You have a treasure box to pick from when you art journal.

Hi! Rakefet Hadar here to share my art journaling process with you.

I always look for different ways to communicate my inner self on the journal pages. I love to be surprised by the outcome… I love the unexpected and I always feel that I get messages from my subconscious. I often “read” my pages as dreams. I try to understand my inner voices as they pop up on the page.

Art journal painted with my Inner Dream Houses Tree Stencil.

I believe in the power of our subconscious, it is like a big treasure box with lots of memories and resources from our childhood.

As children, we come to this world with a purpose, our soul has goals and dreams, as we grow up we forget our inner dreams and become practical.

I believe we must dive into our most inner childhood memories, heal them and regenerate our dreams.

Children live in the present, they are resilient and strong. They see the world with bright eyes, see the beauty of it.

Small children use art to express themselves without the fear or need to create something beautiful, with less judgment.

The most important resource of childhood is the wonder and happiness to be connected to nature and be part of it; This is why I love using pictures of children in my spreads.

The tree stencil is designed to be used in any direction.
Maybe you see it as a trunk or a branch. 

In the piece below, I wanted to create a feeling of a big tree trunk that emerges from the earth and creates the division between past, present, future… The houses on the left are pinkish and represent childhood. The woman inside the tree trunk is a symbol of my inner youth spirit that longs to find the right way. The houses on the left are multicolored to show the complexity of life.

I love colors!

Color is one of the 7 elements that I write on in my book “Layers of Intention- Elements of Art Journaling” for me it’s the most important element. Color creates a story. It symbolizes feelings and memories. It creates energy.

Recently I developed another method of working with color “color archetypes” and when I paint in my journal, I often use my special colors. For me, the blue and purple tree symbolizes my higher self.

The video below shows my artistic process.

 

Do you have an inner critic? I do. When I feel the inner critic, I just ask him to sit quietly and let me finish. I must admit that since I started journaling I don’t feel his voice so much because the visual journal is a private thing, I don’t have to share if I don’t want to. For me, it’s a healing process that I allow myself and it doesn’t have to be beautiful.

Inner Dream Houses Eye 9" x 12" Stencil

Intention, magical coincidence, background, images, lines, colors, text…these are the seven elements that make up the visual journal as I create it, and as I teach in the visual Journey journaling(VJJ) method.

Two of the elements, intention and magical coincidence, are meta-elements in journaling. They are also expressed visually, but mostly as part of an inner process. I view magical coincidence and intent as the ‘mother and father” of all the other elements.

Intention is like a cloud that always hovers over us when we work on our visual journal. The higher intention is to express ourselves in a new language, a visual language that touches us, a language that lets us create something from nothing. That is the higher intention of every spread in the journal.

If the element of intention is the father of all elements, magical coincidence is the mother. To feel a sense of freedom and inner passion as you create in your journal, you have to love and accept the surprise that magical coincidence offers. Looking at the world through the eyes of a child lets us discover wondrous ways of creating, ways that we wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.

If you want to learn more about the elements you can read about them in my book, “Layers of Meaning.”

I would love to welcome anyone who is interested to learn more to check out my website and get a monthly newsletter with lots of information about courses, articles. My biggest dream Is to spread my method of Visual journaling so everyone can heal themselves with it. Next year I will open my first International facilitator course. There are a few more spots left.

You are also welcome to my Facebook group -Visual Journaling with Rakefet Hadar.

Rakefet

A stencil for Thanksgiving and smaller Painterly Horses have arrived!

Hello! Are you running into fall? We are!

And we are pleased to deliver 3 new stencils this week - 2 smaller beautiful and painterly horse stencils by Lanie Frick and a fabulous Thanksgiving stencil (The leaf mask is even included!) by June Pfaff Daley.

Thanksgiving Stencil with Leaf Mask is a 9"x12" Stencil.

Place cards, dish towels, and greeting cards are three of the uses June Pfaff Daley has put to the holiday stencil she designed.

June wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving and writes, "For my Thanksgiving table this year, I plan to have a place card for each family member to open and write inside what they are grateful for. I will save these after and use in my art journal."
June has provided a template for the inside that will make 6 cards. You can download the pdf via this link.

Gather:

• Thanksgiving Stencil L744 by StencilGirl® Products
• White cardstock - each 8.5”x11” sheet will make 6 cards
• alcohol ink - fall colors
• acrylic paint - fall colors
• stenciled maple leaves 
• burlap
• hot glue
• sewing machine or embroidery thread & needle

DIY:

1. Lightly spritz the blank side of the cardstock with alcohol ink in fall colors. Let dry.
2. Stencil a variety of overlapping maple leaves on top. Be careful not to allow the colors to become too dark.
3. Fold each card in half and stencil the word grateful, paying attention to how the card will open in relation to someone writing on the inside.
4. If you wish, write the name of each guest on the other side of the card.

Silverware holder:

1. Sew or stitch pockets out of burlap strips folded up.
2. Hot glue a maple leaf on top of the burlap. 

June planned her card compositions with stenciled images, scraps of fabric and additional cardstock. On several of the cards, she used colored pencils and gelly roll pens to further embellish.

