Blog Hop - Mary Beth Shaw's Book: Stencil Girl

The inspiration for this piece came from Mary Beth Shaw's book, Stencil Girl (and when you buy the book, you get an exclusive stencil/bookmark with it!). Mary Beth uses paper for a wonderful paper batik 'quilt', but since I have other plans for the finished fabric I have used cotton muslin instead of paper.

Since it was a cool day and we needed a little fire to warm up the cottage, I melted my wax on top of the wood stove.









After melting the wax, I kept it at temperature using an electric melting pot while I worked on the kitchen counter.  I layed the stencils over the fabric and applied the wax with a brush. I used soya wax since it was all I had on hand, but I wasn't thrilled with the results. If I do this again I'll go back to a combination of bee's wax and paraffin. I've used this combination for batik before with good results.

Once the wax was appied I used these liquid dyes in little misters to apply the colour.








This image shows how the soya wax let some of the colour through.  Not quite what I was going for, but the end result is pleasing non the less.

The pieces were put into little ziploc bags and left over night.

 The pieces were then hung to dry outside on the line.



Unfortunately, when they were rinsed the colour became a little more pastel than I was counting on.  Oh well, they're still lovely bright colours.  These next images show the quilting that was done, inspired by the stencil patterns.

 And these images show a few of the stencils that were used. Some of the pieces didn't turn out as well, so the original stencilled image was lost.

Stencils used:

Buildings Stencil by Carol Dube 
Gears Stencil by Mary Beth Shaw
Greek Key Stencil by Mary Beth Shaw
Dots and Dashes Stencil by Jessica Sporn
Trees Stencil by Mary Beth Shaw
Pods Stencil by Jane LaFazio

My plan for this wonderful piece of quilted fabric is to make myself a carry all puppy 'diaper' bag for all the things I need to have with me for my Future Dog Guide foster puppies. I'm still designing the bag, complete with lots of pockets inside for maximum organization.  I'll post a picture of the finished bag when it's done.  Until then, thanks for visiting and joining in another fabulous StencilGirl blog hop! Please make sure you visit all of the other blogs on this wonderful week long hop!

Giveaway: 

One lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive Stencil Girl the book with exclusive stencil bookmark and (3) 6" x 5" stencils designed by Mary Beth Shaw. 

All comments left on all of the blogs will be entered into the draw.  
Giveaway will close: Sunday, September 21st @ 11:59PM Central Time

Good Luck!

Hop Stops:

StencilGirl Talk

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Linda Kittmer - you are here!

If you missed the first few days of this week long blog hop go here to find the start.

Didn't win the giveaway...buy this incredible book here

Stencil Girl Week Long Blog Hop...

I'm excited to be participating in another fun, week long blog hop, featuring Mary Beth Shaw's inspiring book called Stencil Girl. My day isn't until Thursday, but I thought you might like to get in on the fun today.  Start by going to StencilGirl Talk and then you can follow the links from there.

One lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive Stencil Girl the book with exclusive stencil bookmark and (3) 6" x 5" stencils designed by Mary Beth Shaw. 

All comments left on all of the blogs 

will be entered into the draw.  

Giveaway will close: Sunday, 

September 21st @ 11:59PM Central Time

See you on Thursday!

Focus on Texture...

Fibre Content is now open (Sept. 9-16) and today I was acting as docent for the afternoon. While I was wandering around the gallery, I was so enthralled with the incredible texture in the art! I took some close-up detail shots of many of the pieces to share these fabulous snippets of texture.

I do hope you are able to go and see the show in in person!

Fibre Content Opens Tomorrow!

It's finally here! Yesterday I was at the gallery helping to hang the show, and I'm so excited with the outstanding quality of the work!

I thought I'd give you a bit of a behind the scenes sneak peak...(scan down below the poster)

It's amazing how many people it takes to hang a large show like this!  Yoshi was with me, as always, and she was an excellent supervisor!



From blank walls...

 

 

 

   

Yoshi found that the job of supervising was exhausting yesterday!

We're back at it today, hanging the remaining work, adding the labels to the walls and tidying up to get ready for the opening tomorrow.

I do hope you can make it to see the show. You won't regret it!

A Little Stitching and a Wedding Cake...

I have not been very productive this summer with regards to my art, but inspite of the often fall like weather, we've been keeping busy and enjoying a lot of family and friends at the cottage.

I have managed a little more stitching on this piece, which will eventually become part of a larger art quilt with a literary theme.











In addition to this and a bit of art journalling as seen in the blog hop posts, I've been busy decorating cupcakes (a total of about 230) for a couple of 50th anniversary parties and a wedding.

On short notice, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I also ended up making a wedding cake for the wedding so they'd have something for the official cake cutting photos, etc.

  

Blog Hop - VIVA LasVegaStamps and StencilGirl

I'm excited to be playing along in another StencilGirl blog hop, this time with VIVA Las VegaStamps.

Although my summer studio is confined to a tiny table on the deck and a small bin of supplies with which to work, it has a stunningly beautiful view and a lovely breeze off the lake!  In addition, with gates at both ends of the deck, it acts as a giant playpen to contain Yoshi, my Dog Guide Foster Puppy so that I can work without worrying about her getting into trouble!  She's even got a little wading pool to play in. LOL

I chose to work with VIVA Las VegaStamps Plate O' Rubber #1399 (Mary Vogel Lozinak's design) and Mary Beth Shaw's Gears Stencil.

