I AM... StencilGirl® Affirmation/Tarot Deck Collaborative

Hello friends! It's a new week and I am excited for you to join me today for the reveal of a new StencilGirl® collaborative project, the "StencilGirl® Affirmation and Tarot Card Collaboration"... a project in which we were challenged to create an inspiration/tarot deck of cards using StencilGirl® Stencils.

This project is a bit different... one that is more reflective and introspective. For a while now I have been investing in refilling my creative well by following The Artist's Way and the accompanying work with a group of fellow creatives in an accountability cluster.

A bit about the process: For the cards I started out with a base black metallic cardstock that I stenciled with 2-3 layers of color using different Plaid FolkArt® Color Shift Acrylics. I have previously swatched all the colors on white, black and chipboard surfaces to see the resulting color magic. If you have these, they are really fun and make for some pretty cool unexpected effects.

On the backside I layered over the first layer with a combination of 3-4 colors of my favorite Ranger Distress Acrylic paint daubers, creating an ombre on my Gel-Press plate to stencil onto. The backgrounds are a result of combining the rubbed stencil and papers created from pulling the leftover after removing stencil. Nothing goes to waste! I mounted fronts to backs using spray adhesive and cut sheets down to create cards (cards are sizes to fit into a recycled altoid tin).

I also upcycled an altoid mint tin as a coordinating home for these cards on my desk.

I left adding the inscriptions to the end. I set out stenciling in letters with a liquid silver pen.

As luck would have it... the ink bled like crazy under the stencil.

Interestingly, this mess up actually looks pretty neat with how distressed it looks.

So I carried on... intentionally doing this on all of them.

I think this may have been kismet... a way of just enjoying the process, regardless the twists and turns.

This forced me to work slowly, adding many layers of marker and pen to fill in and make the letters stand out on the cards.

This project turned out to be very personal and emotional one. This project served as several of my artists' dates and was a free time to just "BE" and let each session evolve without any pressures to make an instructional.

Here are all of my cards before adding stenciled text inscriptions. The colored stencil background overlayed with a black stencil design.

I am sharing the first three of inscriptions here as they were part of the StencilGirl® stencil I used and started me off on a journey of what the rest should/would say.

Front and back side-by-side (sorry the scanner doesn't pick up the shimmer and shine of the metallic paint and pens).

"i am enough"

"i am me"

"i am brave"

All of the fronts are the same. To finish off, I created a chipboard template with a corner rounding punch to add a silver outline.

StencilGirl® Stencils Used on Front/Back of 18 cards:

Kerr L856 - ATC Mixup Stencil

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-ATC-Mixup-Cat-Kerr-p/l856.htm

Evans L654 - ATC Mixup Evans Stencil

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-ATC-Mixup-Evans-Jennifer-Evans-p/l654.htm

Kalbach L319 - Art Deco Wallpaper Stencil

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-art-deco-paris-nathalie-kablach-p/l319.htm

StencilGirl® Stencils Used on Container Lid:

Shaw S730 - Brilliant Star Stencil

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Brilliant-Star-Mary-Beth-Shaw-p/s730.htm

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I hope you enjoyed this project. CLICK HERE to jump over to see the other cards made for the StencilGirl® Affirmation and Tarot Card Collaboration. 

Thanks for dropping by! Sb

Fantastic Foiling with Ann Butler Designs + Designer Crafts Connection!

   

Greetings everyone -- hoping everyone is having a SPARKLY day! The Designer Crafts Connection is having fantastic fun with Ann Butler Designs and heat transferrable foils... and I am totally addicted! 

CLICK HERE to hop on over to learn more about these fabulous products!

I was provided this sampler pack of 6 Ann Butler Designs Floral Patterned Papers with 6 solid toner papers and 6 sheets of foils and an assortment of sentiments for which to create with. 

Everything is so beautiful... one of the foils is looks like clouds!

I'll be using that one on another project.

I need a gift box for this weekend and I have the perfect item to upcycle. This gourmet tea came was given to me as a Christmas gift and the box is a lovely quilted embossed paper with tags that have gold foil accents. 

I'm going to use the Ann Butler Designs floral patterned paper foiled in gold to cover up the product labels and use this for a beautiful silk scarf. I will also foil the "thinking of you" sentiment in the green foil to serve as a gift tag.

I was so excited to be able to use my Minc machine which has been sitting on the shelf unused since I got it about 5 years ago (totally forgot I even had it). WOW! I have been missing out! I also tested out foil transfer process using my Cricut mini iron which worked also (though you do need to test to figure out process with your materials first). I'm using my Minc on setting 3.

With gold foil layered on top of floral vine patterned paper placed inside of transfer folder made of copy paper, I sent it through the Minc. I repeated twice for good measure since I'm new to this process and machine.

Ready for the magic!

The black vine design is now GOLD!

A close-up! So luxurious and easy to do! Having worked in the printing industry for over 30 years - this is an expensive, labour intensive process that is not done this way. 

I am in love and it gets BETTER! The waste is usable too! Place the remaining gold foil waste on top of the solid black toner cardstock and run it through the Minc... you get another piece for another project! YIPPEE!

Here are the papers I foiled and the reverse. Stay tuned... I have another project in the works for the blue versions.

**A TIP** I gently cut the foil with my mini guillotine cutter. The foil is really delicate -- next time I will just use scissors as it nearly tore in the process.

I prepared and sent these two sentiments together through my Minc.

The hardest part is measuring and back-trimming the pieces to fit within the existing gold-foil line on the packaging. 

I made each of the sections slightly larger and trimmed off a sliver at a time to get it just right.

I didn't need to do this, but I am all about the tiny details. I used a Gelly Roll metallic pen to touch-up about a 1/2" section of the original gold foil line that was missing from storing tasty teas. Voila!

Now with all my pieces cut, its time for the FUN part... embellishing!

I add glue and gently press into place.

Then repeat with the other sides.

Repeated the steps to mat the sentiment onto a piece of DCWV green glitter cardstock.

Add a few REMOVABLE Glue Dots® to the matted sentiment...

And apply to the front of the box. Smart of me to use removable adhesive -- I put the sentiment on the wrong side of the box LOL! 

Recipient can remove easily and use box again.

Save those gorgeous scraps! There's plenty of pieces left to use on a card.

Look at that! A perfect match. Nobody will ever know that this is a recycled tea box.

 

A Recycled Gift Box Redux

This gift is ready to grab and go! What pretty packaging do you have waiting to upcycle. 

These fabulous papers embellished with heat transferrable foils are quick, easy and luxurious!

CLICK HERE to jump over to the beginning of the Ann Butler Designs Foil Bloghop at the Designer Crafts Connection blog to view more inspiration and projects using heat transfer foils. 

See all of Ann Butlers Designs

Products on her Website HERE

Thanks so much for visiting! Sb :)

** This is a sponsored post. Ann Butler Designs provided paper products for use in this project in exchange for my creative ideas, views and opinions. My ideas and opinions are my own.