New Stencils!

I am thrilled that my newest collection of stencils debuted today! There are six stencils: one 9" x 12" (which is designed to repeat so it can be used on fabric or paper or a wall or any other large area), three 6" x 6", and two 4" x 4" designs. 

 

 

 

I had a blast playing with them, using brights, pastels, earth tones,  mixing and matching them.

My stencil designs usually come from doodles: doodle should be my middle name. I doodle when I’m on the phone, in a meeting, traveling, or watching television. Doodling relaxes me, and the doodles come out of my subconscious mind and are very intuitive, natural, and unplanned. I save the ones that I like best, then tuck them in my journal pocket. Later I revisit them, choosing the ones that seem most special to develop further. I photograph or scan the doodles, then adjust them on my computer, adding and subtracting details until the design feels just right.

My stencils are named for Lemuria, believed to be an ancient continent that sank thousands of years ago, lying below what now is the Hawaiian Islands. Some believe that it was a Garden of Eden, a spiritually evolved civilization where people lived in harmony with nature and the universe. Many of my stencils are derived from designs and shapes that I have been drawing—consciously and subconsciously—since I was very young.

I've even got a short video that shows the process of creating my newest goddess!

And here's samples of each new stencil. You can find them, along with my other two collections, on the StencilGirl website.

The Lemurian Poppy is the centerpiece of my third Lemurian Garden group of designs. It started as a doodle on the margin of a notepad. The flower’s center seemed very organic, and the leaves and petals seemed to vibrate with energy and movement.

I liked the Lemurian Poppy so much that I reduced the size, flipped it around, and added a small version of my Blooming Violet (from my second stencil collection) to create the Tossed Poppies. I worked for many years as a fabric designer, so I enjoy repeating designs, and made sure the Tossed Poppies repeated on the top, bottom, and sides. I visualized it used on fabric or wallpaper, or as a subtle background in paintings or crafts.

The tossed poppies was used on rusted fabric with white acrylic, on a green background with white embossing powder, and printed with white acrylic on black cardstock using a gelliplate.

Complementing the two Poppy designs is the Lemurian Vines. I wanted a rambling, all-over pattern that could unite the flowers, leaves, and shapes of both my new and old stencils, yet also stand on its own. Like the others, the Lemurian Vines started as a doodled line drawing.

Loose Mum was a doodle I made on my lunch break. Unlike the other doodles that were done on the margins of note paper, this started with a perfect circle. I created a series of circular mandala-inspired drawings by tracing a circle around a CD, then doodling, writing, or painting inside the circular shape. I scanned the drawing, reduced the size, then added and subtracted elements until the Mum came alive.

The Loose Mum is very versatile: on the left, it was stenciled in a journal then colored with Posca Markers; in the middle, orange embossing powder on a yellow cardstock; and on the right, a painting combining pastel shades of the mum with leaves from the Lemurian Poppy and Woodcut Mix.

Woodcut Mix is a combination of three designs that I had hand-carved into stamps and often used in my paper and fabric art. Over the years the stamps had gotten a bit worn out and took on a crackly, weathered look, as if they had been carved into wood. I printed them in black and white, scanned the prints, then translated the stamps to stencils. The bold and rustic shapes work well together and mix nicely with my other designs.

Swirly Square came from a doodle on a small yellow sticky note. The curlicues make it feel like a party or celebration. I envision it done in both bright colors and also in metallics, perhaps used on a card or as wrapping paper.

I hope you enjoy using my new stencils as much as I enjoyed designing them!

Beautiful Blooms Chipboard Coasters

I was recently gifted with a pack of 3-inch square chipboard pieces, and they were super cute, but I didn't quite know what to do with them. Then it occurred to me that they would make charming coasters using some of the new PaperArtsy stamps by Gwen Lafluer.  I had recently made a pretty, impressionistic journal page with the stamps over some pastel splashes of background color. So, I set about creating a similar look on the little squares.

Here's the journal page that inspired the project:

To begin, I mixed up some of my favorite colors and started painting random brushstrokes on the chipboard squares. My favorite color is yellow, so I made loose, impressionistic flowers and added a little pale aqua to suggest sky and light olive green to suggest leaves and stems. The painted squares looked pretty all by themselves, but I knew they'd also look wonderful with stamps on top.

I started with my favorite stamp from set EGL27: the mum.Here's some of the steps I took:

Once the yellow group was painted and stamped, I decided to use shades of pink, lilac, and green for the roses and other stamps in the set. Again, I painted random strokes of color, let it dry, then played with the stamps on top using black Archival Ink.

 

 I also added dots of color here and there with my Posca Paint Markers for some extra pizzaz.

With the base being chipboard, which is basically a pressed paper product, I was worried about what would happen with a wet drink on the squares. So, I used some gloss medium to protect the design, and after it was dry, used two layers of Versamark Ink with Seth Apter's Vintage Beeswax Embossing Powder by Emerald Creek.

The two layers of Vintage Beeswax gave a beautiful glossy finish to the coasters and enhanced the colors. I tested them out with several of my glasses, and while they're a little smaller than the average coaster, they still fit nicely. 

I am looking forward to some spring and summer dinning to show off my new creations!