The Streets of San Francisco were a big part of the inspiration for this alphabet stencil and these cards. Many moons ago, when watching reruns of the tv show starring Michael Douglas and Karl Malden, there was a kidnapping and the ransom note was individually cut up letters from the newspaper. The stereotypical ransom note [...]
Carolyn Dube’s Stencils
OOPS! The plan was to build the grid with 3 colors by having each color in each row and no color touching itself. I thought it was a solid plan. It wasn’t, since after row #2, I was backed into a corner. Okay, that sounds a bit dramatic but for a fleeting second that is [...]
This play came from that thing I wasn’t paying attention to, the scrap paper from cutting out hearts. I liked the hearts I cut out, but I loved this paper so much so that this is what I used first! The muse is rather tricky some days. https://youtu.be/i3R5e_IqelI Watch Leftover Scraps Become Mixed Media Art [...]
Paint Couture…fun to make and fun to wear! Turns out finding a rainbow colored pair of shoes isn’t as easy as you might think so I decided to make some rainbow shoes! Clearly, I did not cobble them myself but simply painted a cheap pair of canvas sneakers. Even though you don’t see triangles all [...]
PanPastels are vibrantly full of pigment…and work wonderfully with baby wipes so I decided to build an art journal page of castle towers with them. Want to win the stencils used in this video? One lucky reader will win all 7 of my new stencils. Leave a comment on this blog post for a chance [...]
Why do I love crayon rubbings? Is it the historical significance that brass rubbings played in medieval times? Is it the memory of first grade making leaf rubbings? A little bit of those but the biggest reason is crayon rubbings are immediate gratification. No waiting for anything to dry. The only prep work is taking the [...]
Making a mess is all about discovering what can happen. Sometimes, it’s more mess. Sometimes, it’s something I love. The fun is I never know which it will be when I start playing. This wood panel began with layers of texture. No goal, no plan, no direction – just a mess of textures. Those mica flakes [...]
O.O.P.S.! I put way too much paint on my palette for my last project. Not a mistake. Not a fail. It won’t be wasted because it is just an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly for more play with stencils! I even turned this one into a free Spark of Art-spiration…so you can play too! You can [...]
Time for a little home renovation, mixed media style. I bought 5 gallons of house paint in the colors of the rainbow, grabbed a Gel Press monoprinting plate and started printing right on the walls. Yes, I did it directly on the wall. Slapping it right against the wall makes the most wonderful thwap sound! [...]
When does the muse show up and inspire me? After I have started. It’s as if starting is her invitation to join me so that means I need to start. No matter what it is, the important thing is to just start. I grabbed plain old cardboard from a shipping box as a place to start [...]


