Lemurian Garden Swirls

Check out what I just created with my own Lemurian Garden stencils! And guess what? All the StencilGirl® stencils are on sale from November 29-December 1...including mine! Why not stock up?

I made a short and sweet video with all the photos I took...it's just under one minute long, and there's even music...enjoy! I also have detailed steps below on how the painting developed from a junky canvas that was stuffed in a closet to a swirly delight.

Here's how I made this painting:

I started with a canvas board that hadn't quite worked out.  I peeled paint skins off the front and back of my Teflon art mat and used some matte medium to glue it on. 

The  tan Teflon mat protects your work surface from spills and splashes, and is a good place to mix colors. Instead of washing them off and throwing away the dried paint, I peel it off and glue it into journals or onto canvas to add background interest.

 

After peeling and gluing a bunch of peeled paint,  I ended up with a confetti look, and didn't quite know what to do next, so I shoved it in the back of my shelf and forgot about it.

Using matte medium as a glue, paint skins were adhered to a canvas board, which created a textured, confetti effect.

The other day I was cleaning and sorting and rediscovered the canvas. I thought "What would happen if I tried my stencils on top?"  I knew that with all the texture I would have trouble painting the surface, so I turned to embossing powder.

I had recently used my Lemurian Leaf stencil with embossing powder over some commercial scrapbook paper for the cover of a handmade journal and liked the results.  I used up old, ugly scrapbook paper and ugly painted deli paper to make the inside pages of journal. I ran a machine stitch down a pile of the paper, folded it in half, and viola, I had a small journal.

This is the cover of my handmade journal that inspired the painting.

Here's a few steps on how the painting developed:

Once all the embossing was done, I added dabs of paint with pastel Paper Artsy paint to add visual interest.

As a final touch, I added squiggly lines with Nuvo drops and dimensional fabric paint.

I hope this inspires you to give stencils a try! And there's no better time to order some than now, during StencilGirl's biggest sale of the year.