Guest Designer: Diane Salter!

Hi everyone! My name is Diane Salter and I'm so excited to be a guest designer for StencilGirlProducts. I've always enjoyed trying out different techniques and products, and right now what's topping my list is painting papers and using them for collage. So when I was asked to be a guest for StencilGirl, I knew just what I could do.

I gathered up my plain white 110lb cardstock paper, which you can find at any office supply store, my Gelli plate, my paints, a brayer, and a plain wood box from the craft store. The stencils that I decided to use were Mary Beth Shaw's Circle Tile Stencil and Squared On Stencil, and Carolyn Dube's Now is the TimeSmall Stencil.

Most times when I make a batch of papers, I will start with my Gelli Plate, starting out with paint on the plate and then  playing with my stencils.

I also like to add more to some of the papers once I stop with the Gelli printing. These are usually the papers that I'm not really satisfied with that resulted  from the Gelli plate. So I'll add more paint with mark-making tools, such as a texture comb, random size bottle caps or cookie cutters, masking with masking tape, stamping, and maybe even throwing in some paint splatters.

Another technique that I really like to do is adding texture with the stencil. This is a pretty popular technique--modeling paste through the stencil. But I prefer to use regular gel medium for the paper, mainly because it's more flexible when you go to cut it up for collage, and it still adds great texture. 

So the first thing I did with my box was paint the inside of it with a color that would compliment my papers. I then collaged with gel medium on all 4 sides of the box with my papers that would represent my background.

And now comes the real play for me, when I start making 'pictures' with my papers. I usually will get an idea of what I want to do, so I drew simple templates of the images that I wanted  to use and outlined them on my painted papers. Then I got out my gel medium and started collaging....

At this point, I always make sure to cover everything with the gel medium – this seals everything in, and when it's dry, I'm ready for my next layer. And that would be enhancing the images with a  black Faber Castell pitt pen, some doodling with a black Fudeball pen (or any permanent marker/pen), and whatever else I want to do at the time – this part is very intuitive for me. I just have fun.

The lid of the box was just random collaging with scraps of my papers.

And I didn't forget the inside of the lid either, to complete the box.

And the finishing touches – a painted doorknob plate and wood knob on the lid, and also feet for the bottom. And a few coats of gloss varnish, which really makes the colors pop. And if you haven't noticed already, I love color!

This is one of my favorite ways of creating art – starting out with plain white papers and paint and stencils – just enjoying the process and seeing your art piece progress along the way.

Thank you so much StencilGirl Products for asking me to be a guest. I love sharing my art and techniques, and if anyone would like to see more of my work, you can visit me at my blog where I also have other tutorials.  My blog is: http://dianesalter.blogspot.com. You can also find the link to my Facebook art page at my blog.