Hello creative friends! Nicole here with a question. What do you create when you have a bunch of new stencils and want to play with them all? How do you even decide where to start? Easy answer! It doesn’t matter where you start, because you play with them all!
For this week’s project, I’m layering five stencils and then calming the chaos with a little reductive painting using, of course, another stencil!
I grabbed my journal to find one of few blank pages left, and decided on one that is next to a project I created for Nathalie Kalbach’s creative team. Nathalie is also a StencilGirl® designer, so I thought it would be fun to incorporate some of her stencils on the page next door, plus a couple others. I used the finished page as inspiration for the new page I was about to create.
After gessoing the page, I layered it with a ledger sheet. I knew that I wanted this page to have cream with white in the background plus use the color palette of its neighbor. So, I grabbed my gesso to add some white to the ledger sheet.
Next, I picked out the colors that matched the page next door. I even grabbed pink to match the embroidery floss. I knew I’d need a lot of colors for the stencils! I didn't use all of them, but they were ready just in case.
Once the gesso was dry, I began to layer the stencils. I used the same process for each one. First, I stenciled it with a foam applicator a few places on the page and then I distressed my stenciling a bit with some water and watered-down paint.
First Layer: Van Vorst
I ended up adding more of this stencil after the third layer.
Second Layer: Arched Fountains
Third Layer: What’s the Point?
After this layer dried, I also traced around the circles with stabilo all in graphite and black to add a bit more interest.
Fourth Layer: Hash Marks
Fifth Layer: Alpha Drips
For this stencil, I cut my applicator foam in half so I could isolate the plus symbols only in the stencil.
Fun side note: I started using an old book to clean off my stencils and applicator. After each stencil, I cleaned it several times in this book. It's going to make a great book of ephemera!
When all my layers were dry, I grabbed the Bold Flowers stencil to calm the incredible chaos I created. This stencil was the perfect contrast to the facing page, so I knew I just had to use it! The large, bold image contrasted the delicate details of the right side and the flower petals matched the stamped crowns I gave the photos. The page on the right is about my crazy dreams, and these bold flowers look like something from a dream, too!
The stencil and mask combo is perfect for reductive painting. I used the stencil to see exactly what part of the page I wanted to keep and then put the mask inside and removed the stencil. I grabbed my foam applicator and spread black paint around the mask.
Before the paint dried, I touched it up by filling it in, distressing some, removing some, and adding more. It’s a bit of a process, but the end results are worth it.
Then, I repeated the process with a smaller flower.
Once both images were finished, I grabbed a baby wipe and some cleaning paste to distress the black and the page even more. The paste removed some of the black and some of the stenciling layers, too. Not completely, just enough that it looked like it maybe was an old fresco on a wall, worn from time. I absolutely loved the result.
I also added a little extra black around the edges of the pages.
Then, I repeated the process on a few tags. If I was doing this again, I would have played on the tags at the same time as the journal pages. So, don't copy my order!
After the stenciled layers were dry, I added a flower to each one using the same process. On two I used the stencil and on the smaller one the mask.
Finally, I layered the tags, stuck them down with clear washi tape on the ends so they'd flip on the page, added a vintage photo and a saying and called it done!
You can watch the entire process in the video below.
-Nicole
Connect with me on
- Dina Wakley Media Journal
- Ledger Paper
- Golden So Flat (black, naphthol pink, turquoise, cobalt teal, fluorescent orange)
- Golden Fluid (payne's gray, iridescent bronze fine)
- Stabilo All (black, graphite)
- Gesso
- Matte Medium
- Tags
- Baby Wipes
- Cleaning Paste
- Clear Washi Tape
- Phrase Stickers
- Vintage Photo
- Three different size tags
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