Hello and welcome to Nathalie Kalbach’s What’s The Point Stencil Blog Hop!!!
Nathalie designed a range of really cool stencils for Stencil Girl Products and now she’s hosting a series of wonderful blog hops to show case them!
Star of this particular blog hop is the awesome What’s The Point Stencil:
It’s a great stencil for general layering, but it can be used for so much more. How about a field of flowers against a greenish backdrop? Or falling snow? It will be perfect for winter lay-outs and even Christmas cards!
Nathalie is giving away one stencil to a lucky winner! All you have to do is to leave a comment on her blog hop blog post. But… if you want to boost your chances, I recommend you comment on each of the six blogs along the hop, because Nathalie will give you an entry into the give-away for each blog you comment on!
The give-away will be open until September 3, 2013 – midnight EST.
Here are the links to all the blog hop participants:
Now, let me show you an awesome background created with the What’s The Point Stencil!
Don’t mind the cat… I didn’t even want it there… It just annoyingly wriggled it’s way onto it. Like cats do.
You see, I started out with this idea in my head. That idea involved oil pastels and gesso and some scratching, so I needed a sturdy surface.
I had this canvas board that seemed perfect for the job. I had already attempted to draw a cat on there once, but I didn’t think that was a problem. It would be covered with oil pastels and gesso anyway:
So far so good.
I waited until the gesso was dry and I started scratching away through the What’s The Point Stencil. My plan was to make a cluster of blossoming trees, which evolved into a vase of flowers, which then… caused me to mess up.
I tried and failed to repair the mess. But because of the slickness of the oil pastels, there was no real harm done and I was able to rub all the gesso off with just water. The remaining oil pastel stayed put.
But there it was again: that cat! Staring at me!
I don’t know if you follow Nathalie on Instagram, but the only thing I could think of was #dontmesswithcats… a hashtag that she uses when she ‘instagrams’ photos of her cat.
I had to take it as a sign…
I started over by only covering the surface surrounding the cat sketch with gesso. Once that was dry enough, I placed the What’s The Point Stencil over it and I used a baby-wipe to rub some of the gesso off again through the stencil. And then I went on from there.
At some point I added splatters of Glimmer Mist and I really like the effect: the ink bled into the gesso, but resisted on the oil pastel.
Also, some of the scratching I did in my first session is still visible on the cat’s behind. It looks kind of cool, so I’m sure the cat won’t mind! :-S
Thank you for visiting me and special thanks to Nat for inviting me to play along and be part of this stencil blog hop!!!
Enjoy the hop and don’t forget to comment for an extra chance to win the What’s The Point Stencil!
I love this stencil. It is so random.
I’m loving that background. I like how the colored grid is visible but very faintly. :-)
What fun! Loved reading about your trials and tribulations!
LOL- don’t mess with cats is so true! I love love love the page and your writing – beautiful! Thank you so much for hopping along with me!
Love your blog and I love all the things you can do with this stencil!
Cats always get even! Fun painting and great use of the stencil.
Sometimes happy accidents produce the coolest pages/projects. This turned out to look great! Loving all the different looks when using the same stencil.
very cool pages .!!!!
im in love with dots and circles and love to see all the differnt ways everyone uses it
http://www.canadianscraptramp.blogspot.com/
Love that cat and your piece is gorgeous. Love how you started with squares of color and then added that thin layer of gesso. I’ve been doing that technique a lot lately and LOVE it. (hm,….. haven’t done it with oil pastels as a base…..)
Love how you used the stencil to add subtle texture and love how the piece turned out. Adorable.
Very Whimsical! I love how the piece evolved. Thank you for sharing that!
This is so true never mess with a cat! Love your work even though I will confess to being a dog person!!LOL
I love how you used the stencil to remove paint instead of adding! really cool!!! Thanks for sharing1
I like the “dotty” cat! He was meant to be. LOL
I love how this evolved – thank you for sharing!
I love how you soften the squared background and then removed the gesso through the stencil. Cute cat :)
Adorable cat! Great colors and dots :)
i love your art and what you did with the stencil. i was not familiar with you so now you have a new follower. that is another benefit to doing these blog hops you meet new artists and see step by steph what they do and the chance to win one of nat’s awesome stencils. xoxo
loved the idea of removing the gesso through the stencil – great idea!
Sometimes the best art comes from changing “mistakes”! thanks for sharing your trials!
Wow, cats are so sneaky and cute and irresistible aren’t they? Love dots, they add fun and surprise.
For wanting to go in a diff direction, I think this turned out very cool! And a purr-fect statement of fact….don’t mess with cats! :)
This is so stinkin’ CUTE! And I am wetting myself laughing at your story! Love this creation, and the stencil was perfect for the dots! Shared this creation with my cat-loving DD, too! Going to give this a try!
Love your page and the Colors….fabulous.
I really like the different applications of this stencil. Thanks for providing this opportunity for us.
I do so love the possibilities of this stencil! And I love that cat! I especially love the patchwork pattern, just another technique for me to try!
I love how you transformed this! Adorable!
Love your kitty art!!!
Wow bright colors and a favorite theme of mine… cats! I love the understated use of this stencil which gives texture without being dominant. Nice job.
What a great save/ happy accident!! I like it.
Love your page and description of its creation! Great use of the stencil!
I thought it was super fun, this cute, cute
So fun!
How super cute. Thanks for such clear directions as well. I must have this stencil….
Love how the kitty used you to scratch her way onto your canvas! She was fierce and so is your gorgeous painting! Love the Whats the Point stencil!
MeOW! Great piece!
Lovely! Thanks for sharing!
Love the cat and the ideas you shared using the stencil.
Cats are my favorite. Love how you incorporated the stencil. love the colors. Thanks for the helpful tips!!
Love this. The background is great & that is a very cute cat.
Really cute! I love the cat! so glad it wanted to be there! :D
Such a gorgeous background and the cat is too cute!! Thanks for the great story too.
A happy accident!!!… Love everything, :-)
Gorgeous!!! Beautiful project! I sure do love that sentiment and that adorable cat!!!
Oil pastels and gesso? Will have to try that. Love the subtle use of the stencil.
Darling project! LOVE the dots stencil!
Thanks for the chance to win.
Grandma Nancy
your artwork is so wonderful, so much talent on this bloghop! tx for sharing, aloha, angi in hana
This piece made me smile… for all sorts of reasons, the vibrant colours, the multiple layers of technique, the cat! Love the random effect of this stencil. Oh, and I took possession of 2 kittens, 3 days ago.
Being the cat lover that I am, I don’t mind the cat at all. In fact I think he’s rather lovely. Thanks for sharing your process and for being part of the hop. I was not familiar with your blog so I’m glad to have found you!
Fun art! Love the versatility of this stencil!
Super gaaf Marsha! <3 Ik moet toch ook maar eens die oliekrijtjes weer tevoorschijn halen! Bedankt voor de inspiratie!
Great project – love this stencil!
Inspiring! Great example of getting past our mistakes to become creative prompts!
As the song says, “The cat came back, just like before.” The cat ALWAYS comes back. I’m happy yours did, too. I especially like the many layers in your creation. What a fun stencil, and a fun cat, too.