Friday, January 31, 2014

StencilClub Member Inspiration Day ONE

Maria here...Our past StencilClub inspiration posts have been so popular that 
we have decided to make it a recurring monthly feature!

Join us as we show you projects posted by our StencilClub Members in our Secret Facebook Group that is a member benefit of StencilClub. These projects are just too wonderful to keep to ourselves and we want to share them with the world!

Not only do our club members post projects with their EXCLUSIVE StencilClub stencils, they also post what they make with our regular line of StencilGirl stencils available on our website. It is a place to share, inspire and come together in one place.

Love some of the products you see and don't have the stencils? NO problem--one of the benefits of StencilClub is that any current member can purchase any of the stencils they might have missed.

If you would like to find out more about the StencilGirl StencilClub you can find all the information and benefits on our website StencilGirl Products.


We LOVE the variety of projects we are seeing! 
Everything from paper crafting, fiber art, mixed media, art jourrnal all the way to encaustic art!  
We hope you enjoy!






Cindy Clark















Cath Sheard
Stencil: StencilClub October 2013





Dee Ryder
Stencil: StencilClub October 2013



Linda Nelligan

Watch for Day 2 of StencilClub inspiration on 
Saturday, February 8th!

Thursday, January 30, 2014

StencilGirl Anatomy Lessons

Hi Stencil Lovers!
Janet here from Happy Reminders.
Did you take Anatomy & Physiology classes in school?
HaHaHa...Not Me! The extent of my learning comes 
from Pam Carriker's Stencil designs!
I used the A-Nat-A-My Articulated Figure in this first spread.
I began by just drawing the figure to see how varied I could get.
 I tried posing the limbs of this body stencil...
I held the joints in one place and tilted the limbs in different directions.
 Let's see...the ankle bone's connected to the leg bone....
It sure was fun playing with him!
I think this stencil will be very helpful in my journaling.
So...where to put him?.....
As if I didn't have enough to do in my day...
starting January First
I began something called The Documented Life Project.
It's very small (a Moleskine Weekly Planner)
and I am able to carry it in my purse.
I have slipped it into my Daily Art Routine.

 The paper is very thin and not meant to have wet media used on it...
so I gessoed over it and used my usual markers and pens and paints. 


I love that the print shows through from 
the Calling Code page of this Moleskine Planner. 
No need to worry that I will let my Daily 
slip into obscurity....
I had one more of Pam's new stencils and I went to a back page in my Daily

For this one I used the Articulated Hand Stencil.
Wow! Was it ever challenging!


I also used the Flower of Life Stencil
designed by Mary Beth Shaw.
I love the flowers....or are they just a pattern of triangles?....hmmmm.... 
I started on the white paper with the hand and the word CONNECT.
I scribble journaled my thoughts on the meaning of the word
in a clear Glaze Pen from Sakura
and then did my blending with markers and pens over it.
I added the Flower of Life Stencil
and did more color blending on that.
I stamped the words ...in ways you never thought of 
in Stazon On Ink.

And now the spread is ready to meld into my Daily journaling. 
Isn't Art fun?
Don't you love how you can make stencils your very own?

Happy Arting everyone!
xo

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

StencilGirl Guest Designer Michael Trent

Hello everyone.  My name is Michael and this is my first time on StencilGirl Talk but, hopefully, not my last.  Today, it is my pleasure to introduce to you a new technique I have come up with called "Stendoodle" or "Stendoodling".  Consider it a way of doodling but with stencils.  It's not an easy technique to explain but once you do one project, I am sure you will be hooked!!  It's very calming and Zen-like and I actually came up with this technique while trying my hand at Zentangle.  I can actually zone out for hours while working on a project. 

With Valentine's Day right around the corner my project is using Terri Stegmiller's Heart Flower 6" to make a card.  This would be a great card to give to someone for Valentine's Day but I also see it as a beautiful anniversary card or just a card to tell someone that you love them!!   At the end of the post, I also show a card using the same stencil but leaving out one main part of it in order to give you a larger work space to make your "Stendoodle" in. 
I really hope you guys like the project!! 
Heart with Flower Stendoodle Style



Supplies Used:



StencilGirl Stencils I used in this project 



Other Supplies Used:
White cardstock base - 6" x 12" folded in half
White cardstock 5 1/2" x 5 1/2"
White cardstock 3" x 3"
Black cardstock 5 5/8" x 5 5/8"
Pink cardstock 6" x 6"
Artist grade pencil and eraser
Sharpie Fine Tip Permanent Black Marker
Mixture of Tombow markers and Neon Sharpies
Double sided tape
Removable tape or painter's tape
Ranger Black Archival Ink Pad
Glue Stick
Liquid Glue (I used Glossy Accents)
Scissors
Optional – button to match the pink cardstock and string for button
Optional – pop dots
Thoughts of Courage by Pam Carriker from Stampington

Step by Step:
1.    Place the 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" cardstock on your work surface, tape the Heart Flower 6 stencil down with the painter's or removable tape, and lightly trace the outline of the stencil with the pencil.  Don't push down too hard as the pencil lines will be erased later. (Whether you keep it on an angle or straight up and down, is up to you).

