StencilGirl® Art Journaling by Frieda Oxenham

Sometimes inspiration comes from unexpected sources. I usually start with a random browse through my stencils. I keep them all in a box which is not very organized, but it means I’m forced to rummage around and this month it led to an unexpected find. I discovered two stencils laying on top of each other and I fell in love with the effect this produced. Crackle was on the bottom and on top of it was the large stencil from the July 2019 StencilClub. I really liked the effect and set about recreating it on my pages.

Here is the tutorial:

1.     Gesso two sheets of 9 x 12” cold pressed watercolor paper (I used Strathmore ones)

2.     Using stencil Crackle and a variety of Dylusions Shimmer Sprays add pattern to the pages.

3.     Cover a 9 x 12” gelli plate with black acrylic paint and put the large stencil from the July 2019 StencilClub on top. Take prints on spare sheets of paper till all the black has gone from the stencil shapes. Remove the stencil and take a print of the remaining black negative spaces on one of the pages from step 2. Repeat for the other page.

4.     Use one of the stencils from the July 2022 StencilClub, and carefully remove the large house shapes from the stencil and set aside. Then spray through the house outlines with cool coloured Dylusion Shimmer Sprays onto a sheet of watercolor paper.

5.     Repeat step 4 on a separate sheet of paper with hot colours and using the reverse of the stencil.

6.     Using the house stencils you removed in step 4, stencil on the windows to all the houses with Paynes Grey acrylic paint.

7.     Cut out the houses and outline the windows with a permanent white paint marker (such as Posca). Outline the houses themselves with a black paint marker.

8.     Glue on the houses to the pages, 6 to page 1 and 3 to page 2.

9.     Stencil on the circular form from West African Symbols 5 to the 2^nd page using turquoise acrylic paint and a cosmetic wedge. Outline with a white permanent marker.

10.  Glue on quotation. It comes from the poem Out of the Sunset’s Red by William Stanley Braithwaite

11.  Stencil on a key to the top of page 1 using the large stencil from the January 2018 StencilClub using acrylic Paynes Grey paint, and outline when dry with a sparkling blue gel pen.

12.  Border both pages with a thick black marker.

© Frieda Oxenham 2022