Christmas Angel

How I love making Christmas cards and giftbags!  

Back when my 6" x 6" Sprigs s523 was released, a fellow StencilGirl StencilClub member commented that, in it, she saw the figure of an angel.  I wish I could remember the name of this member so I could give credit where credit's due -- because she saw the angel before I did!  The angel figure was an unintentional part of my overall design, which I'd titled Sprigs because to me it was a stylization of the sprigs you see when springtime leaves are just starting to bud.

For today's angel project, I used my favorite tool, a sponge brayer.  But a Gelli Plate, or the traditional sponge-pouncing method, would work too.

Besides the sponge brayer, my supplies included:

white and gold marbled paper
heavy body red acrylic paint
a disposable foam plate
glitter in a squeeze bottle
iridescent (also called "metallic") acrylic paint
a flat, small paint brush
masking tape (optional)
6" x 6" Sprigs -- which looks like this:

 

 

Above:  Do you see the angel in the center of this  mask?

 

For starters, I rolled the brayer in heavy body acrylic paint till it was well-loaded.  

Then I placed my (red-paint-stained) Sprigs atop gold-marbled paper, as shown below.  I started in one corner of the sheet since this paper was large enough to hold 4 imprints if using a 6" x 6" mask or stencil.

 

 

 

 

If you've never used a sponge brayer with a mask or stencil, you may want to start with anchoring it using masking tape.  For today's post I've skipped that step; having often made prints this way, I've learned how to hold the stencil or mask securely with one hand while running the brayer over it.  Just be aware that a paint-loaded sponge brayer is likely to move the stencil or mask while it's in use, unless something is holding it firmly in place.

The photo below shows my first print (on the left); to its right, I've placed Sprigs atop a fresh area of the paper.  I'm ready to make the second print ....

 

 

 

 

 Below is a shot of two gold-marbled papers, side by side, each with four prints.

 

Next, I brought out my glitter-glue (in a squeeze-bottle), my "metallic" acrylic paints and a small flat brush. (I also assembled some color pencils and Gelato sticks; I later decided not to use them, but they appear in some photos below.)

On some of the prints, I used the small flat brush to add metallic paints around the angel-like shapes in the center of this 6" x 6" mask.

On other prints, I used that paint to highlight the angels' wings.

With the glitter, I outlined the angel figures by following the lines already established by the prints themselves.

 

 

 

 

My last step was to cut apart the prints and collage them onto Christmas cards and giftbags...

 

 

Above:  the angel shapes were outlined with green acrylic paint, instead of the metallic acrylic paints used above.

A variation on this idea is to use some of the red-on-white prints as backgrounds for a simple collage:

(1) Use green acrylic paint to make a print on white paper with Sprigs s523. 

(2) From the green and white print, cut out the angel shape that you can see on the above examples.  

(3) Glue the green and white angel to the red and white print, like this:

Above:  I added a gold halo using glitter glue in a squeeze-bottle.

For a future Christmas, I plan to print and cut out more angels, to create hanging ornaments for the tree!

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