Make a Halloween Fabric Garland

Hello Everyone, it's Martha again with a Halloween project that I hope you'll like. I love Halloween so I thought I'd give this idea a try. Of course, you can adapt this project to any holiday or no holiday at all. 

I usually start projects with a general idea of what I want to make, then let them evolve as I go along. With that thought, I took out the stencils I wanted to use and some fabrics. I'll list all of the supplies I used down below.

I don't like to measure unless it's absolutely necessary so I mostly eyeballed everything during this process. I tore the muslin fabric into rectangular shapes because I had originally planned to fold over the tops of these pieces to make the openings through which I would thread the string to hang the garland. That plan "evolved" as I went along, but I'll describe that later.

Then I started stenciling on the muslin fabric pieces with acrylic paints. 

I was liking this so far, but decided that I needed some additional color and interest on some of these pieces. I added this warning sign in orange to this one.

I stenciled some of the designs with gesso first to make the second color stand out more from the background.

At some point during the stenciling I realized that I could make five pieces with the stencils I chose, but  needed more than that for a garland so I made two of each piece.

I was happy with my pieces so far but thought they needed more so here is where my plan changed a bit. I decided to put the muslin pieces on top of some fun fabrics. I tore the fun Halloween fabrics into long rectangular pieces and tore down the muslin pieces into more of a square shape that would fit nicely onto the colorful fabrics. Again I just eyeballed everything. I planned on folding over the tops of the colorful fabrics to make that opening for the string to hang the garland. I also pulled out some ribbons to further decorate my pieces.

I did then fold over the top of each piece and sewed around the stenciled muslin pieces. Instead of machine stitching I think some hand stitching around these pieces would look great too.

I used Fabri-Tac to glue the ribbons on and just snipped off the ends with my scissors. 

I'm almost finished! I chose this string and threaded it through the openings at the top of each piece with this large paper clip.  I was forced to break out my ruler for this part. I measured one piece then multiplied by the number of pieces (ten in this case). I then added an extra three inches on each side of the pieces (you'll see why below), added more inches to make sure I had enough string on each end to hang this thing, then doubled all of that. My string is quite thin so I wanted to double it. That's a lot of measuring! 

I added some ribbons in between each piece. This is what I had originally intended to use the fabrics for but thought the ribbons added a nicer contrast.

And with that my project is finished! I tried it on my bookshelf which looks nice. Then I hung it over a window and I love it there. Did I mention I love Halloween?? The garland fits right in with my decorations. 

I hope you'll give this project a try!

Supplies Used:

Industrial Signage

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Industrial-Signage-DeeDee-Catron-p/ll1107.htm

Industrial Wordage 

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Industrial-Wordage-DeeDee-Catron-p/sa1057.htm

June 2021 Stencil Club June Pfaff Daley

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-club-june-2021-june-pfaff-daley-early-art-2-s/2159.htm

Webbed Medallion

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-webbed-medallion-cecilia-swatton-p/s522.htm

Gross Anatomy Inside My Head

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-head-pam-carriker-p/s272.htm

Twist Lattice Stencil

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-twist-lattice-lizzie-mayne-p/s152.htm

Jackwitch Mini

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Jackwitch-Mini-Jennifer-Evans-p/m225.htm

Fabrics

Acrylic Paints

Foam Wedge Sponges

Ribbons

Sewing Machine

String

Scissors

Glue ( I used Fabri-Tac)

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Decorate a Journal Cover Using Stenciled Address Labels

Hi art friends, it's Martha and I'm excited to share a project today for my second StencilGirl blog post! This is an idea that was inspired by a mixed media artist named Cat Hand. I saw her video sharing this technique about 10 years ago when I first started doing mixed media and thought it would be fun to try it again. There is a link to her video down below.

I'm decorating a book cover using stenciled address labels. The first step is to choose a book you would like to use and paint the cover. I happened to choose a book that has a cover similar in color to the painted background I wanted. 

Next, it's time to add paint to those label sheets. I decided a mid-century modern theme would be cool for my book cover. Here are the paint colors and stencils that I chose to use.  I've listed the supplies below.

I used standard white mailing labels as you can see. For my project I wanted an off white background on the labels so I used a brayer to cover two label sheets with Titan Buff paint.

The next step is to decide in which order to use the paint colors and stencil shapes. Something to keep in mind if you are trying this project is which shapes and colors you want to stand out and which ones you want to be more in the background. If you are unsure practice first on a piece of copy paper. That's what I did. 

I decided to use the yellow color and this stencil as the first one in the background. This is the lightest paint color I used and it will look nice as a background color. I will use darker colors as I go along which will stand out more.

Next is the orange color. As you can see, I taped off the part of the stencils that I wanted to use. Another tip is to vary the shapes and sizes of the images.

This shape in green adds a nice contrast to the pattern and colors I have so far. Note that I am overlapping some of the shapes. I don't want to cover every single part of my labels but do want to spread out the shapes and colors so that when I pull off the individual labels they will have a nice variety of colors.

Continuing with this curly shape in dark blue. I want these next stenciled parts to stand out more. 

