"Break the Rules" T-shirt by Sue Plumb

Hello Stencil Lover! It's Sue Plumb here today to share my Creative Team project for our "Wearables" theme. I love these sort of themes that push me to create something different to what I would usually do. I am sure we all have lots of amazing stencils in our stash that can be used for purposes beyond our normal use, and creating an item that can be worn is definitely one for me. 

Having thought about this theme, my decision was to create something for my (almost) teenage daughter. When she isn't in her school uniform she tends to live in shorts or jeans and t-shirts. (A bit like me, really.) When I considered what item she would get the most use out of (because I am all about practicality) I decided to do a t-shirt. I knew I could also easily match my design to her personality.

So I began with a plain white t-shirt, placed a sheet of cardboard inside it, and then clipped the t-shirt around it. I then used my 2" wide paint brush and the dry brush method to apply two different colours of acrylic paint to the focal area of the shirt.

Once I had some background colour down, it was time to whip out my stencils. I chose the Not Calling You Back stencil designed by Andrea Matus deMeng. This stencil was inspired by Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall, and it was the sassy look she has that drew me to it immediately (and made it perfect for my daughter!) I used black StazOn ink and a sponge dauber to stencil the image onto the shirt.

I also wanted the shirt to feature some text, so I paired the image with the If You Break All the Rules You Miss All the Fun stencil by Carolyn Dube, which was from the StencilClub release back in August 2018. (The entire set was called The Playtime Collection and was an exclusive for StencilGirl Club members.) I used the same ink and technique as I did for the focal image.

Next it was time to liven up my design, with some additional background detail. I drew on the theme of Hollywood star, and chose the Military Style Star stencil by June Pfaff Daley to add some stars to my background. I used the same ink technique, but this time switched to a teal ink, so that they would coordinate with the paint colour I had used. 

For my next step, I pulled out a white Posca paint pen and used it to add a few highlights to the face and hair. Although they don't really show up in my photos here, it allowed me to colour over some of the paint on the background to help the image pop more from the background.

At this point I thought my design was slightly lacking something, and decided to add some extra background detail in a different colour (purple). I knew my daughter would like the addition of the purple, but I didn't want to add it in such a way as that it would overwhelm the focal point of the design, so I chose one of my all-time favourite stencils - Organized Chaos by Cat Kerr to add the random style dots in amongst the structured shapes of the stars. 

Now I was finally happy with my design and I knew my daughter would be too! It turned out to be the  perfect custom t-shirt for my girl. 

I hope I have inspired you to look at the stencils in your stash a bit differently to see what else you could create to make the best use of them. Sometimes it is fun to get out of our comfort zones, isn't it?

Thanks so much for stopping by today so I could share this with you.

Happy stencilling!

Stenciled and Collaged Art Cards with Beads and Fabric

Hi all, it's Gwen back with my quarterly column on using your stencils with paint and textural elements.

This month I decided to go somewhat small and a bit simpler (for me... ha!) with what I like to call an Art Card. I began making small collages on 5" x 7" playing cards a few years ago and I really love them as a format - it's big enough that you can experiment and add plenty of detail, but small enough that it doesn't take forever to complete a project.


Here's the Art Card that I made to share this month and of course there's a tutorial down below.

To make this card, I started by taking a 5" x 7" playing card (although you could obviously use any substrate with this same process) and lightly sanded it to give it some tooth, then coated the background with a layer of background paint. (Essentially colored gesso, but you could use any gesso or even craft paint for this step.)

When the base layer was dry, I coated that with a layer of crackle medium - I like the Americana Weathered Wood crackle from Decorart - it gives you a really nice wood grain pattern (it will also craze in the direction of your brush strokes - something to keep in mind as you apply it to the background.)

When the crackle medium was completely dry I added a layer of paint - I used Toffee from Seth Apter and PaperArtsy and let that dry, crackle, and generally do its thing.

