Not Afraid to Try

Fear. It holds us back from big things and little things, from life-changing, difficult decisions to small daily choices. Fear stops us from making a phone call or sending an email. It stops us from applying for a dream job, speaking up when something is wrong, initiating conversation. It stops us from wearing our prettiest outfit, trying a new haircolor or hairstyle, traveling somewhere exotic.

For artists, fear makes us hold on to beautiful fabrics and papers that are too pretty to cut. It makes us afraid to go further with a design or painting for fear of ruining it. It stops us from using the really good watercolor paper. Fear makes many of us work small, keeps us from making large bold strokes on giant canvases.

When I saw Gwen Lafluer's stencil called "Not Afraid" the words called to me. In my life, fear kept me from trying and doing many things. For a long time, panic disorder controlled me--an unseen force, a petrifying, reasonless fear ran through me and ran my life. It nearly kept me from a career as an artist. As an adult, I am constantly pushing myself through fear and making myself move forward.

I tried using Gwen's stencil several ways. I knew they were powerful words, yet the pieces and journal pages didn't do the words justice.

This piece has a background collage of vintage sewing items, and reflects my interest in fashion design--a path I was afraid to try. The purple stenciled floral shapes represent overcoming fear, and my resulting career as a fabric designer.

A journal test page with the Afraid to Try stencil and the Scribble X mask.

An unfinished journal page, testing the Art Deco Peacock Feather and sections of the Afraid to Try stencil.

This is a collage of random papers, handwritten thoughts (on the underlying page) about overcoming my claustrophobia and fear during a recent MRI.

As I was cleaning my art space one Saturday morning, I found an abstract painting that I had made a few years ago. It had started with a piece of 12" x 12" cardboard packaging from saved from some commercial scrapbook paper. I had covered it with gesso. When it was dry, I carefully peeling the paint skins off my craft mat and adhering them with matte medium. It was done pretty randomly and instinctively. I wasn't sure if it was finished or not--I liked it, but not enough to hang on the wall as an abstract painting. Something was missing but I didn't know quite what. I put it aside for a long time...almost two years before rediscovering it.

This was the finished abstract painting that eventually became the background for "Afraid to Try."

Dried paint was peeled off my craft mat and placed on a gessoed cardboard using matte medium.

These patches of dried acrylic paint became the background.

I rifled through my boxes and bins and discovered that the recycled paint skin painting was exactly the right size for the "afraid to try" stencil...serendipity! I grabbed my black ink, a cosmetic wedge, a mini dabber, and got to work. First, I put the words in the middle.

Next, I added designs on the left.

 

 I flipped the stencil over and finished the right side, mirroring the left.

I liked it so far, but thought it needed a little more. I decided it needed some kind of frame or finished edge.

I love the combination of bright colors with black and white patterns known as Zetti, so I pulled out some gingham fabric and black and white papers. I also considered some black and white painted lutradur that I had made a few years ago.

The brightly colored sari scrap corners matched, but the black and white painted lutradur sides overpowered the center design.

Some gold paper Dresden Medallions were tested in the corners.

I removed the Dresden stars and tried colored sari silk and a gingham diamond, but still didn't love the border.

The large harlequin border seemed too bold and overpowered the artwork. I liked the way the squares of silk sari scraps looked in the corner and matched the center piece though. I didn't have enough black and white gingham fabric so that was vetoed.

I decided finally to keep it simple, and cut some thin paper strips of a black and white diamond pattern, then glued it around the edges. That worked--the delicate diamonds didn't overpower the central image...the thin border finished the piece without fighting it.

   

Last, I decided to sharpen up some of the white areas, especially dark orange under the O in DO, which made the words a little hard to read. With white acrylic, I used a very small brush and enhanced the circular letters, the large shape under the words, and the centers of the cross-shaped designs.

This piece speaks to me in so many ways. The words reminds me of the times I beat fear, and forged ahead anyway even if I was afraid, especially with a decision to become an artist, to move to New York alone, and go back to school to study textile design. The designs surrounding the words remind me of fabric designs, my first art career. The colors are pure and clean, and remind me to be true to myself, to the colors I like and that make me happy. The whole piece reminds me to stifle my inner critic, to believe in myself, and to be true to the designs and ideas that resonate with me.

Holiday Gift Tags

Tags are a quick and easy way to add a personal touch to a package. I recently made several sets of holiday tags to spiff up the gifts that will be soon under the tree in the Wyatt living room. The three groups of tags that emerged were all quite different--from girly and romantic, to masculine/traditional, to black and white graphic patterns.

The first set was the girly/romantic group. The German and English scrap angels really called to my inner-frilly side. One of the techniques that I return to time and again is using printed teabags in my artwork. When I saw the German and English scrap angels on Gwen's website, I immediately knew that--combined with printed teabags--they would be perfect for some holiday tag-making.

