Summer of Love Envelopes and Paper Doll

The sweet little motifs in the March 2019 StencilClub designs by Ann Butler evoked images of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and propelled me back to my younger years. I remembered the special dresses and hats my mother made for me to wear on Easter, and the outfits that, later on, I made for myself to wear to school, dances, proms, and even my graduation. The stencils also reminded me that my first calling, as an artist, was fabric design. Back in the 1980s I worked as a print stylist for a fabric manufacturer in NYC's famous Garment Center. Ann's stencils reminded me of some of our patterns, which were fondly called "dumb florals" or "bread and butter" designs because they were so popular and saleable.

I happily  mixed up some '70s-inspired pastels with my acrylics and got busy making some textiley designs.

Painted and stenciled deli paper

First, I painted sheets of deli paper with the pastel colors. Once dry, I started stenciling randomly with the new set.

I had a big supply of clear mailing sleeves leftover from a recent mail art exchange, so decided to use the painted deli paper to make envelopes, and sized them to fit.

Templates for the envelope and card

The gold circles are washi tape. I miscalculated the shape of one of the flaps, and, with washi tape, added extra paper to my template so it would overlap properly.

 

First, with a piece of heavy watercolor paper, I made a card template slightly smaller than the sleeve. Next, I folded, measured, and cut some paper to make an envelope template. I traced around the envelope template to create the shape of the envelope on each of the five painted and stamped sheets of deli paper.

Painted and stenciled deli paper, cut and ready to fold

Pale blue embossing powder was sprinkled over the floral image, which was made by stamping VersaMark through a stencil, and on to the painted envelope

The painted and stenciled unglued envelope, ready to assemble.

On the front bottom and on the back flap, decorative edging was applied with VersaMark and gold embossing powder.

I added some magic with more stenciling, but this time, instead of paint, I used a VersaMark stamp pad and embossing powder. In addition to the March 2019 club set, I used the April 2013 Stitchery set, designed by Stencil Girl founder Mary Beth Shaw. The Stitchery set fit perfectly with my Summer of Love theme.

 

Five finished handmade deli paper envelopes.

I was really happy with the set of envelopes, but I had quite a few scraps left. Rather than stuffing them in my scrap box for later use, I decided to make one of my favorite "go to" things: a paper doll.

Scraps of painted deli paper were glued to heavy watercolor paper, then cut to create the doll.

Using a template, intentionally mismatched doll parts were cut for the body and limbs.

A dark edge was added by running a mini dauber and sepia Archival Ink along the edges.

Wanting to keep the same Summer of Love theme going, I searched for just the right face to evoke the era. I found a face in an ad that reminded me of Julie from The Mod Squad, a show that was the epitome of cool in its day. I carefully glued the face to some heavy watercolor paper, cut it out, and ran the sepia mini dauber around the edges.

I fashioned a Woodstock-worthy floral crown from a little piece of pink scalloped edging and added some tiny satin rosettes. Some "granny boots" from The Graphics Fairy completed her hippie look. Still, something was missing...wings!

Using a butterfly stencil from Gwen Lafluer, I applied VersaMark onto black paper, then sprinkled gold embossing powder, and zapped it with my heat gun. The final touch was adding pink circles at the edges of the wings, which I punched out from the deli paper leftover scraps.

The finished Summer of Love doll, atop a pile of matching envelopes.

Doesn't this just make you want to go home, pull out the old Simplicity patterns, play the Mamas and Papas, and watch reruns of The Mod Squad? Or at least attend the next Coachella festival?

Flower Power Box

 

About a year ago, I developed a love for painting, stamping and stenciling on deli paper when I took a course with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at the Ink Pad in New York City. Deli paper is thin, inexpensive, strong, and layers beautifully. It also dries amazingly fast.

A mixture of acrylic paint and molding paste worked great when I printed the Artistcellar Sacred Geometry 2 stencils on both heavy watercolor paper and lightweight deli paper. My particular favorite of the new stencil set is the Seed of Life stencil. I made print after print with my new stencils in my favorite shades of aqua, ended up with a big pile of beautiful geometric designs, and then asked myself: “What the heck are you going to do with these prints now?”

Seed of Life stencil, printed on deli paper with acrylic paint and molding paste

 The answer came to me late that night as I was lying in bed—the Seed of Life medallions looked like the geometric flowers that were so popular in the late 60s and early 70s! Songs about going to San Francisco and wearing a flower in my hair, and flower children in the park on a rainy day ran through my head. I knew just what to do, and could hardly wait for morning to get back to my art table.

Part of the printed Seed of Life stencil was cut away
to create a flower shape

As I sipped my morning coffee, I cut away parts of the round stencil prints to turn them into flowers, still humming the Summer of Love songs. I decided to use the flowers to beautify an old, beat-up shoe box that had been home to my marker collection.

I love newsprint as a background, so I grabbed my husband’s New York Times (after he read it of course!) and adhered the newsprint to the box top with matte medium. I gave the whole box a coat of white gesso and mended a few tears on the box corners before I started.

Shoebox top covered with newsprint

Once it was dryish, I auditioned the flower heads on the shoebox top until I got an arrangement that I liked, then used a UHU gluestick to secure them. I loved the way the newsprint showed through the unpainted sections of the flowers. For the sides, instead of covering the whole thing with newsprint, I kept the white background of the box and glued torn horizontal strips of newsprint to create a stripe, and then glued a flower on each side. Extra newsprint may have made the bottom just a little too thick, and the box top might not have fit the box bottom quite right.

I looked at the newsprint and flower covered box and it occurred to me that something was missing. The box bottom and box top still didn't quite say Flower Power. It looked a little dull. A lightbulb went off in my head. That missing "something" was music. I couldn’t make the box sing or play, but I could add song lyrics. So, I pulled out my mini alphabet stamps and my black archival ink, and let the song lyrics flow as I hummed the tunes and stamped the words that I remembered.

I added Artistcellar pocket stencil inspirational words on three sides of the box using the same pale aqua acrylic/molding paste blend, and a large flower head to the fourth side.

I intentionally used a mix of alphabet font styles and
also mixed upper and lower case to make the box more whimsical.

The finished Flower Power box top

Short side of the box, with lyrics from "Sunshine Superman"



Finished box side

 Now my markers have a new, happy home...so much better than a beat-up old shoebox!