Art Prompt: stripes and stencil combination

I am pleased to share with you one of my first paintings. I am so thrilled about the new book The Paintbrush Playbook: 44 Exercises for Swooshing, Dancing, and Making Dazzling Art With Your Brush which is filled with a wealth of great starting points to make art.

I used the gradient wash technique as my inspiration to make this background. The book calls for this technique to be done with watercolors but I simply tried it with acrylics in blue, white and just a touch of green to make blended horizontal stripes.

The second element to this painting was an eye chart made with a Tim Holtz Eye Chart Stencil. I like it the way it is with just these two  features but I may add more at another point.

More about the Quarry Book:

Sketch and paint right on the pages of this fun, modern, approachable practice and inspiration book focusing on one of the most popular drawing tools - the paint brush.
This playful, colorful exercise book is filled with fun, contemporary, beautiful illustrations by leading illustrator Ana Montiel.

The exercises explore mark making, patterns, geometrics, simple drawings, texture, and composition and includes professional tips and tricks that will enhance your skills as you work through the book. Each spread has one page filled with art examples and an exercise, with plenty of room to draw or paint right in the book. The Paintbrush Playbook is printed on high-quality, uncoated paper, allowing you to paint or draw anywhere that inspiration strikes.

Explore abstract drawing, pattern drawing, meditative doodling and more with this all-in-one learning and practice book. This is a great volume for artists, designers, doodlers, illustrators, painters, pattern illustrators, and zentanglers of all ages. You will not want to miss it!

Fiberista Club at Stitches South

I just thought I'd share a quick photo of the Fiberista Club booth at Stitches South. So pretty!

"Cry on the Inside Like A Winner" quote - Adult coloring page

Today's adult coloring page feature's the quote, "Cry on the Inside Like A Winner" by Cameron Diaz from the movie - The Other Woman and a background of circles loosely inspired by a Frank Lloyd Wright dish pattern.

Feel free to download it and try it yourself. If you do, leave a comment with a link to your finished page or tag me on Instagram @StefanieLGirard

I played with more patterns, scribble fills, and overlapping of the colors and patterns.

A great coloring book I am enjoying right now as well:

Just Add Color: Mid-Century Modern Mania: 30 Original Illustrations To Color, Customize, and Hang
by Jenn Ski

"Nothing Is Without Meaning" quote - Adult coloring page

I loved making my first adult coloring page with a quote so I made another one. This time I used my favorite image- scissors and combined it with The Wolverine movie quote, "Nothing is Without Meaning".

I used the font Satanas Humanum Sal available for free. And the scissor clip art came from The Old Design Shop.
Feel free to download it and try it yourself. If you do, leave a comment with a link to your finished page or tag me on Instagram @StefanieLGirard

 One of the things I did on this page is I started to mix colors of the markers and play with the filling in of space to make patterns. I like some of the effects.

If you like books filled with adult coloring pages I suggest the pretty Just add Color series:

How to repaint a chandelier with Krylon Glitter Blast

I am in love with light blue and well, glitter, that just makes it even better! Krylon's light blue Glitter Blast spray paint is the perfect shade of light blue to give one of my old chandeliers this fabulous new look!

It looks just as pretty in the day light as well as at night when the chandelier is lit up.

 I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with the Glitter blast directly on the brass finish or it would need a coat of white Krylon White spray paint to lighten the background so the light blue glitter would really be light.

 So I did a test on top of one of the flower areas. (Note: I prepped my chandelier by wrapping paper and painter's tape around the electrical parts.)

On the left you can see the white area with the Glitter Blast and on the right the Glitter blast directly on the brass finish.

I really liked both! The light blue Glitter Blast looked deep and rich directly on the brass. It was a tough decision but I decided to go with the white undercoat.

 Here is the chandelier with a nice coat of white all over.

And here is a close-up of the first light coat of Krylon's light blue (Sparkling Waters) Glitter Blast. I did about 3 coats letting them dry in between. It took about 1 and 1/2 cans. I'm not sure what I'm going to paint with the remainder in the second can but I can't wait to have something else that will co-ordinate with my pretty "new" glitter-tastic chandelier.

"Kill or become irrelevant" quote - Adult coloring page

I am addicted to fonts, quotes and adult coloring pages. There, I said it. So what is a girl to do? Why try making one herself. So here is my first one.

It features the quote "Kill or become irrelevant" by Bruce Willis in the movie Perfect Stranger (2007) and the background art is from the site Zone Interior Design.

Feel free to download it and try it yourself. If you do, leave a comment with a link to your finished page or tag me on Instagram @StefanieLGirard

I started coloring my page with BIC fine tip markers and I like how it's going. I like this set of markers because they open up and you can see all the colors then it folds back up and easy to store. I haven't lost one yet!

Project Runway avant-garde / unusual material challenge Swarovski and chicken wire necklace

I know, who would think to combine Swarovski crystals and chicken wire except for me? Well I am always up for a challenge and that's what my New Year's resolution was- to really stretch my material combos.

And the back of my Project Runway avant-garde / unusual material challenge Swarovski and chicken wire necklace :

Hey and if you want to make one too or you were simply wondering how I did it- read on!

Materials:
Swarovski crystals 
a lot of what I used are from the collection in this box:

M-D Hobby & Craft Chicken Wire
Wrights satin blanket binding silver
wire
head pins
jump rings

Tools
needle nose pliers
round nose pliers
wire cutters
scrap paper
tape
protective gloves

So gather up lots of Swarovski crystals and beads of all shapes, sizes and colors.

Make a paper pattern to fit your neck and tape it to the chicken wire.

Be sure to wear safety gloves and rough cut out the chicken wire.

Then form tiny loops at all the ends of the chicken wire along the top, bottom and ends of the chicken wire.

Then simply make lots of bead dangles either with a single bead or groups of crystals and add them to each end and space of the chicken wire.

I also wire wrapped a few crystals that didn't have holes. This took me a few attempts to get them just the way I liked them as I decided to add tiny beads to the wires that went from the focal element to the chicken wire. This shot shows the hand and the 4 four heart shaped crystal the way I liked it and the wire clipped on the carrot shaped crystal as I was about to re-do that one.

I pressed open the satin blanket binding and then looped it through an opening in the chicken wire on each side of the necklace and tied a big bow.