Balzer Designs Stencil Hop - Spring 2012!!!

Hello hello hello! Welcome to the spring 2012 version of the Balzer Designs Stencil Hop!!!



I was absolutely giddy when Julie asked me to participate in her hops this year! I got to pick which stencils I wanted to use, and this one jumped out at me right away! It's called "Pomegranate," and it's made (like all of Julie's stencils) by Crafter's Workshop. They were kind enough to send me both the 12 x 12" and 6x6" versions...To me, this stencil looks like an EXPLOSION OF GROOVINESS! I couldn't wait to dive in and see where the vibe would take me - ha. Here's how my little pomegranate party went...


I got out my watercolor journal, the 12 x 12 stencil, and three of my fave Mr. Huey Mists (by Studio Calico): Custard, Heirloom Blue and Estate Green.

First, I sprayed with Custard...

I forgot to take a picture of this part (doh!), but my next step was to cover the design elements with some Glossy Accents and let it dry. If you're not familiar with glossy accents, it's a clear fluid epoxy, that goes on like glue, and dries hard. I wanted to create a resist.


After it was completely dry, I went back and sprayed the whole page with Heirloom Blue and Estate Green. I tend to be an oversprayer (ha), so I really saturated it...

Then I took a baby wipe and smeared the mist around, and I ended up with this! I just love how the resist let the design show through so nicely!


And here's the finished journal page...
I added some handpainted circles, an image from the web, typed journaling, and the title, which was done with acrylic paint over gesso.

Let me show you some other things I did to make the most of the stencil during the process...

After I first sprayed the stencil onto my journal page, there was still a ton of ink on it, so I got out my jumbo journal and turned the stencil over (ink side down) and rubbed over the top of the whole thing...

It left me with this coool abstract image! I just took a baby wipe and rubbed the edges of it to get the soft yellow around it. This will be the start of a journal page to come...

There was still some ink left on the stencil, so I turned it right side up and used my baby wipe again on an already painted journal page. This created the soft, greenish design on my blue page. This will be another future page...


For my second project I used the 6x6 version to create these flowers...It was super easy to do. I just pounced some fluid acrylic paint through some individual pieces of the stencil. (I masked them off with tape first.) Then I created the flowers by adding petals and stems with a Pitt Pen. The white petals were colored with a poster-paint sharpie, and the negative space in the middle was done with colored pencils.

Here's a closeup...

To see what beautiful things the other hopsters created, check out their blogs here...

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
Leslie Jenison
Paula Phillips
Michelle LaPoint Rydell (that's me!)

If you want more info about the Pomegranate Stencil by Crafter's workshop, click here!

Thanks so much to Julie for inviting me to participate in this hop! I had a blast! I will be participating in another one on April 26, so stay tuned for that! Yee ha!