I’m going through a mad stencil crush right now…. It’s been VERY BAD since Bali. I’m blaming Louise, one of my talented Escape Artists… she produced a thick and juicy stash of 6 x 6 stencils one morning, and I knew the second I saw them that a new collective spirit was being born in my heart.

I am a collector of many things. It started as a kid with plastic animals, then on to stamps, Erasers, barbie ( not the shrimp kind, the doll kind)… and more recent ones are Washi tape, printed paper serviettes, coloured pencils, markers…. and now stencils.

But, I maintain that I am NOT a hoarder ( having seen ‘Hoarders’ on TV for the first time last night, I definitely never want to be classified as that! ). No, I use my stuff, and it looks very organised and beautiful and there are no random cat-turd-strewn surfaces anywhere in my house.

Ok, that out of the way….what was I talking about? oh yeah – stencils!!! (And by the way, because you have stuck with me through ramblings, there is a PAY OFF at the end of all this… a very niiiiiiice one… so stay tuned.)

Stencils kind of go hand in hand with another hot obsession of mine – spray inks. I just can’t get enough of them. And they are perfect to use with stencils! A great way to start a page.

Here is a strange journal I made from a huge piece of printers paper…the kind magazine covers are printed on. After ripping up the larger pages, I had leftover smaller bits, so I included them in the journal. There are flaps and flippy bits all over. Let’s call it the Flip Journal. There. It’s named now. The page sides are all uneven. It’s been a fun project.

For this page I sketched out ideas and then blocked them out with some sticky contact. The went spray-crazy with the stencils – Fun, fun! Layers of colour and different stencils with each colour.

…and here is that same little babushka figure – she’s bobbing up all over the place for me at the moment. See how the stencils just add a bit of texture without taking over? They are an element, not the focus. they give me ideas and inspiration.

Then comes the texture paste! I use Liquitex Light Molding paste… in this image it is over the new Distress Stain colours which are HEAVEN by the way ( see them here. This is Ripe Persimon and Picked berries)

The stencils I have been playing around with are from the NEW set by Jill K Berry from Artist Cellar – and oh-so-useful!

This is the first in Artist Cellars Designer series:

You need a set too, right?

Well I can make that dream come true!

I have the magic stencil wand and can wave it in your direction….

ArtistCellar.com is giving away one set of Jill’s stencils to one lucky person.

All YOU have to do is Join my Newsletter list ( see the sidebar) and leave a comment here with your contact email, and tell me  why you love stencils! Tell a stencil trick or two that you love – the most creative response gets the set ( and its fabbo!).

I’m the last stop on a Blog Hop to celebrate the stencils  – it’s well worth jumping around to see what everyone did with the stencils!

11/30 Jill Berry https://jillberrydesign.com/blog

12/03 Sketchbook Challenge Guest post https://sketchbookchallenge.blogspot.com/

12/04 Seth Apter https://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/

12/05 Diana Trout https://dianatrout.typepad.com/

12/06 Traci Bunkers https://www.tracibunkers.com/blog/

12/07 Tracy Verdugo https://artoftracyverdugo.blogspot.com/

12/08 Anne Gaal https://www.gaalcreative.com/

12/09 Effy Wild https://effywild.com/

12/10 Dawn DeVries Sokol https://www.dblogala.com/

12/11 Aimee Myers Dolich https://artsyville.blogspot.com/

12/12 Sue Bleiweiss  https://suebleiweiss.com/home.html

12/13 Pam Carriker https://pamcarriker.com/blog/

So join, comment and cross your fingers! I’ll draw the winner on Sunday.

Go check out the Artist Cellar stencils here: click

My favourite sets are the Water series, Cathedral series and Map Series:

{ Yes, that is London and Paris there… very cool!}. This reminds me I need to go order the Coral Series…

Micheal and Lisa are the team behind Artist Cellar, and Lisa is one of ‘us’  – so she understands how rough mixed media can be on stencils, and Michel translates those concerns into fantastic quality stencils that can withstand rubbing, scrubbing, pouncing, pasting, spraying, cleaning!

Anyway, go have a peep, enter the giveaway and dream of stencils my dears!

xoxox

Jane