StencilGirl Guest Designer Frieda Oxenham

Welcome to StencilGirl Guest Designer Frieda Oxenham

Upon Unseen Wings

So lovely to do another project for StencilGirl. This one has been on the cards since I received the Blueprints ofArcheaological Treasures stencil. My first thought on seeing it was how well it would work with postage stamps in some of the spaces.  And, of course, postage stamps themselves have a whole history incased in them and thus are very archeological material.  I’m not a traditional stamp collector but I love stamps and buy them by the bagful in a delicious little shop in Edinburgh. I also indulge by buying stamp albums on Ebay. I have many more postage stamps than I’ll ever be able to use but I love looking through them and selecting just the right one for any given project.  The butterfly ones I’m using here are among my favourites.

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         Using 9 x 12 hot press 140lb watercolour paper, collage it completely with vintage map pieces using matte medium.

   Scrap on a thin layer of white gesso using an old credit card or a dry brush. 

    Spread thin layers of craft acrylics in your preferred colours over the surface using your fingers (or a brush if you prefer) and the credit card. 

   Spray through circular map stencil (from StencilGirl Club October2014) with Liquitex spray inks (or any other permanent spray ink). I used pink and green.  

    Using Blueprints of Archeological Treasures stencil, tape it securely to the page with masking tape on all 4 sides, and outline all the shapes with a black marker. 

   Fill in the spaces with black. (I used a medium point black Sharpie paint pen). 

     With a glue stick glue on 3 butterfly postage stamps.

    Glue on vintage text antiquing the edges with Vintage Sepia Versafine inkpad. I like to make poems out of text cut from vintage books. This one reads: We know not where we are, upon unseen wings. In a dream thou mayst live a lifetime, so soon perisheth its memory, forgotten in the morning. Thy time is not yet come.

         Outline each shape with white marker and do the same around all the outside edges. 

(c) Frieda Oxenham April 2015. To see more of Frieda's work, visit her blog HERE.