Scrap angels, blank tags, and printed teabags

I gathered some dry, empty teabags and, with some white acrylic, used some of Gwen's beautiful wood blocks to print the bags. (For a step by step tutorial on my "faux lace" process using teabags, click here)

A standard-size blank tag, and an oversized chipboard tag

Gluesticks work well for adhering the teabags to the base paper

Various laces and ribbons from my stash were
auditioned to see what went best with the printed teabags

An English Scrap Angel was "auditioned" for a standard-size tag

Before being glued, a carefully trimmed German Scrap Angel,
printed teabag and lace scrap were "auditioned" for a large tag

For a more masculine look, I chose some festive red and gold marbled paper from Gwen's sample pack, and combined it with a scrap of commercial scrapbook paper, a bit of polka-dot ribbon and one of the gorgeous Dresden Medium Medallions for a simple, yet striking tag.

A Comet Medallion was "auditioned" for the tag
to see how it looked with the marble paper and ribbon

Since layers of paper covered the tag's hole, an awl was used to poke a new hole in the tag

The medium medallion was attached with a large brass brad, and black words,
printed on clear mailing labels, were added

This close-up shows the mini brads that were added for a decorative touch under the inspirational holiday words

The next weekend, I was tired of red and green and obvious holiday themes and decided to see how some of Gwen's stencils would work in black and white for a holiday look. I painted some tags with white gesso, and others with black gesso. Some black and white gingham ribbon set the designs off nicely. On the tags below, I used both Gwen's cardinal stencil and Ornamental Petal stencil/mask with white paint on a black background.

White stencils and white gel pen on black painted tags

On the tags below that were painted white, I used a wedge cosmetic sponge and small dabber tool with a black stamp pad to print the holly section of the cardinal and holly stencil. Although it is not officially a holiday stencil, the Decorative Medallion stencil reminded me of a snowflake so I used that also. I added a few words here and there with either a black or white gel pen. Since I am not always perfect at stenciling, I fixed the places that were too sketchy or light with either a black gel pen, white gel pen,  and white or black paint on a tiny brush.

Holiday words were added to the stenciled tags using a black gel pen

I usually write the recipient's name on the back of the tag to keep the front looking festive. Now all I need to do is finish my holiday shopping so I have some gifts to wrap up and tie the tags onto!

During the month of December, you can save on German Dresden Trim and German and English Scrap using the code on the coupon below. There's still plenty of time to order so that you can create your own gift tags, cards, wrapping paper or other festive gift items!

Unplanned Stamping

Usually my work table is covered with bright color splashes. Today, for unknown reasons, I was in a sepiaish, black and white, earth tones mood. I started puttering around yesterday, using assorted favorite stamps with white printmaking paint, and printing a bunch of teabags for future use.

Some of the smaller teabags were printed using a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer geometric stamp. Once dry, I adhered them to ATC blanks with a gluestick. My favorite whimsical girl stamp called to me today, and I used her on top of the printed teabags. I added some tiny words that I had previously output from a laser printer onto clear Avery mailing labels. I made a total of seven ATCs, each a little different. The one above will be traded in the October Paper Traders Winner Take All, where group members submit any type of ATC...the group leader pulls a name randomly and that person wins all the cards for the month.

I used up the leftover white paint from my ATC-making by painting broad, uneven strokes onto a black page in my journal. Once dry, I used an assortment of Julie's stamps with the little girl, which became today's journal page. The photo is a little blurry, but I liked the way it came out. It was totally unplanned. I really was just cleaning my brush on the black page. One thought led to another, and I started grabbing stamps and printing, and the page just emerged. Sometimes art is planned, sketched, thought out, and measured. Sometimes, as with this page, it just flows out unplanned.

Zentangle Kaleidoscope ATCs

For my zentangle ATCs for a recent heARTist Trading exchange, I had what I thought was a brilliant idea: draw a zentangle on a rubber block and carve a stamp. While the idea was solid, and the carving came out pretty good, the prints were terrible; they came out weak and indistinct. So, I put on my thinking cap, and decided to scan the bad print and see what kind of repairs could be done in Photoshop. I bumped up the contrast and played with some filters (finally choosing a “stamp” filter) and got a workable image.  Since I am a fabric designer at heart, I couldn’t stop myself from playing with the image more, and I step and repeated it with a kaleidoscope-like mirror image and added a red border. I printed them on cardstock, and then backed them with fusible lightweight interfacing for strength since I planned to add some stitching. They still needed something more to make each one unique. I tried hand-stitching red and white buttons to the corner and center, but it was a bit corny. I auditioned an assortment of beads, sequins and ribbon but nothing worked. I finally remembered some black and white rubber beads from bracelets that I found in a Michael’s sale bin a few years ago—each one was just a little different, and they were just the right final touch.