Wood Panel Pop Art!

Canvas is a great surface to stencil on but look at these awesome wood art panels by Art Alternatives! We first used these panels at the Stencil Style 101 book launch at Converse Rubber Tracks, people loved them! See pics here from that event. I love seeing the neutral grain of the wood with some fun colors on top of it, in this case I used acrylic paints with my set of 4 CHAIRS stencils inspired by Charles and Ray Eames classic designs.  You can create your own art easily and in-budget.  So how did I do it, you ask? Here are the steps:

Pick some stencils you like..

Place your wood panel flat on a table

Choose a color palette that matches the theme and the decor

I mixed my colors,  I chose some retro colors for these chair images

Place a stencil on top of the wood surface and hold in place

Paint using small stencil brushes and  a dry brush technique. I like how going light still slightly shows the wood grain through the color!

That one’s done! For a set I did the other designs, making 4. Great house-warming gifts or for a baby shower these are cool gender-neutral for a babies room! Hope to see what you make!

Stenciled Eggs

Have you noticed it’s the year of breaking traditions? I see a trend in holiday crafts that break away from the norm – chevron pumpkins, succulent filled wreathes, and now eggs are up for some reinvention. As a stencil artist, I have thought of this for some time but wrapping a stencil around an egg, not so easy. UNTIL NOW! (say that in a radio announcer voice).  The folks at PLAID have these fantastic sticky rubbery stencils that can wrap around surfaces.  I was introduced to these stencils at the CHA when I ran some demos at the Plaid booth and my brain starting thinking of all the surfaces I dismissed for being to hard to stencil!  Cut to today, I was on Pinterest and saw some Easter Egg images and the stencils came to mind! So I broke out the stencils, adhered them to the eggs and used inkpads and a stencil brush to apply the designs. Who doesn’t love an Easter egg hunt and It would be fun to have the stenciled egg be the grand prize winner!

Oh and out of sheer boredom I sprayed my spray inks on one egg for a “graffiti egg” design! Let me see your reinvented egg designs!

Pigeon Love Pillow

Check out our “pigeon love” pillow made using our pigeon stencil and black fabric paint. MUJI has awesome quality plain pillows so that was my “canvas” of choice. For symmetrical designs, just apply your stencil on one side of the pillow, wash and dry the stencil, then flip it over and stencil it opposite your first design. Easy!

Quilting Time

Are you ready? A guest post from my dear friend Elaine Elwick Barr!
Sometimes in the winter, I like to make comfort food. Something warm, familiar, delicious…but not all appetites can be fulfilled with food alone. Some need hands on, rock and roll crafting. And I had that hunger bad. I took a look at the variety and selection of Stencil1 stencils I own, including images from the first book, Stencil 101, the second book, Stencil 201, the home decor book, Stencil 101 Decor, and a whole host of the original mylar stencils. What could I make that could include alllll of these great images and maybe even keep me warm during this winter cold snap. QUILT!

Okay, I’ll admit I’ve stayed far away from quilt making in the past. Too much precision and too many rules, that’s what I thought. But I don’t care much for rules and perfection these days. I like what I make to look like I made it. So I went full steam ahead.

Since there are so many images to choose from, I took on a theme. This one is Stencil 1 Creatures..featuring some of my favorite birds, horses and the monkey in the middle. To make the quilt, you’ll need some fabric squares to stencil on, an old bed sheet, twice the size of your finished blanket, an old blanket or quilt batting, some Stencil 1 sprays, an iron and a sewing machine. I cut all of the squares, from coordinating fabric, and one by one, stenciled each, using Stencil 1 sprays. Each square gets heat set quickly with a warm iron.

Craft you later,

Elaine E. Barr

Blog; http://rocknrollcrafts.blogspot.com/

Etsy Shop:  http://tinyurl.com/ebarresty

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ElaineBarrDesigns

Put Some Love Into It!

It’s that time of year when you want to say to your besties or loved one those three special words I WANT GIFTS. No, just kidding, I LOVE YOU!  Nothing shows how much you care about someone more than when you make them something and with all our heart themed stencils you can make something very cool for them like a card, a piece of art, a t-shirt, whatever your HEART desires!

Happy Valentine’s Day, put all your love into it!