StencilGirl Guest Designer Jeanette House

Hello, StencilGirl fans! Jeanette House here, aka One Little House. *waves* I was so delighted to be invited to guest post a demo for you and after a somewhat tortured time choosing which stencil I wanted to play with [!], I settled on this stunning "flower and leaf" design by Daniella Woolf. This one spoke to me because I love anything earthy and flora, and this was like looking into a lovely secret flower garden through a stained glass window.

I decided to work on a loose journal page of 140lb cold-pressed [ie. textured] watercolour paper - it copes brilliantly with multiple layers and wet media. Usually when I work with stencils - whether on canvas or a journal page - I move them around and use the design very loosely to add random splashes of colour or texture to my work. The flower and leaf design was so pretty though, that I decided to use it as my picture for the page. Instead of pouncing colours through the stencil to capture the design, I created a background of bright, pretty colours on which to overlay the stencil pattern. Using different colours and patterns of tissue paper combined with some old book text and stamps text for added interest, I made a rainbow collage for my first layer. Next I doodled with my paint brushes [a small round and a small, very worn out filbert!] and acrylic craft paint, adding simple patterns in yet more colour.

My background felt "done" when I had a generous amount of colour and pattern over the entire page, so I gave it a final whizz over with my heat-gun, and then reached for the stencil... I pounced [and pounced - and pounced - it's a BIG stencil, y'all!] through it using scrumptious Golden black gesso because I wanted the layer with the design to be thick, matte, and opaque - a complete contrast to the RIOT of colour going on behind it! If you don't have black gesso, you could try this look with white gesso, or use black craft paint instead [the cheaper craft paints tend to be nice and chalky and opaque]. And then... The Big Peel. And WOOHOO: awesome stained glass window flower and leaf effect! *insert happy dance*

After thoroughly drying my page, I added some finishing touches: I laid the stencil down again but jogged it slightly off its previous position, and added some yummy Inka Gold in a yellow-green shade just through the leaf patterns - this gave a gorgeous metallic sheen over the leaves, a super contrast with the matte-ness [is that a word?!] of the black gesso. I then did a little more detailing over the flower outlines and centres to make them pop a bit more, and hey presto: my page was done! Oh, except off-camera I found a lovely Rumi garden-themed quote which I typed out, printed, splodged over with pink paint, cut out, stuck down with glue-stick, and wrote over with a black Sakura glaze pen... And hey presto again: my page was definitely done!

My page pre-Rumi quote

In case you don't believe me, here's the video:

If you have problems watching the embedded version, you can watch the video here.

My page plus Rumi quote

And just because I love StencilGirl Products and had so much fun putting this post together for you, here is a FREE quote-free version of my page that you can download and use as a background or as collage fodder in your art journal:

SGPSeptdemo

Thank you to StencilGirl for inviting me; and have fun, everyone, if you try this technique!

Jeanette x

Flower and Leaf stencil L149
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Connect with Jeanette:
- on her website/blog
- at One Little House
- on Facebook