I'm participating in another blog hop this month, this time for my new friend Nathalie Kalbach. I met Nathalie at CHA last January when she shouted out at me when I was walking past a booth that she knew me, and we later were able to chat. She's one of the people I've kept in touch with since then, and will be participating in Art Journal Summer Camp as one of my guest artists!

When she asked me to help her get out the word about her new stencils through StencilGirl, I jumped at the opportunity to help a friend! Plus, as you know, I do love my stencils! Oddly enough, this spread was completed before last week's hop spread as part of my initiative to plan things out ahead of time!

Today, myself and my fellow blog hoppers are playing with her Circuit stencil. I love how original her ideas for stencils are, and how HER they are! As a nerd girl and technology-junkie, I HAD to get this one! It got me to journal about my fannish self for the first time, and was a great stencil to play with. Allow me to show you...

I started by randomly spraying through the stencil in my Dylusions art journal with one of her ink sprays and SEI tumble dry. Why 2 different ones? The Dylusions spray will re-activate with water where the SEI spray is permanant!

I then painted with gesso over random parts of the spread & did the edges with a lovely ginger color of Silks Acrylic Glazes.

I then stenciled through the stencil I introduced last week with fluorescent red paint. I also put washi tape along the seam to keep anything from leaking through (usually I do this first, but I started this page while working on other things!).

I'm crazy about silhouette's lately and am glad I have bunches I've made myself. They're really easy to make and can really help when you're blocked or don't know what to do on a page. After I painted around my stencil with a dry brush of mixed paint, I jumped to the facing page while that paint dried and made marks with some Adirondack color wash.

I then poured out some color wash and let it drip down the page. The circles are bits I made for Art Journal Summer Camp as samples that fit as embellishment. I'm gluing them down with gel medium and using a Catalyst wedge.

I then focused on her dress. The interior color came from a Portfolio Oil Pastel and is lined with a Stabilo pencil. I then got that fluorescent red paint back out and stenciled part of the circuit pattern inside it to pull it out from the background. While I loved having it in the background, I wanted to highlight the stencil and add more pattern to her dress since I calmed it down with the oil pastel color.

Next, I did some writing. First, along the drips with a black EF Molotow paint pen, then through the stencil with a pink glitter Sharpie paint pen. Just a little bit of detail-y fun!I

I grabbed these stickers on clearance at Michaels and just love them! They're not very thick so they don't add too much weight or thickness to a journal page, are tall and thin, and are glossy. I'm thinking I have to go get some more! I've been loving using them to give my pages "titles," that is, words to clarify the main message or idea on the page. Plus, when I looked at this silhouette, all pretty and pink, with computer circuits running through her, I was like, "OMG, me! Nerd girl!" I love being a nerd and am super psyched to have a page for that part of myself in my journal!

I added some repetitive stamping with a hand carved stamp, rubbed some Letraset letters into the silhouette, and wrote down all the nerdy things I love on the page. I'm sure there are more, but here's the big ones (and I'm actually listening to Star Trek: TNG while I write this post)!

I was eyeing a sumi-e brush when I sat back, and decided to write with india ink on the right-hand side. Since I hadn't been feeling well, and art is my way of coping and self-care, I decided that it would be the best reflection of the nerd girl page if I acknowledged the self-care ritual of art journaling. In order to calm the background and bit and make the words easier to see, I painted around some of the letters with grey paint. I wanted to paint around all of them, but couldn't be bothered, haha! But I like the effect of only some being painted around, so it worked out!

And hey, I know some very giving people, because Nat has maybe mentioned that if you leave a comment on her blog, you can win this stencil! And each blog you visit & leave a comment on enters you to win as well! You have time to comment till August 6, 2013 - midnight EST.

Don't forget to visit the other blogs on the hop!

Samie Harding - you are here!

What parts of you haven't made their way into your art journal? How can you incorporate more YOU in your journal?

I also wanted to thank all of you for the lovely comments on my last post! I have been a bit under the weather with my FMS, but have read every single one and wanted to say thank you ! I'll be replying this week to all your lovely words!

Years ago, before I moved to Phoenix, I used to have tons of spray paint. Nothing fancy, just whatever I could grab at Wal-Mart or Lowes. It was messy and gave me a headache when I played for too long, but I adored the look and had just started collecting stencils.

But winter meant I couldn't go outside to use it, and spray inks were just coming out, so I slowly switched and abandoned all my cans when I moved cross-country.

Recently, my love has been re-kindled by the messy graffiti outsider art of MitsiB. I grabbed the one can I had in my apartment and played, then grabbed a fluorescent red/orange from a big box store. I played for 10 minutes and my head hurt.

So I decided to try the Liquitex spray paint, hoping 'Low Odor' meant we won't give you a bloody headache and burn out your nose.

After posting to Instagram and FB, I decided it was a perfect time to test the camera on my new iPhone. C'mon....I'm a video-makin' junkie! How could I NOT test it! This little video was so much fun to put together....I wonder if you'd like more little videos like this? Talking about what I'm working on, using, and creating? I think a mini-tripod is in order (sorry for all the movement!), but I'd love to make more like this....one of the thing I love about videos and blogs is seeing someone else's world. I can share that!

Let me know YOUR experiences in the comments below. Or suggest my next mini-video topic!