Using your stencils, Part II! We're going Off the Page!!!

Hi there ePer's!  Today it's Erin here with you, showing you a different way to use stencils!  Since this month is all about stencils, I thought I would utilize them in a unique way that you may not have thought of!

I was recently re-organizing my kitchen tools drawer, trying to make room for MORE tools, and I came across 2 wooden spoons that I have not used in ages!  I use my Pampered Chef wooden spoons, how could I use anything else?!  So, I threw them in my craft room to use for a rainy day!

That rainy, actually sunny day, came today!  I looked at this spoon and thought, what would happen if I painted it, and used my stencils on it?!  Well, now we know!  We will learn what the limitations are, and what is boundless!

First, I started with a plain wooden spoon.

Then, I painted it with white gesso.












I used Tim's Dot Fade stencil and London Blue Dylusions Spray for the first layer.

Here's where my boundaries occurred.  I wanted to layer it with stencils and colors, but every time I did that, the color pooled in the center, because essentially, I'm working with a spoon!  Hello!!!!  So, I just started spraying different colors to get that blue/green mixture that you see.  In addition to the London Blue, I used Vibrant Turquoise, Cut Grass, and a bit of White Linen which fogged it up a little.  But, I sprayed over that, so the white doesn't really show through.

































Then, I took my Stars stencil, and some joint compound and made some stars!  I dried each one before moving on to the next one, because if I laid the stencil on top of the one before, it would have smashed!
Then, I took my white Signo Uni-ball pen and created the Honeycomb pattern that you see.  Lastly, I took my Black Artist Pen and filled in some of the dots from the Bubble stencil.  I lined the outside and inside edge with the Black Pen just for some contrast.  I laid the Dot Fade stencil over the whole spoon again, and sprayed over it with London Blue.  That's why the stars are a bit blue!

I hope that you have liked what I have created for you today!  A quick little project, but a lot of mediums used, and a new technique for using your stencils!  It's not just for walls and paper anymore!!!!!

Have a wonderful day!
Erin

ePlay challenge: Get Stenciled!

Welcome to the May ePlay Challenge. Our challenges are about encouraging you to explore your creative journey and inspiring you to step outside of your comfort zone.  When you submit your artwork, share a unique card, scrapbook or journal page, a canvas, home décor project, or anything that you’re excited to share!  We’re looking forward to crafting with you! One project will be chosen at the end of this month-long challenge and will be awarded a $25 shop voucher for the eclectic Paperie store. It just might be you!

Hi there ePer's!  I hope this post finds you well on this beautiful first day of May!
Today we are challenging you with stencils for the ePlay challenge!  What can YOU do with stencils?!  I can't wait to see!!!

I had a whole 3-D project of new and innovative ways to use stencils almost finished, when it collapsed, and I had to start over. Perhaps I went too over the top and outside the box!  I resorted to a journal page instead! One of the things that I had created were actual people from the Fred and Lottie stencils!  Simply draw their silhouette with a pencil and using colored pencils or Copics, you can create a one of a kind outfit for them!  Cut it out and now you have a paper doll!  I always color the backs of them as well, so that they aren't one-dimensional!

Stencils are such a fun use for your projects!  They are so versatile and can be used in your scrapbook pages, art journals, on your cards, on your mixed media, and even more drastic and fun: on your walls, furniture, or doors!  I want to see what you can do with them!  Take your stencils out and turn them upside down.  Look at them in a new light and see if you get new innovative ways in which they can be used!

Here are my journal pages that I created for you!

To create the background, I sprayed my Right page with water, and then, with Dylusions inks: Squeezed Orange, Bubblegum Pink, and Vibrant Turquoise in the middle.  I pressed my Right page to my Left to create a mirrored image!

Then, I took my paper towel roll and picked up any loose ink.  It created a ghost effect all on its own!
I laid a dragonfly stencil down, and sprayed water over it, lifted it up, turned it over and pressed it to the other side of the paper.  This is called ghosting!

I took my Rubberbands Balzer Bits stencil, and sprayed it with Calypso Teal and used it like a stamp, and stamped it on my pages!

I laid my Balzer Bits Butterfly in the bottom corner, and sprayed on top of that w/ Crushed Grape.

I used one of the Dylusions's stamp sets: Around the Edge (and some old Tim Holtz stamps) with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and no block!  I wanted it willy nilly, so I inked it but stamped it holding it in my hand!

