Monday, July 15, 2013

Window to My Soul by Kirsten Reed


 





Hello StencilGirl Gang! I am so happy to be here playing with you and all these fun stencils!!  

For this week I got creative with Pam Carriker's Window Ledger stencil from StencilGirl and made a mixed media piece with lots of stencil layering. It is so super easy, quick and really fun! You can easily change up the color palette, or quote to suit your tastes.

I started the project by taking a piece of wood and gluing tissue paper on it for texture. I do this for a lot of my smaller pieces because (1) wood is cheaper than canvas  (2) and I can often use pieces my husband deemed as scrap (3) and I really like to repurpose materials as often as possible. I even use the wrapper from my publix deli sandwich ~ totally cute! If you have Publix you must go order a sandwich just so you can go "art" with the wrapper!! But I digress...  

I purposely do not smooth out the tissue paper because I like the look of texture in my pieces. I then did a light wash of  titanium white and a bit of yellow ochre to give it a base color. I like to stipple with the brush to give it even more interest and texture.

Next I took some more tissue paper and crinkled it and twisted it to look like a branch. I then glued it down with lots of mod podge and let it dry.


 


After that I played around with placement of the window stencil, deciding where it would go.


I then used Web StencilGirl stencil to create some background with paint in Naples Yellow Hue.





I used the same stencil again but this time I painted with Light Blue Permanent over the top of the tree branch.




I then cut out a bird from some old scrapbook paper until I had the composition I liked.


Using a combination of yellow ochre, warm grey and a touch of payne's gray, I painted in the window stencil.



So now that I had my basic elements down, I added in more interest to the piece with more layers of stencils. I took the Greek Key Stencil and stenciled over parts of the piece with some yellow ochre to give the window a building look around it.



I then used River Rocks Stencil  ~ I just LOVE circles  ~ to create some interest in my sky. I also pulled it down below the branches.  I like the two colors overlapping and giving the piece a little depth.



I wanted to add some detail and accents so I used my brown Faber Castell pen and lightly went around the window and the building to help it pop off the page a bit.



It is starting to come together now! :) Next I took my finger (which I must admit I paint with quite often) and dabbed it in white, yellow and blue paint and filled in areas and blended where it looked too stiff to me. I also used my finger and burnt umber to paint the tree branch and used one of the stencils from the Original 6 pack to add some interest and contrast in my building.




See? Starting to look pretty cute, I think! :)


I then took a pink paint and the Web Stencil and painted over my bird. Before I did this, I gave the bird a light wash of blue so she wasn't too red.


After she was stenciled, I added in a bit of yellow, drew in some wings and highlighted her features with paint. I really didn't want too much of the scrapbook pattern to show through, just a faint background.




Then I glued her down and tried to decide if I wanted more texture on her, but I decided against it. Instead I took a palette knife and dipped it into the pink and scraped along the top of the piece in parts.  I then did the same with my blue paint.



 I then stamped out the phrase in Staz-On ink "You are the window to my soul" and sealed it in a matte spray.



Hope you enjoyed this easy, quick and fun little project! Keep on getting messy & having fun playing and be sure to come visit me on my blog or my Facebook Page!

Make sure you stop back on Wednesday. Paula Phillips will be here with her first post!

Kirsten

30 comments:

  1. Fantastic project step by step. Your use of all the differnet stencils to create this mult-layered rich piece and your process is really great. Thanks for letting us see your beautiful work. xox

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you MaryBeth ~ and thank you for letting me part of the StencilGirl team! :)

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  3. Kirsten.. this is beautiful.. Tissue paper is just the perfect touch for the background along with the stencils. Bravo.

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  4. What a great tutorial! I love how your piece turned out!!

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    1. Thank you Jessica! Check out my blog ~ I use your stencilgirl stencil on another piece! :)

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  5. Thanks for all the photos so we can see how the layers build up into such a magnificent canvas!

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  6. What looks like a very complicated piece is brought down to size by your step-by-step tutorial, Kirsten. Thanks! I love the use of multiple stencils to create your rich textured background, but it would not be what it is without your seasoned choice of colors! Brilliant work!

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    1. Thank you Kay ~ I tried to make it easy to understand!

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  7. \h my gosh! That is just gorgeous! I can't wait to try this myself.

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  8. Thank you for your in depth tutorial. I love how your piece looks finished!

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  9. Love your canvas, especially what it says on it. Beautiful! LenaS

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  10. What a great tutorial! You make it simple and do-able! Lovely piece.

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  11. thank you sooo much, great and understandable(is that a word?) tutorial! i love it and am gonna play with it today! tx for sharing and inspiring, and i have been looking at that window stencil for awhile, i am definately getting it now! aloha, angi in hana

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  13. What a gorgeous piece Kristen. Thanks for the simple and clear instructions!

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  14. Kirsten, this is stunning. I love everything about it!

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  15. I love it and the process you went through was so interesting..I love it!

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