My new 6" x 6" stencil LOVE stars in today's collection of art samples.

The first one is a simple print on paper that I had previously splashed with paint thinned with water.

Below: a wild-and-crazy multi-layered print; before using LOVE, the earlier prints were made with my 6" x 6" Ivy Frame 6 and my 9" x 12" Palm Fronds Silhouette Large.

Above:  This LOVE print started with white paper that had come to me with metallic gold paint marbling already added.  (This paper is prettier in person than it appears in this photo.)  Atop that paper, I made the print using Pan Pastels.  A final touch was a heart that I cut out free-hand and glued to the upper right.

Below:  This LOVE print likewise started with white paper that had come to me with metallic gold paint marbling already added.  On that paper, I made this print using Pan Pastels of two warm colors that blend in the middle. 

Below is an art sample made on glossy cardstock that I'd long ago monoprinted with blue and lavender acrylic paints.  After using 6" x 6" LOVE with a sponge brayer loaded with heavy-body yellow paint, I continued to spread the yellow paint above and below the print.  Once that paint had dried, I added top-and-bottom bars of stylized botanical imagery, using red acrylic paint and parts of my 9" x 12" stencil Boxed Vines.

Boxed Vines in its entirety looks like this --

Above:  Today's final art sample started with a Pan Pastels print on white paper that I'd long ago designed with flower imagery, using Photoshop.  After a digital capture of that old print -- nowenriched with Pan Pastels and LOVE -- I went back into Photoshop to digitally add the blue inspirational quote.  I posted it on Facebook in keeping with the daily inspirational invitation that came part-and-parcel with the bigger project of Party Call exchanges for October 2020.  Party Call is a monthly event at StencilGirl StencilClub, a Facebook gathering reserved for members of StencilGirl StencilClub.  Artist Lisa Dobry created the Party Calls and she maintains them -- a heroic task into which she puts her heart.  Everyone in StencilClub enjoys these activities so much so that new members are always coming to join in the creative fun.

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Today's post starts with a glimpse of an acrylic painting that I developed with 6" x 6" LOVE in its lower left corner.  To the right of the print is cardboard I've cut to use as a mask, now that the white paint of the LOVE print has dried.  My aim is to mask the print and sponge-apply white acrylic around the edges of the mask.

The next photo shows the entire surface of this acrylic painting, which -- thanks to protection from the temporary cardboard mask -- has now emerged from the background, rather than being lost in it.

My next, and final, step could have been done by hand, as had the whole artwork been, up to this point; I could have made purple prints with my 6" x 6" Pair o' Parrots, then cut out those prints and glued them onto the painting.

But what I did instead was to do a digital merge in Photoshop, adding these lovebirds to finish the artwork.

Still more digital blending happened when I started with this greeting card cover; its heart was cut from a print I'd made with heavy body pearlized acrylic paint and my 9" x 12" stencil Two Vases:

I merged this heart with the photo below, which shows the LOVE stencil itself -- now heavily stained with orange acrylic paint and resting on a 3-dimensionally spattered background of near-complimentary color ....

.... and the result is below.

This time, the result would have been impossible to achieve without digital manipulation, since the orange-stained stencil, placed on a background with raised areas of thick spatter, created an uneven surface.  Trying to print a heart onto an uneven surface is asking for heartache!

My 9" x 12" stencil Two Vases, in its entirety, looks like this:

As today's heart cut-out shows, the spiraling lines in this stencil provide opportunity for multiple uses.  

Today's final example of a LOVE print digitally combined with another print:

Above:  The print merged with a 6" x 6" LOVE print was made with 6" x 6" Mikki's Flowers Stencil.   

Used in their original forms, of course these two stencils print images of the same size.  For the sake of clarity, however, in this digital image, I've reduced the size of the print made with Mikki's Flowers Stencil. 

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Photo-altering software programs are in everyone's phones now, but years ago I fell in love with Photoshop CS2 and still to this day keep it in my PC for continuous use.

I'm glad however that this fun kind of software is readily available because today's post further explores possibilities of blending my new 6" x 6" stencil LOVE with other images ....

To follow up on my last post, I'll start here:  Silhouette of a Wildflower Bouquet (6" x 6") digitally blended with LOVE:

Next:  LOVE digitally blended with the cover of a Christmas card that had started with a collage built from prints made with stencils.  The stencil-print that remains prominent is the one on the far-right Magi:  6" x 6" Sprigs was used to make that print.

