Stencil heaven -

that's where I am right now - stencil heaven.

You know I'm hooked on stencils - designing, cutting and using them, whether my own or commercial ones. I've been playing for the last two days, designing and cutting some hearts from Tyvek that are meant to be layered:

The cut-outs themselves will work as masks, once they are designed some more themselves.

I also road-tested a technique I learned from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's stencilling freebies this past week.  It involves taking a less-than-beloved piece of paper,

and adding some paint (here some quinacridone burnt scarlet from Daniel Smith mixed with Golden Heavy Gel Medium (I'd already been addicted to the raised surface this produces)

through a commercial stencil

and then lifting the stencil carefully.  What a great way to add some depth and change the look of a piece.

I used the same technique in two different colours to alter these leftover wallpaper strips,

and mixed the remains of the two colours to do the tulips on the left, which I textured heavily just for fun and an alternate look.

Of course I had to play with the layered stencil I'd so carefully cut, so I started with a Gelli plate background and went wild with  Daniel Smith's cadmium yellow (medium) and quinacridone purple, along with a couple of stamps.

I really enjoyed the layering process, so I didn't stop there.  More Gelli plate prints and more layered stencilling,

and now I'm lost in the studio somewhere,

likely buried under piles of colour and stencils.  Please, will someone come and dig me out?!