Blog Hop Featuring Michelle Ward's All New StencilGirl Designs

Today's blog hop is really exciting...the creative team at StencilGirl is creating with brand new stencil designs by Michelle Ward.  These stencils are just being made available to you for the first time today and we've been asked to keep them a secret until today's reveal!

Ta da!  Here they are...you can click on the images for links if you want to start shopping right now...(I'm thinking all 4 of them would work so well together in some surface design for art quilting!), but... 

maybe you'd like to see how I used 'RIPPLES' first (that's the second one in the top row, with the wonderful concentric circles).

I started with a piece of rust dyed fabric that I made several months ago and I traced the entire stencil onto the fabric using pencil. I often 'take stencils apart' and only use bits here and there in my design, but for what I'm planning Michelle's composition is perfect just as it is!

I outlined the pencil lines using three strands of blue DMC floss and a simple running stitch.  A finer variegated taupe/blue thread was used to outline the background areas in the same manner. 

I filled the background areas using French knots and seed stitches. I switched back to the DMC, this time using a single strand and began filling the circles in with straight stitches. A single strand of a rust coloured floss was used to add additional stitches in the areas between the 'rings'. 

Here are a couple of close ups of the stitching:

  

 

I'll back on Wednesday to show you how I used this little six inch piece of stitching. Until then, enjoy the rest of the hop!

Great news...StencilGirl has a giveaway! 

All comments left on the hop are eligible for the giveaway so 

the more blogs you comment on, the more chances you will have to win. 

Have fun and GOOD LUCK!

The giveaway will close on Friday, January 31th at 11:59PM Central Time. 

Please note:  I have discovered that blogger will only allow/show 200 comments, including my relpies so as much as I love to leave personal thank yous to each of you, I have stopped replying to make sure your comment shows up and therefore gets entered in the draw.  Please know I appreciate all of your thoughtful words!

Blog Hop Order

StencilGirl Talk

Michelle Ward

Mary Beth Shaw

Linda Kittmer-You are here!

Julie Snidle - Hop to see Julie next please...

Judy Shea

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Carolyn Dube

Mary C. Nasser

Janet Joehlin

Kirsten Reed

Maria McGuire

A Blog Hop Featuring Pam Carriker's Stencil...

For today's StencilGirl Blog Hop, I'm working with Pam Carriker's "Complementary" stencil. My first thought was to do a journal page, but as I started thinking about what I wanted to do with the stencil, whimsical practicality took me in a different direction!  The journal was set aside and instead I pulled out a 10" x 12" canvas.

I used matte medium, a palette knife, and a few old dictionary pages to create a background layer.  I then pulled out the stencil and some Golden Fibre Paste and I covered the stencil with a good thick layer.

When I lifted the stencil, I was left with a lovely raised image of the design.  Make sure you wash your stencil right away so the fibre paste doesn't have time to dry on it!

The next step, after the fibre paste has dried, is to get out the paints.  I applied a few different colours in random areas, and then did a bit of stamping with the cardboard insert from this box of Christmas tree bulbs.

It didn't work as well as I had hoped but I did get some of the diamond shapes I was imagining.

I wanted more interest in the background, so I used Michelle Ward's "Damask 4" stencil as well as a few clock stamps.

So far so good, but I don't like that sepia colour.  I put Pam's stencil back over top of the raised fibre paste area so I could paint just that area, without having to be to careful about going onto the background.

I added several layers of paint, stippling it on to allow colours underneath to still show through a little until I was happy with the colour.

I then added some more stamping, and some numbers and the piece was starting to really take shape.

I added a little hand written text, on torn dictionary pages so they'd stand out from the background.  Such an important message in these busy times when it seems we are being pulled in so many different directions all at once!

 I auditioned the remaining numbers in a smaller size, decided I liked them so I went ahead and drew them onto the canvas using a Copic marker.

And then I added the clock works (I got mine from Lee Valley)...a clock for my studio!

I hope you've enjoyed this stop on the hop.  Remember, if you visit all of the blogs, and leave comments at each, you increase your chance to win in the giveaway!  Good luck!

StencilGirl Talk

Pam Carriker

Carolyn Dube

Janet Joehlin

Corrine Gilman

Linda Kittmer-You are here.

Leslie Tucker Jenison-Your next stop on the hop!

Maria McGuire