Below, I've blended LOVE with a photo from the wedding of my beautiful daughter.  (LOVE was digitally stretched wide to fit within the photo in the way I wanted.)

Next up:  A digital blend of 6" x 6" LOVE with 6" x 6" Dance of the Courting Cranes --

The digitally altered image below shows LOVE merged with a print made with my 9" x 12" Thistle.  (In making that print, I had placed Thistle onto the substrate multiple times, so as to bring the 3 thistle stalks closer together than they are on the original stencil.)

Today's last art sample, below, is a more complex blend.  Before any digital work was done, I made a double-print on watercolor paper using LOVE alongside subtle prints made with Sassy Spray (barely visible in the lower right.)  I then added a heart embellishment cut from a green-and-yellow-orange print made with Mimosa Stencil (9" x 12".)  Only then, as a final step, did I  develop its digital merge with a previous print featuring 9" x 12" Nosegay Stencil.

For endless digital fun, I encourage everyone to photograph their stencil-prints and merge them together with the magic of digital software; or merge them with photos, as I did with my daughter's wedding portrait.

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 6" x 6" LOVE may at first glance appear to be a stencil that can be used only one way, since it's text, not an abstract image or a representational image -- but ...

... I've experimented in several directions.  One of those adventures has been in making double- and triple-prints.

The double print above started on 12" x 12" scrapbook paper that had come in pale green with a stylized flowery pattern.

I continued making LOVE prints atop one another ....

Until I switched to using another 6" x 6" stencil, Quilted Flower Garden --

And after using Quilted Flower Garden twice, I decided to stop.  For the time being, at least, the piece looks like this:

I may very well come back in with one final print of LOVE, thus bringing the word back into readable focus.  If I do, I'll make that print in bright, opaque white acrylic paint.  (Titanium White by Golden Paints is my favorite.)

More experiments happen when I bring my prints into Photoshop and blend them digitally.  

My first digital foray started with the below print, made on watercolor paper using LOVE alongside 6" x 6" Sassy Spray and 6" x 6" Looking Up Through Trees Small. (Both Sassy Spray and Looking Up Through Trees Small had been previously cut from their original square frames.)

The digital blend created this image:

Above:  The overlay print of purple LOVE had started as a separate print, looking like this --

-- and I'd made that print using part of my 9" x 12" stencil Boxed Vines.  Its background paper was glossy cardstock monoprinted with water-diluted purple acrylic paint.  This type of monoprinting is called decalcomania.

In its entirety, Boxed Vines looks like this:

And Sassy Spray looks like this before being cut from its 6" x 6" frame --

And, before being cut from its 6" x 6" frame, Looking Up Through Trees Small looks like this:

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Thanks to the magic of photo-altering programming!

Thank you for coming here to my blog today!  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.  To follow this blog by email, please use that option in the upper right sidebar.

 I've made brand-new giftbags!  Using my brand-new 6" x 6" stencil LOVE ....

I used LOVE prints, spray paint and  Pioneer Embellishment Gluestick to decorate the bags.   

And greeting cards need to be tucked into giftbags, right?

One of my LOVE prints started with a page from another old photo calendar.

I buy over-sized greeting card blanks from LCI because it sometimes takes a square card slightly bigger than 6" x 6" to accommodate prints made with my 6" x 6" masks and stencils.  After trimming  print to size with paper edger scissors, I added it to the cover of a greeting card and trimmed it with a strip of Dresden embossed foil --

Another greeting card is below -- this one, sent to my daughter and her husband on their first wedding anniversary!

Blank white bags with built-in handles are available here, among other online sources.  

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Think romance!  Love and hearts are the feature in today's post, in celebration of my newest stencil, 6" x 6" LOVE.

Backtracking for a minute:  My post of August 26 featured a greeting card printed with one of four stencils and masks in my Pods series.  That card looked like this --

And -- because today's theme is love -- that card's been updated to this:

What a difference it made to my eyes, when I'd added a hole-punched heart shape painted bright orange!

Below: another heart cut-out, this one cut from a purple and yellow print I'd made using 6" x 6" Looking Up Through Trees Small z793.  Does this heart remind you of the moon on a romantic night? -- seen thru interlocking tree branches, of course!  Below that heart collage, I used yellow acrylic paint to make a print with my newly released 6" x 6" Love.