To create the bubbles, I used the Petri Dish stencil and using my Faber-Castell pens, I created the bubbles.  I went back in with my Big Brush Black Marker by Faber-Castell and created the light with my Big Brush White Marker by Faber-Castell.

The green dots on the left page were created by spraying directly onto the stamp with Dirty Martini and then stamping, again without a block!  Very cool effect!

I hope that this is inspirational for you and can get your mind hopping in different ways to use YOUR stencils!
Join us for this awesome challenge!!!!

Have a great day!
Erin

Embossing paste, grunge board and pan pastels! Oh my!!!

Hi there!  It's Erin here with you today with a quick little project that I created to showcase some different products that came out a whole ago, but they got buried under all the new and cool stuff!

We're bringing back the end and splashing it up with a bit of the new!

This is the entire project.

Here's how it started:

I took the Liquitex acrylic gloss fluid medium and painted a thin coat over the grunge board.  I let it dry and then want to town with Tim Holtz's new lace stencil and Wendy Vecchi's white embossing paste!  That stuff is the bomb!!!!!  LOVE IT!!!!!  There's substance in it and it doesn't fall apart on you or act like you're working with jello.  

Then I added some teal and lime green pan pastels (I'm sure they have real names, but at the moment, their names escape me!); and just sponged it on with the large makeup looking sponge.  

I did add paper from G45's Botanical Garden, but then I sprayed the whole thing with my 3 Blue Dylusions sprays, and it turned incomprehensible.  I tried to peel it off and it left a cool rip, so that became part of the background!

I sprayed the large lace section on the right with White Linen Dylusions spray and then patted it dry with a paper towel.  It acted almost like water because it cleared up a lot of the blues and cleaned it up!  It was a little too messy!!!

This is the finished product!  I apologize for the grossness of my pictures!  I am waiting for my computer to be fixed and returned!  So for now, I have no photo editing on my phone!!!

Find all of the goodies that I used here:

www.eclecticpaperie.com.

But, I'm a huge flower and embellishment hoarder!  So I used a couple flowers and resin pieces and a butterfly from my stash to dress it up!

I hope that you have a wonderful day!!!

Erin

Fairie Cottage - Let your imagination take flight!

Hi there ePers!  It's Erin here with you on this lovely Thursday!  I have to warn you now that I'm sharing my Altered Book that's this month's challenge theme, and there are a lot of pictures!  I was sick when the blog hop went live, so I decided to save my project for my actual day on here!  Gave me time to fine tune my project and finish it off nicely!

So, altered books.  Have you all started your altered book projects yet for the challenge?  I haven't been on here, so I don't know if we have any submitted, but you better get yours in!  What a fun and wide open challenge it is!  I had an absolute BALL altering my book!  I was able to find a hardback book at my library for $0.25!!!!  Score!  My hubby was happy that day!  Haha!

Have you noticed, or maybe I just noticed because I've been searching for ideas, but it seems like fairy cottages are THE thing right now.  Even my kids have brought up the subject of creating something outside!  After this project, I have the fever, so I think I'm in for coming up with something cute at the base of one of our trees!!!  I can't wait to work on it with my kids!
Anyway, back on topic!  Fairy cottages!  Fun stuff!  All different kinds of ideas of houses, furniture, flowers and plants, where to place the houses, and the fairies themselves!  Pinterest is FULL of cool ideas! 

For my project, I took an idea and ran with it!  As I usually do! And I'm very literal, so since the theme is altering books, boy did I alter this book!  You won't ever be able to read this sucker!  Hahaha!

Ok, here's the full view:

The house itself is made from an svg file from svgcuts.com.  The paper I used is Graphic 45's Botanical Tea.  I LOVE this paper selection!  OMG!  It's GORGEOUS!  You HAVE to get your hands on some of it!  Here's the link because it's just too beautiful to pass up!!!!!  Botanical Tea

Here's a closeup of just the teapot house.  The windows are actually my earrings that I didn't want anymore!  I added mullions to the insides to make them look more like windows!
Every flower that you see has been cut out using an exacto knife.  Even the fern!  That baby took 2 afternoons to cut!  Whew!




















Here's a closeup of the "courtyard".  Those are mushroom seats that the fairy is sitting on!  Aren't they so cute?!  All I did was roll up maybe an inch of paper and glue it together.  I glued a small pearl on the top, and then cut the blue and white polka dotted paper willy nilly and then sprayed it with water to make it pliable.  I dried it and shaped it some more, sponged on some dirt and glued the top in place on top of the pearl to help hold its shape.  I stuck them in the joint compound and that was it!  Easy peasy!

