Stencils, Part 3

GPP Street Team, Crusade No. 19 (third time): Wanting to make some stenciled backgrounds for inchies and/or ATCs, I decided that I needed some very small stencils, not found in any store. Of course, I made my own! The very tiniest ones were made with shaped punches, the rest I cut out of plastic with my heat tool. Acrylic paints were used on all the backgrounds. The pink one uses the stencils and their masks. The center one is done over a mixed text background. The one with all the different designs (the long piece on the far left in the photo) was the most fun to make, I just went crazy with all the colors!

More Stencils

GPP Street Team, crusade # 19: I don't have a stencil cutter, so did some experimenting with my multi-purpose heat tool. The tip that the package designates as stencil cutter seems to melt my plastic sheets too quickly with too wide a path. A little testing taught me that the "universal tip" cut a finer path, so that I could cut more detailed stencils this time. (A few were cut with scissors, too.)

Not enough time to try all the stencils I cut, but here are pictures of some stencils and samples using them. On the orange flower sample, I cut flower centers out of the masks. If I don't want the masks to have centers, they can be covered with tape temporarily. On the purple flower sample, both stencils and masks were used, to make positive and negative images. Both samples were stenciled with acrylic paints and outlined with fine-point pens. Now I've got lots of new stencils, in the sizes and shapes that I want! :)

Stencil Cutting

GPP Street Team Crusade #18, Cut your own stencil: A long, long time ago, when I first started experimenting with all kinds of arts and crafts, I cut my own stencils. I haven't been cutting many stencils lately, so I think it's time to get back into it! I usually cut stencils with a scissors or razor knife. I have heat tools with stencil-cutting tips, which I tried for the first time - they worked just fine! I made multiple-layer stencils for my angel drawing, even one for "background" or "shadow" stencil. Here you can see the "used" stencils with paint still on them, and the angel stencilled with acrylics in my art journal.
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A bit of shameless self-promotion here: Check out my handmade items; Retro Fashion Pins and shell angels, seen in these photos.

Trying To Cut It Out

All month, I've been making foam stamps for the GPP Street Team crusade, so I thought I'd finally try rubber stamp carving. I love making inchies, so I decided to try carving a couple on-inch stamps to use on those. The rubber carving material I bought crumbles very easily, so it was difficult to carve those tiny stamps, especially without the right tools. I used a wood-carving gouge, which wasn't delicate enough for those one-inch stamps. I managed to make three mini stamps: two flowers (back-to-back) and a face. Unfortunately, part of the nose broke off my face stamp when I inked it, so I trashed that one.

As you can see from the sample of my double-sided flower stamp, parts of those stamps have broken off the edges. I drew in the flower centers and leaves. Next time, I'm going to try carving a larger stamp! ;)

Cut It Out 3!

GPP Street Team, crusade no. 18 (again!) Here is yet another try at the handmade foam stamps I've come to love! This time, my foam stamps have three layers: the design is cut into the top layer, the second layer is for stability, and the third layer is the backing with easy-pull-up tabs on the sides. I decorated a page using acrylics with these two stamps. (Someday, I'm going to try rubber stamp carving, when the novelty of foam stamps wears off!) Thanks for looking! :)

Cut It Out Again!

I believe I promised some more foam stamps for the GPP Street Team crusade, so here they are. I tried them out last night. These are what Michelle Ward calls "go-with" stamps - I made the dress top, dress bottom, and wing foam stamps to go with each other. The dress stamps are mounted on another layer of foam, but the wing is loose, so I can use either side, for right and left wings. On the journal page, I glued a head and drew a hairdo, hands and feet.

And I found out how to dry foam stamps quickly after washing them off: I put my cleaned stamps down and forgot where they were until I felt an unexplained wetness! I sat on my foam stamps and they dried - but my pants were wet!

P.S. - If you haven't taken this craft poll yet, go here and check it out, no registration required!

Cut It Out!

I took a stab at GPP Street Team's Crusade No. 18, entitled, "Cut It Out" (create your own stamp or stencil). I wanted to get started on my stamps without having to stop at the store. One thing that I have a lot of is fun foam sheets, so I used some to cut my own original foam stamps. Here are a few of the foam stamps I made, a flower and two leaves. They are on another layer of foam, for backing. I made some other stamps,but I can't show them off, since I haven't had a chance to play with them yet! ;)

Although I mainly made the foam stamps to use with acrylic paints, I wondered how they would work with dye ink stamp on gesso. Here I have a gessoed page in my journal, with little bits of text added to it. Because of the smooth gesso, it was like doing potato prints! Also, the foam soaked up a lot of ink, so I could stamp forever without reinking!

