Day of the Dead ATC Card Workshop

I will be kicking off October with an Artist Trading Card workshop on October 1, from 1 to 4pm at Tessera Fine Art Gallery.  Participants will have the opportunity to create a slew of Day of the Dead themed artist trading cards.  For those who have taken other ATC card workshops from me, this one will have several new features.  There will be enclosures, fold outs, and pockets for our cards, and we will also be preparing our cards with some fun new techniques as well.

It will also be the debut of my new Day of the Dead ATC card stencil set!  Workshop participants will be the very first to try out the nine new artist trading card sized stencils. Watch for them to be showing up in my etsy shop and at Tessera Fine Art Gallery as well!

In addition, each artist will recieve my own designed digital papers to use in collage on our cards, as well as phrases, stamps, and other embellishments.  Optional swap at the end of class.

Workshop participants may also choose to enter their favorite card in the Day of the Dead ATC card challenge at the gallery!  Cards will be displayed as a featured artist wall at the October Final Friday.  Be watching for more details!

To sign up for the workshop, call (316) 262-2435.  Hope to see you there!

Stencil Cutting

I use a lot of stencils in my artwork, so I have been wanting to make some new ones with designs specifically suited to my needs.  On recent car trips I spent some time sketching ideas.

Once back home, I pulled out everything I would need to turn my ideas into stencils:

• graph paper – makes laying things out uniformly much easier!
• sheet of glass with duct tape around edges for safety
• black marker
• washi tape
• hot knife tool

I drew out the design a little nicer than my sketches, and put this pattern underneath the glass.  Since the hot tool holder is pretty light weight and tends to slide, I taped it to the glass. This knife gets super hot and you don’t want it moving around unexpectedly!

This stencil is supposed to end up looking like chicken wire. I want it for the background of a rooster piece.

And then for the test!

Yep, it works!

Now for another one…. I call this design Agra, because it makes me think of India.

What design would you love to make into a stencil?