Monday, October 30, 2017

Guest Designer: Kristin Peterson

Stencils..... you have to love their versatility. So many ways to use the stencils. Simple to complex. Art journaling, canvas, mixed media projects......

I am going to let you in a secret..... I have a bunch.

And I love them all. 
I made an art journal page to share with you. Layered up goodness. And probably painted past its good point, but, when it dried, I loved it and found the layers interesting and a labor of love for sure.

So today I will show you a bit of my process and try to walk you through how I love to use my stencils.

Art journaling.... there are supposed to be no rules here. But do know what the rules are. Color. Composition. And then know when you walk that thin line between the rules and no rules and when you can just throw those out the window.

Art journals don't have to be shared. Journals are for exploration, and trying things out, experimenting. And if you don't like the page... Turn to the next page, and start again.

I like to gesso my pages. It provides a surface in which to work on. It will grab my color and hold onto to it. Gesso allows me to come back to it, or close to white if need be. I skim coat my page. To me this is better if it is not perfect; I usually leave some edges with no gesso. I like to use a credit card to apply.

Pick a color to start with. I started with a couple of my favorite colors and will build my page up from there. I like to vary what I am doing- paint, pencil, watercolor pencil, stencil.... After applying a few colors, I used my Circles Circles stencil with a small sponge roller and white paint.


I decided to add some collage to this piece as well and continue with more paint. I added a pop of color using a Dylusions spray inks and Rae Missigman's Repetition stencil. It is good to mix and match stencils - big and small.

I love the small color details. It's good to note that the Dylusions will move if you wet it however, so placement on your page and timing in your process may need to be considered when using this product.


I got a little heavy with my dark on the left edge of my art journal. If your page gets away from you like my dark did, I have a little trick to reclaim that page and pull it back in.

I tried to blend my dark by using my Scribble Scratch Handwriting stencil with a little payne's grey; and again, maybe a bit too much so I wiped a little bit off. But.....

This is when I like to use my stencils and deli paper. I paint onto the deli paper with the paint and my sponge roller. I used white again because my dark was too much. When you use the deli paper, the paint will show on top of your page and the deli paper will "melt" into the page allowing some of the underneath to show through.

I kept working the page....watercolor, pastel (turquoise) and more pencil circles around my white circles on deli paper. Here is where the gesso comes in super handy....If your paint is not quite to a hard-dry finished, you can use water to dab, soften and wipe the paint back off; and if the paint is a bit drier....there is always alcohol (no - not to drink....lol). No, you can spray the alcohol onto your page and scrub a bit to pull the paint back off. Again if it isn't to a hard-dry finished. Notice the right hand lower corner below is almost back to white again. 

I really like my pages to have a worn feel - like you favorite jeans. Nothing in life is perfect - it is soft, worn-in, and comfortable.

Sometime I just can't help myself and I was having such a good time just playing and adding whatever was close at hand, that again my page had gotten a bit away from me. I again used my Scribble Scratch Handwriting stencil with white paint to "tone" this page and pull it back together- unifying the page again. 

I like to the "tone" my page by using stencils in a single color, and the trick is to not cover the entire page. Heavy in parts and soft and feathery out to the edges; but allowing some of the background to show through.

I then used my hi-flow acrylics and water, to pull this whole page together. A careful color selection of quinacridone nickel azo gold will work for this page. 

A bit of a hot-mess puddle at this point, but nothing that a good hair dryer can't fix. I like to use my dryer to move this puddle around. It feels more organic than if I would have moved this puddle with a paint brush. 

Below are pics of my finished page. I love the layered goodness of color, collage and stencil.

Thank you StencilGirl for your endless creative possibilities!

xo. kristin 


ps- my blog 

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