Must Valentines be Red and White?

I've made lots of red and white Valentines, but at times it's fun to liven things up with other cheerful colors....

The greeting card directly below started with a print made with my 6" x 6" stencil Bamboo Wall.  I used the same stencil in making the pink and blue vertical embellishment.

Small Tangled Pods (6" x 6") is the mask I used in printing the blue and purple background on the Valentine below.  Having some textured pale-gold paper on hand, I decided to cut a heart-shaped hole in it and glue the heart's leftovers at a diagonal across the card cover. 

The three-dimensional heart on the below card was printed with my 4" x 4" Palm Fronds Silhouette Stencil Mini.

On the multi-layered Valentine below, I started with a print made with Webbed Medallion (6" x 6" mask.)  Over that, I printed orange acrylic paint through my 9" x 12" mask Facets.  My last-step embellishments included a frame, assembled from scraps of old textured papers, and green hearts paper-punch cut from an old piece of sheet music stained green.  The very top heart, red and yellow, is a three-dimensional element. 

Small Tangled Pods (6" x 6") is the mask I for printing the background of the card below.  This background is two-toned because I used an old calendar photo as my substrate.  Over the print, I added three 3-dimensional hearts.

I used three more 3-dimensional hearts on the multi-layered Valentine below.  The background's starting point was a print made with my 6" x 6" Quilted Flower Garden.  Over that, I used blue acrylic paint with my 6" x 6" mask Garden at Nemours.  Besides the three hearts, the card's embellishment was made with my 9" x 12" stencil Ivy Frame 9.

The orange-and white background below is a print made with my 6" x 6" stencil Mimosa 6.  Atop that, I placed some old 3-dimensional elements that include a large 3-dimensional heart, decorated with a paper-punched blue heart.

Today's 3-dimensional hearts are the results of two techniques.  One of these techniques is detailed, with step-by-step photos, here.  The other technique is to buy the same wooden heart blanks as used here, but instead of covering their tops with stencil-prints or other papers, I've dipped them upside-down into swirls of leftover paints.  This makes for similar color schemes and unique designs on each heart.

Thank you for taking time to come to see this blog today!  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

Happy Almost Valentine's Day!

Deb Riddell is an artist who loves romance and combines it beautifully with nostalgia!

Deb created this art journal spread for her 2018 Valentine's Day and I'm delighted to re-post it once more --

Above:  Artist Deb Riddell used  a number of
StencilGirlProducts stencils in creating this two-page spread in her art journal.

Deb's two photos below show one stage of her working process, in which she used my 9" x 12" stencil  Vintage Script ... 

To better see the details of the two-page spread, please click on the above photos to enlarge them. 

Below is another photo of Deb's, a close-up detail ...

The Vintage Script stencil itself looks like this --

Thank you, Deb Riddell!  Now for some last-minute ideas for today--

Making last-minute Valentine greeting cards?  Don't have all the right colors of paint or paper on hand?  Valentines certainly can be traditional, but what's wrong with striking out in new directions?  I say nothing!  Feel free to use whatever's on hand!

Above:  Valentine made with Tiger Lily (6"x 6") Stencil and Two Vases (9" x 12") Stencil.

Above:  Valentine made with Webbed Medallion (6" x 6") Stencil.

Above:  Valentine made with Garden Montage (9" x 12) Stencil.

Above:  Valentine made with Tiger Lily (6"x 6") Stencil and Hot Air Balloon and Mask (available in 2 sizes.) 

Above:  Valentine made with Garden Montage (9" x 12) Stencil and Links (6" x 6") Stencil.

Stencils and masks featured above, in their entirety, look like this --

Webbed Medallion (6" x 6") mask

Links (6" x 6") Stencil

Two Vases (9" x 12") Stencil

Garden Montage (9" x 12) mask

Ready for more?

I made the embellishment for this Valentine card with air-dry clay, painting it with metallic acrylics after the clay had hardened.

Its background is a metallic bronze blank greeting card (JAMPaper.com) that I imprinted with acrylic paints using my 6" x 6" stencil Mimosa 6. 

The stencil itself looks like this:

  

It remains one of my favorite art-making tools; both my 9" x 12" and my 6" x 6" mimosa stencils were inspired by a beautiful young mimosa tree that lived in our front yard, until a fungus attacked it.  Here in NJ, mimosa is actually considered a weed; I've seen it growing wild along roadways and in at least two nearby coastal towns.  But every mimosa we've cultivated has fallen prey to this fungus.  Go figure! 

