Inspiration

Ever since the digital cameras have been around, I tend to not print pictures anymore. We just enjoy them on the computer and sharing them with others in the same form. Well at the first of the year, I spoiled myself with a new computer and in moving everything over to the new computer I had a lot of fun going through the photo albums that I was transferring. WOW!! I think I had actually forgotten about some of these projects that I had painted over the years……The Whimsey Suitcase!

Over the years I think I have just about painted everything I could find, including a suitcase.  This was a fun project that I had created for the studio and eventually one of my customers had to have it!  No surface is safe around me, I have painted buckets, flower pots, toasters (yes, toasters) and have had so much fun just being creative.

This project takes me back to my “dumpster diving” days! I loved stopping at every (yes – every) antique store, flea market and anyplace off the side of the road that just looked like it would be fun to dig through!  I have a stash of stuff that is still waiting for its turn to be transformed into a wonderful painted item. I even started to dig through my warehouse the other day to see what was left and ready to paint.

Whether you are whimsy or sophisticated, you can have fun painting just about any item and transform it into a wonderful painted treasure!

Have fun painting everything and anything you can find!!

I’m not sure how long Amy and I have known each other but, it does go back a few years! Amy and her husband, Don have opened their house several times for me when I have traveled to PA to teach for their local chapter of the IDAL group. Talk about incredible hosts – Amy and Don make you feel so welcome, cook amazing food for you and even let the guest bet them at WII…..I Knocked Amy out!!  (Only in the game…LOL)

Amy Scheg is the owner of Stensational Walls in Lebanon, PA and has been painting for 12 years.  Her decorative painting business encompasses many facets of the arts and one of her loves has always been stenciling.  You can find her online @ Stensational Walls.

One of Amy’s favorite projects are Babies and Children’s rooms – Amy indicated that usually she is given a budget and is told “do whatever you want, we trust your judgement”!  Now, that is a dream client!!!  Recently she had a project in where she had taken the bedding for the room, traced several of the elements and cut her own stencils by hand (now that’s a lot of work!) – but, she had a dilemma in the fact, she needed a Polka Dot stencil and she knew should could not cut perfect little circles the size she had desired.  So this is where I entered the picture on this project……..Amy called my studio after seeing several posts by me indicating that I was offering Laser Stencil Cutting services. Amy provided me with the details of the design she needed and I had my associate Ron create the stencil.

This room is absolutely adorable – Amy worked with the palette of colors from the bedding, a couple of pinks, white, green and chocolate-brown.  One wall was created like the bedding and the other walls she scattered flowers, leaves and bugs randomly around the room.  Then she painted two 1 inch chocolate-brown stripes around the room at chair rail height, about 6 inches apart and put the Polka Dots in the middle of the stripes…..she also created a French Wash below the Polka Dot border.

Amy said my Polka Dot stencil was amazing – it only took her about an hour to paint the entire border.  She indicated that polka dots are very popular in children’s bedding right now, so this stencil will come in handy!  I want to “thank” Amy for sharing this fun project with us and allowing me the chance to create a fun stencil!

Have fun Stenciling,

Jenn