Most of the heart shapes in today's post, incidentally, were cut freehand using a template cut from once-folded scrap-paper.  It's a skill learned way back when.  Probably most readers will have learned it in kindergarten.  (I started first grade at age 5 since there was no kindergarten in the sticks where I lived!) 

Below:  a heart-decorated greeting card; its base was cut from a print previously done on an old map.  (For that, I'd used a combination of 6" x 6" Small Tangled Pods and 6" x 6" Sprigs.)  The large green heart was cut from French newsprint tinted green during an earlier project.  Atop that heart is a small blue one, created with a crafter's hole punch.  Circling the little blue heart is a piece of Dresden embossed gold foil.  (This embossed foil comes without adhesive, so here, I've used a gluestick.  Next time, I'll try using Artist-tac permanent dry adhesive.)  The support for this art sample is a metallic-green greeting card blank, measuring 5.75" x 5.75", from jampaper.com.

Below:  This art sample started with a paper cut from a print I'd made using multiple applications of 9" x 12" Palm Fronds Silhouette Large.  The large green heart was cut from French newsprint tinted green.  The embellishment in the lower right is Dresden embossed gold foil.  (This embossed foil comes without adhesive, so here, I've used a gluestick.  Next time, I'll try using Artist-tac permanent dry adhesive.)

Next up:  I used 6" x 6" Love on a sheet of sturdy (140-lb.) watercolor paper; its background includes a subtle print made with my 6" x 6" Sassy Spray.

Below:  Here the background comes from paper multi-printed with 9" x 12"  Palm Fronds Silhouette Large.  After using 6" x 6" Love and red acrylic paint for the top layer of printing, I added a red heard within a green heart.

Today's last art sample....

... was developed on a sheet of paper that had been pressed multiple times onto palette paper smeared with leftover acrylic paints.  After that multi-color application had dried, I used green acrylic paint to print with 6" x 6" Love.

Love is beautiful!  I hope you'll enjoy using Love as much I do!

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 Hearing someone's backstory can make you appreciate him or her a whole lot more.

Artwork backgrounds are hardly the same as backstories, but they can work much the same way for your stencil-printing projects.

Backgrounds give you a quick, easy way to liven up stencil prints, especially when the stencil you're using is a text that you want to remain readable. 

Backgrounds can be pictures from old catalogs or magazines or calendars; they can be scrapbook papers; they can be "failed" paintings.  Try everything!  If you don't feel satisfied with the results, paint over it or collage over it -- or both.  Layering can greatly improve an artwork, giving it a quality that some call "history."

Above:  Love stencil (6" x 6") was used, with acrylic paint, over a "failed" mixed-media artwork.  Only 2 actual layers appear here, but the choice of background leads the viewer's eye to perceive a rich history that warrants a second look.



My brand-new 6" x 6" stencil LOVE looks like this:

Above:  With acrylic paint, I again used  Love stencil (6" x 6") atop a "failed" mixed-media artwork.  Only 2 actual layers appear here, but the choice of background leads the viewer's eye around to glimpse a rich history that coaxes taking a second look.

Below:  A print made on an old computer print-out of mine (based on a photo I had taken.)  The heart was made with a hole punch and added as a last-touch collage element.

The above print was made with Pan Pastels.

Above:  This print was made on a sheet of novelty paper that came from an art supply store years ago.  Below:  This time, the background was scrapbooking paper.  Both the above image and the one below were made using Pan Pastels.

 Below is a print that I made in multiple steps, to be described below the image ....

Above:  My original substrate was a sheet of heavy paper covered with acrylic paints in random colors:  yellow, red-green, brown and purple.  

Step 1:  On the left side of the page, with white acrylic paint, I made a print using 2/3 of my 9" x 12" stencil Boxed Vines.

Step 2:  I covered parts of the substrate with papers and masking tape to mask off selected areas.

Step 3:  I sprayed the unmasked areas using a mister bottle filled with this mix -- 2/3 water, 1/3 lavender acrylic paint and 2 drops of air brush medium.

Step 4:  With white heavy-body acrylic paint I used my new 6" x 6" stencil Love to make a print on the far middle right.

Step 5:  After that layer had dried, I added a final layer down the middle of the piece, using a sponge brayer loaded with translucent acrylic green-yellow paint.  I used the brayer to spread the paint below the stencil and above it.

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