Hot Glue Stencils- A How-to Tutorial

I was quite fascinated by the videos and posts I have seen lately on homemade Hot Glue Stencils, and after doing a little research have discovered the original idea was from Traci Bautista, and she has a walk through on her blog, if you want to check it out, just click on her name. :)
So, I shared my discovery with my sister and art friend, Beckie and she asked if I would try out the technique and write up a little tutorial on how I was able to make this technique work.
Well, it was a piece of cake!!! I really thought there would be a pretty big margin of error, and I would likely fall into that error section, but NOPE! Even I was able to do this and make it work. :)
Below is the YouTube video I created on how to make the actual stencils, and then below that I will post the pictures and info on how I used the stencils, in a couple of ways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZAFRxkoQqY

Ok- and here is how I used my homemade Hot Glue Stencils:

First I put some newsprint down on my table, and then put two 8 1/2 X 11 inch pieces of white cardstock on top of the newsprint, and then arranged my stencils.

Then I gathered a few spray inks- the brand I have are Color Mists by www.OutsideTheMargins.com, I have had these for several years- I mean like at least 6 years, and they are still good, and have only had a minor clog, that took very little to fix. I have been quite happy with them. :)

Then I sprayed the paper with the stencils sitting on top, I wanted to use several colors, so just as a helpful hint - If you don't want brown or muddy colors, use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, and not opposite on the color wheel - So on one side I used, green, blue and purple, and the other side I used yellow and bright pink, as seen below.

After I sprayed the ink, I removed the stencils and dropped the stencils up-side-down onto another sheet of newsprint to allow the excess spray ink to drip off.

 

While I waited to let my sprays dry, I cleaned up the stencils with a baby wipe:

Next, I wanted to add some more texture and layers, so I dug out some acrylic paint- I have many brands and kinds, it doesn't matter if it is fancy paint, or cheap paint- anything will work.

When you apply paint, you want to put it on the bottom part of the stencil. The FLAT side. Especially when using letter or word stencils, because if you don't the image will not transfer well, or your letters will be backwards. 

When you have the paint on the stencil, then press it to the paper, and make sure you get the stencil to make full contact with your paper. You may want to use a rubber brayer or a cover sheet to press down on the stencil.

Then carefully peel the stencil off your paper to reveal the painty texture.

Take your stencils to the sink, and wash them with mild soap and water to remove the paint from your stencil..

Here is a close-up of how the paper looks:

Thanks for taking the time to watch my video and read my tutorial, and give it a try for yourself! It is super easy, and the patterns are endless, just use your imagination!!! :)

NaNoJouMo day 26

Today's word- Acclaim. I have found myself rather busy the last couple of days, so I only carved enough time to paint yesterdays sketch of the gift. Hopefully I will find the time to work in my journal more, but at least I am doing something each day.

NaNoJouMo day 4

Today's word is Quarter. Again, I am not sticking with the words as such, so today, I decorated the cover of my handmade journal so that it isn't so plain while I work in it. Hopefully it will be a bit inspiring for me to continue to stick with this project.
Here is my cover with the cover flap out:

NaNoJouMo day 2

Today's word is Choice. I guess today I chose to paint in my doll face. LOL I am not sure it turned out as I expected, mostly because I am working in a handmade journal and the paper is watercolor paper. It has a lot of tooth to it, so I am thinking that is why my color blending didn't go as I had hoped, but I am satisfied enough with it to continue on.

Art Journal January DAY 7&8

This is a combination of both day 7 and day 8.

Day 7 was the collage background, which consists of metallic gold tissue paper, red mulberry paper, some metallic gold and red paisley wrapping paper and a vintage looking background paper from I think Anna Griffin. Then I took a watered down gesso wash and brushed it over the pages. It made to metallic pages too milky, so I took a towel, and wiped a bit off here and there to let the metallic show through a bit. Most of the wrapping paper wiped rather clean, but the tissue soaked the gesso well, so where I wiped it off, it is just a slight slimmer when held at an angle. It is really quite interesting.

The prompt for Day 8 was to create the "soulmate within" the description:

~ create an expressions of those parts within you that long to be whole unto itself.

Many of my very closest friends and family know what I have been going through since I was just a young wife, and it seems the older I get the worse things are, but I just struggle so much sometimes with finding the help I need to get through the bad days. I have not been feeling "whole" within myself, so I felt inspired to do this page.

It may not have any significance to any of you, and that is ok.

Collage Potpourri (Day 17)

I am drowning in numbers- Save me!!!!!
Just kidding, I actually had a ton of fun finding numbers to fill these pages. The three best things I found were the crossword puzzle, the "sexiest men of the year" listing by ages- 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's, and then the 1-2-3 baby blocks. They all got covered up with paint, and you can barely see them, but it is still cool that they are there.
I had a great time smearing paint with the fork, and getting sharpie all over my hands from drawing around them.
I think the hardest part of this page was finding just the perfect "meaningful words" to add to it. I added them with white out around the outside of the pages and then also added the "I CAN" inside the hand shape, just to remind myself of that fact!

Stencil Pages (day 16)

Ok,
I am a few days late in getting this posted, for one the paint took like~ TWO whole days to dry! I will definitely do that different next time. I blopped it on directly from the bottle. I think next time I am going to try to splatter it from a brush, or maybe sprinkle it off a toothbrush- messier, but not so thick.
The other reason is, I was gone all day on Thursday, out of town picking my girls up from the airport. They were out of town all week visiting their grandparents. I am so glad to have them home. I missed them so much, but they had such a wonderful time, and really miss seeing their grandparents, and their Aunt. It was only for a week.
Here are the pages I did, and I love the stencil technique that Sarah has taught us. It turned out great. I think I will be using that one again.

I have to tell you a little funny- one of the things we were supposed to add was some pencil somewhere on the page. I decided that since I used a child's hand, that I was going to put a beak, eye and gobble on the thumb and make it a turkey like I used to do when I was a kid. (it is really hard to see in the picture, but if you click the pictures they will get really big, and you can kind of see it.)