Faux Cyanotype with Watercolor: Journal Embellishments

Hi, my friends! Consie Sindet here again to share an experiment that I did with you!

I've been fascinated by the cyanotype process for a while and wanted to see if I could create a look-a-like version with just watercolor and stencils! Spoiler alert: YES, you can! And it is so simple!

BTW...I made a video of the process which you can find at the bottom of this post.

Let's start with the supplies I used:

ATC Mixup Evan stencil by Jennifer Evans: L654

Leafy Doodle Verge stencil/mask by Valerie Sjodin: S714

Boho Daisy small stencil by Gwen Lefleur: S846

Watercolor paper

Watercolor: Indigo or the darkest blue you have

Watercolor: Gold

Water spray bottle

Paper towel or baby wipe

White gel pen

Book paper

Coffee dyed paper

Paper punches

Burlap ribbon

Thread

Sewing machine

Stapler

I started by painting my watercolor paper with a couple of layers of Indigo blue watercolor. Let it dry completely.

I then grabbed the Boho Daisy small stencil by Gwen Lefleur: S846 to start. I laid it on the blue watercolor paper and using a damp paper towel or baby wipe, began to gently erase the watercolor through the stencil. Try to keep the water to a minimum! I added a few more marks from the ATC Mixup Evan stencil by Jennifer Evans: L654 as well to fill out the bookmark that this became. 

The final touch was to stencil gold watercolor back through the Boho Daisy small stencil by Gwen Lefleur: S846 to add some sparkle to the bookmark!

To create the collage clusters, I use the ATC Mixup Evan stencil by Jennifer Evans: L654 to add designs to the paper that would fit inside of the paper punches. I was very deliberate so that I wouldn't cut off interesting sections once I punched out my shapes.

I then punched out a circle and a rectangle from the print I made. The leftover piece became the tag with a window that you can see in the first photo. 

To assemble my clusters, I layered burlap ribbon, a ripped piece of coffee dyed paper, bits of thread and my punched out cyanotype print together. I used a sewing machine or a stapler to attach the group together. 

By final experiment was using the Leafy Doodle Verge stencil/mask by Valerie Sjodin: S714. I used one of the masks to see if it worked as well as a stencil. It did but I do think the stencils work the best! The photo above shows the finished design that I embellished with gold watercolor. It will make a great pocket! Also in the photo is the leftover section from the circle/rectangle punched paper. I created a tag and used a white gel pen to enhance the designs. 

I really love how this experiment worked! You can hear more and follow along with the video below.

I would love to see what you create using these stencils! You can tag me on Instagram and find me in the following spaces!

Website: AtopSerenityHill.com

Instagram: @consie_atopserenityhill

YouTube: @ConsieSindet

The Creative Playground membership

Carol Ponsford - Fun shrink art clips for art journaling!

Hi bloggers, Carol Ponsford here today with a project to add some fun to 

your art journaling, I will be showing you how I created these clips to hold your pages

open while you create in your art journals that will add a smile to your face.

I started with Shrink plastic, the stencil of choice (this one is L767 - Three Swamp Monsters 

stencil designed by Angela Treat Lyon), and a fine line Sharpie. I love these little whimsical characters!

(I also created one using L502 designed by Gwen Lafleur that you will see further down the page.)

I placed the stencil down on some card stock paper and traced around all of the sections

of the stencil and added some extra embellishments where I wanted.

With the stencil still in place, I took colored pencils and colored in all of the areas.

When using Shrink plastic, you need to remember that when you shrink the image,

the colors will become darker than first applied during the shrinking process.

Next, I carefully cut the image out. Since this image had many thin areas, I left 

some of the uncolored areas to add support for the thin sections.

The next step was to shrink the image. I used an old splatter screen to help 

keep the plastic from curling up too much and getting stuck to itself.

I had some areas stick but I was able to use a needle tool to pull the 

stuck areas apart carefully so I would not tear pieces off of the image.

I stopped part of the way through to show how much the piece will twist and curl

during the heating/Shrinking process. As you can see it gets quite curly.

The image will shrink approximately to half of it's original size as shown above.

