123... Breathe - StencilGirl Collaboration post

Hi everyone, its been a while since I've posted here. I've been hanging out on Instagram mostly these past years. But I do miss sharing some stuff here now and then. What better way is there to start off blogging again than to reveal the collaboration piece I did with StencilGirl columnist Tina Walker, which is all about self portraits.

Collab participants were challenged to create a self portrait, using any mediums, design styles, or techniques of choice, but with the caveat, to create a portrait as they see themselves. This is what I made for the challenge using a whole heap of my fave StencilGirl Stencils and a lot of different media. 

I started with a face stamp on watercolor paper. and wanted to create an underwater mermaid scene. This piece is all about releasing the inner mermaid and to dive deep and just breathe through it. 

I worked with a lot of layers of acrylic paint over top of the watercolor, but made sure there were transparent layers for depth, and also added some interference colors for sparkle effect. 

These are the materials I used, decoarts and dina wakely acrylics.

And all the stencils I used

Uplifting words

Mermaids

Past, Present, Future 

123 

ATC mix up Apter

I really enjoyed making this piece for this collaboration project. Please have a look at all the wonderful works by other talented artists in the blogpost HERE 

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

xo Cheetarah

StencilGirl DT - Squared off blog hop!

Hello and welcome! 
You have arrived at the StencilGirl® Creative Team’s Squared-Off Swap Hop.

Hey all, today over at StencilGirl® Talk we have a bloghop going on in which we at the creative team swapped a bunch of square collaged stenciled pieces which we then corporate in an art piece ourselves. I received squares from my  team mates Slivia, Debi, Katie and Sunila & Aditti. And I have made an art journal page where I used the squared pieces and cut out the fantasy animals from this stencil Figments of Imagination by Carolyn Dube against the backdrop of this gorgeous scenery stencil by Mountain Landscape by Andrew Borloz. The sentiment "believe you can & find magic" is made with the Uplifting words stencil by Carolyn Dube.

It was really fun to have to come up with something with the materials that I have received from my fellow team mates, via our super CT coordinator Carol. Have a look at our blog to see what the others in our team came up with an comment on each blog to be entered in the giveaway prize.

Dots2Lines, Aditi & Sunila Mahajan
https://dotstolinesblog.wordpress.com/

Natalie May
https://happydaks.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-spectacular-stencilgirl-squared-off.html

Trena Brannon
https://trenabrannon.typepad.com/stamping_painting_and_col/2019/04/the-spectacular-stencilgirl-squared-off-swap-hop-big-hair.html

Sandee Setliff
https://inthehillsofnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2019/04/cosmic-penguin-does-spectacular.html

Kristin Peterson
https://www.alteredstatesstudio.com/blog/paper-swap

Tina Walker
https://adogslife-thirteen.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-spectacular-stencilgirl-squared-off.html

Claudia Neubacher
https://vonpappe2.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-spectacular-stencilgirl-squared-off.html

Katie Lamb
https://whatkatiedid2.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-spectacular-stencilgirlr-squared.html

Jill McDowell
https://itsjustjillmcd.typepad.com/blog/2019/04/origami-mixed-media-frames-for-mini-collages.html

Kristin Williams
https://www.ephemerapaducah.com/stencilgirl-squared-off-swap-hop/

Debi Adams
https://wp.me/p7pzwG-1ic

Silvia Souza
http://www.silviasouza.com/blog

YOU ARE HERE:
Cheetarah Cheda
https://missthundercat.blogspot.com/2019/04/stencilgirl-dt-squared-off-blog-hop.html

Louise Nelson
http://louise-justloolabelle.blogspot.com/

The more blogs you comment on the more chances you have a chance to win one of four $25 gift certificates for stencils from StencilGirl® Products. Comment by May 3, 2019. Winner notified by email May 6th on StencilGirl Talk.

Have an awesome weekend and thanks so much for stopping by!

StencilGirl DT - Stencil Poetry - Mermaid Songs

Hi all, this is my final post for StencilGirl® Products as part of their Creative team and I have really enjoyed making this art journal page based on one of my current fave songs. Please head to the post on StencilGirl Talk to see which song that is and how I made this. Have a wonderful weekend. 

Art Journal: find your Magic

Today I am sharing a journal spread made with stencils by StencilGirl Products & Paper Artsy fresco & Tim Holtz distress paints. I really love my new visual reference book because it gives me the opportunity to see in a glance which stencils go really well together, like the ones I have used for this particular spread.

