Guest Designer Megan Whisner Quinlan: Art Journaling with StencilGirl® Stencils

One of my favorite things about art journaling, is that there are no rules. It is your journal, and you are in charge of whatever you want to do on the pages. Sometimes when I work in my art journal I rely more on text. Other days, I feel like just working on art and playing on the page.

In this spread, I combined some writing with my art for a layered effect.

I stenciled the StencilGirl® stencils Small Stone Statue by Tina Walker and

Layers of a Scallop by Mary Beth Shaw onto white cardstock with Dina Wakley Marine acrylic paint.

I then cut around the Stone Statue stencil leaving a small white border creating an old photograph look.

Next, I cut out the Layers of a Scallop stencil.

I placed the Statue “photo” onto the Layers of a Scallop stencil and glued them together to create the skirt of a dress. I trimmed around the sides of the skirt and gave it more of a billowing shape.

I wanted the dress to have a more organic feel so I tore the bottom of the dress for a vintage look.

Next, I sprayed my Large Dina Wakley journal with some Cheddar Gloss Acrylic Spray.

Once it was dry, I stenciled the StencilGirl® stencil Cathedral Arch by Tina Walker on to the top corner of the page with black gesso.

I added some written text with a Stabilo All pencil and then obscured it a bit with white gesso for a more distressed feel. I added black paint splatters to bits of the page.

Finally, I added my image on top of the writing and glued it down to the page.

I added some ephemera on top and some Tim Holtz words and Dina Wakley chipboard shapes to finish.

Hello! My name is Megan Whisner Quinlan. I have been art journaling and book binding for about 20 years. However, I took a 10 year break from paper arts when I had my first 2 children. About 5 years ago, I came back into journaling after some big life changes, including 2 more children. Journaling had always been a part of my life, especially to work things out in life on paper. When I first started out, I really only focused on making books by hand and some basic collage and stamping. I was intimidated by the amazing art journalers out there who had elaborate, mixed media spreads in their journals.  When I came back to journaling after such a long break, I decided that I was going to really push myself to learn all the techniques I had been too afraid to try.  Painting and drawing have really allowed me to find so much joy in my creative process, and I now almost exclusively create mixed media every day. I feel excited to have joined the art journaling community and you can find me on Instagram @Megan_Whisner_Quinlan.