Create art & exercise your sense of pareidolia with StencilGuts

I look for patterns in clouds where they do not actually exist, for example: a pigeon wearing glasses, sitting reading a book or an alligator eating a suitcase, so imagining four projects with Stencil Guts (Dirty Random Guts and Flourishes) was instantaneous. The torc and apology came out better than I envisioned. I think the poem I wrote to go with my dragons is a sweeter than the collage (but doing is learning, right?! The ornament is a silly bit of fun.

Spike-o-saurs and Aliens, a Tribal Torc

I live in the Southwest and the moment I laid eyes on these gut shapes hieroglyphs, kokopelli, aliens, herd beasts, stegosaurus– came to mind.

I can’t stand to wear anything around my neck for more than a few hours so the necklace had to be light yet durable and come off easily when I need to be free.

Materials:
Stencil Guts – 3 beasts and 2 aliens
Carol Wiebe’s mini Circle Tower stencil for February 2016 StencilClub, and
a corner of the 9×12 stencil from an upcoming StencilClub release. See it on StencilGirl Talk on April 1.
ICE Resin®
Iced Enamels – Turquoise and Ivory Relique Powders and the Medium
Silver Glitz
Canvas
Metalic Acrylic Paint
2 jump rings
Silk sari ribbon, 2 colors
Chain
Needle and embroidery thread

Tools:
Exacto knife
Non-stick craft mat
Paint brushes or sponges and a disposable paint brush for resin
Cups, stir sticks, and tooth picks
Scissors and paper to make pattern
Baby wipes
Craft Heat Gun

Instructions:
1. Paint the front sides of your StencilGuts with metallic paint. Let dry then stencil some dimension on top. Use an exacto knife to trim excess.
2. Lay out your necklace elements on paper and make your torc pattern and then cut it out of canvas.
3. Place canvas on a non-stick craft mat.
4. Paint a coat of Iced Enamels Medium on fabric. The fabric will ripple, but don’t let this worry you in the least.
5. Sprinkle liberally with Relique Powder, mostly turquoise with just a hint of ivory and a hint of the glitz.
6. Melt with a craft heat gun aimed about an inch off the surface.
7. Sew on the chain and sari.
8. Mix ICE Resin per manufacturer instructions.
9. Use a disposable paint brush to add a layer of resin to the fabric.
10. Place your painted StencilGuts.
11. Drip a little ICE Resin over the tops of your elements with your craft stick and nudge them with a toothpick if they move out of place.
Tip: ICE Resin dries crystal clear and hard on everything but fabric so your torc will have just the right amount of flexibility.
12. Torc is ready to wear after about 12 hours of drying time.

 

I adore how earthy this turned out. Now  to make earrings and a bracelet to match!

Apology Card

It’s an exercise in discovery to turn your Stencil Guts different directions and see what appears.

 

          These two Grand Dames, based on the plumage of their hats, are from either the time of the French Revolution or perhaps the Edwardian era and they are quite upset that they clearly purchased the same hat at the millinery. Apparently that led to a severely unladylike row at the club.

See the hoof-like hands pointing? The wide open mouths exclaiming, “I bought mine first!” and “I hope you purchased a broom to go with that hat.”

 

          Open mouth. Insert foot. We’ve all done it. “I’m sorry,” is about all you can say after an argument that leaves your bestie feeling you are, ahem….

 

The “B” and “W” are included in the envelope loose.

 

          Now that the grand dames are once again friends, where shall they go next? I know! I’ll stencil on those hats a bit more and ship them across time to the Kentucky Derby!

 

          I stenciled on velum for the first time and used the Apple Chancery stencil. No guarantees, but you are likely to find this StencilGut shape as part of the “Flourishes” package.

Castle and Dragons

1. Paint on Flitter glue.

2. Sprinkle on flakes of Flitter.

3. Lightly scrub off excess.

4. Make dragon wing by making Flitter paper and cutting.

5. Glue on wings.

A Lullabye for the Dragons Sleeping in My Garden

by Carol J. Baxter, ©2016

Sleep little dragons
‘midst petals of rose
stars for your blanket
‘neath the moon you repose

Sleep little dragons
softly sings the brook
nightingale accompanies
in our storybook

Sleep little dragons
whilst bunnies stand guard
dream your big dragon dreams
soaring high, flying afar

Sleep now, little dragons
for she loves you true
roses bloom on the morrow
in diamond-like dew

The Princess in the castle
will come out to play
as golden dawn bathes earth
in a brand new day

Dragon Christmas Ornament

Materials:

Suzi Dennis’ 6×6 Circle Up exclusive StencilClub stencil

StencilGuts: Random Guts

Acrylic paint

Piece of old sheet music

Flitter – flakes of color by Indigo Blu

Crystal bead

Glass ring made bottom of a wine bottle (bezel)

ICE Resin (how to video)

Jump Ring, a bit of chain, and silk sari for hanging ornament.

 

Do:

Stencil sheet music.

Glue paper to base of ring and let dry. I was super lazy and added jump rings and chain at this stage. I highly recommend punching a rivet through the dried resin and doing this step last. Trust me, you’ll avoid leakage.

Mix ICE Resin per manufacturer instructions.

Place dragon and bead.

Drip a thin layer of resin into bezel and let dry overnight. I have to admit that the more I look at the “dragons” they look more like aardvarks… I am at a loss of what to create based on an aardvark.

 

Here’s wishing you see lots of possibilities whether you are gazing at clouds or sorting out StencilGirl StencilGuts,

Carol

 

p.s. Check out all the other fabulous StencilGuts projects by:

StencilGirl Talk
Mary Beth Shaw
Mary C. Nasser
Janet Joehlin
Gwen Lafleur

and enter the giveaway by commenting below!

GIVEAWAY

StencilGirl Products will be giving away StencilGuts from EACH category
(Geometric Shapes, Birds, Cats & Rabbits, Flourishes, Hands & Body and Dirty Random Guts)
to one lucky winner!

Visit all the blogs on today’s hop and comment to win!

The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN!
(One comment per blog please.)

You will have until Saturday, March 26th at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.

Winners will be announced on
StencilGirl’s Facebook page on Sunday, March 27th.

StencilGuts are only available while supplies last.