Poetry in a Cup with Sandee Setliff

If I could write a poem,

I would write one for you.

But I cannot write a poem,

so this will have to do.

And I think it does nicely if I say so myself.

My project inspired by our poetry theme this month is extremely easy to create and there is no harm in a simple project, especially when it is a card that you need to whip up for a friend. We both drink tea and love to go to tea parlors and have afternoon tea whenever we travel together so the Tea Cup Stencil was my go-to muse.

Finding a tea inspired poem that I haven't already used was a little more difficult, lol There is something about the teacup that inspires the poetic in me but unfortunately the poet in me needs to have my poetry prepared for me and there aren't a lot of tea poems out there.

The way I created my card was by coloring inside the stencil lines with water soluble pencils

 and then using water to activate the pencil which gave my card a soft watercolor effect that looks more hand drawn rather than stenciled.

Stencils I used:

Tea Cup stencil by Sandee Setliff

Doily stencil by Sandee Setliff

Butterfly Journeys stencil by Carolyn Dube

 Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt.

 Poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”. 

LEONARDO DA VINCI

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perfect for Mother's Day card:

and another fun friendship card:

Sandee

Stenciled Poetry - Altered Record by Dots to Lines

Hello! We hope you are fantastic! Today we have a video tutorial project for you.

We have created this keeping in mind the theme of Stencil Poetry and What's Old is New Again.

Combining these, we wrote a small poem that forms the focal of our project. We have altered a Vinyl Record with mixed media techniques.

Here's our poem:

Old. New. Renew.

Time. Passes.

Change. is. constant.

The only constant.

That. gives me solace.

And yet.

The fragments of the Old.

Stay.

Pieces of a broken record.

As though.

Playing. together.

To be. A. whole.

A. new. again.

Another form.

Another song.

Again. 

Old. new. renew. 

Here's a look at the altered record: 

Here's the tutorial followed with a few close-up pictures:

We've used the following Stencils:

Versailles by Nathalie Kalbach L477, Alpha Jumble Large by Carolyn Dube L592, New Orleans by Nathalie Kalbach L475

Hugs,

Sunila & Aditi

Fancy Houses with Frieda Oxenham

When the December 2018 StencilClub stencils, called Fancy Houses, arrived it made me feel quite nostalgic.  They featured houses that could have stepped straight from the streets of Amsterdam, the city where I was once a student many moons ago. Of course I simply had to use them in a project and this is the resulting page.

Here is the full step by step tutorial:

1.      Gesso a piece of 9 x 12” hot pressed watercolor paper (300gr).

2.      Using a variety of Distress ink pads and a brayer stencil circles all over the page using StencilGirl® stencil Central Avenue (why not add a bit of New York to Amsterdam?!).

3.      Rub Distress Glaze all over the page (I used my fingers but a brush will also work). Remove the excess glaze with a paper kitchen towel. This makes the Distress ink permanent.

4.      Paint over the background with transparent paint. I used watered down Cobalt Blue from Golden. Add extra paint around the edges.

5.      Spray houses from the large stencil of the December 2018 StencilClub onto deli papers.  I used the Moonshadow Violacious spray paint.  Spray on fixative to make it permanent.

6.      Cut out the houses (varying the heights) and glue onto the background made in step 2 using matte medium to adhere the deli paper.

7.      Using copy papers spray through all the stencils of the December 2018 StencilClub  using a variety of colors of permanent spray paint. When finished with one color, turn the stencil over and create a reversed image on another sheet of paper. I used a mixture of both for the next step.

8.      Cut out the various elements of the buildings and audition combinations you like on the page.

9.      Fill in the white in the houses with a brown fine Sharpie permanent marker.

10.  Glue on your selected elements of the houses onto the page as shown. I used regular gel matte for this step.  A streetlight from the large stencil was also added.

