Ornate Stencil - Complete

Ornate Stencil - Complete, originally uploaded by maginthat.

I finally finished the ornate stencil I've been working on since stencil class began! I had to have a deadline...I'll be using it in the floor design for our bedroom. I promptly sprayed the design onto some ez cut stencil material so I can cut out another version that will be double the original. (shown on the right hand side)

I didn't incorporate enough bridges into the first design, so I'm going to try to remember to do that this time!!

This photo shows how the design looks when sprayed on paper! I LOVE it!!

Blogoversary

Jennifer at blueskysunburns is celebrating her 3rd year Blogoversary with a pretty incredible Giveaway! Lots of really cool stuff from her personal stash! Click the button above and you will be directed to her site to sign up!

Play Date

I had a play date with my little niece last week and we had so much fun! I had been telling her about all the creative things we had been doing in my stencil class and she was dying to try them out herself. We made a beautiful mess with fabric spray inks, stencils, Mod Podge, glitter glue, stickers, magazine cutouts....

Look how focused she is!

Our supplies.

Some of her artwork.

We used fabric spray dye because I didn't have a mask for her and I wasn't going to expose her to the toxic fumes in regular spray paint. I couldn't find traditional spray inks locally but these spray dyes worked very well as a substitute. The paper does buckle more with these paints and you also have to blot the paper with paper towels so they don't run together or smear. (unless that's the effect you're looking for)

Flower Power

flower power1, originally uploaded by maginthat.

More stencil fun! Masks, stencils, fabric spray paints, sharpie poster paint markers, toxic spray paint.

New Piece

My newest stencil work

Detail Photo 1

Detail Photo 2

Detail Photo 3

I've been wanting to try out spray inks as a less toxic, environmentally friendly option to spraypaint, but I checked out our local art supply stores and they weren't available. I found some pump spray paint for fabric and decided to experiment with that. The colors turned out really cool! There is definitely alot of buckling with this type of paint versus spraypaint. On the plus side, no toxic fumes to contend with, and I was able to spray indoors yesterday while it was pouring down rain outside!

Teddy aka Theodore, Ted, "T"

This is Teddy. Teddy is an incredible dog. He's a thirteen years old Welsh Corgi, and has a condition called Megaesophagus.


As a result of this condition, he has to eat and drink in an upright position, and I found that the easiest way to make him do this was to buy a trash can and stick him in it. (with pillows under and around him, of course!) Teddy doesn't understand why I torture him several times a day, making him eat his food while sitting in this ugly bucket. Not only does he have to eat his food and water in the bucket, but he also has to sit in the bucket for 20 minutes afterwards to keep his food from coming back up. What an outrage! Somedays, he sits in the bucket and waits quietly with the patience of Job.....a long suffering air about him. Other days.....watch out! He barks, he growls, he wiggles, and squirms, and even launches himself out of the bucket if he's feeling REALLY fiesty!

Isn't it hideous???? The bucket is just brown. Now you know that it offended my artistic sensibilites, but think of what it was doing to him. ;)

So I got a wild hair in the Pure Experimentation/Stencilry class I've been taking and I decided to make some improvements to this horrible eyesore.

TaDa!! Spraypaint and Stencils to the rescue!!!



See how happy he looks now??? Look at that big smile! :) (OK, so Corgis always look like they're smiling, but I know he really means it!)

"T" the SuperCorgi!!

Stay tuned....I'm not finished with the bucket design yet. I have plans to make a stencil of his head and incorporate that into the design!

Experimentation

Here are a few spraypainting experiments I created using my new stencil masks!

Fun!

Starting Over

As of May 29th, I joined the ranks of the millions of Americans who are currently unemployed.

Time to start over.

and....

Figure out what to do next.

What do I want to be when I grow up?? Will I ever grow up??

I've been in Sales for the past 6 years and the idea of doing that again fills me with DREAD....HORROR. (Ok, I'm being a little bit dramatic, but really!) Unless....
What if I were selling something that I really believed in.... or LOVED?? What if I were selling something that I created myself??

So....what have I been doing since May 29th? Well......I tore apart my bedroom...ripped up carpet, stripped up paint and sanded, painted the walls with this really crazy gold metallic paint that's so hard to apply that it's taken me 5 weeks to figure out how to fix it!
I now understand why renovating or building a house is considered to be hazardous for your marriage. I am a color girl! I love color and texture and lots of different colors and textures!! My husband, on the other hand, really loved the fact that every wall and ceiling and floor and sink and well....every surface in his house was either beige or white!


It only took me a year and a half to convince him to let me paint one room!



Meanwhile, I've been taking an online stencilry class with Mary Ann Moss over at Dispatch from LA. I needed some inspiration to get my creative juices flowing again! It's been an incredible experience and I highly recommend it!

Experiment on cardboard
A stencil I created using Mimi's trivet for inspiration.
We're creating stencilled artwork pages for our visual journals. I've been so caught up in the process of creating my own stencils that I haven't done much spraypainting on paper yet. Not to mention the fact that it's way too hot right now to be outside spraying for any length of time.

I've also been going on job interviews, reading lots of blogs, checking out Etsy shops, learning how to create a blog, thinking about starting a business, cooking exotic meals for my husband and myself, painting and more painting.....Whew! It's exhausting just writing about it!

This starting over business isn't so bad. I'm on a voyage of self discovery. I'm traveling to uncharted waters via the internet. I keep asking myself why didn't I do this sooner? The answer is that I was stuck. Stuck like Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby.
Sometimes it takes hard work and determination to become unstuck. Sometimes it takes being "laid off" from a job that makes you miserable. That's what it took for me.

I just got some new stencil masks in the mail yesterday and I can't wait to go try them out!

gotta run!

Cheers!