Tag Archives: cut your own stencils

Experimenting with my new stencils

Art, Graphic Design, , , ,
Four Mid-Century Modern inspired compositions
Four Mid-Century Modern inspired compositions

Over the last couple of weeks I designed and cut a number of stencils in a Mid-Century Modern style that I plan to use in home decor and in art projects. While on a Modern STL house tour this past weekend, I noticed that several of the homes featured color schemes that go well with the theme to my blog, which was intended to be temporary. Inspired by the recent tour, I decided to use my new stencils to create a header graphic for this site and only modify a few parts of the theme as I see fit.

First I took my new stencils and sponged black rubber stamping ink through them onto white paper. I scanned these designs and brought them into Photoshop where I colorized them and added other digitized textures to create the four compositions above. Then I selected sections of these designs to make my new header graphic. I’m excited about possibly using these as studies for art pieces I may want to do someday.

To learn how to cut your own stencils, see my article Fun With Stencils.

To learn how to use scanned textures in Photoshop artwork, see my article Analog to Digital: Waste Paper From Stamping Projects Can Enhance Photoshop Art.

Make a Soft Dia De Los Muertos Skull

Art, Fabric and Fiber Arts, Mixed Media, Tutorials, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Soft Dia De Los Muertos Skull made using discharge paste, embroidery, fabric paint, and embellishments
Soft Dia De Los Muertos Skull made using discharge paste, embroidery, fabric paint, and embellishments

Do you want to have some fun with a mixed-media fabric project? This soft Dia De Los Muertos skull uses discharge paste, fabric paint, embroidery and embellishments – you can use a lot of your toys for this one! Enhance your decor with a small decorative throw pillow or attach a loop to the back and hang it on the wall.

This tutorial assumes you know the basics of cutting stencils and stenciling on fabric. If you need more of an introduction to those skills, see my tutorial “Fun With Stencils”. You’ll need a few very basic sewing and embroidery skills too.

Read more at the Jacquard Products web site

Fun with Stencils

Fabric and Fiber Arts, Home Decor, Mixed Media, Tutorials, , , , , ,

Introduction

During the 1970s, my Mom was really into Pennsylvania Dutch style stencils for home decor – I still have some of her old stencil brushes! I myself used stencils for some of my printmaking projects in the 1990s. Recently I’ve been experimenting with different ways of applying inks and paints on fabric, which is an application stencils are very well suited for, along with mark making on walls, furniture, paper and other surfaces. You can cut your own stencils or use pre-made commercial stencils. In this project I’ll explain how to cut your own and show some samples of how they can be used.

Tools and materials

Stencil material

Pre-made stencils

X-Acto knife

Plain paper

Low-tack masking tape

Tracing paper

Pencil

Self-healing cutting mat

Tools for applying the ink such as: sponges, stipple brushes, foam brushes, ColorBox Color Blender, sponge daubers, Inkcessories

Assortment of paints and inks

Water containers including one large enough to hold stencils

Rags

Pallete knife

Pallete (can be plastic food container lid or temporary pallete such as a piece of freezer paper taped down to your work surface)

Freezer paper

Old baking pan or piece of cardboard

Optional – scrap art papers of assorted sizes, colors and weights

Optional – Baren

Optional – brayer

Optional – heat tool

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