Hi friends! Thanks for joining me on the THIRD and final day of the StencilGirl Products and Mixed Media Inspiration Deck™ blog hop! I personally love hops because they showcase a variety of art from so many different creatives. If my project here today isn’t your cup of tea, I’m sure you will admire that of another design team member. And what is a blog hop without a GIVEAWAY? StencilGirl is giving away a $25.00 gift certificate and a deck of these pretty special cards by Kiala Givehand! Scroll to the bottom of this post to see how to enter to win.
So let’s get started. Here’s my completed project. Want to know how I got here? Ah, let me introduce you to my assistant, the Mixed Media Inspiration Deck.
What’s a Mixed Media Inspiration Deck you say? Well it’s a deck of prompts, better known as a handy art tool when you need a little extra nudge in getting started. You know, have you ever hit a creative wall, just didn’t know where to go or better yet, how to get to the next application? This might do the trick. I like to think of it as a little game too. You draw a card and then do what it says. Easy. Of course my reward might be a little bit of chocolate afterwards, but hey, that’s ok too, right? Anyway, this was my first time using them but it won’t be the last. If you have been creating for a while, this is a great way to get outside of the box and challenge how you approach art. Here’s how the deck comes…
Now I’m going to admit I might have cheated just a little bit in the beginning (ssshhh!) by using a piece of printed watercolor paper as my base because it was just too darn perfect to have to recreate a similar piece. When I was done with it, I think I pretty much made it my own. That was ok, right? :). No rules. Here are the blank sheets before I got ahold of them.
And my first card said to do this. “Start with several drops of watery watercolors and blow with a straw”. Got it! Thought I would try out the new Pantone 2018 color of the year, Ultra Violet, against the green background. 
Next I chose the “go wild card”. For real? Yep. And I won’t say I went wild but I definitely had a great adventure using all these stencils!
Stencils can be used to make something dimensional too! Using the lavender paper as my background, I placed Rae Missigman’s Modern Buds stencil onto the page and spread texture paste on top of it then carefully lifted the stencil off. After the paste dried, I came back in with watercolor paints to add depth and then trimmed the whole thing out.
“Doodle a border around the edge of the surface”, the card said. So I chose to use one of Traci Bautists’s fabulous stencils. Go here. By brushing ink over the stencil, I created a soft brush of color that bordered the edges. I came back in and added my defining details with a thin, permanent black pen. Notice I brushed more of my Modern Buds into the corner.
I always add sentiments. Here I used Seth Apter’s Texture and Explore stencil.
I included my two words for 2018, “intentional” and “courage” and dated it with MaryBeth Shaw’s ATC Mixup 1 stencil. (I wrote my words to make it more personal.)
Applying 3-D embellishments, as the card suggested, can make a difference. I used some hooks as “bullet points”, measuring tape to draw the eye out and foam dots to raise up the flowers.
And I eventually added details with a black and white pen.
Let’s see how many cards did I use? Did I win? Wait, who was I playing with? Having a hard time jumping in on art? These cards might be the winning hand. Check them out here. And while you are checking things out, take a look at Cindy Gilstrap’s page. Bet she has an awesome perspective. And then there’s more to see…
You started here with me…Debi Adams
Visit these other ladies too!
If you missed the past two days, you will want to go back for sure!
January 10
Mary Beth Shaw
Kiala Givehand
Tina Walker
Belen Sotelo
January 11
Mary C. Nasser
Sherry Canino
Louise Nelson
Torrie Gass
*********************************GIVEAWAY***********************************
One lucky winner will receive both a $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products
AND a Mixed Media Inspiration Deck™ Empowerment Edition !
Visit these amazing artists’ blogs and comment for your chance to win!
The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN!
(One comment per blog please.)
You have until Sunday, January 14th at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.
Winner will be announced on
StencilGirl’s Facebook page on Monday, January 15th.
Lovely project! I especially liked the hooks as bullet points – will use that sometime. Thank you for the inspiration!
LOVE everything about this! Color choices, dimension of flowers, EVERYTHING! Your choices were spot on.
Woh! What a beautiful page! love the way you used the “”Modern Buds” stencil.
Awesome sauce! Would love to try these cards. Thanks for sharing:)
Love the colors! Green and purple look amazing together…definately going to play with these in my journal. Thanks for the inspiration!
Such gorgeous layers! I enjoy seeing how you have done this! These cards look like so much fuN!
Oh, this project has such a beautiful mix of green and Ultra-violet that it captures my heart. ~Rachel Bell bellbrzs (at) cox (dot) net
The results of your play is beautiful. Thanks so much
Thank you, sweet project. I love the stencils you used too! Great idea.
I love what you’ve made! glorious style! xo
I love your project. I never thought to make an embellishment with a stencil– this is a great take away for me. Thanks for sharing!!!
Hi Debi, I love what you did. Beautiful result. I am a color person and I noticed my comments always mentioning how much I like the colors used. No exception here. The starting watercolor sheets are lovely.
Fun page, interesting concept. Thanks for sharing and a chance to win.
