Coming back to Blighty. A step by step cottage stencil project.

Coming back to Blighty. A step by step cottage stencil project.

Hi there!
Thanks for stopping by.
Thought I’d make a simple stencil picture for you today.
It’s getting pretty late for you, because of course, 
it’s seven hours earlier here in New Mexico, but hey! 
Better late than never!
Our friends here know we are leaving tomorrow, so there is a constant popping in for coffee and to say goodbye.
It’s great.
So before Nancy shows up,
let me write out the instructions quickly!
I used :
Thought I had better start acclimatising 
and getting back to the English cottage…
Using a piece of masking tape, 
attach the inner part to a piece of water-colour paper.

Load a Clarity stencil brush with black ink (I used Black Archival) and brush outwards from the plastic stencil.

Use the brush all the way round,
then add intensity to the edges by dab dab dabbing ink around with a make-up sponge.

So you have this:

Tear a hill out of torn copy paper, 
replace the stencil,
slide the torn paper in under the stencil,
and brush Lettuce into the hills.

I used another fab colour to add shade :
So now we’ve got this:

Time to add the moon.
Our set of masks is brilliant.
A got-to-have in your stash!

Middle moon works best.
Add Tumbled Glass to a fresh brush, and sweep in the sky.

So now it looks like this…
Add a little shadow to the orb with a make-up sponge.

I think this makes a difference, so humour me!
I want to add a little shade to the lower part of the moon.
So replaced the mask,
dabbed a little amount of black ink to the mask, and then lightly swept it below the mask with a make up sponge.

See what I mean?

Now it’s coming together…

I replaced the centre mask and then brushed all the Lettuce 
which was left on the brush around the black.

I used a Micron Pen to sharpen the outline in places.

The Micron Pen is a great way to add crispness.

Now for the challenge.
I don’t have a craft knife here,
so decided to throw caution to the wind and cut the piece out roughly with scissors.
Yikes!
I then roughed the edges up with the scissors.

If I had some Kraft card, 
this would look great mounted on that natural card.

Do you like the hallway floor here?

I am sorry to be leaving here tomorrow.
I am happy to be coming home.
Work that out.
But one more day to go, and not to be wasted!
Ooh! There goes the doorbell again!
See you on the flip side.
much love,

32 thoughts on “Coming back to Blighty. A step by step cottage stencil project.

  1. Wow Barbara stunning I love this stencil a wonderful twist since you did this on c&c lessons using the other part have a safe journey home crafting hugs xxx

  2. Wonderful cottage, loving the moon! Always sad when a holiday ends, I feel the same every time glad to be heading home to see everyone but sad to be leaving the wonderful adventures behind. Just remember all the happy memories you have made this visit. Safe journey home. Xx

  3. It will be good to have you back over here, but a shame your holiday has to come to an end so soon. Remember to dump Worka and Hollick mid ocean without a parachute. It was fun watching this project gradually taking shape. Perfect. Have a good journey. xxx Maggie

  4. Oh there you are was wondering where you had got to today forgot about the time difference
    but worth the wait thanks for taking time to blog even on holiday especially when it includes a Barbara sky moon and hills because that's what got me hooked on your art the first time I saw you …safe journey home and enjoy your last day…take care.. xxx Dot

  5. What a beautiful scene. Perfect to remind you of the British countryside and ease you out of holiday mode. How lovely to have friends around the world that miss you when you're gone. Safe journey home to you all. Thank you for sharing your adventures and photos. Xx

  6. Hello Barbara

    I love what you have created here. You can barely see the black around the moon but it really makes it pop. The moon looks 3D.

    Have a safe journey home and I endorse all the previous comments. It is really kind of you to take the time, even on holiday, to give us a glimpse into your life.

