Feeling Groovy with the Groove Tool and StencilGirl Stencils

Welcome to Day 1 of our Blog Hop with Art-C and The Groove Tool. I want you to read this entire post while humming 'Feeling Groovy." Because that's what I did while working on this post. Could.Not.Get.It.Out.Of.My.Head.

I'm going to confess that I didn't expect to like this tool. I'm not a tool junkie in general, I am kind of old fashion and tend to do things the way I always have. When Art-C sent me one I didn't know what to make of it. First of all, I had just purchased a Clarisonic (for my face) and the Groove Tool looked suspiciously similar, ha! Note to self, keep it in the studio.

Here is a picture of the little guy, isn't he cute! There are four heads the come with the tool, moving from the left, we have a sponge, brush, coarse sander and fine sander. Being a stencil maniac, I knew I wanted to try the sponge tool for sure. And if you are a regular reader of my blog, you surely know how picky I am about my stencil sponges. Ahem.....

But I digress. 

As I was trying to figure out what to make, I opened my journal to find two pages totally stuck together, I hate it when that happens. Being up for an experiment, I snapped on the coarse sander and went to work: 

breaks my heart when this happens, argghhh......

I sanded the damage and then painted over it.

First I used the brush tool to cover up the damage with a similar color. Then I snapped on the sponge tool and stenciled a pattern.

Newly stenciled areas.

Wow. Honestly I was so impressed with this darn sponge, I went ahead and added pattern in a couple more areas. It requires hardly any paint! Seriously, I used just a few drops and it made such a nice clean result, check out this close-up. It is a real fooler - I could barely tell I was depositing any paint and when I lifted the tool it was such a crisp pattern I was super pleased. 

Closeup up of stencil parts. 

Next I wanted to distress something because I like doing that but my hands are arthritic and using sandpaper is not their favorite thing.  

Journal page thick with paint.

This journal page had some thick paint and I feared it was going to be a sticky mess, so I used the coarse sanding attachment and went over the white circle area. No pressure whatsoever. The tool does all the work. And amazing, I got this cool distressed look. 

Distressed with sanding attachment.

To sum up:

• Groove Tool sponge rocks with stencils - use very little paint, you get a terrific result
• Groove Tool sandpaper will knock the sticky edges off your journal pages easy peasy
• Groove Tool sandpaper will distress a painted surface with ease
• I think that Groove Tool is going to seriously help my arthritic hands.

The Groove is available now at EVERY Hobby Lobby store.  Most Michaels and Joann Fabric and Craft stores have it now, as well. At Hobby Lobby and Michaels, it is in the stamping isle.  At Joann, it is in the paint and stencil aisle, near the unfinished wood.  Of course, it may be ordered directly from Art-C by calling Customer Service at 800-448-6656.

Thank you Art-C. I love this Groove Tool!

Life Book 2016 Blog Hop & Give Away!

Congratulations to Jennifer Van Pelt, the winner of Life Book 2016. 
Thank you so much for all the heart felt entries. I hope to see you all in Life Book 2016.

I am so thrilled to be teaching on Life Book 2016. The lineup of teachers is 'pinch me' amazing and I have a sense this year's instruction is going to be transformational.

I am ready, are you?

Well..........drumroll please..........I get to give away one (1) space to this amazing year long course. I mean how cool would that be to win a spot!?!?

Keep reading if you want to find out more about Life Book 2016 and if you want to find out how you can win a spot! :) 

First let me tell you a bit more about Life Book in case you haven't heard about it yet! 

MB Shaw Journal Spread

“Life Book, a celebration and honouring of YOU” is a year-long mixed media art class organised by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts. Tam is joined by 23 incredible art teachers (including moi) who are all gearing up to share their mixed media techniques, tips and tricks with YOU! Themed around self-development and healing, you’ll be creating several loose mixed media art journal pages per month which by the end of the year you will bind into a glorious journal (a Life Book)! You will have a wonderful keepsake that you can treasure for the rest of your life!

Truly, I am so rocked by this concept that I am going to work along because I mean who wouldn't want to be part of this??

You can find out why this course has been so popular (joined by over 8700 people in the past!) by clicking HERE.

I am pretty excited about the class I am developing and will share tons of my journal and painting techniques such as those seen here.

Close up drips MB Shaw

Registration opens on October 5th 2015 and the class begins on January 1st 2016. 

So if you want to start the year with a fabulous creative BANG and spend 2016 with a wonderful creative community of like-minded souls, learning more about art and how to be kinder and more loving towards yourself, be sure to join once registration opens! :) Keep this page bookmarked so that you can sign up the moment it goes on sale!

Closeup neon MB Shaw

Now then, onto the give-away and blog hop! 

I can give away 1 space in Life Book 2016. And if you follow the blog hop (see below for links and dates) you can increase your chances of winning a space by entering all the other give-aways also.

To enter my Give Away, all you have to do are 2 simple things:
1. Sign up for the StencilGirl newsletter, found toward the bottom of the StencilGirl home page. 

2. Leave me a comment below as to why you would love to join Life Book 2016 

I will announce the winner on October 1st.
Here is the list of the other amazing teachers who will be teaching on Life Book – they too will be giving away a spot on Life Book so go check them out and enter their give-aways! :)


Blog Hop Order

7 Sept 2015 Tamara Laporte

8 Sept 2015 Annie Hamman

9 Sept 2015 Kristin Dudish

10 Sept 2015 Effy Wild

11 Sept 2015 Faith Evans-Sills

12 Sept 2015 Gillian Lee Smith

13 Sept 2015 Ivy Newport

14 Sept 2015 Jane Davenport

15 Sept 2015 Jenny Grant

16 Sept 2015 Angela Kennedy (Pennystamper)

17 Sept 2015 Lisa Viger

18 Sept 2015 Martha Lever

19 Sept 2015 Mary Beth Shaw THAT'S ME!

20 Sept 2015 Melody Ross

21 Sept 2015 Pam Carriker

22 Sept 2015 Pauline Agnew

23 Sept 2015 Rae Missigman

24 Sept 2015 Renata Loree

25 Sept 2015 Roben-Marie Smith

26 Sept 2015 Roxanne Coble

27 Sept 2015 Shiloh Sophia McCloud

28 Sept 2015 Donna Downey

29 Sept 2015 Tracy Verdugo

30 Sept 2015 Wyanne Thompson

I am part of Life Book 2016

I am so honored to be part of Life Book 2016. 

And I know if is going to rock, my oh my the teachers! 

Wow!!!!

Tamara LaPorte has posted some details over on her blog, you can find out more by visiting 

HERE where you will find info on GiveAways and Scholarships.

I will post more detail on this blog shortly.

In the meantime, here is where you register, starting October 5th.

Resist Technique with Flora Bowley stencils

I promised this video awhile back and am sorry to be delayed......sometimes life gets in the way. At any rate, here are some ways to use those 2 part stencils we are selling over on StencilGirl Products.
We have lots of these, but specifically, our new releases by Flora Bowley are perfecto for these techniques.

Watch on YouTube