Oh hey and happy Friday my friends! You are at the right place if you are looking for projects for the Squared-Off Swap Hop by StencilGirl® and if you weren’t looking and just happened by, boy are you in for a treat! I’m Debi Adams and I was the lucky recipient of art squares by Creative Team Members Natalie May, Silvia Souza, Sandee Setliff and Cheetarah Cheeda! Wow, what a great group of diverse artists. Now the challenge to the swap was to create something with all four artists pieces. The fact that these weren’t necessarily a collaborative effort as far as color and style goes, made it a challenge, however, I decided to make it more of an “adventure”. ;). It’s all in perspective, right? Lol.
Just a peek of a few things I created. Snips here and pieces there made these greeting cards more of collage art on a small scale and a lot more doable for me.
Here is what I was given to work with… The white and blue substrate was by Natalie May. I was able to mist it with water and the shimmery mists floated the color onto the white. So nice. (See the new piece in the photo above in the bottom, left corner).
Of all the cards I created, this middle strip of images, is the most modern and clean. I love the fact that all the artists work is side by side, as if they were all sitting down together creating art! I envision community when I see this. Visually, I added touches of gold to each of the art pieces using Finetec’s Gold Watercolor Palette with a water brush so that the frame and envelope coordinated.
Sure love this body image by Pam Carriker done in gold by Cheetarah. It was my focal point here. “Behind the scenes” were the various squares cut or torn into different shapes and mounted onto watercolored paper. I’m a fan of dimension so I added the raised, circle-punched, images and adhered the stencil sentiment. (Do you own that sentiment stencil? Ah, it’s a fav and a go-to for me!) I added a few stitches here and there to finish off the card.
Sometimes you can spread the design onto several different art bases as seen below. The substrate on the top left had the small wheel design already in it. (Created by Sandee Setliff using this stencil by Andrew Borloz). I continued the design with a similar pattern onto the mid to bottom right of the substrate so that there was a flow to the card. The other pieces were added to make an overall collage effect.
Again, I added “rings” punched from Natalie’s cardstock for dimension and a sentiment by Hero Arts.
It’s fun to play and make things whimsical and quirky too! Hand-cut circles from the different squares and a bunch of mark-making with black and white pens provided the focal point and gave definition. The pieces were then adhered to a watercolored base, where I added more mark-making. A small strip was secured at the bottom to add visual interest. Did I mention that I had to add Rae Missigman’s Repetition stencil onto that strip? It goes with me everywhere.
Because I was on a roll, I had to keep going, right? Definitely the messiest of all my cards, I used every teeny tiny piece remaining from the four squares. See Silvia Souza’s pieces at the top and bottom? I added some texture paste to Cheetarah’s stenciled art to make a focal point for my card and used it for the sentiment as well. The completed card was “signed and sealed” with string and turquoise stones. A bit outside of the lines for me but oh so fun. I made this card AFTER I took the first photo because honestly, I could.not.stop.
Well, I think I’m finally done. Maybe. Do you find that it’s hard to get ideas rolling and then all of a sudden you can’t stop them? Takes me nearly 2 hours to get up and going somedays. And, then there are procrastination issues and aging. Let’s not go there. Oh hey, did you happen to see I used my three techniques from the StencilGirl Studio “The Art of Cardmaking” video in every card. Can you identify them? The video is a great tool to take your art on into a card making. It’s fun and easy. Check it out here.
And since this is a BLOG HOP, make sure to stop on over at Silvia Souza’s blog and see her incredible art! I know I am going to!
XO,
Debi
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This Blog Hop has a ****Giveaway****! Be sure to enter by commenting on the blogs. The more blogs you comment on the more chances you have to win one of four $25 gift certificates for stencils from StencilGirl® Products. Comment by May 3, 2019. Winner notified by email May 6th.
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If you missed someone along the way, you can catch up here by clicking on their link…
Debi: I love how you made the collage pages your own in the cards! I am so glad you are part of StencilGirl! xoxo Carol
Wow gorgeous cards! Love the one with the gold envelope. pinned it for inspiration 🙂
Love the cards!!!
Such wonderful cards! What a fun and creative hop!
Such a fun idea for a blog hop! Love your cards……each time I scroll back I notice new small details. The papers you received are amazing and so diverse…….great job making them work together.
You certainly made great use of your four artist’s papers. I love your use of embellishments and how the individual pieces also appear related to each other.
How fabulous are these! So colorful, yet clean and medern.
I love your collages and cards, absolutely gorgeous! You took the art by others and created works that are your own too!
Fantastic projects. Love the free-form
of the “painting”. thanks for
sharing.
txmlhl(at)yahoo(dot)com
Those are spectacular cards! Truly wonderful! Cfrailey64(at)gmail(dot)com
Always, Always Beautiful art! Delicious!
The colors are divine and your cards are so creative! Always eye-candy! ~Rachel
Man, I am LOVIN’ the cards! Who wouldn’t love to get one!
Oh My Goodness – I freaking LOVE what you have done with this Swap – those pieces of mine are suited to you PERFECTLY! Love the way that you made the Lindy Stamp Gang Magicals work for your project!
These are amazing
You nailed it! Lovely cards.
Debi, I am so glad I waited until I had plenty of time to really let these collage pieces fill my mind. Each of the stenciled pieces were beautiful unto themselves and your compositions really made them shine! I can’t even pick a favorite, they are all so beautiful! Whoever receives these gorgeous cards is in for a treat! Thanks so much for sharing your talents and creative ideas with us!
Aksbarchitect1(at)gmail(dot)com
Beautiful cards! I especially live the ones with circles in them. I’m always crushing on circles!
Really like how you turned them all into cards!
Enjoying the Squared-Off Swap Hop! Awesome card designs with pretty details!
What a splendid array of cards! I love the way you took the papers you were given and created shapes and sizes from them that worked for you in your compositions, rather than being tied to using large pieces of the stencil collages.
These are the kind of cards that I keep in a special box in my closet forever! I don’t received them very often – but when I do, I treasure them!
Thanks for sharing
Love your cards! Very cool ideas!
Love the way you used these papers in card making…so very colorful! Gotta try this with my out of control stack of stenciled gelli prints!
Oh, these are gorgeous! Can’t wait to make some of my own!
Paper and thread that’s where it’s “ART” ….mraz
Fun,Fun,Fun…..mraz
what lovely cards you’ve created!
I just love these. You’ve taken some gorgeous papers and made some inspiring cards. TFS
Fantastic use of those great papers! I really like the cards you made-especially that birthday one.
I love them all!
I agree with all the comments posted by these creative people. I love the circles and the use of the warm and vibrant colors on your beautiful cards.
Wow…such a gorgeous piece you made,love every cards…Very nicely used this papers,stenciling,love it dear
Hugs
Rituparna
I love your sense of design and color placement. These turned out beautifully!
WOW, WOW, WOW — I don’t have any words to express how much I like what you did. Frame them or send one to me. What an inspiration! How much fun. You make me wish I had time right now to go play with paper and colour. Thank you for sharing. I will be back and look at these again.