Stenciling in Upstate New York

Theresa Winters is another talented stenciling teacher. She owns a small rubber stamp store in Rome, NY called Sweethearts Rubber Stamps. She also travels the New England area and teaches stenciling classes as a Dreamweaver Stencils independent sales rep. A while back she was working in her classroom and had pasted the horses (LL559) you see here with the metallic copper embossing paste and set them aside and started working on a project using the Metallic F/X powders. When she turned back to pick up the horse card she realized that the pasted piece had a fine sprinkling of metallic mica powders all over it. Evidently there was a fan blowing across the room and it had carried a fine mist of the mica powders that she had been working with onto her horses that were in the process of drying. Just another opportunity to develop a new technique. She also suggested that if you have a stencil design that is delicate that you don't leave the stencil on while you are sprinkling the image with powders, because if you leave the stencil on too long when you try to take it off the paste will have dried into the stencil and the paper may rip. I know the complaint is that the powder then gets all over the cardstock. She recommends that once it is dry take a Swiffer dust cloth and pick up the powder on the background areas. These Swiffer cloths are great for cleaning up glitter and small particles of metallic leafing as well. Theresa has many other techniques up her sleeve and if you are ever in the Rome, NY area you must drop in to see her store. She will soon be teaching in the Boston area at "Ink About It", Westford, Mass. Her classes fill quickly so call sooner than later.

Rubout Technique

I am a bit biased about this next paper artist, mostly because we happen to be genetically connected. My daughter Elizabeth has the surprising ability to create without any restraints. Which is only one of the reasons why she is often discovering new techniques. As a card designer for Dreamweaver during her teenage years, Elizabeth was often given a task to create something specific and in her easy laid back approach to the projects at hand she would often discover some fun twist that would take her down a creative back alley searching for her muse. Anyway that's what it seemed like to me...this is interpreted as her taking the project in a different direction with a minor "slip up" and in the process of trying to get back on track creating a totally new technique. How often do each of us "mess up" and in the journey to salvage our creations do we come up with something totally inspired? The saying "Necessity is the mother of invention" is Elizabeth's mantra. The card pictured here is one of her innovative approaches to working with the Memories Mists, both the regular and Vivid lines. The Vivids are a highly pigmented type of spray, and the colors are fairly electric, almost florescent. First she blended these two types of sprays onto glossy cardstock to create a background, by spraying two or three layers of color on top of each other. While these sprays were still wet... she moved the color like a faux finish artist, by wadding up either a soft rag or a dry paper towel she would blend the colors together before they dried completely. After waiting a few minutes to let the piece cure a bit she would then place the stencil where she wanted it. Next she used a soft cloth to rub the ink out of the stencil openings. This process rubs down one color and leaves the first layer of color that was sprayed onto the glossy paper showing through. She discovered that if she waited too long and the background dried too much she would need to dampen her cloth with "Windex" or rubbing alcohol. Just damp though, because too much wetness would cause the paper to deteriorate and she would lose the layered color effects. Recently I decided to teach her technique and when I asked her what she would like to recommend to people trying these techniques for the first time, she said that the hardest thing for her was learning to keep the tools clean. The next time she went to use the sprays the atomizers had plugged up, the Vivid sprays are great because they are highly pigmented, but that also means you have to clean them afterwards with really hot water so you can use them again successfully. I have to admit that keeping my tools and work area clean is a bit of a struggle for me as well, I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all. lol! Although stenciling happens to be my passion and not hers, I am inspired by her creative endeavors time after time.

Salt Lake City Teachers

Last year about this time I got an email from a stencil enthusiast and cardmaker, Willi Haslam, from the Salt Lake City area. She had been to a scrapbooking expo there and discovered our embossing paste. She then wanted to know where she could get more of our products in here area the next time she needed something. My heart sank because I had to write back to say that at this time not even one retailer carried our line of stencils in all of Utah. But as we correspondended, I asked if she knew of anyone in the area that might be interested in teaching and representing our line to stores. She eventually wrote back and said that she and a couple of friends loved paper crafting and might be interested in sharing the products with stores. After that I traveled to Utah and met with Willi and two other friends, Jana Larsen and Cheryl Wilcox. This was the beginning of a good friendship and I am fortunate they are such enthusiastic paper artisans. They are not only card makers, but scrapbookers as well. (And Willi loves to quilt and sew too). You can take their classes at Heartfelt Creations in Sandy, UT and Wholesale Clearance Outlet in Bountiful, UT. I just met with them again last week and decided that the three of them have way too much fun stenciling and paper crafting. LOL! Too bad for me huh? The card you see here is done by Willi and represents what you can do with some beautiful preprinted papers, glossy blue embossing paste was used on the happy birthday stencil (LM248). She positioned the corner flourish stencil and daubed on just a bit of the Palette brand stamp and stick glue pad using a large foam dauber. As an innovative tool she used the tip of her finger and rubbed the Moonstone Metallic F/X powder into the the stencil (LJ896). If you happen to be in the Salt Lake City area be sure to check out their upcoming classes in the aforementioned stores.

