It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted but I was preoccupied with testing and debugging my next set of stencils to be released in September. (insert big woo hoo here, lol ) I did do some art journaling but didn't post them like I should. I've gotten lazy and been putting things on IG, so anyway, for anyone not following me on IG or FaceBook..here ya go :)

linking up with

Paint Party Friday

STILL trying to adjust to a new video editing program, but it's been a tough transition. I still prefer my old one...sigh...old dogs, new tricks, blah,blah, blah...

this week...

Wow, welcome September...it's going to be a busy month for me too, but that's OK, it keeps me on my toes and active!

1. ITAC challenge this week was Oceania and I really enjoyed putting in some research for this one and then applying what I learned.

 I'll miss these challenges when this is over.

You can read about that here if you like.

Khadi journal

2. practice

I had some extra time to practice some typography by emulating Jennifer Chan's work. I had a print left over from doing an alcohol ink/gel plate pull so I glued that into my  Khadi journal and then wrote over the top.

Khadi journal

3. Leaves

I will be the first one to admit, this is different, even for me. After drawing and water coloring in the leaves I decided to use a patterned stencil over the leaf shape. I kinda like it, looks very graphic and modern?

What do you think?

#Hahnemühle, #Cézanne

4. more leaves

You might be able to tell I love painting leaves, however, this seems to be relegated as a Fall activity. Although Fall doesn't officially begin until Sept. 22nd, we have had a week of cool days that have me yearning for it to be here.

Khadi journal

5. nature
Seems I had an "art break" for a day so I thought I'd pop in this little guy who thought he could sneak into my bag and come home with me the day of the lunar Eclipse!

6. Progressing...slowly...

Back to work on my tennis shoes...need to finish them up by the 10th!

This is the left shoe, it progresses as the story unfolds...

Dorothy singing over the rainbow, followed by the tornado, which lands on the witch, learning she is in the land of Oz, and then with the Good witch giving Dorothy the shoes...

Right foot to follow next week!

Linking up with

Paint Party Friday

Challenge 3 - Oceania!

Oceanic art or Oceanian art comprises the creative works made by the native peoples of the Pacific Islands and Australia, including areas as far apart as Hawaii and Easter Island. ... In more recent times, the people of Oceania have found a greater appreciation of their region's artistic heritage

Khadi journal

I used The Decorative Medallion Repeating Corner Stencil, designed by Gwen Lafleur to create a medallion in the middle of my page using dots like the Aboriginal art. Then used the Angel Circle stencil designed by Kate Thompson to create an Aboriginal person in the left corner.

I tried to find The Aboriginal written language and discovered this dictionary where I found the phrase written in the top of the circle which is the story that the Aborigine is telling. 

Wangga-gu, balarrin, ge-na nganung, burrhburr-ma nga-ya-nggi, wangga.
translated into
They painted me with white ochre for a corroboree, and I danced.

(corroboree is an Australian Aboriginal dance ceremony that may take the form of a sacred 
ritual or an informal gathering.)

After a lot of research, I used the symbol for meeting place in the center of my journal 

to signify a place to meet and dance.

Entering my "Meeting Place" art journal page in:

• Patterns inspired by traditional symbols (Maori tattoos, Dots/dashes of Aboriginal Arts…)👍
• Think Monochromatic black and white or think colors of the Earth.👍
• Some sort of organic or natural material(s) (earth, stone, bone, bark, wood, fibres…)
• Shapes inspired by traditional or indigenous art👍

I really enjoyed all the research into making this, hope you did too.

Om shanti

...Art as a form of meditation!

Not sure I meditate when I create art but I do talk to myself a lot, particularly as I grow older. 😛  Not sure that counts as meditation but it might be as close as I get, and I take "close to" more and more lately.

But this is how I began in my  Khadi journal...

First I began by collaging one of the Irresistible India Collage Cut-Outs on top of some paper that already had paint and stenciled patterns from the Decorative 6-Petal Flower Screen stencil by Gwen Lafleur which has a flower mandala pattern. 

I also continued the stenciling in a similar color paint as the background paper to tie in the collage material.

KHADI 100% cotton rag PAPERS are made in Karnataka, South India

I continued by adding mark making and splattering with white paint, some hand-made washi tape made out of peacock tissue paper and tape and then added some 14K gold leaf paper as an accent.

mark making and gold leaf

A happy accident occurred when a drop of water fell onto the paper showing me a way to bring out the stenciled design more like a relief. I then took some gel medium and washed over the edges in order to highlight the effect.

I then took out my bamboo pen used with India ink to draw (to the best of my ability) the symbol OM (described as the most important mantra for worship) 

Om is a mantra, or vibration, that is traditionally chanted at the beginning and end of yoga sessions. Coming from Hinduism and Yoga, the mantra is considered to have high spiritual and creative power but despite this, it is a mantra that can be recited by anyone.

...and then followed with a mantra for peace, which we desperately need these days. 

Om shanti shanti shanti

· Motifs inspired by mandalas👍

· Geometric shapes

· Tiles - ceramic, pantiles, glazed tiles, or their designs...

· Asiatic flowers, such as cherry blossom, chrysanthemum, orchids, lotus, Frangipani, lilies, hibiscus etc..

