Enter Valerie's Mid Century Modern Garden

Valerie Sjodin has new stencils and masks. Look! She decorated a home for bees with two of them! Mid Century Modern and the work of Rex Ray inspired Valerie to draw these elements for use as stencils.

Scroll down and watch the bee box video for spray paint inspiration.

Circles, Lines & Bubbles Mask, G028, 12" x 24"

Use this Organic Circles, Lines & Bubbles Mask to make marvelous journal edges and gel press prints, but it is large enough for furniture decorative applications.

Circles & Lines Large Mask, L800, 12" x 12"

The large Organic Circles and Lines Mask makes a great background, perfect to use with a gel plate, ink, and paint sprays.

Circle Bubbles Stencil Mask, 6" x 6", S794

This Circle Bubbles Stencil Mask is great for making borders and adding bubbles and dots to your journal pages, ATC cards and more.

Mid Century Modern Leaf Whimsy Border Scallop, 12" x 24", G030

Make your walls special with this whimsical stripe and scallop border. Customize it by adding leaf sprouts as desired. The leaf interior shapes can be snipped out for gel press printing. Leaf Whimsy Border Scallop makes it easy.

Mid Century Modern Motif Giant, 12" x 24", G029

Paint furniture, artwork, journals, and more with Mid Century Modern Motif. This whimsical stencil fits nicely on a large gel press and great for painting furniture and large journals, as a background or edges that can be cut to the stencil shape. The organic interior shapes can be snipped out for more gel press printing.

FLOWERS AS TILES:

Flower Tile Stencils and Masks in Small and Mini Versions

Garden Flowers Tile Stencils and Masks by Valerie Sjodin can be repeated our used singularly adding floral beauty to your artwork.

Check out all of Valerie's stencil designs.

Favorite Art Book & Giveaway - Victorian Paper Dollhouse a la Laurie Mika by Silvia Souza

I love working in polymer clay.  I have used the clay to create jewelry, miniatures and wall pieces. I enjoy learning different techniques and experimenting with surface treatments, including using stencils.  It is a very flexible (no pun intended) medium, both in how it can be used and how artists use it to interpret their ideas. One book that I find compelling is Laurie Mika’s Mixed Media Mosaics because she has an unorthodox approach to the clay. She developed her own style, making the clay accommodate to her needs.  Besides that, her work is beautiful and inspiring! The book is delicious eye candy. While it does have projects one can follow, with great instructions, for me this book is more of a go to when I need a jolt of creativity juice. I return to it often and always find something to propel me back into the studio.

All that being said about polymer, the piece I was inspired to make has no polymer clay!  I used paper clay instead, which I discovered a year ago and also love using since you can make very light but big pieces to wear.  I have always been enchanted by dollhouses and I especially love the graphics of Victorian paper dollhouses. I happened upon a set of three papier mache houses at Michael’s and thought I would try to bring a little Laurie Mika to a paper dollhouse.  I hope you enjoy the video I made of the process.

And to top it all off, on my birthday this month I finally got to meet Laurie at one of her workshops which  my best friend and I participated in at the lovely Queen’s Ink in Savage, MD. I learned so much that I am hoping to incorporate into my own work.  Steph and I are already planning a time to have an art day to make more pieces. Here are photos of our creations. We are already both plotting to go to Laurie’s workshop in Mexico as soon as we can! What more could a girl ask for for her birthday!

Steph's triptych

My triptych

Stencils used:
Laurie Mika's Pilgrimage to India Stencil *You have the chance to win this & more!
Gwen LaFleur's Ornamental Compass, Petals, and Circles Stencils
Andrew Borloz' Grindstones, 4 Tribal Patterns, and Wheel Spokes Stencils
Carolyn Dube's Connected Eyes Layer Me Stencil
Mary Beth Shaw's ATC Mixup 1 & 2 as well as the large stencil from October 2016 StencilClub

One lucky winner will receive Laurie Mika's stencils plus a set of her Female Collage Image Sheets!

Enter by commenting below by June 17th, 2018. One winner will be chosen at random on June 18th. Winner notified by email.