    Love
    Roz.x

  7. Hello Barb, such fabulous artwork, love the image, and the way you pull it together. Thank you for sharing your amazing holiday with us. It will be great to have you back home. Have a safe trip. Bx

  8. Hi Barb,
    I was really worried when you brushed the black all over – I thought it would be so dark. I should have known that the final artwork would be lovely! Really do like the moon – definitely looks 3D. I know what you mean about sorry to be leaving but looking forward to getting home. When e used to take our caravan down to Pembrokeshire for 5 weeks in summer, I was always really sad to leave as we had good friends there but at the same time I really missed home ( although not the thought of going back to work!) especially my little cat. Thank you for sharing your holiday with us and for still taking time out to do your blog. Have a safe journey home. Love Alison xxxx

  9. Hi dave barb & Steve on your way home now always good to come home even though you have had a brill holiday. I love the stencil Barbara I am going to a big craft show tomorrow at bolton I hope someone is selling clarity or I will have to order from you its a treat for my birthday on Monday from my daughter. The card you completed is brilliant Barbara lovely to see you steve I know lovely dave and Barbara is my dear friend xxxxxxlove June horrocks xxxx

  10. Hi Barbara This is wonderful, yes I held my breath when you did the moon but I should have known it would look amazing. I know what you mean it's great to go on holiday but it's lovely to get home (although yours is home from home!). Love your floor, it's certainly an amazing place and it sounds like you have great friends there too. Thank you so much for taking us on holiday with you, it's been a blast. Safe journey home.
    Love to you all Diane Xxxx

  11. Glad you're not in any doubt about what to expect when you return. The sky is looking more like the outside with little bits of the inny. You sound very relaxed and refreshed. Safe journey.

  12. Wishing you a safe return journey Barbara, and enjoy every last minute of your holiday! Another really clever technique today – I never really know what to do with my innies, so this is a really helpful tutorial. Thanks, Susan x

  13. Loved the floor, like the artwork. Hope that you have had a restful break. Sorry that you're sad to be leaving your other home, glad that you're coming back to Blighty. Hope that you had a really good break and I have loved all the photies.X

  14. all good things come to an end, but if they did't you wouldn't be looking forward to the next one…… this is my brother's logic and he always says it to me every time i complain that a holiday is finishing. have a safe journey, hugs xx

  15. Hi Barbara, this artwork is like looking out a fancy shaped window, I like the different shades of green to make the hills and undulations look like it's real life, thank you. I liked your creation from nowt much too, it's lovely and glad you made something you feel proud off enough to keep permanently in your living room. Don't know why you said what you made is not what we were expecting, I knew you'd come up with something proper, arty and fit to be displayed as a piece of art. Unlike my idea that was going to be junk from junk, too rubbish. Sorry that's your lovely holiday over. You mustn't be too sad coming home though as you are about to see Grace again, if I remember right, she's coming home for a holiday very soon isn't she

    Nicola said to use the words I'm having a "rubbish time of it just now". Guess it means to normal people far more than the word rubbish means to me. Proper not coping, with the whole, it's not one thing or anything new happened, well a big deal thing I found out about today, but that's on top. Seriously not coping, so many bad feelings inside, and the biggest volcano ever of frustrations and feelings like I'm being pinned down, desperate to free myself and can't. I'm totally lost too, don't know how to explain what that means. And very upset and been hurting myself a lot, and no help. To stop myself doing me any more harm I've been doing the only thing I know – hard physical exercise, which I get told is another form of self harm I do (but at least it keeps me from ending up doing something serious enough to land me in hospital or worse). I've been cleaning windows, cleaning one, then soon after feeling the need to harm again so clean another one! Yes I know, how am I managing that, the severity of the stress and emotions, the adrenaline must be how, and yes I'm now in total physical agony too, and at some point my CFS is going to overtake the adrenaline effects and I'm going to be so ill. This is how it is for me when things get too tough. Craft and your blog has got caught up in it too, because the picture I was painted and made to believe moving here was going to mean for me, the life I was going to have, a huge part of that involved or revolved around craft in at least some way, and comparing that picture to the reality of today and everything I’ve been put through in between – polar opposites! So basically I've also been fighting the need first to throw the junk I'd collected for the art at the walls, then the need to open the window and throw the craft room contents out of it to get it out of here. This ahs been coming, I’ve been struggling more and more and knew something big was happening inside, kept trying to tell Nicola, but didn’t now what ‘this’ was until Wednesday. And all the messages I was getting everywhere was be like you usually are, so I’ve been fighting harder and harder to pretend to be the real deep inside me (even though I can’t find where it has gone inside me) that everyone expects me to be, so I guess Nicola maybe wasn’t getting it. And I couldn't even get to talk to Nicola until today, so been totally alone with it all. Even though I pay for any time I get even on the phone, obviously I need to first try to get her to understand it is a crisis /emergency thing (not allowed more than one call a week from her), that I do need an extra bit and then she needs to find the time to fit it in. there's nothing much she can do to help right now, except listen, try to understand, think about how to help me, and trying to reassure me I'm wrong about this being the end for me, and she still believes it's going to improve. over the weekend I’m supposed to make a huge effort to come here and start commenting again and I'm supposed to be making my stupid idea of art from nowt much, even though I think it's total rubbish in comparison to yours and what everyone else has /will be coming up with.

