StencilGirl Blog Hop Featuring Jamie Fingal

Welcome to our StencilGirl Blog Hop 

featuring stencil artist

Jamie Fingal!
***GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED***

Jamie Fingal is an artist, author, teacher, curator who hails from Orange, California. She is honored to have her drawings made into stencils! She loves paper, paint and fabric. She is an award winning quilt artist and the author of the book “Embellished Mini Quilts" (Lark 2007) She is known for her vibrant colors and playful landscapes of whimsical houses with cups and saucers on the roofs, embellished with safety pins, buttons and metal washers, and is sometimes referred to as the 'Rebel Quilter.' Jamie is an internationally known quilt artist and her work has been published in many books and in Quilting Arts Magazine and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. She has two instructional DVD's - "The Whimsical House Quilt" and "Rebel Quilting" produced by Interweave. .She has always loved to draw, and was at one time a rubber stamp designer. Jamie is also part of the on-line site 'The Sketchbook Challenge."

You can see all of Jamie's StencilGirl Stencils on our website, but today we are focusing on one of her newer stencils called Houses. Jamie is even hopping with us!! You can follow Jamie's work on her blog Twisted Sister.

Are you ready to HOP??!! 

Before you do make sure you leave a comment here because we will be giving Jamie's Houses Stencil from StencilGirl away to one lucky winner 

and ALL the comments left on the hop trail are eligible! 

Giveaway closes at 11:59PM Central Time on 

Monday, September 2nd.
Winner will be announced on Wednesday, September 4th.
***GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED***

Hop List

StencilGirl Talk (You Are Here)

Jamie Fingal (Go Here Next)

Corrine Gilman

Janet Joehlin

Linda Kittmer

Carolyn Dube 

Maria McGuire

Guest Designer Christy Sobolewski

Hello creatives! I'm Christy Sobolewski 

and this is my first official guest blog post. And what a treat to do this for StencilGirl Products!

I already have the Damask stencil from Michelle Ward and knew I wanted to use it in conjunction with something new. As soon as I saw the Strands stencil from Mary Beth Shaw I thought it was a perfect fit for what I had in mind.

I wanted to carry over a technique from my altered book days I like to call ‘graduated stencils’ and I hope it sparks some of you to think of new and creative ways to use your stencils in your art. 

Step-outs are below:

First the stencils I will be using are:

They are not from the same collection or even from the same artist. Yet they look amazing together. I think being able to mix and match stencils in this way gives them so much more versatility.

I choose to use some basic items that I think most of us have in our studios. White gesso and black gesso [you can substitute any white and black paint also], a single color of my favorite paint, a cosmetic wedge sponge and a paint brush. I also used: water, palette knife, masking tape and a bit of washi tape.

Ok, let’s get started…

For our first layer place one of the stencils down onto non-prepped paper [will not work as well on pre-treated or gesso’d pages]. With this particular stencil it was super easy to move it around and create an all over pattern.

All this to fully dry [you can speed up drying time with your heat gun].

Mix up a wash of color with your one paint color and water. Brush liberally over the now dry page. Then using a baby wipe or a damp rag wipe the excess paint off of the gesso pattern created from the stencil. Gesso will resist the paint wash just enough to give you a nice patterned background. If your color is too light you can repeat this step until you are satisfied with your color.

Using masking tape I taped off certain areas of the second stencil then using the cosmetic wedge applied black gesso to the surface for a second layer. Once that was dry I flipped the stencil over and positioned it to repeat the pattern top to bottom on 2/3 rds of the page.

I then used scrap paper to mask off the right edge of the page and sponged on more of the black gesso.

Here comes the gradient portion. Again using the first stencil [original background design] I taped it down slightly and using the cosmetic wedge applied white gesso just over the edge of the black border and the rest of the page. By doing this I broke up the solid black line and in a way ‘masked it’ from view. I was careful to line up the stencil with the original background layer so that it creates a bit of an optical illusion.

I start directly in the center, over top of the hard black line. And my using only part of the sponge and working towards the center [or towards the black line] I was able to get a soft gradient like appearance. The white appears to fade off into the black. Or maybe the black is fading into the white? This is so much fun to do.

And you can also do this with a second color that contrasts nicely with your first color. In this case I could have used aqua or teal instead of the white to get a big pop of visual interest.

For the finishing touches ,I did a small bit of journaling with a white gel pen just over the black border.

And I used a bit of washi tape to add the StencilGirl business card to my page. Now I will always remember this fun opportunity whenever I see my journal page.

I hope you have enjoyed this quick tutorial and maybe have a few new ideas for fun ways to use your Stencil Girl stencils!

Thank you so much for following along.

Happy Creating!

~ Christy aka Gulfsprite

We LOVE Our StencilClub Members!

Hi Everyone, it's Maria. I thought I'd take a minute today to show you some of the fabulous work our StencilClub Members are doing with their monthly stencils.

For those of you who are not familiar with StencilClub you can get all the information on our website StencilGirl Products.

I will tell you that it is SO exciting to get EXCLUSIVE stencils that cannot be purchased unless you are a member of StencilClub.

