"Hands" Stencil Test Drive!

Welcome to another Stencil Test Drive!   I have 7, yes SEVEN, amazingly creative friends driving along and to show you how they have used my Hands Stencil designed for Stencil Girl Products.

 It is a 9 x 12" stencil with a variety of hands in various gestures.  I designed it so that it could be used either as a border, if you mask off the middle hands, or as small detail stencils.

I've been playing with it for a few weeks.  Individual hands have been making appearances on altered books:

and Art journal pages.

For this test drive, I thought it was time that ALL the hands in the border show up.  So I started playing with my gelli plate, and made several prints:

The last one was my favorite.  I glued it into my journal.  I used magenta acrylic paint and glazing medium to tint the paper a bit.  Then I cut out more hands from another gelli print, and glued them on to add some dimension.  I scribbled around the face with a white wax pencil. 

The hands reminded me of the voices I sometimes hear, telling me I'm not good enough, original enough, likeable enough, or that I'm too thin, too heavy, too nice, or not nice enough -- you get the drift...  Do you have inner critics too?  

Sometimes it's easy to silence these voices -- other times they get the better of me.   I wanted to remind myself why it's so important to shoo them away.  So  I used a white Posca Pen to write in a quote I found on Pinterest -- I love this quote, and have been waiting for an opportunity to use it. 

I think I'd rather have space for dreams -- wouldn't you?

And now for a GIVEAWAY!  I am giving away one Hands Stencil!  Comment here for an entry into the giveaway.  Then go and comment on all the other blogs.  Why?  Because you'll see some fantastic creativity at work, and because all comments in all participating blogs will count towards the giveaway.   How cool is that?  The more times you comment, the more chances you'll have to win!  You have time to comment until Saturday, September 28, 10PM EST.

So get busy, comment here, and then go visit:

Michelle Rydell 
Natasha May 
Carolyn Dube
Marjie Kemper 
Maria McGuire 
Janet Joehlin
Kirsten Reed

Is that a great line up or what?!!!

Linking also to Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Everyday, as well as to Carolyn Dube's October Gelli Plate Party - which is coming up in just a few days.... YIKES!

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.