Gift Worthy Blog Hop from the StencilGirl® Creative Team

October 02, 2019

Hello Friends :)

Today I am part of a blog hop that is offered by the StencilGirl® Creative Team. It is all about making some great DIY gifts for your loved ones using fabulous StencilGirl® stencil designs!
When asked to make a gift for this hop I was thinking about my friend who has a birthday in October. She loves to write and doodle in her personal journal and I thought a great birthday gift would be a custom created journal with matching accessories. So I gathered my supplies, stencils and paints and I went to work to create this pretty journal with it's matching pen and clip style bookmark.

I started out with these supplies...a journal I got on clearance at Walmart. The covers are banged up..but the paper is gorgeous and the structure is still strong. I certainly do not care about the covers since I plan to cover them with my own stenciled design anyway. I also collected a Pentel R.S.V.P ink pen as these have a clear barrel so I can add decor inside. And a large paper clip and die cut tag and fastener. That is all I need along with my stencils, paints and paper to get this gift started!

Next I measured the front and book covers (5 /12" X 8 1/2") and cut some 140 pound watercolor paper to slightly larger so I could trim it to size later. I also cut a piece of corrugated paper for covering the spine. I thought this would be nice for some texture and contrast as well as covering the binding and allowing me to add some ribbon bookmark to the spine as well. I also cut a strip of light weight paper for the inside of the pen. Now I started to add color layers and pattern to my papers!

My first layer I just added some india inks in 3 colors using a watercolor brush to get rid of that pesky plain white surface. I like india ink because it can behave like a watercolor..making tones and washes...but it is permanent when dry. My next layer was acrylic paint in the same 3 colors plus blacj and white. My color choices for both the india ink and acrylic paint were an orange, a purple and a teal. I used the StencilGirl® stencil SC-05-2016 designed by Stegmiller and some make up wedges to add my second layer of paint. My third layer was to add some white squares using the SC-05-2016 smaller stencil.

My final layer of paint was to go back to the larger 9" X 12" stencil and do the entire layer in black. This allowed all my bright color layers to shine through only in the flower and leaf shapes and dots which I think looks really cool! I used the smaller 6" X 6" stencil again to create the focal image for the cover.

For some finishing touches to all my pieces I used some Deco Just Glitter markers to add some shimmer to the cover. And then I assembled my little clip bookmark and pen to match using the strip of paper and the die cut pieces I had collected. I added some ribbons, thread, and beads to finish it all up. I think they are so cute and a great little gift for my friend!

To see how I made these little gifts in full detail with explanations of every step please visit my process video on my YouTube channel. I could not go into so much detail here on the blog and it is so much easier to explain while doing it and seeing it! So come check it out here...