I started by randomly putting paint down on my page using blue, orange, black and a bit of green.

Then, using a semi-dry brush technique and an antique white, I applied paint using a small brush and the Gears stencil.

I love how this worked...not as heavy as if I had filled in the entire stencil with paint, but still giving me all of the wonderful detail of Gears. I don't usually use the entire stencil on the page, but in this case it was exactly the background I was going for!

I tore a couple of strips of marbled dyed paper I had in my stash, tearing from the front to achieve that bit of a white border along the edge.  Those were adhered to the page using matte medium.

I stamped some of the stamp images onto deli paper, using dark brown ink.  I then tore them out, added them to dictionary paper using matte medium and an old credit card, and when they were dry I tore them out leaving a bit of a border around them.

Before adding the stamped images, I traced around them and painted a blue background to help them pop a bit more.  They were adhered to the orange strip so that they'd look like they were rolling downhill.

I decided to trace some of the key features of the stamps with a permanent black pen to give them a bit more definition.

Some white lines were drawn in (see last image) to represent motion.

Using my paint bottle as a pen, I wrote the large text. This took a long time to dry because of the thickness of the paint.  If you try this, be patient so you don't mess it up by touching it too early!

When that was dry I doodle outlined the letters with a fine permanent black pen.











And here's the final page:

GIVEAWAY!

All comments on the hop (ALL WEEK) are eligible for the giveaway. 

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

GIVEAWAY will close on Sunday, August 24th @ at 11:59PM Central Time.

GOOD LUCK!

Here's the blog hop order for today...enjoy!

StencilGirl Talk
Gwen Lafleur
Kirsten Reed
Linda Kittmer-You are here!
Karen Knight
Amy Lassiter
Viva Las VegaStamps!

If you missed the beginning of this week long blog, head back to this link on StencilGirl Talk to find the links to the first day!

Day Three of the Sizzix and StencilGirl Blog Hop Featuring Eileen Hull Designs

I'm excited to be part of this fun week long blog hop featuring Eileen Hull and StencilGirl!

It's always fun to be able to combine a variety of products and techniques to create and today I'm doing just that!  I'm playing with a variety of StencilGirl stencils, Sizzix Die Cuts and Eileen Hull stamp designs.  You can see the full list of products I used, along with links below.

I decided to make a little memory album for a friend who just had to return her future dog guide puppy for her formal training as a Service Dog (SSD).





I started with the easel.  I used spray ink and the Curvy Ladder stencil.  I continued to layer on paint using different stencils and stamps, keeping to various blues. My final step was to add some white circles and random rub-on letters.









I used the Dots and Dashes stencil as the initial layer on the memory book cover, layering Bubbles stencil over it. The inside covers were done with the Inside Out stencil and off prints using the Dots and Dashes again. The accent pieces were painted with a brush and then I doodled on them using permanent black and white pens.  

I repurposed a piece of scrapbooking paper to create the accordian centre binding that holds the pages in the book (Sissix provides a PDF showing you how to assemble the album).

The inside pages of the album were cut from my collection of Gelli printed, marbled and painted papers.

It was fun selecting the photos to used in the book.  I had them printed at a Kodak kiosk for a great price.  This is a really freeing exercise since you can go ahead and cut up the photos, knowing that they can be worked around other features on the page. Some pages invited a bit of hand lettering to comment on the images.

And, when closed and in the easel, I think it would look really cute on a mantel or shelf!

Products Used:

Sizzix ScoreBoards Pro Die - Ease

Sizzix Bigz Die - Labels & Buttons

Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Album, Photo

Crafitti Direct - Eileen Hull's Picket Fence Stamp Set

Curvy Ladder Stencil by Julie Snidle
Dots and Dashes Stencil by Jessica Sporn
Inside Out Stencil by Seth Apter
Bubbles Stencil by Paticia Baldwin Seggbruch

GIVEAWAY: 

StencilGirl will be giving away one 

stencil per day, randomly chosen from 

comments left on all blogs participating that day.

Deadline for comments is Sunday, August 24th @ at 11:59PM Central Time

Good Luck!

Blog Hop Stops for today:
StencilGirl Talk
Jennifer Priest
Linda Kittmer-You are here
Tracy Evans
Rina Gonzales
Evgenia Petzer

If you missed the earlier blog stops in the week, check back in at StencilGirl Talk for the entire week's links.  Have fun!

I'm Honoured and Excited!

I'm on a bit of a high right now!

I knew I had had something accepted for publication in 1000 Quilt Inspirations, but I'm thrilled to announce I will have ELEVEN of my pieces published in this book, which will be available for purchase at the end of the year!

You can find out more about purchasing the book by going to Qbookshop.com

I can't wait to see a copy myself!

Exciting News...

I'm excited to share that my piece, Garden Dreams, has been accepted into the upcoming Fibre Content 2014 juried show! I hope you'll be able to come and see this and the other art in person between September 9 - 16, 2014.  See the info below for more details.