This pretty peacock face stencil by Andrea Matus de Meng is such a gorgeous one and I had not used it before. you can do really great layering with this one as you can see in the hair.

Find your magic is made with the uplifting words on Carolyn Dube´s stencil but I made the `your` with an R from another word. This way the stencil is also versatile in creating the words you need!

The background is made with Art Deco Peacock Feathers and Mary Beth's Private collection 2016 Stencil Club set. 

"Find your magic - believe in yourself and trust that the universe has your back! Know that magic can be found anywhere and you'll have to trust that you will find it!"

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day! 

Art Journal: The 8th Chakra

This Art Journal page emerged organically from an intuitive art session. And while creating it I also had no idea that the 8th chakra was actually a thing but doing some research after I created this page, apparently it is something I have been working on the past 3 years without realizing I was doing so.

 I played with different materials to explore a resist technique and then wanted to use the symbol 8 from a stencil and add a face to it and she just naturally came into being. Truly amazing!

See more of the process ...

Art Journal: Experienced workmen

It's not often that I make masculine themed art journal pages but for some reason I was inspired to make this page in my art journal. I suppose it's also to do with the fact I got those Tim Holtz paper doll packs and there a bunch of masculine images in there and it prompted me to use one. Also perhaps, when doing free association art journaling, my dad popped up in my mind. Art journaling definitely helps me through this grief process and while he may not be here anymore to celebrate father's day with, which is this weekend, he will be always in my heart. And thus I also dedicate this page to men whom worked hard all their life and see possibility in every turn.

I started this page on watercolor paper by strathmore and used some Cosmic Shimmer pixie powder in emerald green which I already mixed with water and sprayed over the page. Then when that dried, I scraped some transparent texture paste through the Diamond Dance Stencil by Terri Stegmiller over the page that then dried would show through the deep emerald color and keep that under layer safe. I added some pewter pixie powder for some darker aria's and traced the shapes with first a black posca pen and then a white one. More texture with stamping mixed media stamps from VLVS! and AALL and Create. Some fine gold and white gouache splatters and created the border with the black and white posca pen. The image is popped up with some foam dots and he is grounded by washi tape. I created a shadow around him using stabilo all pencil and faber castell pitt pens.

The sentiment is put together with Tim Holtz sentiment and chit chat stickers. I found the gold lettering on white too light so I traced it with a sakura pigma extra fine liner.

The texture paste (which is semi glossy) resisted the other water soluble mediums and kept the brightness in the diamond shapes and the pewter pixie powder gave them more shadow and dimension on the page. And I love how these paper dolls have such a beautiful sepia tone that when you use a bright cool color tone under them, they just pop from the page as well. Definitely like how this page came together. 

Would love to share this journal page in the following challenges: 

Simon Says Stamp - Monday challenge - Anything but a card 

Art Journal Journey June challenge - Inspire by theme 

(Inspired by my hard working dad and all fathers/men in general really) 

Try it on Tuesday - For the boys theme 

Country view challenges - the written word 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have an awesome day!

Bloom where you are planted - StencilGirl DT announcement!

It was so difficult to keep this a secret, but now I can finally tell you 

all about this awesome news: 

I am so excited to announce I'll be part of the Stencil Girl Products Design Team for this term :) You know me, I love using stencils in my work and I was just over the moon when I got the news I was accepted in this awesome team to represent this amazing company through my work! 

To celebrate it made this Art Journal tip-in page using one of my fave stencils/masks by Traci Bautista Deconstructed Chrysanthemum The background is made with my gelli plate and I made several prints and ghost prints on a piece of patterned paper. I also sponged some paint through the stencil in various places and accentuated them with doodles. Stamped some lush grungy stamps from Lost Coast Designs in the background for more texture. The lady is a cut out from a vintage magazine and I adhered her with matte medium. Covered her skirt with the same stencil flower pattern and gave her some shadow contrast with a grey artist pitt marker. 

Then I took my black posca pen to doodle the edges and write down the sentiment 

"Bloom where you are planted and the seeds of your perspiration will grow" 

I went over it with a white posca pen because I wanted the sentiment to POP more which now it does. 

This art journal page is to inspire me (and you) to do what you love and love what you do, so that when you bloom where you are, you will see your efforts come to fruition.  

