I'm excited today to be releasing 7 new stencil designs with StencilGirl! I'm adding three new stencils to my Boho collection, a new mini Palmistry Hand stencil, and three new Suzani designs that coordinate with some of my PaperArtsy stamps as well as my July 2020 StencilClub collection.

The Boho Faces stencil was inspired by a piece of artwork I created as a sample for one of my rubber stamp collections. There was so much interest around the piece that it then inspired a set of rubber stamps with PaperArtsy. Of course, once I started playing with those small stamp designs, I started thinking that it would be even more fun to have different faces in a much larger size. Thus, the Boho Faces stencil was born.

There are two faces on this 9” x 12” stencil that are a mash-up of tribal influences from my travels as well as my imagination. You can use one or both of the designs and you can also mask them off to use bits and pieces. This stencil also coordinates beautifully with my new Boho Daisies Small and Mini stencils as well as the other designs in the Boho collection (as you can see in the sample artwork above.)

The Boho Daisy stencils were inspired by the daisies that I started drawing around the eyes of my tribal or Boho faces. I wanted to have two sizes of this daisy design so that you can use them together for variety in size or layer on top of each other in your work. They're also fabulous as embroidery patterns or for cards and tags, scrapbooking, and lots more.

The Palmistry Hand stencil was inspired by my experiences having my palm read while traveling through Bali and India. The design is a right-handed palm showing the Life Line, Wisdom Line, Love Line, Fate Line, and Marriage Line. This design also includes the symbols for Venus (love, sympathy, and grace,) Moon (courage, mysticism, and imagination,) and outside of the palm are Jupiter (confidence, wisdom, and leadership,) Sun (ambition, success, and creativity,) and Saturn (discipline, balance, and independence.)

My new Suzani stencils were inspired by inspired by the traditional hand-embroidered Suzanis (textiles – usually bed covers or wall hangings) found through Central Asia, and especially in Uzbekistan. I saw them in markets and and was especially intrigued by many displays of traditional Suzani motifs in a museum in a Summer palace in Bukhara. All three designs were intended to stand alone but also to coordinate with some of my PaperArtsy rubber stamp collections (EGL11 and EGL12) as well as my July 2020 StencilClub “Suzani” collection (which is exclusively available to StencilClub members.)

The Suzani Circle Flowers stencil has a detailed floral design that can also be repeated - turn it in different directions for even more versatility in creating backgrounds and larger designs.

The Suzani Circle Medallion stencil was particularly inspired by the large circular embroidered medallions found on many of the traditional Suzani textiles. This beautifully detailed design can be used with or without the thin circle border, or you can mask off other elements to use just the center section or other shapes in the design.

Finally, the Suzani Flower Medallion stencil is a lacy and detailed stencil that can be used as an embroidery pattern, but it’s also ideal for art journaling, mixed media, handmade cards and tags, and much more.

I'm super excited to be adding these to my repertoire of stencils available from StencilGirl as well as seeing how perfectly they coordinate with some of my recent stamp collections. I can't wait to make more art with them and to see how you all put them to work in your own projects.

I'm excited to share that I'm this month's StencilGirl StencilClub designer! Those of you who aren't already members might be wondering... what exactly does that mean?

StencilClub is a monthly club run by StencilGirl where you get an exclusive collection of three stencils shipped to you for every month that you're a member. (And there's no commitment, but trust me... it's worth it to stick around.) In addition to the stencils you also get a video tutorial and downloadable PDF from the designer for a project using that month's stencils. At $25, it's one of the best deals around.

My stencil collection for July is called Suzani and was inspired by textiles... Suzanis, that are traditional in Central Asia - particularly in Uzbekistan. Check out this reveal video to see the stencils, hear more about my inspiration for these designs, and get a peek at my samples as well as the project that we'll be making in this month's video tutorial.

Ready to see those samples up close? Here are the art journal pages and backgrounds that I made using each of the three designs.

