My friend Chris Cozen has just released a new line of cool stencils! I had a ton of fun playing with them and I know you will too. Just by leaving a comment on this post you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free set from Artist Cellar!

And Chris is giving away a copy of her new book and DVD too!!!

I first used the stencils on my Gelli Print Plate to make some cool papers.

Then I used them in a painting to add some organic shapes. I love how versatile these stencils are.

Leave your comments below and on Monday, May 20th I’ll draw the name of a lucky winner! Please be sure to leave a contact email so I can notify you!

click on the above image to see the complete line

Some of you may recognize these stamps as they are images that I personally had made into stamps for workshop use several years ago. I also have many teaching friends that use them in their workshops as well and now it’s wonderful to be able to offer them to you for your own use.

Many of the images came directly from my journal and sketchbook pages. It’s fun to look through your journals to find marks that you make over and over, or images and words you use often. What I love about these stamps is that they can be layered into your journal pages. Some are for under-journaling and background texture, while others add doodling or word prompts, and still others can create visual focal imagery.

Here are some past journal pages using these stamps.

Be sure to open Post Script onTuesday, May 28, for the exclusive opportunity to pre-order these stamps at 10% off!

Patty Dorsey-You have won your choice of either of my two workshops!

Mary WernerYou have won your choice of either of my two workshops!

Note: Please email me at pamcarriker@gmail.com and I will help you register for your free workshop!

Sarah Sullivan-You have won a free DVD of one of my workshops you enroll in!

Debbie WisnerYou have won a free DVD of one of my workshops you enroll in!

Note: to receive the free DVD’s you must be enrolled in one of my workshops. The DVD’s are only available to workshop attendees. To collect your DVD simply message me inside of Artful Gathering when class opens and I’ll get you all set up!

Congratulations and I hope to see many of you at Artful Gathering this summer!

It’s always fun to see a friends new book come out and even more fun to get to read through it and create from it! Chris Cozen and Julie Prichard’s new book, Acrylic Solutions is chock full of acrylic painting techniques. It covers the basic elements of art and has additional chapters on laying a good foundation, adding structure, developing complexity, and finishes with finessing the details. What I love about this book is the ability to use the information inside to create your own multi-layered mixed media art. It’s inspiring and helpful, but allows for personal interpretation so each piece is your own, no two alike.

There is a lot of eye candy in there too! The book is hard backed with a spiral binding making it easy to lay open while you work on your project. (love that!)

So here is the evolution of my piece inspired by their book. I used my color wheel stencils and a signature line of paint colors I’m working on to develop a piece that covers all of the elements of art, color, texture, line, shape, value, and space. I really love the end result and felt this was an experiment at play the whole way through. Here are stepped out pictures of the journey~

‘Elements’ 12×24 hardboard artist panel