StencilGirl and Walnut Hollow Blog Hop

I love me some wood burning.

It is hard to find a savory art, one that smells good, like a crackling fire on a cold night. Needless to say, I was delighted when Walnut Hollow agreed to do a Blog Hop with StencilGirl. And when I met Chris and Sara at CHA I was even more delighted; they are just the kind of people I like to hang out with, so down to earth and easy to like. 

I have two tools from Walnut Hollow. In the interest of disclosure, both were gifts Walnut Hollow sent to me - the Hot Marks and the Creative Versa-Tool. I really like both of them. 

See that knife? That is the attachment I used to cut the foam core. 

The Hot Marks tool has a variety of attachments and may be used on nearly all surfaces including paper, wood and......wait for it.....foam! You know how I am about foam, I do all my doodling on Foam core and struggle with cutting it, I mean struggle, that being with a capitol STRUGGLE.

Well no more of that! '

This Hot Marks tool makes an easy job of slicing Foam core, it is like buttah, I kid you not. Where have you been all my life, Hot Marks?

Instead of boring you with pictures of me cutting up blocks of Foam core, I decided to play around a little bit by attempting to cut something more complex. 

Here is a confession. 

Although I LOVE our stencils, I also like that play on positive and negative that occurs when you have a stencil and a matching stamp. But alas, we are not a stamp company. So what to do??? Hmmm, Foam stamps anyone?

I selected the stencil Wonky Eyes, one of my new faves. First I stamped the design of the stencil onto the foam and then I started to cut. I am telling you - buttah! It is awesome. SO quick and easy that I kind of surprised myself. 

After cutting, I glued it onto another piece of foam using Gel Medium. I put a coat of Gel Medium over the top too so it would be sealed.

Wow, wow, wow!! I love the effect. See that more solid blue-ish piece in the back? That is what the actual stencil looks like. And now I have a stamp too. Gotta love it!!!

The Creative Versa-Tool is very snazzy! In addition to all the attachments, this tool has a temperature adjustment. It gets really hot and you can do master wood burning with it. Or I guess you could if you were a master wood burner. I am a baby wood burner. 

First you need wood (duh) and Walnut Hollow has got you covered. They have these sweet wood panels in a variety of sizes. The front size is smooth and perfect, the back side as a little cradle so you can pop that puppy right onto the wall once you are finished!  

I selected the small Tribal Hand stencil because I thought it might look like a Henna effect after it was burned. The first step is to sand the wood so it is very smooth. I will just admit from the start that I forgot this part because I was so excited about the burning part and it still worked. But I had really smooth wood to start with. After sanding, lay out the stencil and trace the design using a pencil. 

I

Once you have traced, you are pretty much good to go. When you look at the kit, you will see a bunch of different attachments and I can only tell you which ones I liked, you would really need to play around on your own. 

For the linear parts, and the outline, I liked the small chisel shaped too, I think it is really for calligraphy but it worked well for my purposes. I also used the Universal tip. When I was doing the curvy parts, I used the shading tool and there is a terrific tool for making circles, hence my edge treatment. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to hear the sizzle of the burning wood as you raise and lower the tool to make each circle.

And voila, here is the final product. 

To recap, I learned some things using both these tools that I want to share them with you. 

1. Read the instructions before you start. Seriously. There are useful tips as to how to work with different surfaces. 

2. If you are changing attachments, turn the tool off and allow it to cool down first. Make sure you really have it turned off(uh, just saying.....) and use pliers to handle to screw the attachments in and out. 

3. Let the tool do the work, you do not have to force anything with either of these tools, they have ample power and heat for any of the tasks indicated, you don't need to use force of any kind.

4. If you mess us, you can use a knife (or sandpaper) to scrape the burned part away, then you can re-burn.

5. Have fun! You can do lots of cool stuff.

Blog Hop Order

StencilGirl Talk/Judi Kauffman

Walnut Hollow

Mary Beth Shaw You are HERE

Kirsten Reed Go HERE next

Carolyn Dube

Janet Joehlin

Linda Kittmer

Mary C. Nasser

Julie Snidle

Jessica Sporn

Judy Shea

Maria McGuire