Frieda Oxenham: Art Journaling with StencilGirl® Stencils

We will be working on the part of Ben Okri’s poem that reads: You are a sun, you are a star”. I interpreted this as an incentive to us all not to put ourselves down but instead to celebrate who we are and what we are capable off. We all need reminding of that as much as possible!

Here is the tutorial:

1.      Cover both sides of 2 vintage book pages with fluid matte medium (to make them more sturdy)

2.      Glue these vintage pages to 2 mixed media sheets sized 8 x 11.5” and stitch around the sides with a sewing machine and black thread. Go around a few times.

3.      Stick on washi tape randomly. I used washi tape inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s paintings.

4.      Colour the pages using a gelli plate by brayering on colours and taking prints. Add several layers this way. I used warm colours on one page and cool ones on the other.

5.      Cover most of the pages with titanium white using the gelli plate again, and then remove paint through stencil L458 Toledo with a baby wipe.

6.      Dribble on acrylic ink in colours matching each page. Spray with water to spread.

7.      Again using stencil L458 Toledo stencil on stars randomly using shimmer paints again using warm colours on the warm page and cool on the cool one.

8.      Yet again using colours matching the pages rub on Tim Holtz’s Distress Crayons and then remove using a baby wipe through stencil L661 Hamilton

9.      Using the same stencil as in step 8 spray the pages randomly with Perfect Pearl Mists (or any other mica spray of your choice).

10.  Using the figure from stencil L620 Inspired by Frida, but not the head, and using Radiant Gel Dimensional Paint and a palette knife, add it to the pages as shown using a different side of the stencil for each figure. I used gold for one figure and Guatemalan Green for the other. Let this dry thoroughly.

11.  Add a head to both figures using a palette knife and gold embossing paste. The warm page received the head from stencil L783 Alchemy in the shape of the sun, and the other cool page received a star as head from the large stencil of the August 2017 StencilClub.

12.  Add more stars to both pages with the gold embossing paste and the large stencil from the August 2017 StencilClub set.

13.  Fill in the figures with matching colours using Sharpie poster paint markers or any other markers of your choice. Outline the figures, sun and stars with a permanent black marker. Add eyes to the star face.

14.  Stamp on the quote from Ben Okri using an alphabet stamp set and a permanent black stamp pad. Outline the letters with a white marker.

15.  Drip white and gold acrylic ink to the pages

16.  Add little turquoise circles to the orange page and orange ones to the blue pages using stencil S216 Timeless

17.  Edge the pages with a matching permanent stamp pad.

© Frieda Oxenham 2021. To see more of Frieda's work, please visit her BLOG.