Making stencils

As we set ourselves up in our new home, we throw away a lot of packaging. 

I am also missing my studio, as most of it is in a Florida storage unit a few thousand miles away from Costa Rica. 

Between trash and missing my supplies…I look at many things with an eye to reusing and repurposing. Sooo…the packaging! 

I saved pieces of flat plastic because although small, they are perfect for stencils! 

As I love staring out at the super tall trees at our new home, the tops of these trees became a simple subject to begin my new hand cut stencil collection. 
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To test them, I experimented, of course. 

Packaging here in Costa Rica is very different than in the USA. There’s a lot less packaging here. I’m on a search for a packaging that I can use for stencils that is easier to find, and larger, than the little box used here. 

To see some of my stencils that are in my Florida storage unit, click on through these links:

Dragonflies stencil in progress

How to reuse the wrappers (I used to) that were on my art drop freebies

If you’d like to see some of my hand carved stamps, too, you might enjoy my Luxury Lucky Cats Collection that I’m sending via email to friends. I keep all emails a secret and you can get an inside look at my almost secret collection of Luxury Lucky Cats.

The stencils with paint all over them! With another piece of plastic for a different design.

At my art table working with the stencil.

This piece has no title, but I used collaged packaging and my new stencil to make this.