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

Imagination vs Knowledge

A little  while back I had this a guest post on the StencilGirl blog and wanted to share this here as well.

For a while now I have been experimenting with watercolors and creating patterns with stencils. And today I would like to share a project which was a result of the experimentation which is an interactive watercolor painting.

The base is a large piece of watercolor paper by Viking 1914. I used the landscape pad which is 15x42 cm, 310gms in weight & 50% cotton.  The paper was glued on all sides to the block so the paper doesn't warp with using a lot of water. Great quality paper and having it taped down is very important for a successful watercolor painting. The paints I used are from Sennelier, a french professional watercolor brand which I have filled the wells of my Koi travel pocket box with. The brush I am using is a large quill brush and I made sure to have 2 water cups, one for cleaning and one for mixing. I traced the face silhouette from Seth Apter's Borderliners Large stencil (a dec. 2017 StencilGirl® StencilClub stencil release) on the right hand side and then went to work to create a galaxy color composition over the entire page.



When working with watercolors, timing is key, so I do not have many mid process pictures. I've worked on these layers for about 30-45 minutes, adding color and letting them blend out in a process you have to practice with patience and appropriate speed. I have watched many tutorials on YouTube on how to create galaxy watercolor paintings and this is a very simple & effective tutorial: https://youtu.be/ZFVLLjS912E and I have applied the same technique in my painting.




After the piece was thoroughly dry I took a medium damp cloth and created texture by removing some color over the dotted pattern in the large stencil. I only did this on the aria's opposite the silhouette.



I made sure the silhouette was standing out by using contrasting colors and keeping the edge of the line as sharp as possible. Darkened the face up more and used an opaque white ink for the starker contrast. Now to add more patterns in the piece.



With a black paint pen I have traced the large bubbles which were in the same large stencil as the face, then colored them in with the opaque white acrylic paint. I also splattered some of the white paint over the painting. The added in the quote "Imagination is more important than Knowledge" with the black paint liner. The quote by Einstein is found on the Pen & Ink Large stencil by Lesley Riley.



After I was done with the painting I took it off the watercolor block I folded the painting because I planned to make an interactive piece out of it.

I took a semi transparent acrylic dark blue and a semi opaque lighter blue paint and sponged it through the large numbers of the Borderliners stencils. Then traced the numbers in with a black paint liner. I cut out the silhouette face so it folded over the quote. I traced the quote lines with a wite paint liner for some contrast. 

This is what it looks like when you open up the side of the face. With an exacto knife I cut open a portion of the silhouette line, folded in half to glue it in place like this. Added the same numbers border with a mix of the paint and traced it with a white paint liner. With this last detail added I called the interactive painting done. Here are some close up pictures. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing how this interactive painting came together and that you might try making something like this yourself. Have a lovely day.

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!

Art Journal: Just BE yourself (in love and friendship) - StencilGirl®

I hope you all had a wonderful start in the new year so far.

With the holidays last month I've taken some time to spend with friends and family & deepen the bond we have during this time of festivities and renewal. My hope is that you did the same.

On the StencilGirl® blog we are extending the focus on love and friendship as a theme this month and I wanted to share this art journal page I made while contemplating this theme. It's an intuitive art journal page for which I used minimal products and a few wonderful ATC format stencils from StencilGirl® Products which also are the perfect size for pocket sized journals like I am using.

Hop over to the blog post HERE to see a little video and more close up pictures as well as my views on this month's theme, LOVE and Friendship. 

 If you feel like playing along with the theme and share your creations, check out StencilGirl® Instagram for the details.

Thank you for stopping by!
Have an awesome day and talk to you again soon.

Instagram * Facebook* Twitter* Blog* YouTube 

Art Journal: Rooted Strong - StencilGirl®

This month at StencilGirl® Talk we share what we feel grateful for. I've made an art journal spread about my home town, Amsterdam. I'm feeling grateful for the roots I have there, the city I've spent the better part of my life in and in connection to my remaining family whom still live there. It's quite a personal spread, but it has so much meaning that I decided I wanted to share this with you here as it helped me worked through processing loss.

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 Studio tour and StencilGirl® storage idea

Over at StencilGirl® Talk this month the creative team share their studio/creative spaces and talk about stencil storage solutions. And it's been a while since I shared pictures of my studio, so here is a peek of what it looks like.

This is my art desk, where I do most of my creative work and have a LOT of stuff going on here which I like to have in reach. Cups with brushes, pens, glue, paper, media etc. I have a different mug for different types of brushes - the Bowie mug holds all my watercolor brushes for example. And the i-pod dock is important - I always have music on when I am working on art journals. Thankfully I'm pretty good at keeping my work surface clean after a project and the blue traveler's notebook has the art journal I am currently working in.

This is what it looks like when you open the door to my home studio - in our apartment we're lucky enough to each have our separate spaces for our creative work. So this room is packed to the brim with art stuff & I  even make good use of the window sill :)

On the other side I have my writing desk which is packed with planners and notebooks. And of course fountain pens. The one thing I do not have here is a computer because I prefer to keep my studio as analog as possible. I also try to leave my phone out but as it's also my camera it's a bit difficult to maintain that.