Hop on over to StencilGirl Talk today and find out who my other wonderful creative team members are and let us know what you think :)

I would like to enter this art journal page in the following challenges:
Art Journal Journey: Flora and Fauna
Moo Mania: Flowers
Try it on Tuesday: Stencils/die cuts

Looking forward to showcase more work over the coming year with StencilGirl® stencils.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Art Journal: Groovy Richard Pelvis (Stampotique Originals New Releases April 2018)

Meet Richard Pelvis, a newly released stamp from Stampotique Originals designed by Daniel Torrente. Isn't he just Groovy? I definitely think so. He's placed on the second half of the gelli printed paper from Sunday's post -  that StencilGirl mask is just so gorgeous to work with! 

A short but sweet little blogpost from me today. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Art Journal: Oh Jackie (Stampotique Originals New Release April 2018)

Hi all, it's the first of the month and we're sharing some new releases by Stampotique Originals today! I created a page with a gelli print made with Liquitex paints and StencilGirl Deconstructed Chrysanthemum Mask and Stencil by Traci  Bautista. The wonderful new face stamp by Daniel Torrente is called Oh, Jackie. Isn't she just wonderful? Absolutely love that hair, there is so much potential! I've also used the quote from Terri Richardson's Phrase cube 2 which I thought was fitting and added some texture with Kate's Texture Cube.

Check out our facebook group for more new release makes from my other lovely DT members and I'll be sharing a few more in the course of this month. Do check back later this week for some inspiration for our current challenge at the Stampotique Designer's Challenge blog. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful Easter Holiday!

Art Journal: There is a universe inside you

It's been a little quiet on my blog, due to some things happening on the personal front. My dad has been in the hospital for a week and the fact is he's not going to recover, this time, from the heart attack he had. He's getting palliative nursing care at his home so he's being well taken care of until that moment arises that he is no longer with us. Acceptance is the only way to move forward, things are settling down and there is some peace and calm again, within and around me.

So last weekend I finally sat down in my art room and started to create again. It felt SOOOO GOOD! What a relief it was for me to pour it all out on blank pages. Creation is definitely good for the soul. There is like this whole universe inside you that wants to be seen and heard and can be awakened if you let yourself be immersed in it. I finished the journal pages over the last few days.

This is the end result of the art journal pages and creating this page really was very soothing and freeing. I used some of my fave products from my fave companies:

Liquitex gesso, paints and gel medium  specimen stencil from TCW, Succulents stencil from StencilGirl, Alice (by Janet Klein) stamp from Stampotique Originals, The large rose stamp from Octopode Factory and several mixed media stamps from VLVS! as well as "dreamer's only" and "there is a universe inside you" stamps by Cat Kerr. I also used paint over pens, wink of luna metallic brushes, distress crayons and pearl rubs. 

Let us all find that universe inside us and pour it out on blank pages. 

Sharing the above desk shot with WOYWW #460 at Julia's wonderful blog. Sorry I've been a bit out of touch, now you know why, but hope to connect with you all again this week. 

I also would like to add this journal page to the following challenges: 

Try it on Tuesday: Call for Spring

The mood board was wonderful and I am absolutely longing for spring to arrive. 

The sky blue, magenta/pink colors and flowers inspired me with this page.

Spring theme at Art Journal Journey 

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #46

I used a couple of stencils, liquitex paints, gesso and gel medium as well as alcohol markers, staz on ink, paint over markers, distress crayons and more. 

Ans lastly Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with "Inside the box" theme.

I interpreted this as I myself being the "box" in which there is a whole other universe inside to discover. As we all do, I believe :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Stencil Me Gelli Prints

Recently I had the time to play with my 8 inch round gelli plate again. I used a lot of stencils I bought at the Art Specially event earlier this year and sharing a few prints I made here. The stencil I used below, I needed to have because I knew it would make an awesome print!

Gelli prints with black and yellow paints and Viva Decor Jaguar stencil. The right one has a laminated overlay using the Gelliplate tape transfer technique.

A closer look on the one on the right. First I pulled a mototone yellow circle and then added black to the mix. Then pulled the print through the stencil you see on the left side of top picture. Then I took a large laminating sheet which I cut to fit the round gelli plate and pulled the tape transfer (slowly and rubbing the aria's with paint all the way). I overlayed it on the yellow base print and I am pleased with the first try of this technique! Next time I might add more black to the mix to see if I can get the transfer a bit darker.

I made more prints with the tree and stars stencils I used in Nature's Beauty mail art piece from last monday. This time I pulled a mix  of purple and pinks on the background first. I also added a bit of iridescent medium to the mix to give it a bit of shimmer.

