Guest Designer: Diane Adams

Hi! It's Diane Adams from @twospotteddogs! I was so excited when I was asked if I would be interested in doing a guest blog post on StencilGirl®Talk. I knew immediately that I wanted to use some of Rae Missigman’s amazing color swatch stencils!

I have always loved color swatches, although I have never created my own since I don’t do a lot of painting. There is something so appealing about the grids and geometric shapes! I have been using landscape images in my artwork since I was in art school many years ago. My first thought was that it would be fun to paint a landscape image over the grid. I also love the variety of bird and butterfly stencils offered by StencilGirl®. My original project plan included creating a stenciled bird to add over the landscape. I also wanted to try to come up with a unique way to use the stencils. I really enjoy trying to find new ways to use products or materials. Like many of my favorite projects, this one went in a different direction from my original plan, and I ended up using the stencil in an unexpected way. I decided to use the 6 x6 stencil on a 6 x 6 square of patterned cardstock. I love using papers that look like vintage ephemera, especially old ledger paper. I thought that the cardstock would also work well with the acrylic paint I wanted to use with my stencil. My favorite tool to use when applying paint to a stencil is a foam cosmetic wedge. For this project, I used inexpensive jars of acrylic paint. I used a variety of blues and greens to create an abstract landscape using the 20 Color Swatch Grid Stencil.

When I removed the stencil, I made the best discovery! I loved how the grid landscape looked, but I also really loved how the landscape image looked on the stencil itself.

I tried laying the stencil on another square of patterned paper and I knew I wanted to create another piece using the actual painted stencil. I glued the stencil to my paper using a glue stick.

I love using antique landscape postcards in my art. The abstract landscape grids reminded me of the postcard landscapes, and I decided to layer the vintage postcards over the grids.

I used foam tape to attach the postcards to add dimension to the finished pieces. I also outlined the grid squares and postcards with pencil. I was so excited with how this project turned out that I decided to try it with the Color Gradient Swatch Wheel stencil and see if I could use the same concept, but in a circle format. I followed the same process and once again, I loved both the stenciled landscape and the painted stencil.

I cut antique postcards into a circle, and I was really happy with the way they worked with the stenciled image and the painted stencil.

When I started this project, I didn’t really plan on finishing the pieces, but I was so happy with how they turned out that I decided to mount them to gesso boards. I glued scraps of the patterned paper to the edges of the gesso board.

Now that I have completed this project, I will definitely be ordering more of the color swatch stencils and plan to include more of the actual painted stencils in my work. I hope you enjoyed this project and I hope it will encourage you to think outside the box and look for new ways to use your stencils.

Diane Adams from @twospotteddogs