Balzer Designs Stencil Hop: Faces

Welcome to Stencil-a-Palooza!  Several days a week for the next month or so I'll be featuring one of my eighteen stencil designs for The Crafter's Workshop!  Each post comes with a giveaway.  Leave a comment answering the question-of-the-day and you might be the winner of that day's featured stencil in both 6x6 and 12x12!  Comments will remain open on this post for seventy-two hours.  The winner will be announced after that.  In the meantime, if you'd like to purchase any of the stencils there are many in-person and online shops to choose from (including my own little online shop).  See a complete list here.

Today I've got a stencil hop with four stunningly talented ladies:

• Jen Cushman: She is the Ice Resin Queen and her book Explore, Create, Resinate is totally wonderful!  She's also the author of "Art Choses You," an art marketing advice column for Belle Armoire Jewelry and a contributing editor for Create Mixed Media.
• Jill Sprott: Jill is an amazing scrapbooker.  Her beautiful pages combine clean design with messy painty fun and beautiful writing.  She is a Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket and on many prestigious design teams including Jenni Bowlin and October Afternoon.
• Karen Grunberg: Karen is a creative soul who spends her days working for Google and her nights creating amazing art.  She is a prolific blogger and a long time teacher over at Big Picture Classes.  She always surprises me with her intelligent innovations with product.
• Paula Gilarde: Originally from Ireland, but now living in Massachusetts, Paula is a Creating Keepsakes Magazine Hall of Famer and a contributor to Write. Click. Scrapbook.  Her clean and simple pages have appeared in virtually every scrapbooking magazine.

Thus far I've done a separate post for each of the stencils.  But today I'm doing just one post for all three face stencils.  I will choose THREE winners and each winner will receive 1 of the face stencils in 12x12 and 6x6.

I was inspired to create these face stencils because whenever I teach classes involving painting faces some of the students are so frustrated by basic construction that they are unable to focus on their own artistic expression. These stencils are meant to be a help to teachers and to students and to allow you to focus on the fun of creating. 

I did recently have a student tell me that after using one of these face stencils for a few weeks she now felt comfortable enough to start painting her own faces from scratch!  Isn't that awesome?

So let's meet the girls, shall we?

Meet TCW231 Edith and Maude:

Let's attack this one from a straightforward point of view.

This video received an audible gasp at CHA.  I played it during my seminar on making YouTube videos and when the stencil came off revealing the black outline the room gasped.  It was a super cool moment!

Here's the page from the video:

And here's a companion page using the other half of the stencil:

It was important to me that the features of the girls be versatile enough to work for many ethnicities.

And remember, you don't have to use the whole face!

Speaking of which, I'd like to introduce you to TCW233 Ava (though I call her "Bangs"):

(I'm probably not supposed to pick favorites, but she's the one I keep going back to!)

In this video I show you how to be the boss of your face stencil and just use the part of it that you want to use!

 Here's the page from the video:

Here's another art journal page where I just used Ava's face but drew my own hair:

And a few more straightforward versions of Miss Ava:

I love that it's the same stencil but she looks slightly different each time!

And last but not least, meet TCW232 Summer:

Summer is a very popular girl.  People tell me that it looks like them, their daughter, their grandchild...she just has one of those faces!

In this video I share an easy "Birthday Girl" Tag how-to:

Here are the tags from the video:

I think tags are a great alternative to a card.  And for some reason I find them a lot easier to make.

Finally, here's a quick visual breakdown of how to use the face stencils using the "Summer" Stencil in 6x6 as an example:

1. Trace the stencil with a pencil.
2. Color the image with watercolor paints.
3. Place the stencil back over the painted image and use acrylic paint to stencil the image.
4. That's it!  You're done!

To have a chance at winning 1 of the 3 face stencils in 6x6 and 12x12, answer the Question of the Day:

Which of the projects from today's hop are you likely to try yourself?

Just a reminder: To be eligible to win, you must post your comment in the comment section of this blog post.  You cannot post on Facebook or by replying to the e-mail (if you subscribe) in your inbox.  The reason for this is that I pick a winner via "random number generator" so I need a single list of comments.

Thanks for stopping by!  Now go and get hopping:

• Jen Cushman
• Jill Sprott
• Karen Grunberg
• Paula Gilarde