Today's last non-traditional Valentine --



-- stars a green-and-gold centerpiece-heart that I've cut from a print I made with my 9" X 12" stencil Two Fans -- a doodle-inspired design that looks like this:

And the green background paper on this unusual Valentine card was a Gelli Plate print made with my 9"X 12" stencil Borders 1, shown below. 

 

Lots of thanks for stopping by this blog today!  To follow this blog by post, please use that option in the upper right sidebar.

To scroll thru the pages of all my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

Valentines with a Twist

I've made lots of red and white Valentines, but at times it's fun to liven things up with other cheerful colors....

The greeting card directly below started with a print made with my 6" x 6" stencil Bamboo Wall.  I used the same stencil in making the pink and blue vertical embellishment.

Small Tangled Pods (6" x 6") is the mask I used in printing the blue and purple background on the Valentine below.  Having some textured pale-gold paper on hand, I decided to cut a heart-shaped hole in it and glue the heart's leftovers at a diagonal across the card cover. 

The three-dimensional heart on the below card was printed with my 4" x 4" Palm Fronds Silhouette Stencil Mini.

On the multi-layered Valentine below, I started with a print made with Webbed Medallion (6" x 6" mask.)  Over that, I printed orange acrylic paint through my 9" x 12" mask Facets.  My last-step embellishments included a frame, assembled from scraps of old textured papers, and green hearts paper-punch cut from an old piece of sheet music stained green.  The very top heart, red and yellow, is a three-dimensional element. 

Small Tangled Pods (6" x 6") is the mask I for printing the background of the card below.  This background is two-toned because I used an old calendar photo as my substrate.  Over the print, I added three 3-dimensional hearts.

I used three more 3-dimensional hearts on the multi-layered Valentine below.  The background's starting point was a print made with my 6" x 6" Quilted Flower Garden.  Over that, I used blue acrylic paint with my 6" x 6" mask Garden at Nemours.  Besides the three hearts, the card's embellishment was made with my 9" x 12" stencil Ivy Frame 9.

The orange-and white background below is a print made with my 6" x 6" stencil Mimosa 6.  Atop that, I placed some old 3-dimensional elements that include a large 3-dimensional heart, decorated with a paper-punched blue heart.

Today's 3-dimensional hearts are the results of two techniques.  One of these techniques is detailed, with step-by-step photos, here.  The other technique is to buy the same wooden heart blanks as used here, but instead of covering their tops with stencil-prints or other papers, I've dipped them upside-down into swirls of leftover paints.  This makes for similar color schemes and unique designs on each heart.

Thank you for taking time to come to see this blog today!  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

VASES Stencils

I've always loved the shapes of vases because, to my eye, the majority of them suggest the feminine form.  My 9" x 12" stencil Two Vases (featured in my last post) is one of two vase-design stencils I've developed for StencilGirl:

Two Vases

The other is my 9" x 12" Vases stencil --

Vases

It was Vases stencil that I grabbed when developing the background of the painting below:

Having painted that background with full-strength heavy-body acrylic paints, I decided to add a layer of water-diluted white gesso to "knock back" the original background, with the goal of making it look less prominent and more visually distant. 

After waiting for my background to dry, I used a sponge applicator to add heavy-body orange acrylic paint thru one of the two vases in my 9" x 12" stencil Two Vases, creating the dominant orange figure.

 With the same stencil and another sponge applicator, I added a faint green "echo"-image on the far right.  (You can click on the above photo to enlarge it and better see that detail.)

 After those acrylic paints had dried, I came up with a homemade stencil by freehand-drawing a smaller vase of the same shape as the dominant orange figure.  After drawing that outline on cardstock, I used fine-detail scissors to cut it out.  Then I mixed Golden Titanium White liquid acrylic paint equally with water, and added a little Golden Air Brush Medium.  I poured that mix into a mister bottle and sprayed the resulting white paint thru the opening I'd cut out. 

Below is an artwork-in-progress that I've begun using both stencils on the 9" x 12" stencil Two Vases.  This time, I used pale green spray paint that I developed in the same way as described above.




I use these homemade acrylic sprays rather than commercial sprays because this gives me freedom to mix any "hybrid" color combination that I want.

And, when working on canvas, I use acrylic spray paints because they are waterproof once dry.

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To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.  