I also did 3 other images using other types of pens to color the image. The top image 

was done with Posca markers, the second image was done with Copic markers, 

and the 3rd was the one with colored pencils. On this 4th image I 

did not trace the image on first, I started with placing the stencil under the 

shrink plastic, colored in areas with Copic markers and then laid the stencil 

on top and traced with the Sharpie pen. I wanted to show that there

are several ways to use shrink plastic and different pens that will work.

The colored pencils will give a much softer look than the Posca or Copic markers.

The next step was to trace each piece onto a piece of card stock and 

cut it out. Because I wanted to make sure the colors showed as much as possible

I felt putting white behind them would add to their brightness as well

as add a more absorbent base to help them adhere to the metal clips.

I used Gel Matte Medium to glue them on to the card stock.

This step might not be necessary but I did sand the card stock on the back

of the pieces a little as well as the metal hair clips I used to help them adhere better.

 

I used 2 thin popsicle sticks to hold the hair clips in place during the gluing stage

to help insure that the glue would not drip on the clip and seal it closed. This 

also helped to level the clips and stabilize them while they were drying.

I used 527 glue but I am sure there are many other glues that would work.

Once they are dry, I hope you will enjoy using them in your art journaling to hold the 

pages open as you create in your journal. And just maybe, when you catch 

one out of the corner of your eye, they will bring a smile!

Thank you so much for joining me today on the blog and I hope you will

create some of these journal clips for yourself. I want to thank 

StencilGirl® Products for providing me with these stencils so 

that I can share what I created with you.

Happy Creating!

To see more of my work please visit my Instagram page.

Faces, Quotes and a Colored Pencil Study

Hello, it's Kate Yetter here with you today. Do you play when you create? Most people would say yes, and I used to be one of them, but recently I have found that creating doesn't always equal play. There are certain processes that make me happy when I do them, and others that are so boring that I usually abandon them midway through and move onto the next project. I struggle with playing because I always feel the need to have a finished product that looks perfect. 

After so much frustration in my creative work, I am slowly learning to have fun, play around and to not expect everything to turn out like a masterpiece. This is easier said than done of course but I am finding when I do let myself play, I am more likely to experiment and at the end, I feel inspired to come back and try it again.

Today's project is one of those play sessions. I love working with wet media, but I am trying to expand my toolbox and skills to include more dry mediums. I have a lot of colored pencils that are rarely used so I thought I would challenge myself and give them a whirl. And add in a little play while I am at it!

Here is a quick sketch I did in the planning phase.

Sweet Face Small Girl

To begin, I traced my stencil onto a piece of smooth kraft paper.

 A base layer of yellow was added to the entire face and hair. I lightly built up the layers of colored pencils. I watched several tutorials online while preparing for this project and using a lot of colors seemed to be key.

Dogwood Blossoms

I thought these dogwood blossoms would be a cute addition to her hair. I really love how her white collar "popped" on the kraft paper background.

When planning this project, I knew that I wanted to include a quote somewhere on the piece. I decided to put it in her collar. It reads, "Explore daily the will of God." I wanted to use stenciled letters but using this method required hand-lettering since they all turned out to be different sizes.

Blending the layers is something I would assume comes with practice. I wasn't sure what the professionals use but I read I could use rubbing alcohol, so I used a combination of a paper blending stump with the alcohol. You can still see strokes from the pencil that I was unable to smooth out.

 

Art Deco Alphabet

Love Face

This last piece I consider a failure, but I am sharing it anyway because I am trying to break the perfectionistic mode. The blending in the face is a bit streaky but I like the various colors in her hair. Next time, I probably just need to be more patient in building up my layers. 

i

Thank you for joining me today. Go play!

Until Next Time.

Kate

New Art Tutorial by Frieda Oxenham with StencilGirl® Products

Sometimes I get inspired by just going through my stencils and simply coming upon one that attracts my attention. In this case it was the text Be True to Yourself that made me think. It is at times quite hard to even know who you are, and it is also a fluid concept, as we continually change. Who I am today is more than likely not who I will be tomorrow. And I don’t know about you, but my head is always full of those sort of thoughts. Sometimes I wish there was an Off switch. That was the sort of idea I tried to capture in this spread.

