Mary Beth's Monday Musings...February 2016 Edition

#Iseestencilseverywhere

Or at least I am working on it......

Post below and tell me about your stencil projects around the house. 

Mary Beth's Monday Musings...January 2016 Edition

Here we are at the start of another year. Mind blowing, isn't it? Remember when we were kids, the adults always said that time would start to fly and that is indeed true. I don't know about you, but I tend to go a tad crazy this time of year; my type A personality seeks organization in every aspect of my life from the business to art to my sock drawer. It isn't pretty. I typically have 4-6 organizational systems going, trying to juggle them all to achieve.......well, who knows what I am attempting to achieve?

Today I want to take a slight departure from my usual 'stencil talk' and instead share my ideas about how I attempt to carve out daily creative time for myself and how I have made a little space to call my own. 

It is my wish for all of us, that 2016 is the year we achieve daily creative fulfillment in our busy lives. 

Happy New Year!!!

Mary Beth's Monday Musings...November 2015 Edition

Back in 2010, when I started StencilGirl, I never had the sense to dream quite this big. I mean seriously, we started with just 6 stencils, all my designs. I thought it would be a one shot deal, we would have them manufactured, sell a few, that would be it. Never imagined that 5 years later I would be running a company of 700+ stencils.... 

And now, shared for the first time.....the back story of the original designs......

Gears - I had seen some gear related stuff and thought it was cool, but I didn't even realize there was a Steampunk movement, I just like gears. Plus I have a circle obsession, so moving from circles to gears, well that was a no brainer for me. I had lots of rusty gear parts, I traced them, enlarged, played, embellished, varied the sizes. Over and over again. I didn't own a light box so I had gears taped to the window and traced them that way or did rubbings. I drew each gear on its own before I made the composition. Hand drawn and colored as I didn't know any other way.

Greek Key - I had the need for a decorative stencil, something I could use to add borders, symmetry to my work, frame up certain sections, that kind of thing. Couldn't find anything in the store, (think 2010 and borders of ducks populating the craft store aisles). I have always admired the Greek Key design and actually hand cut this one too, it wasn't pretty, The entire design literally fell apart at one point until I got the bridges right. It took me forever and as I look back, I think I must have had an out of body experience.

Rafters - my friend Greg Barth, a professional photographer, had taken a photo that I just loved, it was the inside of a barn, specifically, rafters. We were involved in a retail endeavor back in those years, had a store in a mall (yeah, that's a story for another day) and I used to stare at this photo when I worked in the store. Started making some sketches, refining shapes to my own needs. This one was hand cut too. My first book has a picture of the hand cut stencil on page 50. I still have it. Greg teases me about copyright. At least I think he is teasing.

River Rocks - I collect rocks. It is an odd hobby for an adult woman. My husband often laughs because (if we are traveling by air), I could garner an overweight luggage charge due to rock collecting. When we do laundry, rocks fall out of my pockets.
This design plagued me for years, I kept drawing it over and over, I painted several pieces with versions of the design, then ultimately cut it into a stencil. By hand. And then there was the day day I decided to paint something similar on the wall of our guest bathroom.

Trees - were a personal mission. I wanted/needed a stencil of trees to use in my work but I wanted the positive space to be the tree limbs, not the negative space like all the other tree stencils back then. I started with photographs I had taken of trees. Took me forever to achieve the look I had in mind, delicate and natural. Drawing bridges in such a way so you would hardly even notice their presence was important to me. To this day, I love this stencil. I will often flip it back and forth to get a variation on branches. 

Web - I have saved the best story for last. I wanted the Web itself to be the positive space, meaning it would be an organic linear design. I drew my heart out, sent the design to be cut and it came back like this - the black parts are where the paint ends up, not the white parts like I had envisioned. Duh, big time brain fart, it would be darn near impossible to do it any other way due to the intricacy. Bridging wouldn't work. I was so disappointed and felt impossibly stupid I mean I paid a LOT of money for 100 stencils that were the exact the invert of what I had intended. After I slapped myself in the head, I decided to try it out and voila, I ended up liking it quite a bit. This stencil was my first great 'integrator' that being a stencil that will do wonders for integrating. Not to mention really cool texture.

So that, boys and girls, is the story behind the 'Original Six' stencils. 

Mary Beth's Monday Musings...October 2015 Edition

Do you ever feel like you are a small rodent on a wheel? 

Yep, that has been me as this year whirls by at an ever increasing speed......I imagine a fluffy Mary Beth guinea pig running ever and ever faster until............stop! 

Yes, let's take a break, shall we?

I stepped back from teaching gigs this year in order to be more involved with our growing company. StencilGirl is a real deal, to the point I need to manage things (aaaack, perish the thought, I'm not a manager, I'm an artist!). I find that my days are filled with a variety of activities, some which are freeform brainstorming things (yay, I am good at that stuff) some that are mind numbing computer things (boo hiss, I whine the whole time). It all must be done. There are days when making my art seems more remote than ever. 

Have you been like that too? 

It is easy to become derailed from your calling.  

Thus, perfect timing for Life Book 2016. Today is the sign up. This is a great opportunity for students and teachers alike; we all need more contemplative time. Life Book will offer that. There is a very thoughtful lineup of people and topics planned; this is going to be good. I would sign up even if I weren't part of it. Yeah, it's that good. 

It's the first time I've been involved in one of these year-long classes and I am jazzed beyond belief (honored really). You can find out lots of details here. I am looking forward to it and hope to see you all there. 

You know how I see stencils everywhere?

