WISH...an art journal page with PanPastel

Welcome to the StencilGirl & PanPastel Blog Hop! The StencilGirl team has been featuring wonderful PanPastels and StencilGirl stencils in their creations all week!  I hope you have been tuning in and learning all the versatility of these projects.

I decided to create a journal page.  I began with my favorite thing ~ collage ~ gluing down torn music sheets on my jumbo moleskin journal. I love to work BIG.  I then gave it a light white wash with Titanium White.

Before adding any PanPastels or other texture, I stenciled the word WISH with Carolyn Dube's Jumbo Typewriter stencils and some Teal paint.

I then took Andrea DeMeng's Free As a Bird and Fowl Play stencils and scraped molding paste through it in various parts of my journal page.  I also used Cecilia Swatton's Queen Anne's Lace stencil to create a garden of flowers.

After the paste dried, I did a light wash in watercolor.

After the watercolor wash dried, I began with some PanPastels for color mixing in Diarylide Yellow pan pastel in various areas, beginning the layers of my sky.

I used Magenta pan pastel on the flowers and came in with different layers of Bright Yellow Green, Chromium Oxide Green and Phthalo Green Shade PanPastels to create the stems, grass and brush.

I painted Titanium White inside the birds to block out the music notes and after they dried, I went over the texture on them lightly with Phthalo Blue PanPastel. As a finishing touch I went around the edges and into the sky with violet and turquoise PanPastels.  I then took my wet paintbrush and dipped it in the watered down white and flicked sprinkles over the entire page.

Here are some close ups:

Here is the whole page.

Here is a list all the PanPastel colors I used in my project.  

Magenta

Bright Yellow Green

Diarylide Yellow

Phthalo Green Shade

Chrom. Oxide Green

Phthalo Blue

Violet

Turquoise

These are the sponges I used to apply my pan pastels:

Angle Slice Round

Angle Slice Flat

Point Sponge Bar

Knife & cover No. 1 Round

They can be found on the PanPastel website.  For more ideas, be sure to "like" their Facebook Page!

Here are the stencils I used:

 

Keep Watching More Great Tutorials This Week with the StencilGirl Design Team.
Here are links to days past and ones for those coming up!

Monday

StencilGirl Talk

Mary Beth Shaw

Mary C. Nasser

Tuesday

StencilGirl Talk

Janet Joehlin

Jennifer Priest

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Wednesday

StencilGirl Talk

Gwen Lafleur

Kirsten Reed -- You are here today! :) 

Julia Kellogg

Thursday  - These you will have to come back and visit tomorrow!

StencilGirl Talk

Carolyn Dube

Maria McGuire

GIVEAWAY!!
Make sure you leave a comment because StencilGirl will be giving away a stencil per day for all four days and all comments are an entry to win!  Good luck!

We know after you see all the techniques we show you this week you are going to want to play too! Enter the GIVEAWAY to be eligible to win the prize below. Just leave a comment and tell us if you use PanPastels with stencils and your favorite technique. You can also leave comments on all of the individual posts this week on all the blogs from our team members for another chance to win! All comments within the 4 day period are eligible.

GIVEAWAY closes Sunday, August 3rd @ 11:59PM Central Time.

One comment per post please.

This is YOUR PRIZE if selected!!!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to check my other free tutorials on my website at

  Kirsten Reed Designs or just follow me on Bloglovin' and get them delivered to your inbox!

The Apron Strings That Bind Us ~ a mini bloghop!

WARNING:  This post is for non-perfectionists only. Do not attempt to read this post if you are a seamstress! I fully admit that I AM NOT!  My sloppy stitching may cause you to have nightmares, be sick to your stomach or worse.  Do not read further if you love perfection, order and all things cohesive.  Please do not attempt to look at these photos if you are prone to outbreaks of itching, heart palpitations or cringing if you like things to match.  This is not the project for you.  This product is the combination of random scribbles, giggles and stitching that added up to good time and some love.

I have a special tribe...I call them my art friends.  They are the people I have met and felt an instant connection to at these "art gatherings".  One of the reasons I love going to these events is finding "like-minded kindred spirits" and the retreats are packed with them ~ it's such a rush to be around creative, fun women! I feel so fortunate to have discovered this tribe.  Two members of that special tribe met up with me at Art-Is-You in Memphis ~ Carolyn and Maria.  I have known Maria for a few years since we met at an art retreat, and I met Carolyn at AIY Nashville. The girls introduced me to their sweet friend Julia.  Julia and I were separated at birth (although we didn't know this until we met at AIY Dixie)....now I can't imagine ever NOT being friends with her! We completed each others' sentences and "got each other" if you know what I mean.  Truly Special Tribe. 

So back in April at Art-Is-You Dixie,  Carolyn, Maria, Julia and I all signed up to take Linda Willis's apron class.  I must admit, I was a little hesitant since I am not patient enough to be a "good seamstress".  I am not careful, and I am "okay" with some mess.  But I really wanted to spend time with my friends since we rarely get a chance to meet up and I am always game to try something!

We had the BEST time!  Linda was soooooooooo super patient, generous and just all-around lovely to have as a teacher!  She was very hands-on and helpful and I learned so much! I love her ~ she is genuine, kind and quite funny.

