Sparkling City Lights... a StencilGirl® Pop-Up Extravaganza

Disclosure: This post contains my amazon affiliate link for a book I am referencing in this post. This means that–at no extra cost to you, I can make a commission on a purchase you make if you use my link.

Hello Friends! It's a new year and January is always a whirlwind. Today I am proud to be part of a special COLLABORATIVE project hosted by Tina Walker and StencilGirl®... a StencilGirl Pop-Up Extravaganza! CLICK HERE to POP on over and be inspired to make your stencil art POP off the page!

I am a city girl from Chicago who lives in SoFL and I love my hometown skyline at night. So for this pop-up project, I stenciled a layered and mirrored skyline onto two base papers painted with an ombre of three colors of ColorShift paints, using only 2 stencils: S305 Apter, Text and Texture Transform and ATC Mix-Up Borloz L655.

After creating the skyline by repeating the stencil across my papers, I added highlights, water reflections and windows details using a couple Sakura Gelly Glaze pens.

 I traced this textural pattern over the row of buildings which brought the night sky to life!

A larger look...

I have quite a collection of books on bookmaking and folded paper techniques and for this artwork I selected a technique that creates a pop-up dueling accordion pullout from the book, "Pockets, Pullouts and Hiding Places".

 

"Pockets, Pullouts and Hiding Places"
Amazon affiliate link

For added contrast between the two layers, I trimmed one skyline down around the buildings before scoring, folding and assembling.

Sparkling City Lights

To frame this pop-up I have nestled inside of a notched cut-out accordian of navy blue cardstock. When closed and folded flat this mini will fit into an A2 envelope -- how fun is that?! Enjoy these details.

StencilGirl® stencils used: ATC Mix-Up by Andrew Borloz and Text and Texture Transform stencil by Seth Apter.

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Thanks for dropping by! I hope you are inspired add a POP of dimension to your handmade books and cards using StencilGirl® stencils! Have a creative day :) Sb

We're all #Cre8time Mad Here... Designer Crafts Connection Gel Press® Bloghop

Hello everyone! Today the Designer Crafts Connection takes on a new challenge featuring monoprinted creations using the Gel Press® reusable gel printing plate. These are easy to use and so much fun for art enthusiasts of all ages.

For this challenge, Gel Press® provided each of the Designer Craft Connection designers with one of the Gel Press reusable gel printing plates. I have tried other variations at workshops, though I haven't tried out the Gel Press. I really love the 5" x 7" size as it's perfect for my smaller size art journal pages.

Along with the Gel Press® plate, I gathered some old book pages, letter and pattern stencils, punchinella, some texture plates made from Amazing Mold Rubber, a prepared cast resin embroidery hoop, Speedball brayer, Mod Podge, a few Ranger Distress Paints and Golden Green Gold fluid acrylic paint. I also need a pencil, scissors, Diamond Glaze, and a couple markers. The resin pumpkins are a separate project, though I need to paint up enough papers for collaging them in the same color scheme.

I set out the Gel Press® plate onto a cutting mat from the Dollar Tree {these work great for a protective work surface}. The Gel Press® plate sticks itself to the surface and stays put while you are moving your paint around with a brayer. I apply some Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint to the plate. I like using the Distress Paints for monoprinting as they are a little bit wetter than regular acrylics which allows me a little more time to work with while creating patterns in the wet paint.

I spread out the color evenly with my brayer then pressed my mold rubber texture plate into the wet paint. I pressed evenly across the plate then peeled back to reveal this beautiful circular pattern taken from a vintage decorative plate. I pressed the paper onto the Gel Plate® to transfer my first painted layer. I repeated this several times to make five sheets of paper that will all be similar when I'm done.

The second layer from the Gel Press® will be Mermaid Lagoon Distress Paint with this awesome punchinella design that I got from Gauche Alchemy. It gives a pattern that is a cross between a floral and an animal print. I am really loving how easy this is and how this is coming along! 

Of course you know I have to have purple... the third layer is Wilted Violet Distress Paint combined with a Tim Holtz mini Damask Stencil {THMST004 mini stencil set 4}. 

With the smaller size of this stencil, I needed to work quickly. I pressed the stencil onto the painted Gel Press® then rubbed a scrap section of paper to remove paint in the negative areas. I removed the stencil, then repeated two more times to completely cover the plate with the damask pattern.

This is the result of the third pull. The colors and variations of layers and texture are so interesting... and my recycled book pages are totally transformed into beautiful art. In about a half an hour, I have 5 finished matching patterns and a whole bunch of starters as a result of cleaning off brayer and leftover paint on the plate and stencils.

I select one of the finished Gel Press® printed papers and prepared my resin frame for mounting to this custom word art. FIRST I need to add some stenciled and hand written words... it's much easier to do this before mounting the frame.

I place the frame over the section of paper I want to use and I trace around the inside and outside edges of the frame with a pencil. This is so I can see where I need to center the lettering going forward.

Since I'm combining my hand writing with stencils - I go ahead and plan it out in pencil on a scrap of paper first. This is just for my piece of mind. For "embrace" I used a Tim Holtz ths011 Schoolhouse layering stencil and for "your" a generic lettering stencil from the art supply aisle at Michaels.

I traced the letters with a Black Sakura Pigma™ FB pen. The nib is a small size brush tip and it fit perfectly through the voids of the stencils. I added my freehand "crazy" then went back building up and filling in the letters with the pen. I also added a little doodling and flourishes. I blended out a bit of Seedless Preserves Distress marker in from the edges to add interest. I cut the circle out following the traced line of the outer edge of the frame.

