Poetry in a Cup with Sandee Setliff

If I could write a poem,

I would write one for you.

But I cannot write a poem,

so this will have to do.

And I think it does nicely if I say so myself.

My project inspired by our poetry theme this month is extremely easy to create and there is no harm in a simple project, especially when it is a card that you need to whip up for a friend. We both drink tea and love to go to tea parlors and have afternoon tea whenever we travel together so the Tea Cup Stencil was my go-to muse.

Finding a tea inspired poem that I haven't already used was a little more difficult, lol There is something about the teacup that inspires the poetic in me but unfortunately the poet in me needs to have my poetry prepared for me and there aren't a lot of tea poems out there.

The way I created my card was by coloring inside the stencil lines with water soluble pencils

 and then using water to activate the pencil which gave my card a soft watercolor effect that looks more hand drawn rather than stenciled.

Stencils I used:

Tea Cup stencil by Sandee Setliff

Doily stencil by Sandee Setliff

Butterfly Journeys stencil by Carolyn Dube

 Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt.

 Poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”. 

LEONARDO DA VINCI

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perfect for Mother's Day card:

and another fun friendship card:

Sandee

Stenciled Poetry - Mermaid Songs

Hello Stencil Lover, It's Cheetarah here and I hope you are all doing well. This month at StencilGirl® talk we are exploring how we can combine poetry within our artwork using the amazing stencils from StencilGirl® Products. 

I have always thought that song lyrics were like poetry esp. if they resonate with me on a deeper level. Recently I came across a musician/actor (Sam Witwer) who's work I really admire and been listening to some songs on his album, Colorful of the Stereo, by his band The Crashtones quite often. The lyrics of "the Mermaid Song" is what inspired me to make the following work in my art journal. 

I started off by stenciling some background texture on a large piece of watercolor paper. As a base layer I have used distress oxides in ocean tone colors. A full list of the stencils I used are at the bottom. 

This is the first texture layer done with the oxides. I chose oxides because they are water reactive but do not completely dissolve when you use another wet medium like watercolors over it. The bottom layer will soften out but will shine through here and there which is what I want. 

Adding more figurative aspects by using Pam Carriker's Create Face stencil and Black Soot Distress Oxide. 

The perfect stencils to add to the feel of this song are the mermaids by Jessica Sporn. I used the various masks that come with the stencil to create a negative on the page. Then I outlined the figures with a waterproof black fineliner and used watercolors for the face and around the mermaids. 

You can see how some of the oxides dissolve and that a subtle texture in the darker watercolor remains. 

I kept on adding more watercolor to enhance the face and mermaids until I was satisfied with the result. Watercolor is a wonderful medium to work with to keep the looseness & playful feel I was going for. Some more texture was added over the top with Traci Bautista's Scribble Flourish. Now it was time to add some of the poetic lyrics. 

For the "calligraphy", Iused a large brush pen and outlined with a white gel pen. 

The lyrics I emphasized were "It's not a lie, I swear that I know you, it's in your eyes, it's a place called home." In the song it's actually sung to/about the mermaid, but in this journal piece, I have the mermaids singing it back to the "land dweller", to keep the conversation going...  

To have the page fit in my art journal I trimmed off a lot of pieces and decided it would be fun to write down the rest of the lyrics on them and add them to the backside of the page. 

This is the finished piece in my journal which I really enjoyed making. 

Stencils used: 

Large stencil from StencilClub October 2016

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-club-october-2016-s/2029.htm 

L606 Soulful Scribble Flourish 

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Soulful-Scribbles-Flourishes-bautista-p/l606.htm

S646 Create Face

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Create-Face-Pam-Carriker-p/s646.htm

L527 Mermaids Stencils and masks

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/mermaids-stencil-and-masks-jessica-sporn-p/l527.htm

Hope you enjoyed my take on this month's theme of Stenciled Poetry. We would love to see what you create so be sure to tag StencilGirl® Products on instagram when you share your work. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

xoxo Cheetarah

Introducing Stenciled Poetry, the April Creative Theme

Hello!

The month of April you'll be seeing posts from our fabulous Creative Team members who were given the theme STENCILED POETRY.

I suspect my interpretation is somewhat more literal than theirs will be. I made a large art journal spread based on a poem that never fails to make me smile, The Country by Billy Collins, one-time United State Poet Laureate. You can find it in the books Nine Horses: Poem or Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems.

An immediate diorama popped into my head the moment I read this poem.

Simply put, it's about individual logic and a sleepless night caused by a tiny "druid".
Moral: cap the matches so a mouse does not light your house up.

According to Collins, a poem should "stand on its own" but, being fond of comics, he allowed a few of his poems to be animated for his Ted Talk (The Country starts at the 8:28 point).

"When you get a poem on the radio, a billboard, you don't have time to deploy your anti-poetry deflector shields that were instilled in high school," Collins said during his Ted Talk.

I grew up listening to my Popa read poetry and my art journal spread is in the spirit of sharing my enjoyment of the distillation of words into poetry.

"When you get a poem on the radio, a billboard, you don't have time to deploy your anti-poetry deflector shields that were instilled in high school," Collins said during his Ted Talk.

I hope this month of Stenciled Poetry, allows you to look past your deflector shield, slow down, read a poem, and create a new work of art or three.

Stencils used and process:

I cut out a piece of paper the size of the window in Window Ledger by Pam Carriker, then aligned that paper with the small stencil from Cuba Libre by Jane LaFazio for StencilClub.

I ignored the "tile" elements of the stencil and painted the leaves with watercolors.

Next, I layered the white paper I had cut over the watercolor, then taped the Window Ledger Stencil down, then over that, the Arabesque by Nathalie Kalbach.

I used acrylics to paint the wallpaper and then I carefully removed the Window Ledger Stencil so I could paint right to the edges of the white paper underneath.

After that, I went back and painted the right side of my journal with Arabesque.
I painted the sky blue with watercolors and added a washi tape cardinal.

The mouse side of the wall was made with free mice pics I resized and printed and painted with watercolors. I tore it, glued it plus corrugated paper from my stash to the page underneath.
I added a bit of pink with the mini stencil from the Borderlines set Seth Apter designed for StencilClub to the corrugated paper to create "insulation".

I painted the flames but the Cascading Feathers Stencil by Jessica Sporn would have come in handy!

At that point, I felt like I'd brought the outside into my journal.

I finished the left side off with the Window Ledger Stencil. A girly house in the country for sure with my color scheme! It's just a little on the painterly side.

Thanks for letting me share. I can't wait to see what the Creative Team does, can you?

Carol B.