When you read a book, well, at least when I do, my imagination takes off!  I can go to whatever place they are in in the book.  I can become one of the characters.  And my book club friends know that if I don't like a character's name, I'll change it in my head!  LOL!  But, I LOVE to read, and I love that I can escape from the every day hustle and bustle with a good book! 

Here's a closeup of my earring window and door.  Isn't that ring fastener from G45 perfect?!  I love it!  It's the perfect fairy door knocker!  LOL!

Here are the stairs.  They are acetate and all I did was score a piece of it every inch.  Then, I folded them forwards and backwards to make them into steps.  I screwed up and cut the last step off too short, so, I rounded out the steps and turned them on the side!  It worked out!  LOL!
But, I wanted to make them see-through so that you don't miss any of the details on the house or the book, or the gurgling stream running underneath the house!  I put keys on each step so that it "looks" like a keystaircase. 

I couldn't leave the stream at the end of the book!  It had to go somewhere!  Just like at the end of a book that you have read.  You want the epilogue to find out what happens in the future!  Well, I decided to prolong the "story" if you will, and added a little teacup for the water to flow into and then, it does continue on, but you get the gist of what I'm trying to portray here.....

This is the side view from the Right.  I used gesso to create the grass.  I sprayed the gesso with Dylusions sprays, and added some flower soft for texture.  Gesso is SO easy to use!  It is low maintenance, and awesome!!!! 
The path was created by just drawing a pathway, and then using Tim Holtz's Cobblestone die, and using some metallic flakes to make it shine.

















 Here's a large view of the Left side of the book.  You can see the mushroom seats, and the pretty flower garden below the terrace/courtyard.

These next 3 are closeups of the courtyard.  I wanted to do something fun on this side!  So, I took Tim Holtz's Picture Wheel die and cut out the wheel.  I then took some Studio 490 Translucent Embossing Paste and with the Prima Floral Rose, and I smeared it all over, making gray dots.  Then, I sprayed directly onto it with Black Soot and White Linen and finished it off with water.  I let it dry, adhered it, and added grass to the little square negatives.  You see that sort of thing in gardens on Pinerest, so that's where that idea stemmed from! 

The middle part of the courtyard is actually one of those gazing balls that you often see in flower gardens.  Mine is of course a pearl, but you get the idea!  I thought it was boring to just have it on a straw, so I added some greenery to pretty it up!

Here's a closeup of one of the fairies.  I have to say that these fairies are from a long ago collection from G45 called "Once Upon a Summer".  It may have actually been out last summer, but I am not too sure...  Anyway, I thought of using these instead of creating my own fairies!

Closeup of more cut out flowers....

And finally here are the side views.

And here are the links to all of the products that you can find in our fabulous store!
Graphic 45 Botanical Tea
Graphic 45 Keys
Graphic 45 Key Holes
Tim/Sizzix Picture Wheel
Dylusions:  Black Soot, White Linen, Cut Grass, Dirty Martini, & Fresh Lime
Studio 490 Translucent Embossing Paste
Liquitex Gesso
Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Prima's Floral Rose stencil (12" x 12")

I hope that I have inspired you to step outside of your comfort zone and try this challenge out!  You will be amazed at what you come up with!!!

Have a fabulous day!
Erin

The Bag Lady

Hi there ePers!  Today I (Erin) am showing you my bag that I made for the eP Picks Challenge hosted by the always lovely Ms. Toni!

When I first learned about this challenge, I was racking my brain on what medium to use!  Paper? Seed sack?  Lace handkerchiefs?  Redecorate a gift bag?  Use a brown lunch bag?
I decided to use up some of my seed sacks that I bought from my cousin's yard sale last summer!  She wanted to get rid of them, and I knew that I could find something useful to do with them sometime!  Well, that time came now!

Seed sacks are kind of like the old laundry bags from college, but without a flat bottom.  If that makes any sense!  It's tough, hard, stiff canvas.

Throughout this whole process, I did not measure.  I eyeballed all of the sides, and roughly eyeballed the handles.