DIY:

1. Stencil the maple leaf in several places on each card and envelope with red, yellow, and orange paint.
2. Stencil other images onto cream colored cardstock, let dry, and cut out.
3. Compose your cards with scraps of fabric from your stash. 
4. Glue or stitch the elements together.
5. Embellish more with colored pens and pencils.

June writes, "I thought a stenciled dish towel would make a thoughtful hostess gift this holiday season. To start, I went to my local Home Goods store and purchased a pack of dishtowels. These were extremely inexpensive and saved the work of making the towel itself.

To embellish I used a khaki fabric I had on hand-cut to fit the width of the dishtowel. The height of each piece of khaki fabric varies but is roughly 6 inches. I stenciled my designs in the center of this piece of fabric and then sewed it to the dishtowel. Next, I raided my stash for trims and sewed on more whimsical touches to go with each towel.

Horse Around in Your Art Journal, Paint, or Make Cards!

Horse 1 and Horse 2, designed by Lanie Frick, will gallop onto your handmade cards and into your art journal and scrapbook layouts, mixed media artwork, and more. Use them with paints, inks, watercolors... even encaustics! These hand-drawn beauties are smaller than the equine steeds of Lanie's Norman Horse and Running Horse Stencil.

Horse 1 is a 6"x6" stencil.

Horse 2 is a 6"x6" stencil.

We are ever grateful that you love using such a variety of stencils for so many art projects.

You can discover all the latest stencils here. 

Stencils by Lanie Frick are here. 

Stencils by June Pfaff Daley are here.

"Fall"-ing for ATC Mixup Stencils and Watercolors

Hello September! One of my favorite times of the year is just around the corner.  Fall.  I just love the sights, scents and colors of this season.  How about you?  Hi, I'm Debi Adams, and I'm the DIY Columnist for StencilGirl®. As some of you may or may not know,  I love filling my home with bits of decor that welcome in the season.  No better time than now to introduce a new piece of art that makes use of the autumn colors.  Although my art/crafting history has a lot of card making in it, this latest piece can be used as wall decor, table top display or even a Thanksgiving table greeting as well.  I made it as a card but as you will read, it can be translated into framed artwork too.

Creating my art piece was really easy.  It was based on the three key components that go into card making (See my "The Art of Cardmaking" video series), although not all are necessary for an art piece. The reality is mixed media art and card making are very similar at their core.  It's the approach and use of products that make them different. (Not surprisingly, I have heard it can make all creative parties a bit uncomfortable when delving into the other's genre). Both attack their projects with a background, a main focal point and a message.  The layering effects and how a message is conveyed is where the road begins to divide. Here I approached it with a bit of both. It is my intention that no matter where your comfort zone lies, you will be able to stretch your creative bandwidth.   So let's get started with, "The Process".

I used Arches® Cold Pressed Watercolour Paper 140 lb. weight for my substrate.  I found this watercolor paper to be absolutely the best for getting amazing results. You can buy it by the sheet or by the tablet, not inexpensive but most definitely worth it for your better projects.  You can also use cold-pressed watercolor paper or mixed media paper at 140lb. too. They are not nearly as costly but work just a bit differently in terms of outcome but definitely a great place to start!

Windsor Newton watercolors are my paints of choice but you can choose whatever watercolors you like. Misting the paper with water first helped the watercolors spread nicely.  I dipped my watercolor brush into my colors and just started dropping them onto the paper, letting them bleed together. Choose just three complimentary colors to get started so that you don't end up with a muddy mess. I misted some areas a bit more so the paint could actually drip.  Some areas I went back into and added more color.

When everything was dry, I stenciled in a new ATC Mixup design using white acrylic paint. (Stenciling and mini-markings were made with the bottom left and bottom right stencil images below). Ok, so I am going to be the biggest cheerleader EVER for the all the NEW and past ATC Mixup stencils! I love them. They are absolutely the best.  They are easy to take anywhere, especially if you cut them down like I did. You get 9 FABULOUS designs on each stencil from a variety of designers. The possibilities with these are endless.  (This post could go on and on!). Today I chose Jennifer Evans ATC Mixup collection.

I love dimension in my art.  To achieve this with stencils, I painted or watercolored several of the designs on watercolor/mixed media paper.  (It's ok if the design bleeds. Part of the watercolor look!) Don't forget to use several shades of paint so the flower has some life to it.  When dry, I drew around the flower and added markings using my black and white pens and then I cut them out.  I always make more than I need so that when I want that "something" for another project, I just reach into my "spare parts" jar.  

I got kind of an idea, half way through. (Call it my a.d.d.) Ya'll may have already done this a long time ago so just amuse me, but I thought about double stenciling this design. I put another stencil (Gridded) on top of the flower stencil and painted it brown.  I loved how it made the daisy look whimsical.  By double-stenciling, I eliminated any excess design outside the flower's border.  Anyway, just a detour here. Sometimes art takes us on an unexpected journey.  