Be on the lookout next week--we will be revealing our stencils for September. You are going to love who our guest artists is and WOW! wait until you see the stencils!

Okay....here is a sampling of work from our members:

I LOVE this picture of Monica Lowrance! She promised me a picture when she opened her stencils and she did not disappoint!

Monica Lowrance

Tameko Mays

Jessica Sporn

 Laura Shelton Thykeson

 Laura Shelton Thykeson

Laura Shelton Thykeson

Micki Harper

 Dawn Gold

Dawn Gold

Heidi Bound

 Roberta Warshaw

Roberta Warshaw

A BIG thank you to everyone!

Please stop back tomorrow--we will have Guest Designer Christy Sobolewski here!

Stenciled Bracelets

Hello StencilGirl Lovers!

Janet Joehlin here with a follow up on bracelets from last month.

The beaded bracelets I made gave me all sorts of ideas

for more of the interchangeable decorative covers.

There are a couple different kinds of techniques here....

First I started with some silk fusion papers I made in a class many years ago.

You can find tutorials online of how to make it yourself.

It is silk fibers layered crosswise on a screen

with textile medium adhering it together.

(The texture reminds me of mulberry paper)

I used Pebeo Setacolor Fabric Paint with a sponge or dauber...

but any fabric paint or thinned down acrylic paints would work.

Wheel Spokes Set #2 6x6 Stencil S070

Artist Designer - Andrew Borloz

I played with the design using acrylic markers.

Posca Pens and Molotow Pens are great for this kind of thing.

Very opaque and good coverage.

I adhered the same size velcro strip to the back of the design

and went on to the next one.

Another technique is embroidery.

This one is simply french knots on a cotton fabric base.

I used Crossed Rounds & Squares Stencil L159

by Andrew Borloz.

Here I used a wool background piece and used Stazon Ink

with a section of Seth Apter's texture

from the Story Time Stencil L183.

I stitched Bullion Knots down the center with varigated thread.

This is more Silk Fusion Paper.

I used 2 different sections of Seth's

Numbers Stencil L184

and then stitched buttons over the x's for interest.

This is more of Seth's texture from

Story Time Stencil L183

with a button in the center.

And more Silk Fusion Paper with Andrew Borloz's

Crossed Rounds & Squares Stencil L159.

This paper had bits of glitter and metallic thread woven into it.

I used the Glossy Accents from Ranger on the circles.

It gives it a different texture than the background.

Aren't they so cool?

I am addicted to making them!

 Let me show you 2 I have yet to finish....

 

I started out with Layered Salad Stencil S111

by Terri Stegmiller.

I used masking tape to block the portions of the stencil

I did NOT want to use.

I daubed fabric paint through the designs

and just started playing with them.

A little of this... A little of that....

When I am happy with the design I turn the edges under

and fit it to the size I want, either by gluing or sewing.

I cut a piece of velcro and glue it to the back with E6000 glue.

It can't be any easier.

Have fun!

Janet

Dancing Leaves Stencil by Daniella Woolf

Welcome everyone, Journal Artista aka Paula here!

I am so excited to share with you a few easy techniques involving this beautiful stencil designed by the wonderful Daniella Woolf called Dancing Leaves.

First, let's talk Sharpies.  So many of us are addicted to pens, pencils and markers.  I am sure many of you also own a few, however the new BRUSH Sharpie's are a must have!  If you have been art journaling for awhile you may have already discovered that gesso and craft paint will dry up any Sharpie.  I have experimented with both bullet tips and the fine tip, but all dried up while writing on top of the gesso or paint.  

On a recent trip to the craft store I noticed some new Sharpie's called BRUSH.  Since I have had so much success with Faber Castell's Big Brush Pens I thought I'd give them a chance.  I was so excited to discover they work great!!

                            

This simplest way to use stencils is to trace them.  I started with a painted background in my art journal (I always work on multiple pages at the same time).  I simply positioned the stencil where I wanted it and traced the image with my green Sharpie Brush marker.

With this technique there is no need for masking, and you can use different colored markers easily.  This stencil would look wonderful with different shades of green!

For the leaves on the right page (also shown below) I rotated the stencil in multiple directions to create a flowing image up the page.

Instead of just a focal point, I also wanted to use this stencil as a background element.  I started this page with a printed napkin, paper scraps, a magazine image and some basic craft paint.  I then randomly sprayed purlple ink through the stencil.

Next I added another layer with gesso stippled through the stencil. If you happen to have ran out of gesso (GASP!) you can always substitute with white craft paint.

When the gesso was dry I painted random circles with pink craft paint, right over the gesso.  After waiting until the paint was almost completely dry I used a baby wipe to remove some of the paint.

I love how you can see both the sprayed ink (I used a permanent one made from Liquitex Ink) and the gesso within the circles!  I used a purple Sharpie to outline the circles for more distinction from the background.

There you go, two easy and fast techniques with basic supplies!  Check out all of Daniella's beautiful designs HERE

I can't wait for next month when I will be featuring one of the new Seth Apter's new stencils.  Here is a sneak peak:

Get yours early so you can play along!