Magical Mini Book

I recently joined The Stencil Club, an offering from StencilGirl Products. It is an online community with a private Facebook group where ideas and tips and creations are shared. Each month, members are shipped three exclusive stencils created by their team of designers. In addition to the online community, there is an exclusive "how to" video and pdf. The Stencil Club designs are only available to club member; they are not sold to the general public.

I joined in time to receive the July set, Ceramic Tiles, created by one of my favorite artists, Gwen Lafluer. I can't stop using these stencils, especially the mid-sized one with the fluer de lis accent. In the exclusive club video (about 45 minutes long), Gwen demonstrated how to create a gorgeous mini book from one large stenciled paper. I decided to give it a try. Gwen shares all her tips and techniques on how to stencil, and if I had wanted to, I could have used exactly the same colors, placed the stencils in the same positions, and made my little book just like Gwen's.

Being a practical Virgo, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to use up some unfinished designs. So, I started by gathering all my miscellaneous stenciled, unfinished papers that I had hanging around. None of them matched but I knew I was going to use them as a background so it didn't matter too much.

I started with a heavy, good quality piece of fairly smooth watercolor paper (about 12" x 18") that had a couple of perfectly stenciled deco images. I squeezed a large blob of matte medium on the paper, spread it with an old credit card, and started collaging the other pieces in place.

Some of the stencils were printed on heavy paper, like the green and aqua image above. I carefully split the paper, pulled the the two-ply layers apart, and kept only the top layer.

The first layer I added was the green and aqua area. The gray, lavender and turquoise stencils were already on the paper.

Next, I added a purple deco stencil. It had been printed on deli paper and was very lightweight.

A large sheet of olive-green deco stencils was peeled apart, then cut and added around the background.

The empty white areas were filled in with torn pieces of stenciled deli paper in shades of aqua and green.

Once the background was covered with stencils (most from the Art Deco collection), it needed to be united and softened. I added the circular background stencil in white over the areas that were too dark.

The brand-new Ceramic Tile Stencil Club collection

 

I also added the fluer de lis 6" square stencil in white. The background still looked too dark in places and also didn't feel unified, so I mixed up some light turquoise acrylic paint and dabbed it through the fluer de lis medallion stencil until the darkest colors were muted. Here and there I added some pale green, light aqua, and a golden umber with the same two stencils.

Once I had a background that pleased my eye, I wanted to add some "bling" so I used a VersaMark stamp pad with the fluer de lis medallion, sprinkled on some champagne embossing powder, blasted it with my heat gun until is melted and shimmered.

The embossing powder stuck to the areas where the VersaMark was used. This is the way the embossed areas look unheated. A blast from the heat gun melts the powder and turns the soft brown areas into a rich gold color.

I liked the way the underlying deco stencil, done with lime green paint and Seth Apter's Emerald Creek Patina Oxide Baked Texture looked, so I again used the VersaMark stamp pad, but this time with sections of the background circle stencil in Patina Oxide. Finally, using only the center of the fluer de lis stencil, I added a few x-o shapes with Ancient Amber Baked Texture.

It was time to stop painting and stenciling and start folding. To be sure it was nice and dry before folding, I gave the paper some extra heat with my blow dryer, which is gentler on the paper than the heat gun, and more diffused rather than directed at one section.

I booted up my laptop and carefully watched the Stencil Club video of Gwen's technique for folding the paper, and followed along. There is also a pdf that I could have used, but it has words like "vertical" and "horizontal" and I am directionally-challenged, so my brain fried...I needed the visual help of the video, and paused it and/or replayed when I wasn't sure how to proceed.

The back of the folded artwork. The bone folder ensured that the folds were crisp.

The artwork, folded into 8 sections and ready to be turned into a book.

One cut in the right place is needed to separate the pages.

With just the right twist, the book pops together.

My book was a little wonky--probably because the paper was quite thick. I decided to use some heavy gel medium to glue the folded parts together. I applied the gel, separated the sections with parchment paper, and put it under a big cast iron pot to flatten the book and ensure that the pages stuck together.

