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Random Musings on Art and LIfe

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My Urban Computer Satchel is Finally Done!

July 14, 2016

At long last, my Urban Computer Satchel is complete! This is one project that turned into a marathon, and I’m thrilled to cross the finish line. [Tweet “An off-road adventure with an Urban Computer Satchel is finally over.”]   I used Brenda Miller’s Urban Computer Satchel pattern and her hardware kit. (I love, love, love…

Renegade Stenciling At A Birthday Bash

May 12, 2016
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] As much as I love playing in my studio, I’m still a kid that likes to play with my friends. Last weekend, I headed down to the Twin Cities for a bit of Renegade Stenciling with my sister Sharon.     We’re celebrating Sharon’s 4th Bonus Year this week. Four years ago, she was…

Add Zip To Your Zippers With Custom Vinyl Stencils

May 5, 2016
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Several weeks ago, I was working on my Urban Computer Satchel. After I added the facing strips to the zipper on the front of the bag, Art Brain called a time-out and tossed the whole thing squarely into Project Purgatory. She (Art Brain) was Not Happy with those little facing strips! To rescue a project…

Bailando en la Noche: An Art Quilt by Shelly Stokes

May 28, 2015

For the past 18 months, I have been working on a major art quilt project. Her name is Bailando en la Noche, or Dancing in the Night. I chose her name because the medallions evoke the swirling skirts of Mexican Folk Dancers under an exuberant night sky. [Tweet “Check out “Bailando en la Noche” –…

Folklorio Dancer 2: Add Color with Extreme Stenciling

March 19, 2015

In a previous post, I showed you how I made a stencil from sign maker’s vinyl using an image of a Folkorio dancer. Today, I’ll show you how I added really bright color using Paintstiks, a brush, and my fingers. Yes, you read that correctly. While I do most stenciling with a brush, the technique…

Folklorio Dancer 1: Cutting and Transferring a Vinyl Stencil

March 12, 2015

My big goal for my Personal Art Residency in Chapala is to learn to use my Silhouette cutter. I purchased it more than a year ago, but have done precious little with it since. I decided that my first task should be to cut a stencil and paint up a piece of fabric for a…

Extreme Stenciling on Suede

May 1, 2014

To wrap up the series on Extreme Stenciling, I want to go back a couple of years to some experiments I did with suede. I met Jayme and Megan from Bella Nonna Design Studio at Quilt Market — and accepted their challenge to see if Paintstik colors could be used on leather and suede. To…

Extreme Stenciling with Paintstik Colors

April 24, 2014

by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor As I mentioned in the first part of this series, I have been doing some serious stenciling over the past couple of months. I hand-cut three stencils that are 50” high x 20” wide and stenciled the images on black fabric panels. For this project, I wanted the…

Titanium Is A Stenciler’s Best Friend

April 17, 2014

In the past month, I have spent between 25 and 30 hours stenciling images on a new project. I am working on black fabric and a nice range of iridescent and matte Paintstik colors. For my project, I wanted my images bold and bright. Yes, I wanted them to jump off the fabric. Now that…