Election year U.S. map and recycled dictionary page card

I remember being at an election part for Obama's first term and the hostess had a map on a board that was colored in every time a state was announced. This U.S. die cut card is inspired by election year maps.

For the background I used a page from an old dictionary and I chose the page that had California on it. To embellish the page I stenciled a field of stars with a blue ink pad and a Judikins field of stars stencil.

I used the Sizzix United States die to cut out both the outline of America and the individual California state.

Happy Election Year!

Glow in the Dark secret inspiration word art

I am a big fan of little secret things in art, hidden messages, images, etc. I thought it might be fun to paint a secret message on two stenciled panels.  During the day they look like pretty decorative stenciled art and at night they glow with the inspirational word "DO".

I started out with some recycled square pieces of wood.
I painted them with two different shades of FolkArt paint- Cascade and Dutch Aqua.

When they were dry I taped the Floral Wallpaper and Nouveau Damask stencils onto the blocks and stenciled them using Waverly Chalk paint in plaster color.

 When the decorative stencil paint was dry I then laid the Waverly letter stencil over the decorative stencil (THIS IS IMPORTANT NOT TO REMOVE THE UNDER STENCIL!) and painted the letter with the glow in the dark finish paint. It doesn't show during the day but when the lights go out they show up.