I darkened all the edges with a brown chalk ink, and it was almost finished. Something was missing. I decided to add a closure. After some debate and auditioning possible closures, I opted to use a simple ribbon closure.

A vintage dragonfly button, tiny elephant, and dangly Turkmen jewelry part were auditioned for the closure.

I added grommets halfway up the front and halfway up the back, and fed ribbon through them. For the front, I used a Turkmen jewelry part, fed turquoise ribbon (from the packaging that Gwen ships her website orders in!) through the loop on the back, then pulled the ribbon through the grommet and tied it. 

A simple bow at the side is easy to tie and untie.

Now the question is: what should go inside the pages of the book? Poetry? Special photos? Other keepsakes and memorabilia? Inspirational quotes? Prayers? Or nothing at all?

Stencil Club: A Tuscan Summer Day

Over the past few years, I've gotten hooked on stencils. At first, I thought stencils were something that had to be traced carefully and filled in with color. I thought they would give a stiff, boring look to my artwork. After taking some workshops and watching videos on how to use stencils, I discovered that they were pretty magical.

One of my friends told me about the Stencil Club, which has exclusive designs by some of the top artists of Stencil Girl. Each month, you get three different sized stencils by the same artist plus a video and membership in their closed Facebook group. The Stencil Club designs are not for sale to the public; they are available only to club members.

I decided to give the Stencil Club a try, and as luck would have it, this month's artist is one of my favorites: Gwen Lafluer. When the stencils arrived, I pulled out some of my favorite supplies and got to work.

The tile-inspired designs made me think of an old country home in Tuscany...not that I have ever been there, but I can dream, can't I? I pictured warm golden colors and sunlight and charmingly aged floors and walls. For the background of my journal page, I decided to use a base of turmeric teabags with the biggest stencil (9"x12") done in white.

Dried, empty turmeric teabags ready to be glued to a journal page.

I got to work spreading matte medium on the blank page with an old credit card, placing on the teabags, adding more matte medium on top, and scraping off the excess.

The first row of teabags was applied to the wet, matte medium covered page.

Eight turmeric teabags covered the page perfectly.

Little pieces that were snipped off the top of the teabag (so that it could be emptied) add interest to the background.

White acrylic was applied through the stencil with a makeup sponge.

Once the white paint had dried, I carefully applied VersaMark on top of the 6'x6"stencil, sprinkled on some of my Emerald Creek Baked Texture embossing powder in chunky rust, removed the stencil, tapped off the excess powder, then blasted it with my heat gun. The rust, white and turmeric colors  were perfect together. (I was having such a good time and so far into my "zone" that I forgot to take photos.)

It needed a little more oomph, so I searched through my boxes of ephemera to find just the right item that said 'Tuscan kitchen on a sunny, relaxed day' and auditioned a bunch of items. I finally settled on some birds that I cut from les Oiseaux, a beautiful Florentine paper available on Gwen's website. I carefully tore the birds out of the paper, added antique linen Distress Stain to age them, and edged them with a touch of brown chalk ink. Next, I used gel medium to adhere the birds to the page.

Birds were cut from the gorgeous les Oiseaux Florentine paper.

I was feeling like the page should hint at a window, so I added an edging, at the bottom, of one of Gwen's Art Deco Border designs to suggest the window ledge. Again I used the VersaMark, but this time I sprinkled champagne-gold embossing powder. As final touches, I added small white sections of the fluer de lis, a little gold on  the tips of the the rusty fluer de lis, and with my fingertip, a bit of yellow ochre paint to blend the birds into the background.

I am so glad I took the plunge and joined the Stencil Club! I want to spend the whole weekend playing with the new Stencil Club stencils, which I am sure are going to be among my favorites. I can't wait to see what interesting stencils arrive in the months to come!

"A Tuscan Summer Day" journal page

Nine-Patch Paper Quilt

When I saw Gwen Lafluer's Spring 2018 Stencil Girl designs, one of my favorites was a large stencil that had words and little flowers. The words said "what could I do if I wasn't afraid to try?" and they really resonated with me. (You can see the artwork I made with those words here.)

