Wish You Were Here

Who was a lucky girl this month? I was asked to be a Stencilgirl Voice for August too (I was one in July) and that meant that I got to see the August Stencilgirl Club stencils well in advance and work with them. And what a treat that proved to be. The set this month not only included a gorgeous background stencil designed by MaryBeth Shaw (the owner of Stencilgirl Products) but the main set is dedicated to travel. It includes a large star stencil and also the stars itself that can be used as masks (which I did here), as well as a small stencil with a sun image (and again the sun itself as mask). The medium stencil was my favourite of all, featuring elements of a vintage postcard with the text: wish you were here. All these were designed by Mary Nasser with whom I share a taste for travel related art.

I had a wonderful time putting these pages together. I used MaryBeth's stencil for the background that started with lots of collage featuring my favourite destinations such as Venice, Paris, the US and even the UK. The collage came from travel brochures as well as from Tim Holtz's and 7Gypsies tissue wrap and a handmade paper with graphic imagery.

I then used the stars (that came in multiple sizes) as masks and rubbed paint off the edges of them to make them stand out. For that I applied Nuvo Embellishment Mousse, a new (to me) paint that truly looks good enough to eat (don't!). It has a subtle glimmer with is so good to look at.  I also used parts of the star stencil as a proper stencil and with gold paint added some of the smaller sized ones to the pages. I worked in a ringbound A4 sized art journal by Seawhite.

Then elements of the postcard themed stencil were used to add words as well as airmail stickers and post marks to the pages. Of course I had to add an Italian postage stamp too.

This turned out to be one of my own favourite spreads ever. I just love how the colours work together and the combination of all those exotic destinations. Makes me want to go and pack a suitcase!

We are Light

The Stencilgirl Club is one of my most favourite places to build up my stencil collection. You pay a monthly contribution and you get a set of exclusive stencils; a large, medium and small one. These are not available in the normal stencilgirl shop. It's a surprise to find out what the new stencils look like on the 1st of every month. You also get access to a monthly video in which the designer of the stencils that month shows how they can be used. I became a member in January 2014 so amazingly I seem to be in my 4th year already in what was originally a Christmas present to myself. Definitely a gift that keeps on giving!

You can imagine my delight when I was asked to become a member of Stencilgirl Voices. Here some artists are send the monthly stencils way ahead of time and are asked to make something with them to show as examples of how the stencils can be used on the Stencilgirl Talk website. This is my first contribution as a Voice! The July Stencilgirl Club stencils proved to be gorgeous. They were designed by Jessica Sporn and inspired by her aid work in Guatamala, and it's Mayan culture. You can see Jessical reveal her July stencils here.

 I wanted to stay very much with that Mayan culture and found a Mayan saying that inspired my spread in an A4 art journal. It reads: "We are the children of the earth. We are beings of the sun. We are light".

I started by brayering on the background using a variety of mainly pastel colours. I then used patterns from the stencils to form a framework to put in the central figure and the words of the quotation that were stamped onto vintage paper and glued on. I added the sun by using Wendy Vecchi's gold embossing paste.

The page was finished with a lot of outlining and doodling within the various shapes. A lovely Zen like activity that I enjoyed very much.

A great big Thank You to Stencilgirl for asking me to be a Voice!