Laugh

It's time to share with you my latest project for Stencilgirl. They were kind enough to ask me to be their occasional Guest Designer and I'm having lots of fun producing new spreads for them using their gorgeous stencils. I have designed for a variety of companies in the past and will only take on such challenges if I genuinely love the products they make. And I completely LOVE Stencilgirl's stencils. You can find the step by step instructions on how to make this spread on the Stencilgirl Talk site here.

I used 2 stencils: the Inky Circles and the Deconstructed Bold Lily mask and stencil. 

That leaves me free to talk about some details here starting with the title, and how randomly unconnected things come together in a miraculous way, with synchronicity.

I wanted to use some vintage collage in the background and I have a whole pile of vintage text and image pages in a big box. From there I usually just reach in and grab enough to use on any particular spread. And I did that for this page.

The pile contained dressmaker's paper and also a page from a song text book dating back to the late 19th Century. As I was tearing up the page my eye fell on the text and suddenly I knew that I didn't want to waste it on the background but that it was meant to be the star of the show. So I purposely tore out the Laugh words to make it the title of the spread and then randomly glued bits of the page on as you can see on the picture of the entire spread at the top.

It was only later that I discovered that the text that landed on the figure's clothing reads: "in-side is grie-ving", and yet it so suits the figure's generally melancholic look that's it's uncanny! Meant to be, you could say. But that begs the question: Who meant it?  It wasn't me! Such co-incidences happen too often on my pages to be random but on the other hand I simply don't have any explanations for it either. Lenna and I were exchanging e-mails about this phenomenon and we agreed it's magical!

The other detail I wanted to share was the gold that you can just about see sparkling away on her outfit. This is mica and cames from Perfect Pearls Mists, in the colourway that they call Sunflower Sparkle. It's pure gold and I value it above rubies! Almost all of the spreads I make in my sketchbook have an element of sparkle to them (as do my quilts!) but sadly it's very difficult to catch that with the camera. However I think I have managed it on this occasion.

The figures I use in my sketchbook come from all kinds of sources but very often I indulge and buy a Vogue which I only start reading when I'm cutting out what I want. This particular figure wasn't randomly selected. She had that air of sadness around her that made me cut her out as soon as I lay eyes on her, in the hope that I would soon find a spread to accommodate her. And this proved to be the one.

Remember step by step instructions and more detailed pictures are here.