February is a month with very low light levels and after getting through January I always dread going through another winter month. At least it’s shorter by some days! One way I use to cheer myself up is to use as much colour as possible whenever I can, and this project (or rather projects) grew out of that desire.
Here is the tutorial:
1. Using copy paper and an 8 x 10” (or larger) gelli plate, brayer on a variety of acrylic paint colours and take prints. Keep in mind that these pages will become elements of a collage so will be torn up. Just go made with your favourite colours and enjoy yourself. Make a good selection. I ended up with about 20 pages in total.
2. Again using the gelli plate, add one or two colours of acrylic paint to the plate, put a stencil on top and take a print on the pages produced in step 1. Also remove the stencil and take prints from the negative image left behind on the plate. I used the following stencils: the large stencil from the August 2020 StencilClub, Batik stencil, Circles Circles, the large stencil from the March 2014 StencilClub.
3. Using the same stencils as in step 2 but using some additional colours take more prints on your pages to add another layer.
4. Using different colours (including white) and 2 different stencils add yet another layer to some of your pages. You might like some of your pages as they are already, so leave them be, but remember we are going to collage with all the pages so don’t get too attached to them. I used 2 different stencils for this step: the large stencil from the February 2012 StencilClub and Spirit Wind Mask.
5. Using an 8.5 square art journal with black pages or any journal of your choice, start tearing the papers using a ruler (I used the Tim Holtz one) and start laying the pieces out on the pages. Also add vintage images, text and music to the mix. Glue it all on with a glue stick.
6. Once you’re happy with the arrangement, cover the pages with matte medium and let dry.
7. Add
dark blue circular images to the pages using stencil Ripples Small and Inky Circles
8. Rub some colour over the vintage papers with acrylic paint.
9. Glue
some more text or music over the top of the pages.
10. Outline
the circles added in step 7 with a permanent black inkpad.
11. Edge
the pages with a black permanent inkpad
12. After
I had finished the pages in my black art journal, I thought it would be
interesting to scale it up on a larger sheet of black paper so I ordered some
from Arteza. However I did not read the description properly and ending up with
sheets that were pre-scored to be folded into a frame sized 7 x 8.6”
13. As I had so much collage material left, I used 3 of these sheets to make 3 frames following the steps mentioned above. To finish them I added a flower postage stamp to each and edged the frames with a permanent black inkpad.
I really enjoyed working on the black frames so in the end I received what I didn’t know I wanted!
© Frieda Oxenham 2022. To see more of Frieda's work, please visit her BLOG.
What bright beautiful pages! I love them!
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