Now the last part of the process is mark-making and assembly.  Add any additional marks to your base before attaching flowers and sentiment. I created the sentiment using this wonderful stencil by Carolyn Dube called Alpha Jumble Small. It is a must have if you are a cardmaker. I used a sponge applicator and white ink/paint to apply the image to the skinny black strip of cardstock.  Also, I try to incorporate a little bit of black carpet thread into some of my pieces. I tied a bow and adhered it behind the flower.  The flowers were attached using foam dots.

Adding the sentiment made this a card but don't feel obligated to put this on yours.  Often times I give my project away so the sentiment works. If I were to hang it, I would definitely remove it.  

Speaking of give away, if you leave a comment on this blog,  I will draw the name of a random winner who will receive this card/art project. You must live in the continental U.S. to enter and only one comment per person.  Winner will be chosen on Thursday, September 13th when I post here again!

I love art, playing and creativity. I hope I have in some way inspired you to try something different today. 

Debi 

Website
Instagram
Pinterest
Facebook

Grand Opening: StencilGirl Studio!

Hey, it's Mary Beth here and I can't wait to tell you about my latest endeavor, StencilGirl Studios. It's a website where you can master stenciling techniques with all sorts of brand new courses. Netflix for stencils, if you will.....this dream of mine has been more than a year in the works as I wanted to get it just right for you! And we will be adding even more courses by myself and other artists in the next few weeks and months. 

I've been taking online courses for a while now because I wanted to see what was being offered. I specifically structured these courses to be exactly what I want (as a student). We have had the courses available to our StencilClub members for a few weeks now and I have gotten fantastic positive feedback. 

So what makes these Courses good?

• The videos are concise! I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more impatient I am. And I can't stand it when I feel the need to fast forward during a tutorial. I know you know what I'm talking about. You won't find that kind of programming on SG Studios because I have filmed concise videos that are edited well. You won't be watching any paint dry here! 
• Professional quality because I hired people to help me. These aren't your usual homespun programming, but polished videos filmed in my studio with lights and microphones. This isn't housed on a blog, but on a real website that is super easy to navigate. 
• All supplies have been carefully outlined with links to those that are available on our site.  
• Want a preview? Each class has a little preview, so you can get an idea of what it is like (although the real classes don't have any music playing while I talk, that's just during the preview).
• You get a chance to crawl into my head and it's not as scary as you might think, hehehe. When I take classes, I love knowing the hows and whys of decisions that artists make and I have tried hard to share my thought process during each video. 
• The videos include Stepped Out Projects in addition to a multitude of fresh stencil techniques. 
• Once you buy the course, you can start watching immediately. You can binge watch if you want. You will be able to watch the videos and read the articles as many times as you like. If I add any new material to a course, you will get to watch the updates at no extra charge. 

I am thrilled to reveal these 4 courses, available right now: Encaustics, Art Journaling, Gel Printing & Printmaking, and Stencil 101!

I have been painting with Encaustics for about seven years and still get thrilled at all the potential involved in painting with wax. This is a beginner to a mid-level course that is geared for the student who wants to explore the basics but also longs to move beyond and to include stencils in their repertoire. Students will learn to paint 'hot and smooth' and also 'cool and textured'. Safety issues are also covered. 

I probably shouldn't pick favorites, but when I was previewing this course, I wanted to stop watching and just go work in my journal. I had actually forgotten some of the material I had included (ha, my age is showing again) and couldn't wait to revisit the techniques. Anyone who loves to journal will get a lot of material out of this class. In the words of Lucy Tyson, 

 Fab Art Journal course! 

Warning viewing Mary Beth Shaw's Art Journaling course may cause viewers with the sudden urge to play in your own art journal, but I encourage you to watch the course all the way through. You may want to take notes as this course is jam packed with info and techniques.

I think everyone in the arts and crafts world owns a gelli or gel plate, right? Yep, I thought so. I had one for years before I knew what to do with it. I've spent a lot of time using it to make papers but I also know how to make completed art with my plate and I share it all in this class. I wanted my course to be different from the rest and to offer up material that was a little bit different. I am happy with what I have presented. I like what Retha Williams had to say, 

 Inspired and Inspiring! 

This course was a feast for the eye and a wealth of information. You can always count on Mary Beth to tune your eye, stretch your imagination, and help you make the leap from craft to art.

Finally, Stencil 101 is a quick course designed for everyone who is new - or relatively new- at using stencils in their art. It is my aim to get you set up to know how to handle a stencil with a variety of different media. I can bring you up to speed and soon you will be swooning over their amazing versatility. Denise Neumark-Reimer said it best, 

 Stencil 101-good stuff
I have been working with stencils for many years and as I watched Stencil 101 I learned NEW STUFF! 1. Sofft sponges are not just for Pan Pastels 2. Layer colors immediately - if my sponge is dry enough 3. Other tidbits that I am glad I got to review again.

- Denise Neumark-Reimer

Grand Opening!

Stencil 101 is a bargain at $9! 

I hope you will check out StencilGirl Studio and 

enjoy the classes!