I love playing with stencils and unlike Brenda, I am not creative enough to make my own. All of my stencils are "store bought" and I was thrilled to see the new stencils that my friend, Terri Stegmiller, designed for Stencil Girl Products. I She made my day when she asked me to try them out and join her blog hop.
Keep reading and learn how you can win two of Terri's stencils for your own art tool box.
Terri sent me Striped Circles and Straight Stems. Leslie, Margaret and Brenda showed some great ways to use stencils to create fabrics. Deborah created two fabulous small art quilts with her stencils. For mine, I decided to do what I always do....create postcards!
We rent out our guest house and I always leave a handmade postcard as a thank you gift for the guests. I needed some new cards for guests arriving this weekend.
You don't always have to use the entire stencil. You can easily mask off a single motif or part of a motif and that's what I did for these cards. When masking off a stencil use low tack painters tape and jsut be careful when removing the tape that you do not tear any of the delicate areas of the stencil.
When I mix paint I like to mix my colors "lightly" so that I have a mottled effect in the image. For these cards I used a sponge to apply the paint and I purposely did not try to fill the whole stencil image. I wanted some rough and incomplete edges. What did I make?
The same thing I've been making since 3rd grade art class. A sun and flower! See the variety of color in that stem? That's from doing a poor job of mixing the paint....and I love it.
I stitched down some of the scraps from my Dancing Stars quilt and had a quick and cute little postcard.
Six cards, actually! Now it's your chance to win two of these stencils for yourself. Just leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner next Friday. I'll draw 2 additional names to receive 2 of my scrappy flower postcards.
Be sure to visit the other blogs on the hop because you have the opportunity to win on each of them! No one has drawn winner names yet so you still have time to enter each one.
Tuesday, Jan. 22 - Deborah Boschert
Wednesday, Jan. 23 - Margaret Applin
Thursday, Jan. 24 - Brenda Gael Smith
Friday, Jan. 25 - Vicki Welsh
Saturday, Jan. 26 - LuAnn Kessi
Sunday, Jan. 27 - Sue Bleiweiss
love the "Sun" and your colour mixing. Would love to win these stencils.
Posted by: marsha | January 25, 2013 at 09:15 AM
Your guest house visitors should be delighted with the postcards.
Posted by: Tesuque | January 25, 2013 at 09:28 AM
very cool idea!!! Thank for sharing Vicki!!
Posted by: Kelly Hutchens | January 25, 2013 at 09:34 AM
Fabulous! I love your flower!
I would love to win your stencils! (or postcards!!)
Posted by: Gill | January 25, 2013 at 09:49 AM
Very nice ideas using the stencils. The postcards are wonderful too. I love your work and would enjoy winning either the postcards or the stencils.
Posted by: Kathryn | January 25, 2013 at 09:50 AM
What a great use for the stencils. The post cards are wonderful.
I would love to win the stencils or the postcards.
Either would be a welcome addition!
Posted by: Leslie | January 25, 2013 at 09:52 AM
That's such a thoughtful gift to leave. Love the cards. Thanks so much for sharing.
Posted by: Kathleen Wilson | January 25, 2013 at 09:53 AM
Your cards are always so creative! Great use of your stencils!
Posted by: Deb Levy | January 25, 2013 at 10:10 AM
I have no shame. I am coveting one of your scrappy flower postcards to add to my special collection. Sighhhhhhhh.....
Posted by: Gabriela Divine | January 25, 2013 at 10:11 AM
I love what you did here. They are so simple yet really strong visually. Love those two stencils!
Posted by: roberta | January 25, 2013 at 10:19 AM
Loved the idea of taping off part of the stencil! Thanks for the chance to win.
Posted by: LynneP | January 25, 2013 at 10:28 AM
Love your sweet postcards! I having been following this blog tour and have seen so many great techniques for using these stencils. I never would have thought a striped circle would become a sun!
Posted by: Patty | January 25, 2013 at 10:32 AM
what a great way to use the stencils - love your postcards thanks for the tips!
Posted by: What Comes Next? | January 25, 2013 at 10:32 AM
Vicki! your flowers are so dang cute! Great idea, and how fun is that? i've always been a fan of your postcards! Have a great weekend.
Posted by: Leslie McNeil | January 25, 2013 at 10:56 AM
love how you masked out the stencil
Posted by: Linda Germain | January 25, 2013 at 10:59 AM
Very creative. I like the circle stencil best and isolating both motifs makes for great post cards! Woo hoo!
Posted by: elle | January 25, 2013 at 11:09 AM
I love your cards !!!
Posted by: Sylviane | January 25, 2013 at 11:10 AM
I have always admired fabric postcards, and you make them look so stress-free...like I could maybe actually make one myself!
Posted by: Eileen Foley | January 25, 2013 at 11:13 AM
Everyone on the blog hop has has had such innovative ways to use those stencils. Love your flower cards!
Posted by: sophie | January 25, 2013 at 11:17 AM
Lovely postcards you made! Should love to win those stencils!
Posted by: Gunilla Börjesson | January 25, 2013 at 11:24 AM
Really like the post cards. Very springy.
Posted by: Margaret | January 25, 2013 at 11:27 AM
Wooow such a nice stencils!
Love it a lot!
Posted by: Sandra | January 25, 2013 at 11:37 AM
I like your semi-blended paints to add interest. Your cards turned out so well. Thanks for showing off Terri's stencils and for hosting this giveaway.
Posted by: Kim / SeeingStars | January 25, 2013 at 11:51 AM
I think that striped circle might be my favourite stencil yet. I'd love to win it.
Posted by: Aidreu | January 25, 2013 at 11:54 AM
You always come up with such interesting ideas for your cards and you seem to be able to do that very quickly. These are so happy looking.
Posted by: laceflower | January 25, 2013 at 12:00 PM