I went through and cut the sides into actual panels, and prepped them all with gesso.  Once that was dry, it was ready to paint!  I used my Acrylic Glaze paints mainly because I wanted something vibrant and I wanted it to stand out.  I don't have too many other options in the paint department, so the Acrylics worked beautifully!  (I think so anyway!  ;D)

The first panel was my face.  Which, it's not MY face!  My 4 yr. old daughter and I had a discussion about this face!  She asked who it was a picture of and I responded no one.  She said, "No Mom, really, who is it?"  I replied again, now a bit agitated, "It's no one, ok?!"  She came back with, "Jeez Mom, you don't have to be mean about it!"  LOL!
So, the face just kind of drew itself.  I used black gesso and a paint brush.

To create the background, I just used different stencils and more Acrylic Paint colors and more gesso!

I pretty much did the same thing for all of the sides.

The difference for the back/front panel w/ the words 'My Craft Bag', are that those are sprays with different stencils and black gesso for the tiny circles stencil.

The difference for the rose panel is that I used white embossing paste, which I mixed a color into and using the edge/end of my palette knife, laid down the paste in the form of a rose.

I did have help on this, in the sewing it together portion!  I only sew on paper!  I NEVER sew fabric!  Hey, I'd actually have to measure something!  YIKES!

Anyway, I did the handles, and was successful at attaching 2 panels together, and then my sewing machine decided not to work right.  So, I handed my project over to my mother to sew the rest of it together.  I had strict instructions on how I wanted it done.  And she is such a darling and finished it for me so that I could post it here on my day!


I hope that you have been inspired by my bag and want to try out for our challenge!  This is a perfect opportunity to think outside the box!!!!

Erin

Links:
white & black gesso
white embossing paste
Antique Bronze Distress Paint
Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen (black and white)
Stencils: Mini Reverse Chicken Wire, Mini Tiny Circles, Distressed Honeycomb, Bubbly
Silks Acrylic Glazes Honey Amber, Pink Anthurium, Bolivian Blue, Love Struck, Olive Vine,
                                    Apricot Nectar

Dylusions: Pure Sunshine, Funky Fuschia, London Blue, Cut Grass, & Melted Chocolate

Collecting Moments Art Journal Jumping Off Page

 Hi there, ePers!  It's Erin here with you today on this lovely Saturday! 

I have a simple page for you today!  Have you ever looked through your paper and not really looked at each of the patterns?  Or, you get it from the eP store, and after a while, you put it w/ your other stacks to "get to when you have time", but then forget?  Well, that's kind of what the Collecting Moments stack did at my house!  I was so excited when I got it, thinking it would be perfect for my vintage genre projects, or my son's scrapbook pages, and it got filed w/ my other eP stacks, and promptly forgotten.  Until now!

I want to show you the versatility of paper.  I LOVE paper!  I love a lot of the paper companies out there and always look forward to what they will come out w/ next!  One company that always brings it home for me is Fancy Pants!  They ALWAYS have something that I will LOVE and HAVE TO HAVE!  This Collecting Moments 6" x 6" stack is one of those!

For my project today, I kind of created an inspiration board, but only using paper.  You can take this and 1. use it as a sketch, 2. you can take the paper choices and use them on your scrapbook page, or 3. you could take the colors of the paper to incorporate on whatever you're working on!  The thing about this is that it's a jumping off point!  I just gave you 3 different ways in which to utilize this art journal page!  What other ways can you think of to use this paper????

So.....what would you create from this?!  Open up your mind and reach outside the box!  The possibilities are endless!!!!

Have an inspirationally crafty day!
(yeah, I know that's not a word!)  :D

Erin

What Can YOU Do With Embossing Paste?!

Hi there ePer's!  Today I have a quick little 6" x 6" page that you can create and add your picture and incorporate into a 6" x 6" album.  Or take this and add it to a 12" x 12" layout!  My focus is embossing paste!  I got all of the different types, and I have been playing around w/ these and I LOVE Embossing Paste by Studio 490!  This stuff is SO versatile!  You can smear it on for a shimmery layer to your projects.  You can put a splotch on a craft mat and spray it with Dylusions ink and adhere it onto a stencil.  You can put Translucent Paste through a stencil for a more traditional embossed look.  And those are just a few tips of things you can do.

For this particular project, I used Translucent Paste and White Embossing Paste.  The paper that I used is Happy-Go-Lucky by Fancy Pants! 

Have a wonderful day!
Erin

Links:
Translucent Embossing Paste
White Embossing Paste
Happy Go Lucky by Fancy Pants
Maraschino Red Twine