Janelle
I like that modern buds stencil, have it myself. I love the way you used all the different stencils. And your colors are lovely.
Love everything about this……..from the stenciling to the use of texture paste/stencil to create a 3-D embellishment (never thought about doing this before!), to the tape measure (huge number geek here). Very awesome. I’m intrigued by the inspiration deck concept…..I can see it being very useful for my newbie-self when I just don’t know where to start.
Such a lovely page! Thanks for sharing.
Great results from using the deck! I love what you did with the 3D flowers and the Traci Bautista stancil.
Wowzers! the layers, the depth…your achieved some amazingness here!!
I have a seamstress friend who would love this card even more than I do!
This is a beautiful page….just love the colors and those flowers are killer. Thank you. Oh, and I’m not on Facebook.
cool!!
Wow – I love that you did NOT start with a blank page, that you used frienenemies but it worked so well, and the embellishments are very creative!
very pretty! I completely agree with you about the variety of styles from various creatives – thanks for sharing yours! kathed (at) gmail (dotcom)
I love how you improvised on the first layer starting with the watercolor-ed paper! Excellent choice of colors too!
Really like your page. Very nice!
I like the little sun shapes the watery paint & straw blowing technique created. Very cute!
Love your step by step for this gorgeous creation! So pretty.
I love your selections and the depth of the piece.
Its amazing…longer you look at the finished card you keep noticing more & more of the layers. How fun is that!
Looks like you really enjoyed playing with these cards … and with fabulous results!
Wonderful project!
Yes! The color combination is so gorgeous. And the stencils, wonderful! loriegarver at (gmail) (dot com)
The inspiration cards look like so much fun to play with. You cant keep your page empty for very long. Love how you used the stencils and colors in your art piece.
I am not sure I understand. Were these watercolors you did on a previous play or a commercial product? I love the colors and blending. I love your work. What fun!
Love your use of watercolor and black ink.
Such a gorgeous piece, thanks so much for sharing your work and a chance to get my hands on both the fab stencils and those inspiring cards!!
Lovely!!
I am not so much into making cards, but I love your ideas and will be incorporating them into my journal pages. As I haven’t been doing journalling for very long, my arsenal of ideas isn’t too full, but these cards and the ideas I’ve seen during the blog hop have enriched it tremendously. Thank you!
Really enjoyed watching your process and how you used the inspiration deck. Such fun!
Wow! So much creativity. The ruler, the eye hooks, the list was endless!
My two favorite colors, and such a skillful use of the stencils! It’s gorgeous!
This is just so lovely! Makes me want to reach out and touch it! Thanks for sharing and for making my stencils look so cool!
Rae
I’m a big fan of you Rae! Love your work and your stencils. Thanks for leaving a comment :).
This is so pretty! Thanks for sharing your process! csinkmistress at gmail dot com
Great inspiration- thank you
Debi, your design is such a stand-out, your process imaginative, and your explanation so enjoyable and clever! Thank you!!
I love love love this! The greens are fantastic and I live the elements. Would you consider making this again in a video? I can’t seem to get the ideas of how you did some of the aspects. Journaling with all the different techniques seems to be a difficult concept for me to grasp. I love this project and would love to try it.
I sent you a private e-mail :). Thanks for your sweet note!
Using a three-dimensional piece really made the card stand out! (Sorry, couldn’t resist–it’s a bad family habit to pun).
alhrobkin (at) aol (dot com)
Very cool!
Beautiful project!
Love the ghost effect of the soft stenciling behind tha stenciling on the top card!
Stencils as 3-d/collage elements, great possibilities there.
I loved what you did with the Modern Bud stencils. Your use of colors and the layering techniques on the card are just amazing. Thank you for sharing such wonderful work! Great examples of how to use stencils! Beautiful!
Wow, beautiful work with amazing colors!
What a beautiful piece! I love the many techniques you used!
Your project turned out super fantastic using those prompt cards.
Love how your created the background and flowers with those color combo.
Thank you for the inspiration and a chance to win the $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products
and a Mixed Media Inspiration Deck™ Empowerment Edition !
Love the measuring tape! Beautiful colors
I love that you popped the flower off the page and the measuring tape is a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing!
My husbands art mentor says that green and purple is a hideous combo and to never ever do it. Its one of my faves and you’ve proven why! Thank you!
ooohhh I LOVE this
So much awesomeness
The 3D embellishments are amazing!
That’s so lovely ! Love the colors, the narrative, I love everything, I had a lovely time reading your text and watching your pics! Thanks a lot for that !
This is so beautiful! I love the green and purple. What an awesome background.
Kate
Love the color combinations and what looked like fabric. not sure if it was the look of fabric or actual fabric?
Hi Tova,
It was actually paper with grooves like fabric. Pretty cool, huh?
I love this!! Beautifully beautiful. Lisajake128@yahoo.com
In the 5th picture down there are three stencils. What is the middle one? I love that pattern and can’t find it on stencil girl…. do you know which one it is?
This makes me think I really can be successful with mixed media!
Hi Tina,
It really breaks it down. I think you would love it!
Debi