Seth Apter & StencilGirl Blog Hop

Welcome to the StencilGirl & Seth Apter Blog Hop!  I will be creating this fun-sized canvas (6x6) with Seth's Timeless stencil available at StencilGirl Products.

I began by giving my canvas a color wash and I sprayed lots of water on it creating some movement in the paint which I really liked.  Not having a plan at this point, I immediately "saw" a gorilla in the organic swirls.  Can you see him??

So I decided to "bring out" the gorilla with sketching and additional paint.

Then I put Seth's Timeless stencil to work using parts of it for jungle greens, some for gorilla texture, the ground and of course some abstract bananas!

I really love how versatile this stencil is, I had no idea where I was going to go with my canvas and I was still able to use the stencil to enhance my vision!

Here are some close ups of the finished canvas:

I finished him off with a "G" from Carolyn Dube's Jumbo Vintage Typwriter Alphabet stencil. I can see him hanging in a nursery one day!

Hope you enjoyed this stop ~ be sure to comment because EVERY comment in EVERY blog on the hop is eligible for the StencilGirl Giveaway in which 2 lucky winners will receive a set of all Seth's new releases! Giveaway will close May 4th at 11:59 pm CST.

Be sure to keep hopping with the team for inspiration and more chances to win!

Blog Hop Order

StencilGirl Talk

Seth Apter

Mary Beth Shaw

Mary C. Nasser

Linda Cain

Carolyn Dube

Kirsten Reed You are HERE

Linda Kittmer Go HERE next!!

Janet Joehlin

Judy Shea

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Paula Phillips

Art Journal Leftovers

The other day I didn't "feel" like painting a canvas.  I just wanted to play.  What a perfect time to pull out my art journal! 

Most of my pages are just blobs of experimentation with colors and texture ...but  in those experimentations I find happy discoveries!

I challenged myself to do something with this left over palette.  It was so pretty with all the colors, I just thought I HAD to make something with it instead of throwing it away!

I took some wet paint, on another palette and smeared it into my book.  Then I cut out birds and tree branches out of my dried palette paper.

To finish off the pages I stenciled various words from Carolyn Dube's Uplifting Words Stencil from StencilGirl Products.

It was very therapeutic!

The Giving Tree

At MaryBeth Shaw's Get your Golden On class at Random Arts, I played around created this canvas which I had planned on making into a bouquet of flowers and ended up making into a tree. 

I prepped the canvas with stenciled deli paper as the trunk and I used fine pumice gel with the Eddy Rose stencil from StencilGirl Products as the tree.

A wash of paint.

Then after lots of paint layers, I created the Giving Tree with a quote from the book.

My piece sold at my show this weekend and went home with this happy client!

And the Winner is...

Congratulations to:

TerryMarch 31, 2014 at 7:49 AM

i love day of the dead and your bag is great.

you are the winner of my Andrea DeMeng Day of the Dead Tote!  Email me at: kirstenreed@yahoo.com with your mailing information!

Get Your Golden On

I am a firm believer in "keep on learning".  I love to learn new things, I think it keeps my brain strong and my disposition young! (Like seriously in my mind I still feel like I am 30!) 

I recently was lucky enough to get away to a cozy little town in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains and create with great friends and my favorite paint line ~ Golden paints!  Mary Beth Shaw, owner of StencilGirl Products, a Certified Golden Artist Educator, led our class at Random Arts in Saluda, North Carolina.  She showed us so many wonderful techniques to make these products work for you in your art! If you have a chance to take a class with her, I would highly recommend it! You will leave with an arsenal of information to inspire your art to move to a new level!

Here we are (from left to right):  Carolyn Dube, Maria McGuire, Mary Beth Shaw, me and Jane Powell (owner of Random Arts)!

Pictured here are a few of my weekend creations.  One of which went home with a new friend, Monica Cummings.

If you would like to see upcoming classes by Mary Beth Shaw click here.  If you want more information on Random Arts and their upcoming classes, click here.

Get busy learning & creating!