#iseestencilseverywhere

Ahem. Yes, I realize it might be an illness. Here are two pics I took recently. 

Paper, I think?

Wine crate

And finally, in the words of Mary Oliver, 

"Tell me, what will you do with your one wild and precious life?" 

I'm going to go make some art. 

How about you?

Tell me in the comment section below.

NEW Stencil Release from StencilGirl! Designs from Mary Beth Shaw and Terri Stegmiller

Today is a NEW release day from StencilGirl!!!

We have new stencils from 

Mary Beth Shaw and Terri Stegmiller!!!

MB's Grid Stencils

Here's Mary Beth to tell you a little about her from "The Vault" Grids.

Watch on YouTube

EIGHT New Designs from Terri Stegmiller!!!

Entangling Threads 6" x 6"

He Loves Me 6" x 6"

Miss A Lined 6" x 6"

Primitive Wedges 6"x 6" and Scribble Blooms 6" x 6"

The Heart Within 6" x 6"

Thorny 6" x 6"

Whimsical Waves 6" x 6"

You can find all of the NEW stencils on our WEBSITE!!!

Mary Beth's Monday Musings...May 2014 Edition

I see Stencils Everywhere

I have always loved pattern; my doodles turn into patterns, I collect patterned wrapping paper and napkins, I tear out pictures of pattern from magazines. My abstract paintings often involve pattern and my drawings and journal pages include pattern without fail. 

And that was before I made my first stencil. 

After I started cutting my own stencils, it got worse. Suddenly every pattern started to hold additional meaning as I tried to envision it as a stencil. 

Oh my. 

I got perhaps a wee bit carried away and before you can say Laser Cut Stencils, I was that crazy person photographing a friend's blouse or hotel carpet. Rusted stuff. Cracks in the sidewalk. Cactus. More cactus. Random foliage. And so it goes. Here are just a few images I have collected lately.

What type of things do you photograph? Any stencil worthy imagery? Not that I am going to run out of ideas any time soon, but I love to hear what you all think. Start your wish list by leaving me a comment below. 

Mary Beth's Monday Musings for April

You all pretty much know I don't clean my stencils, right? I used to. Back in the beginning, each and every one felt so darn precious that I meticulously cleaned them and asked my students to do the same. I think I helped keep the baby wipe people in business. 

But then I got kind of careless and, truth be known, I started using so.many.designs. I just became lazy and stopped cleaning them. 

Instead, I told myself layers of paint (on a stencil) are cool. And that I like it when old paint transfers to a piece. And yeah, well I guess I do because it is often quite cool in a 'you could do this again' type of way. 

The stencils that I carry to class with me.......well, those stencils are beyond layered. Good grief, they have practically doubled in thickness. They have probably transformed from being 7 mil stencils to 11 mil, they are so thick with paint. 

I think they are pretty though; some have even transformed into art all on their own!

How lush, don't you just love all that color! 

And this one has got to be one of my favorites - pattern on pattern! Gotta love it.

Speaking of Mylar, which you *know* is one of my favorite topics, you must understand we have little scraps of it all over our damn house. I am talking about the drop out parts (stencil scrap). Imagine that intricate stencil above, the one with all the little squares and geometric parts......every place you see an opening......well, imagine that a piece of Mylar had to be cut out of each and every one of those places. 

That is what our Lasers do. 

When John pulls a stencil off the Laser, those little teeny weeny parts will often go airborne despite his best efforts to control this stencil crap, er, scrap. It gets absolutely everywhere! 

Ugh. 

My cats get tiny Mylar parts stuck in their fur. John routinely has it on his bare feet. Somehow it tends to migrate around the house. It is horrid on vacuums, all sorts of odd shapes that cling together and clog the hose. 

Karyl was packaging shipments the other day and look what she found:

Isn't that a crack up? 

You can't make this stuff up.

I am still looking for ways to use the Stencil Scrap. I have played with alcohol ink on Mylar scraps and that is actually quite fun as they make cool transparent embellishments. 

Anybody else got any ideas? 

Mary Beth's Monday Musings March 2014 Edition

It is time for another episode of Mary Beth's 

Monday Musings!

I have been a traveling girl lately. First I went to The Queen's Ink outside of Baltimore for a gig called StencilGirl Friendzy. It was a lot if fun - teaching with my art pals, Pam Carriker, Joanne Sharpe and Sue Pelletier. Since it was a journal class I got to play in my journal the whole time and that was a lot of fun. Great people. Amazing crab cakes. And I bought some cool bargain scarves ($3 for one of them if you can believe). Plus I had a piece of coconut cake as big as my head. Ahem....



After the class was over, my friend Deb took me into "The District" for dinner which was such a kick. I swear I am so geographically challenged I didn't even realize we were close to DC. It must be quite interesting to live near our nation's Capitol.

Caught a plane the next morning to Columbus, OH where I met up with the hubster for Artiscape. He and Carolyn Dube ran the stencil booth while I taught for 2 days.
I am originally from Ohio (Cincinnati) so it felt a bit like coming home.


Two classes. Brilliant students. It was very rewarding. And we got ice cream from Jeni's. All I've got to say about that is YUM. Serious YUM. I had Black Walnut Divinity and Salty caramel. The Black Walnut is a big treat and reminds me of the tree that was in front of my Grandparent's house. I love black walnuts.

I am a wee bit worn out. It takes a lot of energy to do this job, ha! I am way anxious to get home for a kitty cuddle (and a nap perhaps?) before I head to Random Arts in a few weeks.