If you are reading this you're probably interested in arts/crafts. If so, I'd like you to consider participating in a craft poll here. You don't need to register, the poll is free, and added your opinions/comments is optional. Your participation may help to revitalize the craft industry! Thanks for listening! :)

My Muses

It seems like a long time since I got to do a challenge, so I decided to take a challenge break! The new GPP Street Team Crusade (no. 14) is called "Imaginary Friends". It asks the question, "Who or what is your muse?"

I think that my muses must be angels, because they turn up so often in my art. Whether they are vintage-style, cute or elegant, angels show up in many of my creations, as ornaments or wall decorations, on cards, altered books, wearables - everywhere!

Here is a children's board book that I turned into an angel altered book. The all-gold angel is on the front cover, and the all-silver angel is on the back cover. (Of course, all the inside pages have angels on them as well!) Thanks for looking! (HI Michelle!) :)

Spooky ATC Art

After finishing some projects that I wanted to get done, I went over to the GPP Street Team blog to check out Michelle' new challenge. Crusade No. 13 is a "Get Gothic" challenge, to show spooky (Halloween) art or decor. I decided to make an ATC. On black cardstock, I applied parts of a Halloween napkin (haunted house, tombstones, web), a vintage woman image, and found poetry, with scrim (a loosely-woven linen fabric) on the back. It's hard for me to do gothic or spooky (everything I make seems to come out "sweet" or "charming", Maybe it's my personality, LOL! Thanks for looking! :)

Obsessed With Pink

Crusade No. 12 for the GPP Street Team is called "Crush On You". The challenge is to tell about one or more things that you have a crush on, are obsessed or infatuated with (in a good way, of course)!

One of my current obsessions is the color pink. Although I do have a few pink clothing items (my favorites being pink pajamas and slippers), I love pink in my art and small items around me. Here's some evidence: The luggage tag is canvas, colored with pink fabric marker and stenciled with black fabric marker. The handbag was woven with flat ribbon-style yarns. (For a recent pink-influenced art journal page, see this post.) I've used pink-printed business cards and brochures , I even have a pink/black carry-on bag. (No, I don't have pink luggage yet - my red luggage is getting worn, so I can buy pink the next time!)

Make Some Noise!

After my last post (Crusade No. 5 from the GPP Street Team), I received a comment from Michelle Ward telling me to get some music on my blog. That is actually her Crusade No. 11, "Make Some Noise", or add music to your blog. I've been fighting this one, this challenge is not really in my comfort zone - which I guess is why I should do it!

First, a little explanation: I don't hate music; on the contrary, I love it. . . . but I tend to pick and choose my musical moments carefully. I get "classic" migraine headaches, during which I'm sensitive to sounds, lights and smells. Even during non-migraine times, I seem to be a little more sensitive to those things than the average person (I don't know why).

Anyway, at the bottom of the page is the music video, "Michelle" on acoustic guitar, dedicated to Michelle Ward, of course!

Evidence of Everyday

On Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team blog, I came across her crusades. Michelle posts "crusades", challenges in which readers can participate. Although she's on about Crusade No. 11 now, I found a lot of her older crusades that I'd like to try. I think they will make good subjects for future blog posts, so you will be seeing more of those here!

This is Crusade No. 5, called "Kiss and Tell". Participants are supposed to show/tell about "Evidence of your Everyday", things you use/wear, things you love/have saved, etc.

Evidence of my Everyday can be seen here: Right now, my favorite health/granola bars are all the ones from Kashi. The little charms next to the bar are a record and a "Princess" phone - I've had that little phone charm since I was 5 or 6 yrs. old, and I really loved it as a kid (the record is old, but I got it more recently, in someone's box of cast-off buttons). The flowered fabric below is a favorite casual summer shirt. The black/gray plaid fabric is a comfortable, fleecy (though drab) winter shirt - it gives me a warm, comforting feeling when I'm cold or sick. The little round circles are sterling silver ear hoops, which I wear everyday when I'm not matching outfits or getting dressed up.

I'm not sure if this post fits in my creative-themed blog, but it probably says a whole lot about me! :)