A Stenciling Experiment

Good evening and Upstate South Carolina got the predicted 'weather' today. Nothing really drastic, just some pretty swirling snowflakes. I think the temps were in the mid 30's F. We're being advised that overnight & tomorrow will be much worse, with a sleety ice mixture and more snow. Usually we see quite a bit of traffic go by our home - as we live on the corner of 2 streets in a rather largish subdivision. There's been much less traffic today, but still some. In past winters, we've been able to stand at our front windows and watch our neighbors navigate the icy corner, heading for the steep hill that is the exit from the neighborhood. Very shortly, we see the same car come sliding slowly back past our view. We are both always thankful that we aren't the folks who are having to brave the roads to get to a job. (Well, I'm always more thankful than DH, who is sure He could manage the roads much better! NOT! He learned to drive in South Florida, just as I did!).

Let me say warm welcome to Ignacio Molina of Nicecrane Designs who has joined as my latest follower.

I'm sure that many of you visit here, know these beautiful Nicecrane images. I've seen them used so skillfully by many blogs that I follow, and just purchased some of the designs. (Check Redanne and Stamping with Klass to name 2 very enjoyable places where I had seen these designs used. There are quite a few others too, but these particular blogs were fresh in my memory). I finally got my brain & my fingers coordinated at the same time and ordered a couple of the bird images. You do know, I like birds, right? See my lovely new blog header?? Well, it was designed by Ignacio of NiceCrane and I am just over the moon with how pretty it is. THANK YOU, Ignacio!

Decided to change some of the other colors to complement the new header. What do do you think? And please do yourself a favor, and visit Nicecrane to see the beautiful images...which are extremely reasonably priced. Stay tuned...I hope I can soon do justice to the pretty bird sets I ordered.

I'm sharing my stencil experiment I mentioned in an earlier post. It's really more of an example of: Don't do what I did!

- card stock was coated with gesso and dried overnight. Used some modeling paste over a Memory Box vines stencil. Think I used a stencil that was more intricate than I should have for this attempt and also probably got the paste on too thick. Let this dry overnight, and made sure to clean the stencil immediately when I lifted it from the paste. Still had a little shifting mishap as I lifted the stencil, which yielded a raised surface after drying. (if that makes sense..it was a rough raised place that should not have been there!)  Used a sand block to sand the dried surface, and that helped.

- painted some acrylic paints in golden & turquoise greens that were mixed with a cream color - over the entire surface;  using a small brush, painted in the depressed areas of the vine motif, with the turquoise green. I was liking the effort a bit better after this dried.

- smudged some Viva Décor Inca Silver paste with my finger over 2 corners - where you see the glimmer. Used some Viva Stempel paint in a turquoise color and smudged that around in some areas. The silver gleams nicely - no that is not a camera flash, but the silver that you see!

- MB Serene Bird die in navy blue Bazzill, popped up over a Die-namics Leaf Filled Flourish.
The leaf was cut from a snippet of dp, further shaded with copics. Lighter green leaf  was in the snippets pile, probably is a MB diecut from white c/s, shaded with copics. Used some of the 3D Crystal Effects on the leaves, let that dry overnight. Attempted to add the MB leaf around the bird with Glossy Accents. Where it touched the navy bird, the GA left 2 small smears. Thought it would dry clear. Didn't! Tried covering the edge with some glitter, intending to shade the glitter using dark blue copics. Alas, the copics pulled up the glitter. (I've seen that done on some other blogs, so not sure what I did wrong.).  This bird looks like he's been at our bird feeder and got some ice crystals on his feathers! I don't like it that he looks like he's got sugar spilled all over him, so this will go in the samples stash.

I had been a bit dissatisfied with the stencil results at first. As I kept working on the piece, I was liking it a bit better. As I was putting the dies atop the piece, I was getting happier. When I got the Glossy Accents smears on the bird, I was not pleased. I've always heard this stuff dries clear...well, it didn't on this navy Bazzill.

Dream sentiment is from mirror paper snippet using an Elizabeth Craft die. I enjoyed this experiment enough to try it again. I will use my Aileen's Easy Flow glue to adhere in future. I know this stuff dries clear...

Hope you enjoyed my ramblin's this evening. Also hope that should you be in the path of this storm front, that your power is staying on, snow is not endangering your roof, or any dreadful stuff like that. We're staying cozy, and I even cooked today - also baked a carrot cake for snacking tonight. Remember...I don't cook!

Thanks for your visit, and many Cyber Hugs. Come again when you can.