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Stencilgirl® August 2019 Project

My project for Stencilgirl® this month was inspired by a poem by Ben Okri. I printed it out quite some time ago and it has been living on my work desk every since, with me re-reading it occasionally. The words touched me deeply. Then a few weeks ago I saw it again this time accompanying a photograph on Blipfoto. I made me think I wanted to do something to make it into a permanent reminder to myself and this is my first attempt to do so, starting with the first two lines.

I, like most of you I suspect, am always on the lookout for the “perfect” sketchbook and during the search have acquired so many that I very much doubt I will be able to fill them in my lifetime but that doesn’t seem to stop me buying more. And I think I have now discovered one that is as close to perfect as it’s going to get. They are the journals by www.artbymarlene.nl  for StudioLight. The one I’m using here is the big version at 8 x 11.3/4” and it has the most wonderful thick paper. It is also ring bound so you can take the pages out to work on them separately.  My plan is to fill this journal with my illustrations of Ben Okri’s words. 

This page has the first few lines: “As clouds pass above our heads, so time passes through our lives. It also features a vintage German Christmas card.  You will be getting more lines as part of future projects. You can find the full step by step tutorial for this page on the Stencilgirl® Talk website. 

Circuit Board Journal Quilts

Every year Grosvenor Shows organizes a Journal Quilt Competition where every participant is asked to contribute 2 A4 sized Journal Quilts. For 2020 the theme is Connections. That made me think about the different way humans now communicate with each other compared to times gone by. Mostly people met in person in the past, then came letters and finally the phone. Now we all have a wide variety of computerised devices to keep in touch.  Whether you use a computer, laptop, tablet or phone they all use circuit boards to keep us connected! So they became my inspiration for the journal quilts. As I was using many stencils all by Stencilgirl® Products this also became my monthly July project as Guest Designer for them. That means you can find a step by step tutorial for this journal quilts on their Stencilgirl®Talk website. 

Circuit Board Journal Quilt 1

Circuit Board Journal Quilt 2

Detail of beading and bugle beads

Stencilgirl April 2019 Project

When the December 2018 Stencilgirl® Club stencils, called Fancy Houses, arrived, they made me feel quite nostalgic. They featured houses that could have stepped straight from the streets of Amsterdam, the city where I was once a student, now many moons ago. Of course I simply had to use them in one of my monthly projects for Stencilgirl® and this is the resulting 9 x 12" page I made.

 You can find a full step-by-step tutorial together with a list of the stencils I used on the Stencilgirl® Talk website.

If you fancy a trip April is a great time to visit The Netherlands as the bulb fields will be so colourful and within easy reach of the city.

Stencilgirl March 2019 Project

Almost everything you can do on paper you can also do on fabric. For my Stencilgirl® project this month I wanted to experiment a bit more with layering paints on fabric.  I used small gelli plates as stamps and you can read all about this as well as see the paints and stencils I used on the Stencilgirl®Talk website today.  

I’m very happy with the resulting piece of cloth but haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do with it and I’m leaving it up to you to decide for yourself. You could make it into a wall hanging simply by framing, or you could layer it up with batting and a backing fabric, hand or machine quilt it and then make it into a hanging. Beading would also be a good option.  The resulting piece could become the cover for a notebook or an art journal. The main thing is to have fun and play to your heart's content.

Gelli plate print

Definitely a day for indoor activities!

Gelli plate print

A great way to spend a snowy and icy day.