The designs surrounding the words also spoke to me. They were based on some hand carved, India-inspired designs that Gwen made during "Carve December."

 

I decided to try making some fabric designs with the stencils. I studied Textile Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and my early career was as a textile designer and print stylist. I  often visualize stencil and stamp designs as fabrics and imagine their colors and repeats in my mind's eye.

I made a bunch of different designs, and was especially happy with a couple. Then I thought of the words "what could I do if I wasn't afraid to try?" on the stencil and realized that fear can be of big things or of little things. Even the fear of cutting up the new fabric designs gnawed at me. I threw caution to the wind and decided to cut them into squares and try making a paper quilt. Fortunately I took photos of my design so I can recreate it in the future, which eased the fear a little.

Mixing and matching the papers I created with Gwen's new and old stencils.

A StencilGirl stencil by Jessica Sporn was printed on white and green on yellow paper.

One of Gwen's new designs was printed in  turquoise on top of the yellow and green print above.

My paper designs and fabrics in shades of yellow and pink.

My paper designs and fabrics in shades of blue, green and lavender.

These four designs were used to make the final paper quilt.

I didn't have enough of the paper I stenciled with the yellow, green and turquoise designs to make a very big quilt, so I combined them with some of my own fabrics, which I had designed a few years ago and printed at Spoonflower, along with a yellow and white print using a Jessica Sporn Stencil Girl design. Since the prints I made from Gwen's and Jessica's stencils were on paper, I glue-sticked my two fabrics to some heavy paper, then cut it all into squares. I was on a roll.

The 4" squares of the four designs looked pretty good, but the design (above) was too square and boring. I decided to cut all the squares diagonally and rearrange them.

 I almost had enough for a 9-patch, but wanted something in the center. (The red design in the middle is my living room rug, not part of the design!) I thought Gwen's words would work beautifully with the paper quilt. I painted some smooth, heavy watercolor paper turquoise, and stenciled the words on with an indigo ink. They were a little big to fit inside my center square, so I squished them in and hand wrote the word afraid.

 The words were a little too close to the edge, and the colors a little too harmonious, so I tried adding strips of contrasting fabric.

  I wasn't sure I liked it, so I left it and looked at it again the next day. I decided to try cutting the triangles even smaller so that it would be more of a pinwheel design. I liked the new arrangement, so I cut the rest of the pieces smaller, so that each 4" block would have 8 triangles.

 Next, I repeated the pattern until I had a square design with an empty center space. I  lightly glued the pieces to deli paper, leaving the center empty.

I tested out a few different ideas for the center. The words I had originally planned to have in the center didn't fit quite right, so I saved the quote for a future project.

Some reverse applique fabric pieces looked interesting and unexpected. I ended up using them in another project. You can see that project here.

I tried the reverse applique fabric pieces in the center and around the edges, and added some accent strips of another fabric.

The colors of the mermaid journal page worked, but it was too large.

The mermaid artwork looked too small inside the center square.

A piece of silk sari scrap fabric was the right size, but the wrong color.

A print of the Scribble X stencil had the right color, but didn't seem bold enough for a centerpiece.

A piece of deli paper printed with assorted stencils was harmonious, but lacked a central focus.

An art deco stencil print had the right colors, but was the wrong size and shape.

A print of Gwen's Art DecoMedallion stencil was just the right size and color for the center.

I tested some other stencils as accent, but they were too large and the extra brown color didn't work.

Finally, I decided to keep it simple and move forward with just Gwen's turquoise Art Deco Sun Medallion stencil in the center. The color was right, and the geometry worked with the quilt's geometry.

After backing the pieces with some fabric for stability and removing the deli paper that they were temporarily glued to, I zigzag stitched all the pieces together, and the design was finished.

A close up of the stitching in progress.

Detail shot of the stitched center design and surrounding quilt pieces.

My plan is to print some yardage of the green and yellow designs at Spoonflower so that I can play with the design some more, but this time as a real quilted fabric instead of paper. Can't you see this design as a big quilt on a bed, as throw pillows, or even a summer dress?