    1. And leave it to Nicola to sort out my phone /broadband problem when she get's back from annual leave. I tried and got in an even bigger state and the guy ended up putting the phone down on me! So yet again a very negative experience causing me much anguish and bad feelings, and Nicola having to step in to sort the mess out and then deal with the original problem. And someone a lot more senior basically doesn't believe I can't do it – making phone calls, dealing with problems, and basically told me last year I have no choice but to or basically they can't provide the service I need. Which is garbage and is not their ethos or principles, nor the principles of support work but she wasn’t prepared to listen never mind take on board why i can’t nor that a senior medical person stipulated I should ever be when this service took over my care! It basically causes me (sometimes irreparable) mental and physical ill health. But after today Nicola is now telling me to stop trying to and to phone her or one of her two equals who also know me quite well when something needs dealt with /phoned. Basically every time I've tried to deal with something myself this year it's all gone wrong and I've even made it worse at times, and Nicola has had to then help me, and then sort it all out. That's a huge relief that I no longer need to try again, kind off, because if that person finds out and Nicola can't get her to believe the truth of it, she could tell me no service! Anyway that’s roughly where I’m at right now and why I haven’t been here. Sorry Love Brenda xx

    2. Hi Brenda. I am so sad that you are feeling so awful. I really wish I could do something to help you. It is terrible that you aren't getting the help and support that you need from anyone, and to have been told that if you don't do things their way then you won't get any support at all is so wrong. There must be better help for you.
      Please try and carry on crafting, it might help just for a tiny bit of to time to take your mind off of you harming yourself.
      I can only say that ANY thing that you create, or anyone else, IS art. Art can't be wrong or bad or rubbish. Sorry, I can't explain clearly what I mean but I hope you sort of understand. I don't think I am any good at art but Barbara has helped me realise that I should just have a go, enjoy doing it and not to worry. I just have ago now and don't care what happens. I wish you could do the same.
      I don't know what else to say to you, just please remember that there are a lot of people on here that care about you. Take care x

    3. Hello Brenda. I'm so sorry that everything feels so bad for you right now. I agree with Mrs B, your art is your own, so as long as you enjoy creating it, and it helps you escape from those feelings for a while it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of it. I can't think of anything to do myself, so your creation will definitely be a lot better than mine, which is currently nothing at all! I listened to something on the radio yesterday by Matthieu Ricard, a Bhuddist monk who is supposed to be the happiest person in the world. He said if you have any spare time, to send positive thoughts and happy feelings to people that you see or meet to improve their day. I will be sending all my positive thoughts to you today, and I hope that there will be some improvement in your feelings soon. Susan x

  16. Hi Barbara. Love it. I thought it was going to be a night time scene at the beginning but I was wrong there wasn't I! By the way the hall floor looks lovely : ) Sorry it's your last day but I understand the mixed feelings you are having. Take care xx

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