2.     Remove tape and stencil and slowly go over the pencil with a black permanent marker.  Then erase all the pencil marks.  Also color in the “shadow” marks at the top of the heart with the black marker.  You can also close off the 3 flower petals with the permanent marker if you want.  But the flower will be covered later. 

This is a good time to talk about the pencil – the question most frequently asked of me is "Why do you use the pencil?  Why not just trace with the permanent pen?"  The main reason is that most of the stencils I use are very thin and some areas of the stencil are very narrow with the cut areas easily moving.  If the pencil moves while I am tracing, I can erase it later.  But, if the permanent marker moves while tracing (something that has happened many times), if the project cannot be saved, it will need to be started over.  When you do this technique, you will get to know the stencils and which ones can be used right away with a permanent marker and which ones you will need to use the pencil first.

3.     Now lay the Herring Bone stencil over the image and find "that part" of the stencil that “talks” to you.  This is hard to explain but move the stencil around, looking at the open areas as you do this, until you see what works best.  Then trace around the image with the pencil (trust me on this one, with this stencil USE A PENCIL FIRST!!)

4.     Go over the lines with the permanent marker and then erase the pencil marks. 

Now comes the fun and creative part...using stencils with smaller designs to use within each of the rectangle "brick" areas from the Herring Bone stencil.  Steps __ through __ are basically the same – lay a stencil over one of the bricks, trace the part of the stencil you want in the brick, remove stencil and then retrace with the permanent marker. 
5.     Slices - I used it two boxes, one on the right side and one on the left.  Trace with pencil then go back, trace again with permanent marker, then erase pencil lines.   
6.     Rays Circles – Used in the top box.  The stencil will not fully cover the box so after you trace, just extend the lines to the edge of the box.  I also colored the rays in with the permanent marker.

7.  Journal Texture 2 – I love this little stencil as it is perfect for not just the large boxes but also smaller boxes or areas.  I used this stencil in the 3 small portions in the piece.

8.  Blades – every time I use this stencil I want lemonade.  LOL.  Make sure to look at each of the blades or flowers as they are not all the same.   

9.  Triangles - this is a fun stencil to use because you can make your own design with all the straight lines.  Love it!! 

10.  Throwing Stars - this is a great stencil because you have both the positive and negative spaces to use as a stencil.  After I used this stencil, I went back and used the Rays stencil again but this time I only used the small circles in the center of the smallest ray to add some depth to this box.
11.  Diamonds Small 6 - note that the diamond patterns are not spaced very close to each other so you will have to lay one row down, trace, then lift the stencil and position the next row next to the row you just traced to get the effect in the photo below.
12.  Rays again – I used the Rays stencil again on the bottom box to fill in and give some balance with the Rays at the top.
This is what your piece will look like after all the boxes have been filled in –

13.  Color in your piece. You do not need to color in the flower, as that will be covered in the next step. 
I colored in my piece with a mixture of Neon Sharpies and Tombow markers.  You can use Copics, color pencils, you can even leave it black and white if you so want.  The choice is yours.  Just make sure that the medium you use can be used with the permanent pen you used.  Sometimes Copics and Sharpies will react with certain permanent pens. 
I cannot stress enough – if you do not know how your medium will react with the pen you used, try it on a piece of scrap paper.  After putting all of this work into this piece you do not want to have a huge smudge on it.
Here is my piece completely colored in –
(Insert Photo 16 here)
 Now for the flower in the stencil –
14.  Lay the flower part of the stencil on the 3” x 3” piece of white cardstock, trace with pencil, retrace with black permanent marker, close in petals, and cut the flower out.   If you have white showing around the flower, run a black marker around the edge to make it all black.

15.  Now stamp the script or word stamp across the flower.  To make sure that the words flow the correct way, I line up the cut out flower against my piece, then move it to the mat and stamp the image.
(Insert Photo 18 here)
16.  Using double-sided tape or glue of your choice, adhere the finished piece to the black cardstock, then to the pink cardstock, then to the card front.

17.  Using a glue stick, glue the stamped flower to the front of the card.  If you want to use a button, run a piece of string through the button, tie it off, and then glue the button to the center of the flower with Glossy Accents.

18.  Stamp a phrase inside of card and give to someone special!!
You’re done.  I know, that was a long tutorial.  But I hope you enjoyed learning how to Stendoodle!!  I would love your feedback and/or questions.  Feel free to email me at HERE.  And make sure to check out my personal blog for more Stendoodle projects and about my life here in Brasil HERE. 
Beijos e Abracos (Hugs and Kisses)
~Michael