A Vintage Journey July Challenge - All Squared Up

The July Challenge is up over at A Vintage Journey!  Tracy is our hostess this month and her challenge is "All Squared Up".  

Here is the challenge description in her own words:  "Whether a frame, embellishment, die cuts, drawn squares, doodles or windows, let's see where inspiration takes you, let's get all squared up and show how creative those right angles can look! Show us your squared up pieces in a vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journaling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk style."

I had a completely different idea in my head when I walked into my craft room to start my project - but as I started looking through my 'stuff' I found these wonderful vintage linen napkins that I purchased many years ago at an antique shop in Vermont (6 for $10.00!)  and they were just waiting for me to pull them out and do something with them!   

And stenciling is what I did to them!    

Wendy Vecchi has a wonderful tutorial on the Ranger blog here - from last December, showing how she stenciled on hand towels for Christmas.

(the cuttings in the pitcher are Solomon'a Seal and Ladies Mantle from my garden)

So my 'squares' are the square napkins as well as the Checkmate Stencil background on each napkin.

I stamped a tiny red bird on the tree - but the clarity of the outline got blurred with the colors behind it but I like the little punch of color and you can see it's a bird when you look up close!!

All the stencils, stamps (accept for the little bird) and inks are by Wendy Vecchi.  

Here are a several photos of my process.

This stencil is Layered Tree - first I stenciled the tree trunk using WV Archival Tree Branch.  Then I moved the stencil to the leaf piece, lined it up over the stenciled trunk and sponged with WV Archival Leaf Green.

I wanted to have something that would unify the linen napkins since I used different images on each one - so I stenciled the same sentiment on each napkin using Wendy's Sentiments Stencil and WV Archival Watering Can Ink.  I also stenciled Wendy's Check Mate Stencil around each image using WV Archival Sky Blue ink.

For this napkin, I stamped the Cone Flower from Wendy's Stamp It Stencil It set twice using Archival Jet Black Ink

Then I used the stencil of the set to color the flower and leaves using WV Archival Cactus Flower and Leaf Green

For the next napkin, I used another Stamp It Stencil It set called In Full Bloom - stamping the image and then stenciling with Tiger Lily and Sun Flower.

Here you can see how the stencil masks the flower and lines up with the stamped leaves so you can color each section separately.

 I'm not sure how well the colors will stand up to washing.   I ironed over the stenciling to heat seal them as suggested by Wendy in her tutorial. 

We hope you will join us this month over at A Vintage Journey with your All Squared Up project!  You have until August 3rd to link up your creation.   

Our sponsor this month is  Tando Creative.  A randomly chosen entry will win a Tando package of MDF and mini shapes.

Please check out the challenge and all of the wonderful 'square' inspiration from our awesome Creative Guides!  You'll find it all here.

Stamps:  bird from Tiny Trees set - Waltzingmouse (retired),  Stamp It Stencil it sets - In Full Bloom, Cone Flower and Hydrangea - Wency Vecchi Stampers Anonymous.
Ink:  Archival Jet Black,  Wendy Vecchi Archival Leaf Green, Tree Branch, Sun Flower, Cactus Flower, Watering Can, Tiger Lily, Hydrangea, Red Geranium.
Accessories:  Linen Napkins, Blue Painters Tape, stencils - From the Garden, Check Mate, Layered Tree, Sentiments - Wendy Vecchi Studio 490, iron.