Artist and Teacher Carolyn Dube with 6" x 6" stencil SWATTON FLOWERS VERSION 1

StencilGirl's own Carolyn Dube gave me the honor of using one of my stencils in one of her how-to videos -- here.  Her stencil of choice was my Swatton Flowers Version 2. Carolyn gives great stencil-using tips on this video, which is actually Part 1 of 2.  Part 1 shows how she creates a continuous print with this stencil.  In Part 2, she shows what she's done with the paper she created.  Part 2 is here.

Swatton Flowers Version 2

To find Carolyn Dube's blog, A Colorful Journey, go here.  My sincere thanks to Carolyn for choosing this stencil and showing us how to use it in creating a continuous pattern.  Her videos are must-see!  

Celebrating Trees!

I'm a tree-hugger!  Don't believe that?  Just scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, here, to count the designs that are trees or parts of trees.

The first image below is a print I made on the page of an old encyclopedia -- a page that already contained botanical illustrations including a tree.  The mask I used to make this green print was my 6" x 6" Garden at Nemours.  The original inspiration were lush plants in the gardens at historic Nemours Mansion, near Kennett Square, PA.... 

...........But recently I discovered that the same design can be viewed as tropical trees, as shown in the next two images below.  Both were made with my 6" x 6" Garden at Nemours and my 6" x 6" Pair o' Parrots.

The next two images below were printed with my 6" x 6" stencil Mimosa 6 --

In the image directly above, the 6" x 6" stencil Mimosa 6  was used twice, side by side, creating a continuous pattern.  

The background in the image above was printed with my new 9" x 12" mask Looking Up Through Trees.  Atop that print, I glued part of another 9" x 12" mask, Garden Montage -- after that mask had been paint-stained during a previous project. 

I used the same approach in developing the image below.  First I created a background with acrylic paints and Looking Up Through Trees.   After that dried, I came back with pink acrylic paint and my 6" x 6" stencil Swaying Grasses.  Next came my 6" x 6" stencil Mikki's Flowers, which I used on the left with green acrylic paint; and on the right, purple.  You can click on the image below to enlarge it and better see details.

I did likewise in making the image below, starting with acrylic paint and Looking Up Through Trees.   Once that paint had dried, I came back with blue acrylic paint and my 6" x 6" stencil Mikki's Flowers, which I used with purple-blue acrylic paint.  You can click on the image below to enlarge it and better see details.

For the image directly above, I again started with acrylic paint and Looking Up Through Trees.   Later, I returned to add flower prints with purple-blue paint and (on the left) my 6" x 6" stencil Mikki's Flowers; on the right, I used the same paint with another 6" x 6" stencil, Swatton Flowers Version 1.  My last step was to use pink acrylic paint with both these 6" x 6" stencils, this time reversing them, using  
Swatton Flowers Version 1 on the left and Mikki's Flowers on the right.


I began the image below with acrylic paints and Looking Up Through Trees.  Next, I created a middle layer -- on the lower left, I used my 6" x 6" Garden at Nemours mask with purple-blue acrylic paint.  In the lower right, I used the same paint with Swaying Grasses.  For my top layer, I used Swatton Flowers Version 1 on the left and Mikki's Flowers on the right.

Thanks for coming to visit here today!  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

Scraps Created with Stencil-Prints--and How to Use Them

Scraps!  Often I like to explore by cutting stencil-prints into pieces, creating a pile of scraps, then putting them together in new ways.

I've posted on this here.  And here.  And here.  And here.  Directly below, I'm showing just one example from those earlier posts:

Well, it's happened again!  In my post of January 4, I showed a couple of assemblage sheets created with scraps cut from prints made with Looking Up Through Trees.

Here are a couple additional of these assemblages --

And I've explored more design combinations, using either these or similar sheets that've piled up, over time....

The houses idea, shown directly above, isn't original with me.  I once saw a similar example somewhere else, and decided it would be fun to try it myself.  It's mostly a matter of cutting assemblage sheets into squares and triangles, then assembling them.  I used a couple of different permanent markers to draw in doors and windows.  Before gluing them down, I provided a partial background in a neutral color.  My goal with the background was to give unity to the overall composition. 

I've asked myself,  "Why stop with just stencil-print scraps?  Why can't stencil-print scraps be combined with other scraps?"

It worked!

In the collage shown directly below, I made a background with a piece of a stencil-print created with 9" x 12" Facets.

And in the collage directly above, the red-grey scrap on the far left was cut from a print made with 9" x 12" Twinship.  

Thanks for coming here today!

To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.