Introducing Our NEW StencilGirl® Talk Columnists!

We are elated to announce our 

StencilGirl® Columnists!

StencilGirl® Products Founder Mary Beth Shaw and her staff are thrilled to introduce our NEW blog Columnists! Mary Beth created the Columnist positions for professional and established artists and has paired up each selected Columnist with what she believes to be their mixed media specialty.

Be on the lookout for these amazing artists and their recurring Columns on the blog:

Debi has been involved in the art industry for more than 40 years. Her experiences include mixed media, home and party decor, calligraphy, watercolor, floral arranging, set stylizing and photography as well as paper crafting. She has been featured in Somerset Studios, Where Women Create, Cloth Paper Scissors and a myriad of other magazines and books. A teacher by degree but an artist at heart, Debi is a California native, pursuing her dream of "self-employment" and looks forward to a variety of opportunities to support her passion.

She enjoys traveling, spending time with her daughters and grandchildren, and “junking” at garage/estate sales and thrift stores. You can view her work on her website, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Jennifer spent thirty years in the children’s book industry as a writer, absorbing many visual design principles from the illustrators and art directors she worked with along the way. When she decided to retire from writing, she rekindled a long neglected relationship with scissors, glue, and paper. In no time at all, stencils, stamps, and paint crashed the party, and - long story short - she no longer has a dining room, but she does have a big sunny studio with a very large table not far from the kitchen.  Creative expression has always been her way of interacting with the world, through writing, gardening, cooking, and making art. She lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she also works part-time as a children’s bookseller in a large independent bookstore.

You can follow Jennifer on Instagram.

Anne Marie has engaged in the creative arts for more than fourteen years and has earned terminal degrees in the humanities and the fine arts. She has studied polymer clay, beading, painting, jewelry design, and mixed media, and stays abreast of the most current developments in the arts and crafts markets. Her work has been sold at juried markets in Illinois and she has been successful in creating and selling custom jewelry. A co-owner at Mystic Spring Studios, her responsibilities are to envision creative options, create a strategy for branding, manage the many course offerings available, and to steer the design philosophy of the company.

Learn more about Anne Marie on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, her blog and website.

Kiala Givehand is a published poet, bookbinder, teacher, fountain pen collector, and holds six academic degrees; the one she cherishes most is her M.F.A. from Mills College where she studied with (and later apprenticed for) world renown Book Artist, Julie Chen. Kiala runs two successful online businesses and through online courses and in person retreats, teaches women all over the world how to find what makes them happy and pursue it without regrets. She's always seen books as vessels for sharing our journey and documenting our lives. And while many believe that Book Arts is a complex skill that only a select few can master, Kiala is on a mission to demystify creativity and handmade books in order to make both accessible to anyone who wants to document their ideas, images, and stories. Through her love for paper, words, stencils, and handmade books, Kiala has been able to cultivate an artistic life that includes Book Arts, poetry, lots of silly doodling and tons of creative exploration and discovery.

Find Kiala on her website, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

Artist, Wife, Mom, Grandma, Friend, Brave Girl, Searcher, Believer......
Janet Joehlin is a late blooming artist. Despite being creative all of her life, she dropped out of art school to get married and raise a family. However, even with three young kids at home, she used her creativity to run a holiday craft business and eventually a long arm quilting business. After the kids were grown and out of the house, Janet used her free time to take a few more art classes and slowly crawled back into the world of art. Today, she is known for her art journaling and Daily that she shares on Instagram. At Brave Girl University, she teaches various art and stitching techniques, encouraging beginners and intermediates alike, to pick up a paintbrush or marker or needle and thread and simply get started creating. 

Originally from Northern Virginia, Gwen Lafleur is a mixed media artist currently living in South Jordan, UT. She works full-time in the eCommerce industry and spends as much free time as possible in her studio playing and making art and teaching the occasional mixed media class. She loves to get her hands dirty with paint, inks, glue, and all kinds of mediums and is a certified art and craft supply junkie. Gwen is a stencil addict turned stencil designer who adores their versatility and the fact that she can use stencils with just about any medium or project. See more on Gwen's website, blog, Instagram, Facebook Page, and Pinterest.

Tina Walker is a creator, wanna-be photographer, and dog lover. ♥  Art keeps her sane and is a retreat from her daily career responsibilities. She loves all things mixed media, including art journaling, assemblage, and book making. She believes mixed media is a perfect discipline, encompassing multiple products, mediums and design techniques. Her project selection and medium choice are always changing and you will frequently see her hosting on-line collaborations and challenges. She is a frequent contributor to Stampington publications and you can discover more about her on her blog, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube: 

Marsha is a freelance craft professional from the Netherlands, who creates craft video tutorials, writes blog posts and magazine articles and teaches online classes. She loves printmaking and mixed media art journaling, but she’ll just as easily have a go at kids’ crafts, crochet, jewelry making, porcelain painting, candle making, glass etching, stamp carving or paper mache. Bright colors make her happy and her inspiration comes from anything from a walk around the block to films, books, magazines, patterns, materials and works of art. Coming from a family of makers and crafts(wo)men, she believes the ability to make 'something' out of 'nothing' runs in her blood. She has also been interested in art history, modern art and photography for as long as she can remember. Marsha is a regular contributor to the Gelli Arts blog and is a former member of Nathalie Kalbach's Creative Squad. See more of Marsha's art on her website, blog, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. 

Kristin Reese Williams has spent a lifetime playing with yarn, embroidery floss, glitter, clay, rubber stamps, paper, paints, and glue (you get the picture). She was lucky to have an incredibly talented craftswoman for a mother who saw great value in children’s art and craft classes. That planted a seed for lifelong learning and craft supply hoarding. Collage using abandoned quilt squares, StencilGirl® stencils, acrylic paint, embroidery floss and found objects is her current obsession. Kristin is the owner and operator of Ephemera Paducah (her 50th birthday present to herself after a career in economic and community development), an art & craft workshops space for adults located in Paducah, Kentucky. In its 5th year of business, Ephemera Paducah  was featured in the Winter 2018 Where Women Create Business. Kristin was thrilled to partner with StencilGirl® and hosted the wildly popular StencilGirl® & Friends Retreat in September 2017. See more about Kristin on her website, Facebook Page, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Kate has been dabbling in art since she was 6 years old when she took her first mixed media painting class. She loves all types of crafts but mixed media and art journaling are her favorite. She discovered mixed media 8 years ago and has been hooked to stamps, stencils and paints ever since. Kate draws inspiration for her art from vintage photographs, Asian, Egyptian and Indian culture, as well as her love for tea. She loves layering and creating textured backgrounds in vibrant colors and drippy paint. Kate is a nurse, wife and mother of 3. Kate loves Celtic music, global decor, drinking tea and spending time with her family. View more of Kate's art on her blog, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook Page.