She will be teaching two classes at Art Is You in Stamford, CT again if you want to sign up for one of her classes or for Carolyn's "Meet the Crazies" class, please click here.  Sign up soon before they fill up!!

I had to include this picture below, because I seriously busted out laughing!!! What was I doing here? Talking bras sizes? I don't know, but it was funny.  Clearly it was at the beginning of class, so I can't imagine I was being too silly...yet. And I wasn't being a good student either, I was chatting with Julia (my secret partner in crime).

We laughed .... A LOT.  We sang. We teased.  We painted. We met a new friend, Ahn.  We drew.  And we relaxed.  I must say that was what I felt most leaving her class. I felt relaxed. 

None of us finished our aprons, but we vowed to take them home put our finishing touches on them and do a big blog reveal together ~ so here it is!

I had quite a bit of random paint on mine to start with as I was loving trying all the fabulous products in class.  And of course there were tons of StencilGirl Stencils on it.    When I got it home I knew I wanted it to be more personalized to me.  So I started by adding some of my custom fabric with my own art designs on it (from Spoonflower) and sewing them on to the apron.

I then added on some words, more doodles with my Tulip dye pens and Fabric Markers by Sharpie.

This trim for the bottom of my apron was made my Linda and she gave it to me to add to the bottom. Swoon ~ I love it and I love that she is officially part of my apron! :)

I sewed on the pocket and voila ~ I have my official art teaching apron!  (Here is a super goofy pix my hubby took of me wearing it in my studio.)

I {heart} it! I will always think of my sweet friends and the special time we had every time I wear it!

Join my friends and hop along with us to see how different each of our aprons turned out! And please extend a special warm welcome to my lost "twin" Julia as she launches her blog and life in the colorful world of art after leaving a successful career in corporate America.   She truly defines what it means to be brave ~ love you Julia xxx!

Here is the Blog Hop Order:

Julia Kellogg 

Kirsten Reed 

Carolyn Dube 

Maria McGuire

Supplies Used

- Lots of StencilGirl Products! 

- Bits of trim and fabric pieces from my stash 

- Laughter  & Imagination

Food for Thought Friday

This made me laugh...you know who these people are!!! Happy Friday!

Back to basics...angel

Have you ever just thought about how fun and free it felt to be a kid?  I remember one of my favorite things to do was finger painting.  I loved the way it felt to have paint on my fingers and I loved seeing my finger "prints" inside the paint.

The other day I was working in my studio and I had this lovely collaged canvas with vintage papers and some stamps on it.  I knew I wanted to paint an angel but I really did not want her to be "stiff".  I wanted her to look and feel organic.

So I decided to use only my fingers to apply the paint.  Here is her transformation.

Next time you feel stuck in the same routine, challenge yourself to tackle your project in a new way!  Let me know about it!

Bloom with Joy today!

Hop on over to the StencilGirl Talk blog and watch how I used a variety of stencils, paint, fabric and paste to create this Joyful Floral bouquet!

Click HERE!

Food for Thought Friday

Wishing you all real ones...happy Friday!

StencilGirl & Traci Bautista Create Flower Power!

Welcome to the StencilGirl Blog Hop with Traci Bautista's new stencil line!

I received the Flower Party stencil to play with, which is perfect for me because I love to paint flowers!

I began by prepping my 12x24 canvas with a layer of Golden Fluid acrylic Naples Yellow paint and dabbed Titanium White through the stencil.  After that dried, I used a combination of Color Shine, Adirondack and Tattered Angel's Chalkboard sprays and made lots of layers and drips as seen below.

I added drips of Daler Rowley india ink in grass green.  This is one of my favorite supplies of all time. I adore the vivid color the inks give and the bright green just pops off the canvas!

I used the drips from the top to "create" my vase and painted it in with raw umber and gray.

I have been on a kick lately of NOT using my brushes as much as possible, because I love the organic feel it gives to my paintings.  I used my fingers to bring out, define, highlight and shadow my bouquet.

Here is the final result.

Some close ups:

Here is a picture of the supplies I used ~ most of which can be found here.

Hope you enjoyed this flower party and got some ideas stirring for another way to use Traci's stencils! 

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to check my other free tutorials on my website at

  Kirsten Reed Designs or just follow me on Bloglovin' and get them delivered to your inbox!

***STENCILGIRL GIVEAWAY***

Make sure you leave a comment because EVERY comment on EVERY blog is an entry to win FREE stencils on StencilGirl Talk!

TWO Lucky Winners will be chosen to win one  ENTIRE SET of Traci's new stencils.
Giveaway will close Sunday, July 27, 2014 at 11:59 pm CST.  That's two whole weeks to enter to win!!  Remember to keep hopping along with those artists listed below and the more comments you make the more entries! 

Good Luck!

BLOG HOP ORDER:

StencilGirl Talk

Traci Bautista

Mary Beth Shaw

Carolyn Dube

Jennifer Priest
Gwen Lafleur

Kirsten Reed You are HERE

Leslie Tucker Jenison Go HERE next

Mary C. Nasser

Julia Kellogg

Maria McGuire