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Welcome! I’m Carolyn Dube – This colorful journey is all about the freedom of play!

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The Fine Print

Some of the links on this blog are affiliate links and I receive a small percentage. It doesn't cost you anything extra and helps keep all the free tutorials and videos coming! It's a win-win! The website is copyright Carolyn Dube, and that is kinda common sense since this is my site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Artful Holiday

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I used to take holidays for granted. I assumed we’d all get together just like we always had, the biggest challenge getting schedules to line up and setting times that worked for everyone. Then covid changed all that. Now that family and friend gatherings are happening again, I never ever want to take them for granted!

What that looks like will different for each of us and for me it means adding a handmade touch to the holidays and gatherings. So when Julie Fei-Fan Balzer invited me to be a teacher in her Artful Holiday workshop, it was a definite yes!

What is The Artful Holiday? It’s a project based online workshop with 19 teachers and 31 projects. Each day in August, a new lesson is available to you. The videos are between 7-30 minutes each. You can watch it then or anytime after that because it’s a self paced workshop with lifetime access. Plus there’s something extra cool that Julie is doing in this workshop to spark your creativity!

Get the early bird discount and save 15% (code:EARLYBIRD) but it’s only good until Aug 1st, 2022!

Join The Artful Holiday

Each of the instructors brings their own style and approach creating a buffet for you of printmaking, collage, jewelry-making, paper arts, book arts, sewing, assemblage, and more!

Each Wednesday, Julie offers up a “mash-up” project. These are step-by-step video tutorials where she borrows techniques, materials, and ideas from the previous lessons and transform them into something totally new. For example…

The intention of these “mash-up” lessons is to spark your imagination and help you find new ways to use the techniques and ideas shared in this power packed workshop.

FAQ

  • You have lifetime access to all content. Watch anytime.
  • A new project tutorial will be released every day in August 2022. If you sign up after the start date of class, you will get immediate access to any lessons that have already been released.
  • Lessons are delivered via video, with several teachers also offering supporting PDF instructions and information.
  • Each lesson is like a blog post, with a comments section at the end where you can leave questions and comments for the instructor.
  • There is a general Facebook Group for Balzer Designs Students where you can share your work, if you wish. You can also share on social media with the hashtag #artfulholidayclass.
  • This workshop is an easy way to learn from a wide range of teachers and try out some techniques or areas of art-making that may be new to you.
  • Although this class is project based, I believe you will find yourself returning to all of the wonderful art making techniques over and over again, no matter what you make.
  • Videos range from 7-30 minutes long, depending on the complexity of the project.
  • You can watch and rewatch the videos, speed them up, and slow them down.
  • There are more than thirty step-by-step project tutorials. Hours of art instruction that is sure to inspire you!

If you’re looking for inspiration for ways to add an artful touch to your holidays, check out all the details for The Artful Holiday!

Get the early bird discount and save 15% (code:EARLYBIRD) but it’s only good until Aug 1st, 2022!

Join The Artful Holiday
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Use Your Gel Prints with Stencils

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What can you do with all those gel prints you’ve made? That’s a question I get asked a lot and in this video I’m sharing how I use them with stencils. This technique works with any prints you have, from ones you love to ones you don’t! Adding the stenciling can really shift how they look!

I am over the moon honored to be this month’s StencilClub guest designer over at StencilGirl Products! The Art House collection I designed is two 9×12 stencils and it includes the 5 house masks. You can get all the details on StencilClub here– later in this blog post I share why I chose those words to go with the art houses. Now let’s get into seeing some of the ways these stencils can be used!

This is a simple, yet very effective technique. Put your word stencil on any gel print and pounce some white paint (or any color you want) on there. I’m using a white thick paint so that I don’t have to be very careful and can still get crisp lines.

Once you’ve got the white paint on there, remove the stencil. You then have a choice. Leave it just as it is or block out the word. Using the same cosmetic sponge, pounce over the other words, leaving just your single chosen word visible. One perk of this that I love is the slight ghost look of the other words under the white paint.

Rip, tear, or cut them out and now you have a stash of words at the ready!

Why did I choose these words? After creating the houses and their masks, I wanted the second stencil to have words on it. But which words- there a whole lot of them to choose from! Who we are has a huge influence on what we create and I wanted to honor that with these words. The people who came before us. The connections we have to people right now. Family, both biological and chosen family. Those relationships have directly and indirectly influenced our creative journeys, our art houses.

Once you’ve got these words, what can you do with them? Use them on a tag. Here it’s doing double duty as the title and also as a pocket, sewn on three sides. Inside that pocket are three fabric houses stenciled and stitched.

Creating a card with one of the words is fast! I simply attached it to a card blank and poof, it’s ready to mail! Don’t want to stitch it on? No problem, just grab a glue stick!

The greatest joy of designing stencils is seeing how others use them. That’s the wonderful thing about stencils, they are a tool and we can each use it in our own style, in our own way. We are all inspirations to each other! So I am sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for July 15, 2022 when these ship because that means soon after, I’ll get to see how you are using these!

Details about what is included in StencilClub:

  • two 9×12″ exclusive club only stencils that ship on the 15th of the month
  • members only video provided by the designing artist. It’s a class in itself! For my exclusive video, we’re gel printing with these stencils!
  • downloadable pdf with basic instructions to go along with the video for that month
  • a SECRET Facebook group for members only! A place to share, inspire and talk all about stencils!
  • Plus, as a StencilClub member, you are eligible to purchase ANY past month for the membership price.
  • StencilClub members receive a loyalty coupon code each month good for 20% off stencils in the public collection. And it can be used more than once.

You can see all the club details over at StencilGirlProducts!

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Building Up Grungy Layers

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Pattern making tools can be anywhere, including hotel bathrooms! The little shampoo bottle was an oval shape and it just called to me for some grungy printing playtime. Usually, I find round hotel toiletry bottles, and those are great too for printing, but recycling this oval bottle as a print tool was a treat.

What can you do if you have a bunch of open space on a print? Add another layer there! In the video, you see how each of these prints evolved from start to finish- and there are the hot pink prints too!

Want more gel printing fun? Check out my page of tips, tricks and tutorials here.

Here are the supplies used. Some of these links may be affiliate links which means I get a small percentage and it doesn’t cost you anything extra! And you get a really good feeling knowing that you are helping keep the free tutorials coming!


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