Here is the tutorial:

1.     Brayer on gold gesso on a spread in an 8 x 8” art journal with black paper.

2.     Using a baby wipe and titanium white acrylic paint, stencil randomly over the pages using stencil Elizabethan Lizard.

3.     Using the top layer only, glue on flowers from a paper napkin to the spread, using matte medium.

4.     Stencil on leaves to the spread using green acrylic paint, a cosmetic wedge and stencil Kelp Mask.

5.     Stencil on flower outlines using opaque blue paint, a cosmetic wedge and stencil Boho Daisy Small.

6.     Repeat step 5 with opaque yellow and red paint.

7.     Colour in the flowers with matching colours of soft pastels (mine are by Windsor and Newton).

8.     Using stencil Elizabethan Lizard and white titanium paint, stencil on a separate black sheet.

9.     Using the face mask from the B stencil of the May 2022 StencilClub, mark the face using both sides for 2 mirrored faces and cut out. Outline the patterns using with different colours of paint markers.

10.  Glue the faces to the opposite side of the pages and outline with a Stabilo All black marker.

11.  Doodle inside the background flowers with paint markers.

12.  Stencil on the text using the medium stencil from the September 2016 StencilClub

13.  Outline the text with the Stabilo All black pencil

14.  Spray on some gold mica sparkle through the same stencil as in step 2 and step 8.

© Frieda Oxenham 2023

Carol Ponsford - August 2023 StencilClub -Painting

Hi everyone, Carol Ponsford here with my tutorial on how I created this 8" x 8" 

painting using the August 2023 StencilClub set designed by Gwen Lafleur. This set has so 

many great patterns to add texture to a painting through building layer upon layer.

If you would like to see the full process I have a video showing how I created this. Just click this link:

https://youtu.be/Lx0frGw9kc8

           

I started by making some collage paper on deli paper using my gel plate. I used

various areas of both stencils and a variety of PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylic paint.

Once I had a sheet filled, I set it aside for later.

I then took several colors of PaperArtsy paint and brushed some 

colors onto a sheet of Bristol Smooth paper and sponged a variety 

of the stencil patterns on top of the colored sections.

I cut pieces of collage paper and previewed where I wanted to adhere them to the page.

I cut the painting to the size of an 8"x 8" wooden panel to help me decide what other layers were needed.

Using Acrylic Ink I added an additional layer to highlight some of the sections and stenciled areas.

I decided it needed additional interest so I used washi tape by UM WOW studio to add another layer.

After adhering the tape with Matte Medium, I sponged some paint on the edges of the washi tape 

to blend them into the background then used the stencils with other colors to connect the painted 

areas to the painting. Using these layering techniques will give a more cohesive finish to the painting.

To finish the painting, I used Golden Regular Matte Medium to adhere the Bristol paper to the wooden panel and trimmed off any overhang. I added some of the same stenciled elements on the edge of the panel and then added a thin layer of the acrylic ink I used in the painting so they matched.

Thank you very much for stopping by the blog today to see the many ways these stencils can 

be used as a mixed media tool. I will be back next month to share my September project with you.

I want to thank StencilGirl® Products for providing me with this free StencilClub 

set so that I could play in advance and share what I create each month with you.

Join StencilClub by August 15th to receive these exclusive stencils, an accompanying video 

tutorial with PDF (both downloadable!), and 20% OFF STENCILS EVERY DAY!!

Happy Creating!

To see more of my work please visit my Instagram page.

Supplies used:

August 2023 StencilClub Set

6"x6" gel plate

Brayer

PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylic Paint Colors:

Cloud 9, Butter, Cherry Blossom, Prawn,

Butternut, Coral, Mermaid, Verdiris

Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks:

Antelope Brown, Fluorescent Pink, Fluorescent Orange

Golden Regular Matte Medium

Baby Wipes

UM WOW Studios Washi Tape:

Kraft Marks and Noted Confidential

Ranger Tim Holtz Domed Sponge Applicator

Ranger Dina Wakley Clear Gesso

Scraper

Uni-Ball Vision black pen