Starry Night Stencil Test Drive & Giveaway!

Welcome to the Starry Night Stencil Test Drive & Giveaway, featuring: Natasha May, Maggie Nemetz,  Judy Shea and Revlie Schuit!

Starry Night is one of my favorite stencils - I cannot tell a lie!  There's something about it that is versatile, mystical and happy.  Here are the different ways I used it!
Gesso Resist:
Our first prompt for Lifebook 2013 was to create our own fairy artmother.   In my art journal, I sketched out the area where I wanted my lovely fairy to be, and then stenciled around her with the Starry Night stencil (using a cosmetic sponge) and gesso. When I painted the background with watercolor, the gesso resisted the watercolor, while the watercolor pigments soaked into the rest of my paper.  Cool! I could have lifted even more watercolor off of the gesso by dabbing the still wet page with a baby wipe, but I wanted the stencil to look cloudy and a part of the background.

This fairy will be reminding me throughout 2013 to embrace my work, embrace the process, and embrace my instincts!  (In case you didn't know, my word for 2013 is "Embrace!")  She's also going to visit Art Journal Journey, whose prompt this month is crowns!

Glass Bead Resist:
Next, I scraped  Golden Acrylics Glass Bead Gel across the stencil with a palette knife.  (Make sure you wash off your stencil immediately if you try this so that the little glass beads don't harden on the stencil.)

I left it overnight to dry, and woke up to sparkly, raised texture -- super cool!   I also used a clear  Sakura glaze pen to doodle some additional spirals - I wanted to see how this worked as a resist as well.

When I painted my background, I dabbed all the gelled areas with a baby wipe.  As you can see, even where there are no glass beads, the gel created a resist (as did my Glaze pen)!  Happiness.  Here's my finished page.  The text is from a sofa ad.  I like the question:  

Is it gravity or attraction that keeps me here? 

How often do we stay with something just out of inertia, habit, or because gravity keeps us there?  Pretty often, I think.  No more!  I want to embrace what I do with my full commitment and energy!  If I can't, it's time to get off the couch and shake things up a bit!  I think this is a good question to ask myself periodically, and I wanted to remember it in my journal. 
Starry Night Stencil Meets the Gelli Plate Meets a Giveaway!

All last week I "attended" Carolyn Dube's Gelli Plate Party.  I had lots of fun experimenting with my stencils and the Gelli Plate!  Here are close ups of three of my favorite prints using the Starry Night Stencil!

On Sunday I was at Seth Apter's 52 Pick up class.  Here are the backgrounds of some of the cards I made using the Starry Night Stencil:

Using the stencil over and under other textures and rubbing Golden fluid acrylics mixed with glazing medium on top, created some gorgeous colors and effects.

Remember the four cards I showed in Monday's post?   They are these four cards with collage on top!  Tell me which one you like best in the comments, and two people will be randomly chosen for two cards each!

UPDATE:  The winners are: Judy Shea for the Adore and Soul cards, and Bunco Buddy for Flight and Simply.  
 
I hope I've given you some good ideas for how to use the Starry Night Stencil!  

Please check out the amazing work done by Natasha May, Maggie Nemetz, Judy Shea and Revlie Schuit!
 
And make sure to let me know which of these ATCs you like the best -- adore, simply, soul or flight, for a chance to win two of them!

Thank you for visiting! I read and treasure every comment and will answer any questions as quickly as I can. 

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook. Thank you! 

The winner of my Rain stencil is Patsy!  Congratulations!  Patsy, send your snail mail address to jessicabethsporn (at) gmail (dot) com and I will get it right out to you!

Linking to Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Every Day, Show Me What You Got, Make it on Monday, and Creative Every Day.  Please check out all the creativity at these wonderful sites!