I liked that mix so much I also used it for this print. Another stencil from Clarity, the Seed Heads, was used for this print.

This is a "clean up" dirty print - I used this paper to take away excess paint from printing sessions and you can create some fun prints this way as well!

I also printed on tracing paper and this definitely is one of my faves prints I pulled from that day. I'm going to add these prints to my art journal and mail art which I am setting some time aside to do this weekend :) Hope to show you those results soon.

Hope this inspired you to get your Gelli plate out and start printing with stencils as well. It's super fun to do! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

namasté

Mailart Monday: Nature's Beauty

For a swap on Swap-Bot I got out my Gelli Plate and stencils to play around with. This swap hosted was by Gina Visione at The Print Shop group and called "Nature's Beauty".  The goal was to "Send a Gelli-printed, hand-stenciled (or nature-stenciled :D!), hand carved Rubber stamp or Linocut mail art postcard representing something beautiful in nature." 

So I took one of my new nature themed stencils, Birds and tree by Clarity combined with encouraging scribbles from Stencilgirl Products and Stars from the 101 stencils by Ed Roth and made the above print with help of my Gelli plate. I printed it on vintage index paper which has a beige undertone and it's a great way to reuse some old papers I saved from the trash at work! It needed some more colors so I took out some fountain pen inks and added more color to the print.

I used some contrasting colors: yellow for the inner circle (Toucan Gold) and a teal/twilight color (Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo) for the outer edge of the print to give it a night sky feeling. I love how the tree just pops out from the print. I love how it turned out and am glad that my partner liked this print as well,

Looking forward to use more of my gelli printed pages in mail art and in my art journal :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

namasté

Art Journal: A study of Hera part 3

The Studies of Hera continues. This week experimenting with some gelli printed/mono printed left overs and Staz-on ghost printing.

I used one of my print experiment pages from my first session of gelli print madness. The blue print on these pages are all gelli print. I stamped Hera a few times on various papers (some gelli printed) and let it out to dry. I took the print on the top right for this experiment.

My Hera stamp was all covered with black Staz-On ink residue from all the stamping and I took my Staz-On cleaning dauber to clean the stamp. A lot of ink then came loose and didn't want to waste it. I made an imprint of the mixture of stamp cleaner and ink residue on the gelli printed paper. I like how the mixture reacted to the paper, It gave a nice blotchy effect, but also surprisingly sharp lines as well. I added the stars with a foam piece and acrylic red paint through a stencil to give it some more texture. I then dabbed my foam piece into a bit of water and started coloring the page with the red diluted ink. I left Hera, the half circle and the insides of the stars blue.

I wanted to add another color to create more distinction, so I took some yellow ecoline and a brush and colored her hair. The yellow is really bright and gives it a nice contrast with the blue and red. And I called this page done and adhered it to my art journal.

I needed to trim the sides to it fitted in the journal. With the trip I covered the top white space up. Another completely different look of Hera this way. And I love the combination of this stamp with the gelli printed back ground. More of this to come in another studies I'm sure!

Thanks for stopping by and hope this inspires you to experiment with ink residue/ghost printing on your gelli prints.

Have a great weekend.

namasté

Art Journal: a study of Hera part two

Last week I showed you a fairly simple crayon colored page of Hera in my art journal. Today I'm kicking it up a notch. I stamped her on vintage typewritten paper and added a lot of other elements to it to form a mixed media page in my journal.

I used stencil girl succulent stencil and copper colored acrylic paint for the roses. Then stamped Hera with Staz On Black. I colored her and the roses with Tombow Dual Brush markers.

Then I took a small round stencil brush and Noodler's ink Qin Shi Huang, which I have a sample of, to give the roses a pretty pink color. And with an overlay of the stencil, I mixed the ink with some iridescent medium to give them a halo.

As a last step I took some winsor and newton blue drawing ink to give the background a light blue color. I love the pink and blue contrast.

In the end I also spattered a bit of pink ink over the page. And she was ready to be added to my art journal.

I trimmed the page on the sides to fit the journal and adhered the trim on the bottom because the pages were taller than the typewritten page. This way it works nicely and I don't have a blank strip  of the book underneath. I have to say that I'm absolutely in love with this page and am happy the way she turned out.

With this journal page I'm entering the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #25 (their 2nd year anniversary challenge! Congrats to them!) and picked the Butterflies and Blooms theme :)

Next week another take on the Hera stamp incorporated with gelli prints.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

namasté