11.  Outline inside the buildings with a white permanent marker and on the outside with a sepia one.

12.  Glue on postage stamp.

13.  Spray trees onto deli paper using brown and green permanent spray paint and Winter Trees Bark.

14.  Tear out trees and adhere to page as shown using matte medium.

15.  Outline trees with permanent sepia marker.

16.  Print out text, cut out, edge with a brown inkpad and glue on. I used a quotation by Sasha Martin (Life from Scratch) that reads: ”I don’t think the homesickness of a perpetual wanderer can ever by quenched.”

17.  Edge the page with a brown permanent ink pad.

© Frieda Oxenham 2019. To see more of Frieda's work, please visit her BLOG.

Stenciled Poetry - Colors of the Rainbow with Natalie May

Hey there Stencil Fan!

Natalie here sharing an Art Journal page for the Stenciled Poetry theme this month.

I am a huge lover of color and using the color wheel especially in my classes and I love using this stencil designed by Pam Carriker.

Hue Tint Tone Shade Stencil

This page is so simple yet super effective.

Let me talk you through the process.

I started by using a Post-It and tacking the stencil to my page so it didn't move.

I used a Pitt Pen to trace each segment. I had to use a waterproof pen so when I added the water, I wouldn't lose the image.

I then used Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks to color each segment, activating them with water, allowing the color to bleed out into the page.

Once dry, I gave each segment another quick application of color to increase the intensity before scribbling on a beautiful poem by Christie Ann Martine.

Thanks for stopping by and happy creating

xxx

Natalie

Begin, Explore, and Discover with Paint, Texture, and Stencils

 

Hi all, it's Gwen back today to share a new project focusing on stencils, paint, and texture. This month I've created a tutorial for this stenciled mixed media collage piece entitled "Begin, Explore, Discover."

 

To start, I took a piece of 5" x 7" 140lb cold press watercolor paper (although you could also use your art journal) and dry-brushed a few coordinating colors of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints to begin the background. 

While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled some of my new Cinnamon Boho Blends embossing powder into the wet paint and then heated and melted it.

While the embossing powder was still hot, I sprinkled in some of Seth Apter's Baked Texture embossing powders in Rocky Road and Taos Sunset and melted those as well. I love the subtle pop of texture and color that you can get from just a sprinkle of EP.

Next I took a piece of an antique letter that I had already colored with Distress Ink, tore out a few pieces, and then edged them with brown and black Archival ink. I laid the papers on top of another piece of paper that had layers of paints and mediums that created a lot of texture so that when I rubbed the ink over top I'd get a frottage effect - all of the texture from the background was picked up by the ink, giving me a nice effect on my collage papers. I adhered those onto my background with matte medium.

Without waiting for the matte medium to dry, I went ahead and took out a few more colors of PaperArtsy paints, starting with Smoked Paprika and then Terra Cotta; I used my fingers to apply them at the bottoms of my collaged pieces. This gives some added contrasting color and also helps to integrate the collage into the piece.  

   

I waited a few minutes for the paint to dry, then took a piece of rice paper that I'd stenciled using my Collage Textures and Patterns, Circles stencil and Venice Blue PaperArtsy paint and adhered that onto the background with more matte medium.

When the background was completely dry, I used Roxanne Evans Stout's Dream Big stencil along with some brown StazOn pigment ink to stencil the horse onto my piece so that the sun in the background fit into the center of the medallion collaged onto the page.

I then used the Text and Texture Discovery and Text and Texture Explore stencils by Seth Apter along with some black StazOn pigment ink to add the words that became my title.

Next I took some of Seth's new mini stamps for PaperArtsy and used them to add some additional texture and pattern to the background and around the borders.

To finish, I used a black Stabilo All pencil and a gold gel pen for some outlining and mark making.

Here are a few close-ups so you can see more of the texture... it's amazing how quickly you can get so much depth by starting with texture paper and then using a few simple techniques to build up your layers.

That's it for this month... I hope you enjoyed it. If you try your own version of this tutorial at home, I'd love to see, so be sure to link me up. Until next time, happy stenciling!

Gwen