When you step to the right from that angle and face the wall you see my rubber stamp storage, wood mounted stamps. The clear/cling stamps are stored in ring binders. The open boxes contains media sprays and the tins have pigment powders. The lover cabinets placed together make a good extra work surface I use for spray/emboss/die cut work.

In the drawer cabinets (which were gifted to me by dear friends whom moved away) I store items such as paints, mediums, masking tapes etc. Every drawer has a specific use and are all labeled. 

Last thing I wanted to show is a shelf above my writing desk where I store my little collection of Cheetara of the Thundercats toys/figurines :) The one on the far right is an original one of the 1980's. I also have a few prints of her and love getting her drawn by various (comic) illustrators.

Over at my post at StencilGirl® I talk about stencil storage solutions and made a visual reference book of all the SG stencils I currently own. There is also a little video tutorial and flip through. Have a look if you're interested in seeing how I store my stencils & might find this useful for yourself.

That concluded the tour of my home art studio :)

Thank you for stopping by and have an awesome day!

What was old is new again - StencilGirl®

Hi all, excited to share my post over at StencilGirl® Talk this month where I have a special make over project to share with you. The segment is "what was old is new again" and I've found an old notebook cover which I've jazzed up using wonderful Stencils by StencilGirl® products. 

Please visit my post to see the process video and more close up pics, also from inside the cover. 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have an awesome day!

Art Journal: Kindness - Craft Stamper Challenge August 2018

It's the first friday of the month and that means the challenge over at Craft Stamper Take it Make it blog is live. This month you can win some fun Alcohol Lift products and a winners profile post. So share your creations by linking up your projects made with a rubber stamped element. 

I'm sharing this art journal page as inspiration. I made it with StencilGirl® Diamond dance stencil, paper artsy paints, carabelle studio & indigo blue stamps and vintage magazine images. A reminder to live everyday with kindness. 

Also sharing this with my art journaling friends over at Art Journal Journey, with the theme "count your blessings" and every day is a blessing therefore living with kindness and gratitude is so very important to me. Thanks for another inspiring monthly theme Elizabeth (bluebeard) and Susi! xo

Thanks for stopping by! Have an awesome weekend!

Art Journal: Honoring Mother Nature - StencilGirl® CT post

Hi All! It's my first post over at StencilGirl® Talk and I'm sharing a video tutorial on how I made this art journal page.

 

Mail Art Monday: Sail Your Ship

It's definitely been a while but here I am with another Mail Art Monday post. I made this one a while back and recently found the recording of it and sharing the process video below. It is made inspired by the postage stamps and I found rubber stamps and stencils to fit with the theme.

You can see the process here:

Products used:

Distress Oxides, Viva Decor and Arte Mio Clear stamps, Staz-on ink pads, faber castell pitt artist pens, StencilGirl® Doodle it Tornado stencil

Hope you liked seeing the process of this MAM - I'm not sure if I'll be doing the weekly posts, but am thinking about doing them monthly. Let me know in the comments here or in the YT video if you would like seeing more of this Mail Art Tutorial video's.

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

WIP: no crying over spilled ink!

It's wednesday and bit of a hump day indeed, but pushing through the work today so I can enjoy a long bank holiday weekend. Looking forward to enjoy the sunshine and finish some works in progress. This is what my desk looked like this morning - left it like this as I was in a hurry to get out the door. Yesterday I started to work on the above art journal tip in page, did a bit collage and stencil work, some gesso over it and wanted to use my DecoArt Media Spray - got the turquoise shimmer spray and twisted the spray nozzle off to apply a little bit on the edges and as I put the bottle down, was not looking where, it tipped all over my card and the glass matt!!

I learned a couple of things here: don't open bottles right over your work, always look where you are putting your bottle away, having a glass matt is super duper handy (clean up was easy and managed to save some spilled ink with a pipette) and baby wipes and gesso are life savers for sure!

So after the clean up, I dried the piece thoroughly, gesso over it until desired muted effect and started again. No crying over spilled ink or "mistakes" because you can just always start over! 

By the way, stamps are from AALL and CREATE  (very popular new brand of clear stamps and stencils) actually it is one LARGE A4 size stamp which I cut in two - the imagery was not hurt because they can actually be used separately. This is #57 and designed by Olga Heldwein - I actually met her and Autour at Art Specially earlier this April and they are just delightful!

Another piece I am working on is the following:

I finally used the Elegance writer pen by speedball over a stencil and watercolor paper. I just wet the outlines with a water brush to create this effect. And I am not sure to add more color or just a little color or just leave it like this with a quote... well, it has been on my desk for a while (thankfully no blue spillage on there!) so I hope to finish it this weekend. 

This stencil I used is from StencilGirl® and is called Thanks a Lotus designed by Andrea Matus deMeng. It's new in my stash and I absolutely LOVE it! By the way, if you missed the news, I am super thrilled to be on the design team for SG this term! So you'll be seeing me using their stencils a lot more frequently in my coming work :) 

Sharing the desk shots over at Julia's WOYWW #466 this week. Hope you all have been doing well and looking forward to catch up with you! 

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!