed media can be lots of yummy layers, colors and textures but I also love that they can be applied simply, with a very clean look.  

June's 50 States Stencils

To get started I used a large sheet of Arches Watercolor Paper, 140lb. cold press. I traced around the state lightly with a pencil and then watercolored the inside.

From there on out, it was pick and choose.  Since I am currently redoing my house to reflect my love of shibori and wood tones, I chose those colors for this art piece.  Hoping to hang it when it's completely done.  

Adding the tiny details with stencils was fun. It was the decision as to what stencils to choose that was difficult! So many great ones.  Once I decided, I laid my state stencil down and then placed the embellishment stencil over the top, making sure to tape off any areas that might go beyond where the decor needs to go. I used an ink pad and a blending tool to add to my stenciled images.

 Can I say how much I LOVE ATC MixUp stencils? And these by Mary Beth are no exception!  They are the perfect size for the state stencils.  I chose the Gridded stencil by Rae Missigman for California because of  the "grid lock" here. :). Yes, this piece actually has at least one hidden meaning.  

 I think the hardest part of creating is staying with it when you want to start over.  The temptation was great here but I know that adding mark making, doo-dah's and dimension will change the look of this piece so I'm holding on.  Remember it's a work in progress.   It gives me something to look forward to this summer.  

Playing with parts and pieces...

You can always paint in pieces instead of watercoloring them like I did for Montana or you can cut out ephemera that is the shape of the state and embellish with another stencil, as seen in Arizona.  I love dimension so I added foam dots to the bottom of AZ.   Left over die-cut numbers created a mask so I cut Colorado from the remains of it. Paper Artsy paints and Seth Apter and Emerald Creek Embossing Powder (Chunky Rust) were used on the numbers.  Really anything that stays within my color vision is a go. Again, I like things very clean, so that every state can be seen.  

So what am I doing on my summer vacation?  It's not a secret anymore.  Care to join me?  Would love to see what you are creating in the coming months.

XO,

Debi Adams

State Stencils

June's Travelers-50 State Stencil Set

Other Stencils:

ATC MixUp #2 by Mary Beth Shaw

Gridded by Rae Missigman

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Modern Leather Earrings Embellished with StencilGirl® Stencil Designs

Oh hey my friends are you ready to make some modern leather earrings using StencilGirl® stencils?  I'm Debi Adams and I've been having an absolute blast over in my little craft workshop working up these cute little accessories. It hasn't been that difficult for me to find things to do while being quarantined.  The introvert in me enjoys being told to stay inside, although I will admit, this length of time has been a bit confining.  What about you?  Hard stuff for sure.  Anyway, I'm always on the look out, whether physically shopping or online "researching", for the latest trends. I follow a lot of unique, style-setting leaders on instagram in all areas of designs, not just art.  As my new Columnist title states, I'm officially on the "trendsetter" trail.  From home decor to wedding florals, watercoloring to macrame, I try and open myself up to a bit of each. It is often reflected in my art and sometimes, not so much, but it never goes away void.   Having four grown daughters who continually keep me updated is definitely a perk.   What I have observed is that much of what is being created today is very organic, simple and geometric in design.  When I decided to make these earrings I kept those ideas in mind and lucky for me, my girls loved them!  Though these may not be your look, it is starting place and yet another idea for ways to extend the use of your stencils.   

 It doesn't take a lot of supplies to create these. I bought a package of leather pieces. You can get them from a leather supplier or even at your local hobby store. Although I recommend using leather paint (very reasonably priced btw) on leather for pliability, these earrings are not being used as clothing so chalk paint or acrylic paint will work fine too. Grab some thin permanent pens for mark making. I got a 24 kt. gold metallic pen too. I would seal it all with a leather sealer when finished.

 This little punch tool is a gem.  You can purchase it online. It has an interchangeable tip for different sizes of holes. It's called a Hole Punch Drill.  It slices through leather like butter, perfect for earring making.

As for the circles, you can get some specialty leather scissors and cut your own shapes or you can use steel rule die-cuts, which is what I used here.  I did see some plain shapes, pre-cut at a popular craft store in the jewelry-making section, so there's that. :) Also, you will need whatever earring base you like, studs or hoops, and if choosing the latter,  jump rings and a jump ring tool. 

And lastly, don't forget your favorite stencils.  Although all will work, I found the ones with smaller details were the best.  I used Mary C. Nasser's Mixup stencil, Mary Beth Shaw's ATC Mixup #1 and Seth Apter's Mixup #2.  Most of the Mixups are perfect! 

 I traced some of the images onto the leather first but feel free to start stenciling anyway you want once you have painted your base.  Tip: The paint dries very fast on leather.

Here you can see where I used Mary C. Nasser's stencil. I traced the design then painted in the image. 

And here is how my earrings shaped up.    

Love this color combo.  Totally in.  I used Seth's stencil here. 

Although I didn't do it on these, you can add additional pieces of embellished leather onto your earrings to  make a layering of sorts.  Love that tulip flower on Mary Beth's stencil. 

Of course, you can make a necklace instead of earrings or you can create an entire collection.  It's all up to you.  Feel free to add more and layer it up like you do with any mixed media piece. I cannot wait to see what you create! 

Happy you stopped by.  Hoping you learned something new.  

XO,

Debi Adams

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