I wouldn't have normally painted the backside of this resin piece - though I had a bit of a paint craftastrophe with the purple dauber top and had paint all over my hands so I rubbed some off on the frame, some paper and to my resin pumpkins. I ran a line of Diamond Glaze around the edge to adhere to my lovely word art.

I press down gently to adhere edges and let dry for a few minutes. Then I go and back trim any excess with scissors. I think I will add a sheet of self-adhesive magnet to the backside to finish this off so I can also hang it on my fridge.

I tied off a section of hand-dyed sari ribbon. BEA-U-TIFUL!!!

I love how the Amazing Mold Rubber picked up every tiny detail of woodgrain from the vintage embroidery hoop casting.

Embrace Your Crazy!

CLICK HERE to jump over to the beginning of the Gel Press® Bloghop at the Designer Crafts Connection blog and find more ideas of what to do with a gel printing plate!

To learn more about Gel Press®

visit http://www.gelpress.com/

For even more ideas also check out the Gel Press Facebook page!

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Thanks so much for visiting! For more +++++ inspiration visit the Designer Crafts Connection "Gel Press®" bloghop HERE. Sb :)

** This is a sponsored post. Gel Press® has provided a Gel Press® reusable gel printing plate in exchange for my creative ideas, views and opinions. My ideas and opinions are my own.

#Cre8time Paint Play brings #MixedMedia Variety...

Join me today for another installment of my "Thoughtful Abstractions" column at Unruly PaperArts. The theme for April is Gelli® Plates and Monoprinting... focusing on the mixed-media painting technique that virtually ANYONE can do – anywhere! This is one of my favorite techniques and is a source of Cre8time inspiration.

CLICK HERE to jump over to Unruly Paper Arts to read my latest column that includes a monoprinting tutorial.

Monoprints are so versatile and can be a starter for all sorts of projects. Here are a few examples of projects I've made using different techniques.

My "Faux Van Gogh" stamped collage is a fusion of three layers: the base a painted sheet of white cardstock; a monoprint created with Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic paints {Cadmium Orange Hue and Cerulean Blue} and deli paper on a Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate {yes, I do actually own one}; and a stamped image on deli paper. This is a fun way to use your monoprints. This blue and orange was acutally a clean-up sheet that I was rolling my paint filled brayer on. CLICK HERE to view tutorial on how I created this.

How about using a monoprint to découpage onto a dimensional project? Oh yes! This made painting so quick and easy and my whimsical steampunk pinewood derby car came to life in minutes. CLICK HERE to see the entire project.

Round monoprinting plates are the lastest craze and it dawned on me that I also have loads of round shapes lying around, too! A whole pile of them!!! Several of my mold rubber molds sitting in pretty little stacks like crafty pancakes.

First I applied some colors to one of my rectangular plates with a brayer, then pressed my nut and bolt mold into the paint – this leaves a beautiful circle with hexagons in the negative space. Then I can stamp off the color from the MOLD onto another print or blank paper. Gorgeous!!! CLICK HERE to view more variations of applying color.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you are inspired to try some painterly play during your Cre8time! Have a wonderful Sunday. :) Sb

Winding Things Up for Inspiration at the #Altered Pinewood Derby!

Hello everyone! Today I'm sharing a special little project that was totally just for fun... between friends - and I'm totally in love with this creation!

A while back, Tina Walker announced she was hosting a Pine Wood Derby Challenge and gathered some creative friends to join in the fun. The idea was to all start with the same blank Pine Wood Derby car, and alter it however we were inspired and everyone's resulting cars are so amazing!

This is the blank Pinewood Derby kit we all started with... 

A wedge of wood, four wheels and four nails for axles... so full of potential!

I gathered a bunch of items from my stash of embellishments, leftovers from other projects, watch parts, recycled bits and found objects to alter my dream racer. The base of my car is collaged with a monoprinted deli paper, one of many that I made in a Nathalie Kalbach workshop a few months back.

I used Mod Podge to collage it to the car, wrapping around like a present. I love how it blends from black, to blue to purple - with all the painterly effects and none of the mess, so I can get to embellishing all the faster!

I had loads of potential items to junque up my car... but once I mounted the SIMPLIFY tag on the back bumper as license plate... my muse waived the flag "less is more". Two resin cast bolt caps are the lights flanking the simplify plate. An assortment of embellishments and watch parts clustered into a gear mechanism formation to meet up to the horizontal gears on top.

This was so fun to create. I'm quite pleased with my whimsical racer topped with a vintage winder key... enjoy all the details!

The rims of the wheels are capped off with recycled watch parts.

The front fender is half of a hinge clasp from a cigar box accented with mini adhesive pearls and a recycled watch gear cluster for hood ornament.

The large gears holding the winder are an assortment of recycled gears from adhesive runners, metal craft gears, and found recycled rusty metal pieces all stacked and fitted together. I can acutally spin and turn these around... too FUN!!!

This section is one piece I knew right off the bat would be the feature... this recycled mini square watch face with a leftover stamped eye inside; mounted on top of a partially altered mah jong tile received in a goodie box from a creative friend long ago.

A section of chain that was in with my stash of recycled watch bits and an "INSPIRE" tops off this car. My vintage key came with this purple string tied to it... I left it as it is my tiny scarf tied for good luck!

Thanks for dropping by! Please click on the boxes below to jump over and see the other fantastic creations for the Altered Pinewood Derby. If you are inspired to create your own, please leave me a comment and share your link for us to see - we would totally love it! Have a fabulously creative day! Sb  :)

An InLinkz Link-up