To Brighten Up Your Day

I was walking by a tall apartment building in NYC and there it was, a discarded avocado colored wood lamp. Solid wood! I carried it home on the train and got busy on this make-over!

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First, I sanded down the surface to make it more receptive to paint. I dusted it off too.

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Then I choose a light neutral colored paint as my base, a cream. I love it, it already looks happier.

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Then I wanted to do something modern, on-trend but also folky so I choose some arrow stencils from the Stencil1 CAMP stencil set and another arrow in Stencil Style 101. I taped off areas to isolate the arrows. I then choose two colors, red and blue for my arrows.

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I did a stencil test of my arrows on a piece of scrap wood.

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I then stenciled arrows in various positions, all “shooting” upwards! I think it’s more positive in that direction! I used a very dry brush technique to give it a super handmade, folky look to it. Sort of modern folk, no? Anyway, I covered the entire lamp in hundreds of arrows and splurged and bought a new shade for this found treasure!

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And there it is, to brighten my day!

Get Campy! Stencil1 Camp Stencils

Recently I did a workshop at Unique Camp. This trip inspired me on many levels, from new business goals to this new stencil design. This 6-pack Camp Stencil set includes a bow and arrow with target, campfire and roasting marshmallows, an ax, a canoe and paddle, a tent and wood-style camp letters. Use these stencils to give a journal an outdoorsy look or to customize t-shirts and maybe even your tent! Here are some images of things we made to inspire you! Show us what you make by tagging Stencil1!

A Unique Camp Experience

Let me get to the point with this post, my Camp experience was life-changing. Business growth, spiritual growth, fun. Can’t say enough good about it!

So, I was asked to do a stencil workshop and discuss my brand at the Unique Camp, a project created by Unique LA founder Sonja Rasula. Camp is basically a 4-day getaway in this case to Big Bear Mountain, 2 hours outside of LA. The conference helps entrepreneurs focus on their business goals with classes and workshops ranging from how to raise venture capital to well, how to stencil! Yes, the balance of business, art, physical challenges, dancing, and drinks at night all worked well together!

Sonja’s welcome chat included a reading from Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s book CAMP and sort of set the tone for the entire experience. I took the reading to mean ‘Yea. you will be slightly uncomfortable and challenged and out of your element here but this is where growth occurs and some great bonding as well.’  It, for me, was rather spiritual to grow myself as well as my business. As a rather quiet gent, I set my intention to come out of my shell, listen to people and have fun – I think I met all 110 people! Oh, and BTW, we were UNPLUGGED. ESSENTIAL!

AS for the stencil workshop, I chose a place under 5 large pines. We had a variety of supplies and I showed how to stencil paper, t-shirts, bags, and more. One lucky winner received a bunch of Plaid supplies, she was the star student for stenciling her Everlane bag with my arrow stencil. Amazing job.  I spoke about starting Stencil1 from a dream to a full-time business while we got creative. So many people were there to start their own business, I hope I inspired their ideas.  I too was inspired by many of the workshops including Sonja’s which was about getting press and Whitney Chamberlain who owns a few businesses including Smile Booth and how his biz goals basically came out of his own needs in life.  I also kept observing the fine details that the Camp crew put into their branding, from table cloths to archery targets. Branding details matter.

I have a bunch of photos from the time away, I hope you enjoy them. Camp also put these up here. I can’t recommend enough to go to CAMP!

Layering Image with Pattern

One of my favorite techniques is layering. I love to layer iconic imagery over a pattern. In this case, I am making art that is a two layer stencil of a deer over a pattern. Sort of a city-meets-country feel to it!

I started by painting my board a neutral color.

I then mixed a little grey paint with the base color to slightly darken it for my pattern layer. I stenciled my quatrefoil pattern on top of the solid painted board. This stencil is designed to repeat like wallpaper so I moved it around to fill the board with the pattern.

Once dry, it was time for the silhouette layer of the Antlered Deer. I love this guy, he’s so confident. Anyway, I wanted to use some pop colors – bright yellow as the base. It took three coats to cover the pattern.

Once dry, I stenciled the deer detail layer in a deep blue. For detailed stencils, always go light with your paint, stenciling is a dry brush technique. I can’t say that enough.

And there you have your modern piece of art.

Wet Paint on Wedges

When I recently attended the ALT Summit held at Martha Stewart’s HQ, I noticed that many of the blogger gals there had on high wedges. Some were even decorated or painted. Well, I can do that too! I had to try it out. I got these cork wedge heels at Amarcord, a vintage store in Williamsburg Brooklyn for a few bucks. I thought my asian inspired rainbow repeat pattern would be perfect in a burnt orange for summer. I just held the stencil in place, filled in the design with a VERY DRY BRUSH, and there you have it. These say fun, do you agree?