Sludge Paste Technique

Dolly Brennan is also from the Chicago area and teaches and demonstrates for two or three stores there and also makes it up into Wisconsin too. Dolly used to own her own small stencil store and I feel fortunate that she is willing to travel and teach using the Dreamweaver Stencil line these days. I loved how she used the elongated punch to give this whale a watery feel. Sludge pasting is a technique where you can take two or three or even more colors of paste and pull them across a stencil for this beautiful mixed effect. The trick (it seems like there always is one, huh?) is to not overwork it. I like to place two or three colors of the paste down at one end of the stencil and then pull them across in one sweep if I can manage it. Dolly will be teaching this Fall at Stamp, Scrap N' More in Mundelein, IL (website address:www.stampscrapnmore.com) and she also teaches at Creative Cuts & Crafts, Villa Park, IL (www.creativecutsandcrafts.com)

Joyce Kurtz from Peddler's Pack in Oregon

While the Dream Team is working on new Christmas designs I am showcasing some of the teachers and sales reps that have designed and shared cards made with Dreamweaver Stencils over the years. I have to say that I have had this card around for a bit. The owner of Peddler's Pack Stampworks, Joyce Kurtz, sent me this one-step cloisonné card, which I just love. Joyce owns her own rubber stamp company and loves cardmaking and her customers love her. She is one of the most enthusiastic, upbeat store owners in the business today. To make this card she paste embossed the sunflower (LL429) with the regular embossing paste, when doing either one-step or two-step cloisonné I always base-coat with the regular or matte yellow embossing pastes. When it was completely dry she stenciled it with bright colored pigment inks and then sprinkled it with Suze Weinberg's Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel and heated it gently with a heat gun. The small rubber stamped greeting is one of her own rubber stamp designs. What a cheerful card... just like it's maker. If you get the chance, stop and take a class from Joyce in Beaverton, OR. You can visit her site for directions and info: www.peddlerspack.com

Meet Theorem Painter (Stenciler), Shirley Day

I met Shirley Day for the first time when I went to a Stencil Artisan's League Convention in Parsippany, New Jersey in the early 90s. At that time I had just released our first brass stencil designs and she still had her Studio in Connecticut. She was selling her theorem stencil line called "Nutmeg Stencilers", at a booth across from me in the retail portion of the SALI show. This was the beginning of a great friendship. Later when I exhibited our stencils at a sewing show in Springfield, MA, Shirley invited me to spend time with her at her home a few miles away in CT and we discovered that we are kindred spirits in so many ways, we both love nature themes...animals and birds and florals and beautiful "stuff"..., I also loved learning many theorem painting techniques from Shirley. (Theorem Painting is an advanced method of stenciling with several overlays of stencils to create an image without stencil bridges showing and it was mostly stenciled on creamy velveteen fabric...this craft was taught to young women who went to "finishing schools" eons ago at the turn of the 19th century...a true early American folk craft.) This year Shirley turns 80 and I hope to see her soon, she just sent me this beautiful card using our iris stencil (LL516) and corner design (LG698) which she dry embossed by hand and notice she did the delicate detail work on the bearded iris with a fine tipped sable detail brush, hard to see because of the limits of computer imaging, but she also sprinkled just a smidgeon of fine glitter on top. Shirley still teaches in her home based studio now in Reading, MA, right next door to the home she grew up in, and her father was born in... and died in at the age of 103, her family's history surrounds her. Her mother was a famous oil paint artist who owned her own New England based greeting card company called Red Farm Studio, it is still in existence and based in Pawtucket, RI. Shirley's students can still learn theorem painting today, as well as bronzing, tole painting and sometimes they even do card making with metal stencils. Wish I lived nearby so we could stencil together more often. I have learned so much from this stenciling friend. One of the things that I hope to pass on to my students, other stencil enthusiasts and card makers is that you don't have to create something in two minutes time, take your time and enjoy the process, for me cardmaking with stencils is a wonderful crafting experience and a time to come together and enjoy with fellow crafters. Although I love the speed at which dry embossing goes through the machines, it doesn't take long maybe just 5 minutes to dry emboss something by hand occasionally. Also taking time to learn to manipulate the stencil brush gives you such an "ah ha" experience, and the feeling once you've learned to shade from light to dark is priceless. It may take a bit of practice, but it is so rewarding too. Thank you Shirley for sharing with us your love of the art of stenciling!

Shirley Day's Theorem Stenciling

Pictured here is one of Shirley's pieces of theorem work that she gifted me with recently and for those of you who want to know more about Theorem Painting:

Rosemary Carsello purchased Shirley's business "Nutmeg Stencilers" and has an online store called "Crafter's Corner". She also sells several other lines of theorem stencils. If you want to learn more here is her URL:www.crafterscornerinc.com/