Art Journaling with StencilGirl® Products by Cynthia Silveri

Hi everyone! Cynthia Silveri here! I'm honored to be back on the blog today sharing an art journal page with you. Last fall I enrolled in Wanderlust 2020 (can't wait for Mary Beth's lesson!) which has been very insightful for me. By way of sharing some of my inspiration, I decided to combined ideas and techniques that I've experienced so far using my Japanese Influence stencil. As Mary Beth has so often reminded us to make stencils our own, I decided to extend the way I use this stencil. To do that, I (boldly!) cut each symbol out of the frames to make twelve “mini” masks. I kept the rest of the stencil (“empty frames”) to use on a different project. Here's what I did:

Materials:

Art Journal

Acrylic and/or Gouache Paints, any colors (keeping them analogous to avoid “muddy” colors)

Japanese Influence stencil L669

Pixie Spray (optional)

Round paint brush

Paper for making collage 

Uni-ball pens in white, silver, gold

Fountain pen and black ink (India ink) or other black pen or marker

Stabilo Woodies and/or colored pencils

Stamps

Stazon Ink (black, stone gray), Ranger Distress Ink (weathered wood, walnut)

Clear gesso

Scissors

Matte medium or other glue

Technique:

1.      Cut apart the stencil to make mini-masks.

2.      Arrange artfully on journal page.

3.      Loosely apply watery gauche around each of the masks. (Use Pixie Spray if desired to help hold them in place.) After everything is dry remove the masks and outline the shapes with black waterproof pen.

4.      Use up any remaining paint to create painted collage papers that will “match” the colors already applied to the page.

5.      On the dry painted paper, trace around several of the stencil masks and cut them out to add as collage elements. Cut out other shapes as desired to make a pleasing composition.

6.      Glue down with matte medium or other glue. Add a layer of clear gesso all over the collaged page and let dry completely.

7.      Using stamps, add more layers and a focal point. For my focal point, I used this owl stamp that I carved based off an image that my daughter created in third grade.

8.      Using Uni-ball pens and fountain pen, woodies, etc. make more marks and doodles on and around the collage elements, stamps and base layer stencil designs. I also used Ranger Distress Inks around the edges of the art journal pages to help “frame” the entire spread. Have fun and keep going to create a lot of color, texture and interest. Sometimes the smallest details add in ways that are not readily apparent!

9.      Finally, add a quote. I used an anonymous quote “Observe and reflect...become a little wiser each day.”