Make some stencils-it's fun!

Michelle Ward has once again come up with a fun & useful technique to try over at her other blog for the GPP Street Team .  Last month it was about carving stamps, this month Crusade 19-Cut it Out is about cutting your own stencils.  Both of these crusades give us the knowledge (and the tutorials to make sure we get it) to make our own tools to use in our artwork, which gives us even more choices to make our art, our own!  You won't see the stamps you carved or the stencils that you cut in anyone else's artwork, making it truly unique.  Cool, right?  This was my first attempt, even though it's been something that I've wanted to try for a very long time.  I used a close up photo of a bee balm bloom (try saying that 3 times fast-lol) from our garden last summer, turned it into black & white, and cut it out with a stencil burner, using a little artistic license in the process.  Forgetting to make a "bridge", it didn't turn out quite right, but will work just fine anyway.  On the right page, I used what is really more of a mask, sprayed it, shifted it a bit & sprayed again with another color.  On the left page, I used the 2 end pieces (which should have been 1 piece and be the stencil) placed one piece on the top of the page, the other on the bottom of the page, and did the same as the right page-sprayed-shifted-sprayed again.  Fun & quick!  Last summer I played with spray paints for the first time, using foliage and fodder from the yard as masks.  You can see the results of that first spray painting here , which I followed up with a step by step of how I did it, you can click here for tutorial on this, if you'd like.  Since Michelle has extended the challenge until May 7, there's plenty of time to try some more tricks with this and join in the fun!  This all looked like so much fun that Gary joined in again this month.  He used the same technique that I did, except he drew his own design, you can see it all at the end of this post.  Can you believe that he even drew his own design?  I may have to set him up with his own blog pretty soon!  If you haven't already, give this a try, you won't regret it, and you'll be making your art even more unique than it already is! 

Comments

[michelle ward]

No way! Gary joined us again? That rocks! Terrific stencil Sue! So organic. Love Gary's too!! Thanks for being so enthusiastic about making your own tools and the things you said about that - keeping your art authentic by.....here it comes....making it your own. Another thanks for linking to your clever and handsome spray experiments from last year. I was hoping you would mention your earlier work and your tutorial so your readers, and the crusaders, could be inspired to try something like that.

(I'll be missing you this weekend too)

[susan w]

the name alone is worth the price of admission - i may go around trying to hum that one - bee balm bloom, bee balm bloom, bee balm bloom.
That image has many many possibilities - it would be (bee?) fun to do slightly staggered repeats in subtle color variations.
And even if you didn't do that, you can still go around sayin' bee balm bloom

[Tammy Vitale]

well haven't you been the busy bee: The Girls and stencils too! I love your stencils and Gary's too! Every now and then Husband thinks about joining in on the wheel, but since I lent it out to a local non-prof he hasn't had the chance (mostly it's just an idea in his head). How fun to create together!

[Carrie]

That looks really awesome. Both do, actually. And I love the colors you used on the bee balm bloom!

[Pam]

Lovely, lovely. I remember those first posts... I'm impressed by how ethereal and pretty the colors come out... not what I'd guess by the color of the can top, which doesn't do the colors justice. I must go buy some spray paint and try this... it's almost nice enough outside to do it, too! Very fun... hopefully Saturday will be a dry day!

[Pam]

I forgot to ask, how DID you get that crystal-like image in the purple/green? Is that a stencil? It must have taken some cutting if so! It's lovely, reminds of an entity from a StarTrek episode. And love lavender and green together, too. Ok I think I'm done now.

[Jen]

Totally cool Sue. One question, what exactly is a stencil burner please?

[ArtKat]

Lovely stencils, I like both the positive and negative images! And Gary's is great, too - I always like swirly, scrolly designs! Grand job, both of you! :)