And here are a few peeks at the project I'll be sharing in the accompanying video tutorial where I'll show you how to make this stenciled handmade art journal.

For those of you who are already StencilClub members, I hope you're looking forward to getting these in your mailbox sometime after July 15th! And if you aren't a member but want to make sure you get this month's collection, head on over to StencilGirl for the details and to join the club.

I'm excited to share that today is the big reveal for my next three rubber stamp sets designed for PaperArtsy. These sets continue the trend of 100% hand-drawn designs that mesh together influences from my travels and many cultures around the world. Below you can see each of the new sets (which are also now available in my shop,) as well as a few samples using them.

First up, EGL07 - the one I call my India set.

I love the motifs here... the lotus, hamsa, and elephant are all more detailed versions of some of my hand carved stamps. The paisleys and the octagon were drawn based on vintage Indian textile patterns. I love to combine these with my other stamps, but for the release I've done a few projects that just use this collection.

First up, a stamped background that could go onto a scrapbook layout, an art journal spread, or be done on a smaller scale for card and tags.

I've also made four little stamped spreads in one of my mini art journals (this one measures 3" x 3", so the double spreads are 6" wide by 3" tall.)

Next up is EGL08, or my Mark Making Circles set. I wanted a bunch of circles that were full of my own hand-drawn images and marks, but I also wanted to be able to layer them so I created two frames that will fit around all nine of the smaller circles. (I snip the centers out of my frame stamps so that I can see to position them when stamping around the pattered circles.)

​You can see more images of these art journal spreads on the official PaperArtsy release blog post.

For my Mark Making Circles set, I made a quick and easy card, stamping 9 of the 10 images in the set onto painted cardstock. Then I used acrylic and dye inks on collage for the background and repeated the circles to make a cruciform shape as the focal point. I love the versatility of this set.

The last set is probably my favorite of all of my sets so far... it's a bit of an odd duck, and a total and complete mix of many different influences combined with a large dash of whimsy. EGL09 is the one I call my "Tribal Faces" set.

I made a very quick card with a watercolored background and some marks to show how you can stamp these without doing detailed coloring and still get cool results.

I also made a set of accordion art dolls using all of the different elements in the set - not just the faces. To complete the look, I gave them all Ikat printed robes that I drew and colored based on Uzbek chapins and textiles. (I call this piece, "The Usual Suspects."

I also did one more mixed media piece that uses all three sets together:

You can see a short tutorial for the above piece on the PaperArtsy blog as well as more photos of the finished project.

I hope you like these new stamps as much as I do. And keep an eye open for an announcement tomorrow for a brand new live online class featuring one of these sets.

And you know what that means... time to save some money!

There are two Cyber Monday sales happening that I wanted to share... first is the big sale over at StencilGirl where you can get all of my stencils on sale for 25% off starting now and going through 11:59p.m. CST, December 3, 2019.

To get the discount, you need to use this coupon code when you check out: cheers25

And... not only do you get 25% off, but if you buy 6 of the same size stencils, StencilGirl’s everyday 10% discount is automatically applied to those stencils.
 
But wait, there's more! You can also earn freebies when you spend over a certain amount!*

• $100+ a free exclusive large stencil made only for this sale
  
• $300+ a free StencilGirl Studio class
  
• $500+ an original piece of art made by StencilGirl Founder, Mary Beth Shaw
  

*Please note: Freebies are calculated after the discounts are applied.

Now for Cyber Monday sale number two... the one in my shop! If you missed the announcement in my newsletter last week, never fear - you can still save 20% off your entire purchase (including lots of already marked down sale items) through midnight eastern time tomorrow night (December 2nd.)

Make sure to use the coupon BlackCyber19 at checkout to get the discount. Don't forget, this applies to my new rubber stamps from PaperArtsy, all of my Boho Blends embossing powders and Boho Bits embellishments from Emerald Creek, and all of my stencils as well as lots of other goodies (original artwork and jewelry are excluded.)

Happy Cyber Monday shopping - I hope you enjoy the deals!