TobiWan Kenobi's Birthday Present - A Pet Mat in His Favorite Colors

Hi Everyone,

Jill McDowell here today with my take on this month’s StencilGirl® Creative Team theme, The Dog Days of Summer. I was thrilled when I saw that we would be making projects featuring our pets as it gave me an opportunity to create something that I've been wanting to do ever since I stenciled a 7x5.5' floorcloth two years ago.   

I've made a Pet Mat featuring my two lovable mutts, Penny Lane and TobiWan Kenobi and I'm giving it to Tobi for his birthday on August 11th. I choose a special color palette that is designed to be enjoyed by dogs of all breeds using the colors that they can actually see. (I'll tell you more about it a little later in my post.)

If you follow my blog, you probably already know Penny and Tobi, but if not, let me introduce you. Tobi, my birthday boy, is on the right in the pic below.  He’s a nine-year-old, 14-pound footballI Boston Terrier. Penny, on the left, is my eight-year-old shadow, (she’s actually a Tennessee rescue but we’re not convinced that she believes that).  This is Pen’s puppy picture, the one I saw on petfinders.com that made me fall completely in love with her. 

Inspiration photos of Miss Penny Lane and Master Tobiwan Kenobi

Before starting my pet mat, I researched to find out what colors would appeal to dogs. 

Many people mistakenly believe that dogs are color blind, however, they really aren’t.  They just don’t see as many colors as you and I do. According to an article by Stanley Coren in Psychology Today, dogs see everything in shades of yellow, blue, and grey; reds and greens don’t exist at all for them. Which means that when I see a red fire hydrant, Tobi sees a brownish-yellow rest stop and my lush green lawn is Penny’s grey digging patch. (Ok, so I may not actually have a lush green lawn, but you get the point.)  

As it is Tobi’s birthday, I designed a Pet Mat especially for him. One that he can enjoy in all of its yellow and blue splendor. Every dog needs a little artwork to brighten their day, don’t you think?  

I started by cutting down a Fredrix canvas floorcloth to fit the space for Tobi and Penny’s food and water bowls. These ready to paint and stencil floorcloths are made from heavy 12 oz cotton duck that is double primed on one side and single primed on the other. You can make several pet mats from one 2x3' roll.

To personalize Tobi's mat, I used Golden’s Immediate Image Transfer Method with Fluid Matte Medium and photocopies of my inspiration pics. Here are some work-in-progress pics of Penny’s photo transfer.  

I traced the inverse of Penny's picture onto the canvas.

I spread a generous amount of fluid matte medium evenly on top of the outlined area.

Then I spread the medium on the front of Penny's photocopied image

I used a Catalyst Wedge to ensure that there was good contact between the paper and the canvas.

Then I waited about 4 minutes and began peeling back the first layer of paper.

I was able to roll more of the paper off with my finger.

This is what it looked like after the first layers were removed. Then I let it sit overnight to dry. The next morning I spritzed it with water and continued to roll off the paper. I was able to get just about all of it off without any mishaps using this method.

Then I used Golden Fluid Acrylic Paint to enhance the transferred images.  Here's Penny, all dolled up for her WIP shot.

And he's altered Tobi, looking up at you with his big eyes wondering when you'll drop that piece of cheese. 

I traced the edges of their water and food bowls where they belonged and found other round objects of varying sizes to add. These were painted in yellow.

Then I added a blue background with a baby wipe.

Next came out the StencilGirl® Stencils. How can anyone look at Margaret Peot’s Dragonflies Background and not think of a lazy, hot summer day basking in the sun? (Sun baths are Tobi’s favorite.)  

Work in Progress shot.

What a face. (My Mom used to say that it was a face that only a Mother could love...) 

I made my own marks to add a border.

Margaret’s Looping Leafy Vines Background filled out the design.

The fireflies received a treatment of iridescent blue.

Miss Penny Lane's formal shot! 

The birthday boy, Master Tobiwan Kenobi, gets a close-up.

Tobi’s Pet mat will need to cure for about 30 days before I can seal it with a water based polycrylic. This will ensure that it is fully dried so that the colors don’t bleed.  But in the meantime, I’m going to hang it on the wall just above their bowls and at their eye level for both of them to enjoy and think about those lazy Dog Days of Summer. 

Waiting for the cure! I'll seal it in about a month.

These are the two StencilGirl® Stencils that I used to make Tobi’s Pet Mat.  Both were designed by the talented Margaret Peot.  Thanks, Margaret for the inspiration!

• Dragonflies Background, L560
• Looping Leafy Vines Background, L565

Hugs until next time, Jill

Jane Dunnewold's Mexican Story Fish Stencils

Jane Dunnewold has five new 6"x6" stencils based on hand-carved, mid century Mexican Story Fish! We'll let her tell you all about her adventures in art:

It’s always a thrill to get my new stencils from Stencil Girl, so I can begin playing to see what they can do. Here are a few of my recent explorations! I hope these will unleash all the ideas swimming in your own head. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!!)

First I tried my homemade gelli plate. Just an FYI, I made this plate with gelatin, water and rubbing alcohol and I’m going on a year with it, with no refrigeration required. It’s amazingly sturdy and cleanable.

I used all of the stencils and also the masks, which are a super feature of this stencil set. Really, as you’ll see further along, it’s like getting two sets for the price of one. You can tell from the photos that I went a little wild.

 

But the more you make, the more you can do. I turned 12 of the prints into a calendar, which is my current favorite giveaway for friends. You can find calendar PDF files online. I print out the calendar on nice card stock, vellum in this case, and then crop my prints and apply them with a glue stick, which is probably one of the best inventions ever.

I also did some printing on old dictionary pages– another current love. Those were glued to folded art paper, so I can use them as notecards. I’m finding people really love the thought behind a note that’s actually mailed the old fashioned way!

 

Now, on to fabric playtime. We just happened to need some new pillowcases for our AirBnB. First I stenciled a school of fish across the bottom of the cases in compatible blue, blue-green and turquoise. I used a roller so I could get some texture happening in the background, in addition to the fish. Then I used the fish, which were coated with paint, as stamps. It’s easy. Put the paint coated fish on the cloth and cover it with an old washcloth so you can transfer the image to the cloth. I built my school of fish using that technique. At the very end, I used one of the Dos Amigas fish masks along with the stencil itself, to add my focal point. I used freezer paper to block out the area around the stencil so I could isolate the image and get it just right!

 

Ideas were percolating now! I got out my soy wax MX dye pastes (available on my website, www.janedunnewold.com) and a length of silk noil. I stenciled dye paste onto the fabric, in bright colors, to honor the Mexican Story fish tradition. I did two versions. First I stenciled using the masks in one color, with the details applied in a second color.  I planned to cut those out, and appliqué them to a black pillow, and then add a little embroidery, which worked out nicely.

While I was working on my first version, it dawned on me that I could use the masks to create watery, transparent shadows. Whoa. This was exciting. As you can see, it worked out perfectly. I added my Angel Fish as the detail and popped it out from the shadows by using a dark navy blue dye paste.

 

I know I’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to seeing what my new stencils will do. I hope you’ll jump in (the water’s fine!) and share a few of your own experiments!

You can find all of Jane's stencils HERE.