A rectangular shape in magenta is next - another nice contrast to what I have so far. 

Finally, I stenciled the shape that I wanted to stand out the most in turquoise. I love the way these colorful sheets look so far!

The last step before I start adhering the labels to my book cover is to outline and add marks to some (not all) of the shapes with a gold pen. This is optional of course, but I like this look for my project.

Here's a close up of one of the label sheets. As usual it's difficult to photograph the shiny gold, but hopefully you get a good idea of what they look like.

I used a thin layer of gel matte medium to adhere the labels. Starting on the right side of the cover I moved left in perpendicular rows toward the spine. Each row is staggered a bit and I left a small gap in between each label to create a tile like pattern.

This is what the front of my book cover looks like before I trimmed the top and bottom. I let that dry really well then followed the same process on the back cover, leaving the spine area open. 

Here is what my final project looks like. I like to add a closure to most of my journals (also an optional step) so I attached a couple of charms to a black elastic. I wanted to keep it simple so as not to detract from the busy and colorful patterns on the cover. I really love the way this bright and happy cover turned out! I have not worked on the inside yet, but plan to use the pages on the inside of this book to do some art journaling. I hope you're inspired to give this a try. There are so many different options with colors and styles.

Suplies Used:

Hardcover book

Paint

Address labesls

Stencils

Make up sponges 

Paint marker

Gel matte medium

Scissors

Stencils Used:

Mid Century Modern Vibe 2 https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Mid-Century-Modern-Vibe-2-Jennifer-Evans-p/s584.htm

Mid Century Rocks and Leaves https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-MidCentury-Mod-Rocks-Leaves-Jennifer-Evans-p/s586.htm

Slices 6  https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-slices-6-terri-stegmiller-p/s094.htm

I recorded my process if you'd like to watch the video:

Cat Hand inspiration video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvEYq7O2ImU&t=14s

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https://www.youtube.com/@madebymartha

Make a Fabric Covered Journal Using Stencils

Hello! My name is Martha and I am a mixed media artist obsessed with making journals. So, of course, I decided my first project for the StencilGirl blog would be a journal. I also became quite enchanted with Sarah Gardner's moth parts stencil when I first saw it. I knew I wanted to create a beautiful, colorful moth as the focal image on a journal cover.

For this project, I decided to make a fabric cover. I have some canvas fabric that I tore to the size I wanted. I also cut a piece from a file folder that I will attach to make the cover a little bit sturdier. I planned to paint on the canvas fabric, but before I did that I wanted to make my moth. That will guide my choice of paint colors for the background of the cover.

Instead of painting the moth parts I decided to use colorful papers to try something different. (You could also use fabric for this step.) So I pulled out some colorful papers that I thought might work well together. I used them to trace and cut out the moth parts. After cutting them out, I arranged them the way I wanted, then glued them together.

I changed my selection of papers slightly for the moth wings to come up with a combination I was happy with.

Now that my moth was ready, I picked out some coordinating paint colors to use on the canvas fabric. I use acrylic paint on fabric and it works fine for my purposes. I used a couple more of Sarah's stencils on the background.

 

I also pulled out a couple more stencils in order to vary the shapes and make a colorful background. The stencils I used are listed below.

Happy with my background, it was time to finish assembling my moth and the front cover. I cut a small circle for the head of the moth and found some fabric to which I attached the moth with glue. I also attached a strip of that contrasting fabric to the back of the cover because I thought it tied the whole cover together nicely. After glueing all of these pieces down I did some wonky machine stitching around some of the moth wings, the moth background patch and the strip of fabric on the back cover. It's very colorful and I love it!

Time to finish up the cover. I glued the canvas fabric to the file folder using a strong glue. I planned to do more sewing around the entire cover so the glue is not the only thing holding it together. Not only does the file folder piece provide more stability to the cover, it also hides the stitching on the backside of the fabric if you don't want that to show. I used that same contrasting fabric for the inside of the cover gluing it on with a glue stick since it's a very thin fabric. I then stitched all around the outside of the cover.

NOTE: It's best to wait until your glue is dry before doing any machine stitching to avoid gumming up your sewing machine.

Finally, I sewed in some tea dyed printer paper using a three hole pamphlet stitch and my journal was finished!

I hope you enjoyed this project. I recorded my process if you'd like to watch the video:

Supplies Used:

Moth Parts https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Moth-Parts-Sarah-Gardner-p/ll1047.htm

Squiggle Doodle https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Squiggle-Doodle-Sarah-Gardner-p/l969.htm

Doodle Vocab https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Doodle-Vocab-Sarah-Gardner-p/l970.htm

ATC Mixup Apter https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-ATC-Mixup-Apter-Seth-Apter-p/l664.htm

Intense Half Rings https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Intense-Half-Rings-Andrew-Borloz-p/s534.htm

Fabric

File folder

Scissors

Glue

Colorful papers

Paint

Sewing machine 

Tea dyed paper

Waxed thread

Book binding needle

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https://www.youtube.com/@madebymartha

https://www.instagram.com/mymixedmediafun/