Best Ever!, a mixed media scrapbook page by Sue Plumb

Hello stencil lover!

It's Sue Plumb here to share my latest project created for the StencilGirl® Creative Team. During May and June the Creative Team members have been working with the theme of "Typography". Typography in artistic terms means using type as an intrinsic part of the artwork, or in some cases (particularly modern art), it may even be the artwork itself. For my piece, I decided to demonstrate how I often like to incorporate type on a scrapbook layout - as the basis of my background.

For my page, I chose to document a special photo of my daughter that was taken at her primary school graduation last year when she was awarded Dux (or Valedictorian for my American friends) of her school. This was the perfect subject to pair with a background featuring type. 

I began my project by adding some color diagonally across my cardstock. I used Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide with what I call the "smooshing" technique. (This is where the ink is mixed with water on a piece of plastic and then applied by smooshing it down onto the page to give a watercolor style effect - you can see it in action in my process video below.)

Next, I selected my stencils. I wanted to use two different types of fonts that I could layer on the page as part of my background. The first one I chose was the Wall of Words 9x12" stencil designed by Carolyn Dube. This stencil is full of words of wisdom, motivation, and laughter; and due to the uniformity of the text style, I thought it would be ideal as part of my background. The second stencil I chose was one of my favorites - Rembrandt's Words Small stencil. This stencil was also designed by Carolyn Dube and I thought the flowing script would provide a good contrast against the structured text of the Wall of Words stencil.

I used a small sponge to dab ink randomly through the Wall of Words stencil along the diagonal line of color I had created on the page. In some places, I overlapped lines of text to give a random, jumbled appearance. I then used some colored texture paste with the Rembrandt's Words stencil to add contrast and subtle dimension before leaving it to dry naturally for a short while.

I then returned to work on the textural layers that were going to go behind my photo in the focal area of my page. I used crumpled tissue paper, a paper doily, patterned paper, cotton thread, and frayed gauze to create a stack, then placed my photo on top. I then fussy cut some pieces from a Cocoa Vanilla Studio floral patterned paper which I tucked in under the diagonally opposing corners of the photo, further enhancing the flow of the page.

To give the diagonal design both a start and endpoint, I created two small clusters along the top and bottom edges of the page (which also helped to balance out the heavy focal area in the middle). I used a mix of patterned papers and embellishments from the same Cocoa Vanilla Studio 'Wild at Heart' collection that the floral pieces had come from. I also added some extra embellishments around my photo.

At this point, I decided my layout needed a little bit of something extra and I really wanted to tie in the gold color from the photo as well. I reached for my Military Style Stars stencil by June Pfaff Daley and some gold texture paste and stenciled some little gold stars across the page. I also added some splatters of gold mist and pink ink; and three fussy cut butterflies. 

And then I did something I don't usually do. I decided the background text on my page wasn't defined quite enough, so I went back in with the Wall of Words stencil and added some extra stenciled type. As soon as I had done it, I then felt it looked much better and my page was complete.

If you would like to watch exactly how it all came together, you can watch my process video here:

Thanks for stopping by so I could share this with you. Until next time, happy creating!

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