Monday, September 28, 2015

Stencil Project

I was asked by Mary Nasser- the woman that does the blog for Stencil Girl to do a project using some of their stencils.  Stencil Girl is MaryBeth Shaw's company.  http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/
 I have enjoyed using stencils as design elements in some of my monoprint work.  My guest artist post is today.  I choose to make an Exploding Box.  As you will see the finished project is a box and once the lip is removed the box "explodes" apart. You can do a google search for directions to make one of these which is what I did.


Using heavy hot press watercolor paper I cut out the parts.

I decided I wanted to make the box look like an old brick building.  I painted the parts with a light colored paint first and then used a brick stencil.

To make the building look old I used a technique my friend John Arbuckle taught me. http://artjuvenation.blogspot.com/  To make it look like peeling paint I covered part of the pieces with petroleum jelly.  I painted a different color over that and it acts as a resist. When the paint was dry I rubbed off the paint that had the jelly underneath.  I loved the look this gave the box pieces.
I then printed out some windows I found online.  The stencil I decided to use are ones Seth Apter (http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/) designed for Stencil Girl.  They are graffiti themed.  You can see on the piece for the lid I started on that.
I turned the piece over and collaged the inside of the box or building.
Next I painted the second box piece and then used the stencils on it.
Here you see the completed box exterior.  I used a fun tool called an eBrush to get the stencil designs on the box.  I felt it really mimicked the spray paint that is most often used on buildings.  http://www.craftwellusa.com/products/ebrush
Here is the box "exploded" open.  This was a lot of fun.  I think often artists forget to have fun with their work.  This was not only fun but I learned a lot using some techniques I seldom use.
 








Friday, September 18, 2015

Completed Book Collaboaration

I finished my book that Kim R. Draper started.  The first three photos are of her starts for the inside of the book followed by two photos showing my finish.

Kim's left side spread

Kim's right side spread

shot of full inside before my finish

My finish of the inside

The completed inside standing up

Next will the same order for the back side of the book

Kim's left side of the back of the book

Kim's right side of the back of the book

Back side of the book before my finish

Completed back side of the book

Completed back side of the book standing up






Monday, September 14, 2015

Is It Really Mid September??

Once again time has just zoomed by.  I have been busy with several projects.  I am posting some mail art things here. I am making some Artist trading Cards (ATCs)  to trade with some folks.  I also did 3 more of the postcards.  There is something so fun about working in these small sizes.

ATC with Gelli Print background











Now for the postcards.