While my background was drying, I went through my stash of collage papers and pulled out a few that I wanted to use - this included some blockprinted and painted collage papers (with stenciling, of course!) When the paint was dry, I tore these into strips and collaged them on with matte medium. When that was done I set the background aside.

Next, I went to work creating my focal image. I took out my Boho Birds stencil and stenciled one of the birds onto a sheet of painted collage paper using black StazOn ink. (I use this because it won't smudge on the non-porous acrylic surface.)

I took a needle and thread and a variety of blue seed beads and started stitching around the outline of my bird, adding beads here and there as I went (I didn't do a solid beaded outline, just enough to add some variety.) I love to use thread and beads as different and interesting ways to add texture to my work.

I added a few vinyl disk beads for the eye and secured them with a French knot that also doubled as the pupil.

When the beading / stitching was complete, I cut out the embellished bird and adhered it onto my background with some Tacky Glue.

I also cut a few embroidered floral elements out of some embellished fabric that I have in my stash - this is another material that I love for getting different types of texture into my work. I glued those on with the Tacky Glue and then ran my Sepia and black Archival ink pads over the surface to take away some of the brightness so they would fit better with the overall feel of the piece.

(I'm frequently asked how I adhere fabric in my collage pieces - I treat it like paper. I use glue or matte / gel medium, and the type that I use depends on how heavy or embellished the fabric is. I'll most frequently adhere it with matte medium, exactly like the rest of my collage papers. This had a lot of embroidery, however, so I went a little more heavy duty on the glue.)

I like to add a bit of shading when I include dimensional elements like this, and my favorite way to do that is with a Stabilo All pencil that I then blend out with a water brush.

With the collage part done, it was time to add some finishing touches. I used the Text and Texture Discovery stencil by Seth Apter to add a title, then outlined with a gold gel pen.

To enhance the contrast and give a bit more shading, I took some Graphite texture paste and added it around some of the dimensional elements.

While the texture paste was still wet, I sprinkled on some Rocky Road Baked Texture embossing powder - another fabulous way to add more layers of texture into your work.

I used my heat gun and melted the embossing powder while the texture paste was still wet - this is one of my favorite techniques as it bubbles the acrylic medium and adds yet more texture to your piece.

Voilà! The finished Art Card!

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial and picked up a few new ideas for bringing texture into your work - maybe even using some different supplies and materials to do it. If you try this yourself, make sure to link me up so I can see.

Until next time, happy stenciling!
Gwen

Birdhouse ATB!

Hi! Mary Nasser here! For today’s project, I wanted to create an inspiring Artist Trading Block (ATB for short!) with a little bird house on top! I used Carolyn Dube’s Now Is The Time small and Now Is The Time large stencils, Eileen Hull's Barn Wood stamp, and a box and birdhouse from Sissix!

For the box, I began by painting the entire surface with unbleached titanium acrylic.

Once that dried, I used the Barn Wood stamp and StazOn Metallic Ink in Copper over the entire surface, too.

I added Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Brushed Pewter, Tarnished Brass and Antiqued Bronze.

Then I used a mini sponge dauber to apply Teal Blue StazOn through portions of Carolyn’s stencils.

Post-it notes helped mask off areas of the stencil around the words I used.

I also laid out some metal ephemera I was considering adding (Mary Beth calls this "auditioning" parts for a work!).

For the birdhouse, I began by painting the entire surface with cobalt turquoise acrylic.

Once that dried, I used the Barn Wood stamp and StazOnTeal Blue over the entire surface, too.

I placed a small matte board flower I’d painted copper and a metal ephemera bird on the surface to "audition" these elements.

Once I finished painting these, the box and birdhouse were easy to assemble with double-sided adhesive tape!
I adhered the bird, flower, text and lock with double-sided adhesive tape
and added a teal gem decal onto the center of the flower.
My last step was to adhere the birdhouse to the top of the box with more double-sided adhesive tape.

Below are views of the side and back:

And here's a detail:

Happy Stenciling!

Mary C. Nasser

Mixed-Media Map Art