GPP Crusade #19

Another Crusade, another great learning experience!!  I've never tried my hand at making or using stencils so this was a great way to begin.  After going to Hobby Lobby for the stencil material, Hotmark tool, and picture glass, I sat down on the floor of my sunroom to cut stencils.  Lots of great light and I didn't have to worry about the kiddos getting near the hot cutter or it flying off my desk (I am a terrible klutz).  Cutting the stencils was easier than I thought it would be, thanks to the great instructions Michelle gave.  Wheww!! I didn't realize it would be so stinky!  The smell of burning pastic, gackk!  I should have known better.  Melting plastic gives off all sorts of noxius fumes, no wonder my asthma acted up.  Next time I'll have better ventilation or a mask.

Here are a few pics of my foray into stencil land:

After seeing Michelle's flame stencils, I just had to make a set of my own <G>.  Here are the journal pages I made with my new stencils:

Watercolor using the bottom flames stencil in the previous pic.

Watercolor and charcoal. The top flames stencil used twice, plus a firebird and tall flame stencil.

My favorite.  Watercolor on crumpled, singed masa.  When I pasted it into my journal, the stark white journal paper surrounding it was rather jarring.  I rubbed some pastel on the journal paper so it blended  better with the paste-in.

Colored pencil on pastel.  I went back and reworked almost all of the images, but this one needed the most tweaking.  I think the original's lines were too thin and needed to be made larger in the stencil for a pencil to fit into them easier.