Wax on Wednesdays Snowflake Stencil Fun !
Getting into the holiday spirit this week !
I used to revert to a complete sort of sparkle glitter fever when this time of year came around . Uncontrollable glass glitter and sparkles everywhere, the more the merrier. So much that I was sweeping and vacuuming sparkles up clear through the month January . I find that that part is really no longer true. However , my deeply loved tradition of a handmade holiday is definitely rooted in my dna . Every year I still wish that my Mother would have kept the Santa , Mrs. Claus and Tin soldier ornaments that she created and hand painted dozens of for the entire tree when I was a girl. They had very geometric almost psychedelic hand painted outfits. I guess after about 10 or so years she figured they were out dated and we moved on to those sequin ornament kits from the craft store. Does anyone remember these? I still have some that we made together and I hang them every year. We had several displays set out at Christmas each hand painted throughout the years by my Mother.
Christmas was also a time for 3 generations of girls to get together and create . This included my Grandmother , who was a professional landscape artist in northern California . Over the years we created what ever theme my mother came up with for that year . Huge Mr and Mrs Santa dolls out of Panty hose, Christmas villages, and the year I insisted we recreate Faberge eggs, which I lovingly place on my tree today.
Here are some of the ornaments that I have painted this season . My Mother showed me how to do these years and years ago . We used to take all of the used and scratched up balls and bleach them . Then paint them with beautiful abstract swirls inside.
Now you can of course by them already clear and save that oh so smelly step ! Still recycling has its strong merits as well.
Wax on Wednesdays!
While strolling through the isles equipped with my 50% off coupon, I found this stencil in the craft paint isle of Michaels last week. It reminded me of snow flakes !
Perfect for a December Wax on Wednesdays to show that stencils are great for use with encaustic ! One of the boards went as planned. The second I played around with for quite a while taking it in a few directions. When I became dissatisfied with the overall composition and coloring , I decided to take a step back in order to move forward. I over fused purposefully melting back everything to a flat state . This then became a beautiful swirled background for a new pattern !
So do I show you my full process of what I went through in the video , or just edit like I planned it that way the whole time?
Right ! You know me to well. This was a perfect opportunity to also show that each layer is a journey and an important part of the process. No mistakes , just keep going ! It will find its way eventually and you will probably teach yourself something very valuable in the process.
If you would like to view the video directly on the Youtube channel click
If you love encaustic , creating beautiful papers, creating handmade papers, and creating handmade journals , "Encausticology Paper Journey " online workshop begins in just a few weeks !
Details are on the online workshop page of this blog , and in the Etsy shop.
Also not too late to enter for the drawing for 1 free spot in Encausticology Paper Journey workshop ! Because I was taking care of a recovering from surgery hubby all weekend , I have extended the drawing to selecting the winner this Sunday December 11. Simply leave a comment on the post . Also sharing on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter, Instagram etc etc and social media will get you entered in the drawing one additional time for each share ! Please let me know where you shared so that I can make sure and enter you for each time you shared in the drawing :)
Blessings to you,
Shari