· Calligraphy or handwriting👍

· Fabric, faded or dyed👍

· Powdered pigments

Artist insomnia

So...the story goes like this...one day ( a couple of years ago ) I was trying to make a canvas based on Typography, and it was a big heaping pile of... failure. So there...that's out in the open!
 I don't even remember what the bottom letters spelled out, but it was some kind of message about love...blah,blah...

I hauled it out a couple of weeks and did an acrylic pour over it hoping to cover everything up and well,

 that turned out so bad I didn't even take a photograph of it, lol 

Yeah...there's that out in the open too.

7pm

Then last Saturday night I decided to just add paint... and basically anything else I could get my hands on. I even used a die cut flower that was on the floor under my desk...yep, slapped that puppy on and added more paint, more stenciling, and more mark marking. ( I was trying to channel Mary Beth Shaw )...

Now if you are looking at the face...well...truth be told I actually used the actual stencil itself. Yep, it was that kind of day, I glued that sucker right on the canvas.

Woman of Mystery stencil by Pam Carriker

8-ish pm
Now I've decided to start work on bringing the woman out a little, decided she can't be shy hiding in all those layers of paint! I'm thinking I need one large scribbly word next to her...must sleep on that one and see what tomorrow brings.

2am-ish
Now, I always have best intentions to wait...to sit on a piece and really think about it but sometimes I can't even sleep overnight on it and I find myself crawling out of bed to go work on it. That's what happened last night!

The next morning I always worry about seeing what I did when I "sleep paint"...that's what I call it when I get out of bed, groggy but determined to put an idea to use. After looking at the above picture I knew I had to knock back to white lines around her face, but otherwise I was very happy with how it turned out. Now to see if she sells....lol
In the meantime, I am entering this in
Paint Party Friday

"Divine Messenger" 

And some close of shots of the texture 💕my favs!

CHALLENGE 1 – EUROPE

• A face 👍
• Papers (newspaper, printed paper, rice paper…etc.) 👍
• Letters, numbers 👍
• Blue for the colour of the European Union, Union Jack... 👍
• Ribbon, twine, string or lace…
• Textures – take inspiration from history from ancient civilizations to the fall of the Berlin Wall 👍
• Something both vintage and modern

StencilGirl & Imagine blog hop

June Pfaff Daley, one of the StencilGirl designers asked if we could make an ATC to trade with her kids at art camp. Of course I wanted to!! I am thrilled anytime I get to participate with children so I made her 4 ATCs and I also made myself an art journal page to go along with the ATCs I made to commemorate the experience.

Products used:

StencilGirl stencils:
LittleEddy Rose Stencil by MaryBeth Shaw
Angel Circle Stencil by Kate Thompson

TurkishWedged Stones by Daniella Woolf

WheelSpokes Set #2 by  Andrew Borloz

Decorative 6-Petal Flower Screen by Gwen Lafleur

January Stencil club small stencil by MaryBeth Shaw

Imagine® Products I used:
Craft Mat
Brushstix
Multi-Purpose Squeegee

I love the Brushtix for stenciling and used them recently (3 different ways!!) when I made my ATC booklet. I made a video of the booklet itself and you can see it HERE.


I made a short slide show/video of my process just to make it easier for you to see rather than posting all the pictures :)

 Hope you enjoy watching it!

AND I made a video of me cleaning my craft mat...lol.
...yes, you read that correctly 😉
Have you ever seen someone so excited to clean a mat off?
You have now, 😜

GIVEAWAY

One lucky winner will receive both a $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products
AND a $25 Gift Certificate to Imagine Crafts!

Visit the fabulous designers from both teams and comment for your
chance to win!

The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN!
(One comment per blog please.)

You have until Sunday, July 23rd at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.

Winner will be announced on
StencilGirl's Facebook page and Imagine’s Facebook page

on Monday, July 24th.

July 20 

Sandee Setliff ←ME!

Karen Gaunt

Cindy Gilstrap

Tina Walker

Neva Cole

Kyriakos Pachadiroglou

Renee Zarate

Elina Stromberg

Website: www.stencilgirlproducts.com
Blog: www.stencilgirltalk.com
Email: mary@stencilgirlproducts.com

February #ARTifact - Bearfootin' Bear

artifact an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest.

Cultural artifact, anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users.

I am joining in on Seth Apter's #ARTifacts. It's a collaborative project for 2017 documenting adventures in art and since I have so much going on right now I figure this will be a great year to record. We are suppose to make a physical artist book to hold these memories so I am going to make a toilet paper cardboard tube booklet with removable tags.

This is my first time making one of these tube booklets and I was surprised how small it is... ( not sure why ) lol

StencilGirl stencils:

Decorative Filigree Ornament stencil, designed by Gwen Lafleur

Planner Spiral Notes 4 stencil by Mary Beth Shaw

ColourArte paint:

Twinkling H20's Shimmering Mica watercolors

I have  am learning that it is harder to use a manual typewriter than I remember! Technology has once again spoiled me but I still love using it. The bottom portion of the tag is a bit messed up and I'll have to tape the tag to a sheet of paper next time instead of just sticking the tag into the platen.

( the cylindrical roller in a typewriter against which the paper is held )

I had to look that up :)

I have a little catching up to do, making the cover and making one for January but I think I'll be able to catch up quickly.

Visit HERE to see what everyone made for February, it's quite interesting :)