Guest Designer Frieda Oxenham

Sometimes all it takes to start a page in an art journal is a line read in a magazine. In this case the line “ahead of the curve” coincided with the arrival of the recent  StencilClub stencils for November.

Here is the tutorial:

1.     Using an 8 x 10” gelli plate add one or more colours of acrylic paint to it and take prints on copy and deli paper. 

2.      Add more acrylic paints to your plate, then add one or more of the stencils named below to the plate, take prints onto the papers made in step 1, and then remove the stencils, take more prints onto other papers from step 1. Here are some examples. L901 Map Pattern,  L885 Connection, S899 Rippled Water, L969 Squiggle Doodle.

3.   Keep overprinting like this using all the above stencils (and more) on your already printed papers. 

4.     You will end up with far more papers than you’ll need but it is good to have lots of choices and anyway, we all love a good painted paper stash, right!

5.     Working in your choice of art journal (I’m using a huge A3 (11.7 x 16.5”) one) start collaging on the page without gluing anything down yet. Simple select a rectangle from one of your favourite printed pages, put it in any of the corners (I started top right) and take it from there, based on what looks good together, varying large and small pieces and balancing the colours. You have plenty of papers so cut or tear them to your heart’s content. I used a metal ruler to tear my papers. Keep playing around till you have an arrangement that you like.

6.     Now glue down the pieces but first take a quick picture on your phone to remind yourself of your arrangement.

7.     Once you have this background glued down start adding smaller pieces as the next layer.

8.     Using one of the stencils form the November 2023 StencilClub and white acrylic paint add circles to the page as shown.

9.     Using the other stencil from the November 2023 StencilClub, stencil the bicycle with red acrylic paint onto deli paper, cut it out and glue it to the page at bottom right.

10.  Using the same stencil as in step 9 add small circles to the page with red and metallic bronze paint.

11.  Glue on your chosen text, cut from magazines. Mine reads: “Find your imagination, ahead of the curve”.

12.  With light blue paint and the same stencil as in step 8 add more of the large circles on the page.

13.  Using a mix of Stabilo All black pencil and water soluble oil pastels, outline the large circles, bike and text and scribble randomly with the pencil. 

©Frieda Oxenham 2024

Guest Designer Frieda Oxenham

First of all I want to thank StencilGirl® Products for giving me the opportunity to share my work with you as monthly Guest Designer another year. And I want to thank all of you for having a look and maybe be inspired by some of my projects to make your own or pick up on a new (to you) technique. I was inspired myself this month by some of my own photographs of skies. I post a daily picture of skies on my Instagram account (@friedaquilter) and have done so since the start of 2019, and I remain in awe of how the skies change not just every day but on a minute by minute basis.

Here is the tutorial:

1.     Working in an A3 (297 x 420 mm or 11.7 x 16.5”) Daley Rowney Artist’s sketchbook or any other sketchbook of your choice, paint on the page using a selection of Paper Artsy Fresco Finish acrylic paints. I used Amethyst, Tinned Peas, China, Caramet and Pixie Dust.

2.     Brayer on white acrylic paint randomly and then remove it again through stencil S672 Disappearing Triangles with a baby wipe.

3.     Stencil on the page using stencil M081 Rows of Triangles and some of the colours of acrylic paints from step 1 with an cosmetic wedge. 

4.     Stencil larger triangles to the page using the small stencil from the January 2021 StencilClub and black acrylic gesso as well as pink/red oil pastel.

5.     The previous step proved to be a bit too bright for my liking and I covered large areas of the page with white gesso and removed some of it again through the stencil used in step 2.

6.     Spray the page with red, bronze and blue inks. 

7.     Brayer on more of the acrylic paint used in step 1 as well as white acrylic gesso and remove again with a baby wipe using the stencils used in step 2 and step 3. 

8.     Using an 8 x 10” gelli plate brayer and dark blue acrylic paint and put stencil L988 Earth on top of the plate. Using both deli and copy paper take prints. Then remove the stencil and take more prints.

9.     Cut out triangles from the papers made in step 8 and combine them with collage papers (mine came from the Flow magazine) featuring triangles and glue them down in an arrangement you like or as shown on my page. I used an UHU glue stick but matte medium will also work well. 

10.  Use the same stencil as in step 8 to cut out images fitting the triangles used in step 9 and glue them on as shown. I used some of my own sky photographs for this purpose.

11.  Outline the triangles with a black Stabilo All pencil and also scrape on some red/pink oil pastel (as used in step 4) to the photographs with an old credit card.

12.  Glue on the text (cut from magazines) and also outline with a black Stabilo All pencil

13.  Drip on some white and gold acrylic ink randomly. 

© Frieda Oxenham 2024

Introducing the Curious Girls Collection by Cat Kerr

"Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing." Oscar Wilde

My Curious Girls were originally hand-cut into Matte Duralar film measuring 30" x 40". They were born with this Oscar Wilde quote in mind, and with every girl that came to life, I thought of the girls that came before me, the girls that stand beside me, and the girls that come tomorrow. Our mothers, our daughters, and sisters, unique and curious in their own way.  Now offering them in smaller sizes, my "Curious Girls" would make a great addition to a card, journal page, or canvas. 

Cat's latest stencils are available now at www.stencilgirlproducts.com

Guest Designer Frieda Oxenham

Time to start thinking about gifts and as we all know hand-made ones are the best. So here is my suggestion:

1.     On an A3 sheet (11.7 x 16.5”) and using a permanent black permanent marker outline patterns onto the page with a selection of your favourite stencils. I used the large stencil of the April 2020 StencilClub, B stencil of the April 2023 Club, stencil 1 of the November 2022 Club, large stencil from the June 2023 Club, the large stencil from the March 2021 club, as well as stencils ATC Mix Up Kerr, Crazy Dazey, MB CM Patterns 2021, ATC Mix Up 1, Verdant Moon, Straight Stems, Curvy Stems, and Buildings. Finally I used Large Bubbles to fill in any empty spaces between patterns. 

2.     Colour in the patterns. I used permanent paint markers, mainly Posca ones.

3.     Now fold the page to make it into a booklet. It helps to use a bone folder to make the folds nice and sharp. First fold the page in half along its longest length.

Unfold and fold width wise. Keep the page folded and fold one edge to the last fold you made. Do the same for the other side. Unfold the previous two folds but keep the first width wise fold folded. Cut from that fold to the next fold. Open up the sheet that now has a slit in the middle and refold it to the first fold you made. Pull the sides away from each other and the booklet will emerge.

If this all sounds confusing check it out on YouTube where there are many videos showing the process.

4.     Colour in the background of the pages. If you want to have the same colour background for all the spreads in your booklet you can do this before the folding, but I alternated between silver and black as my background so did the colouring after the folding.

5.     I rather enjoyed the peaceful process of colouring and folding so made another booklet using a red background for all the spreads using the stencils as in step 1.

6.     I then repeated the process using a smaller A4 sheet (8.3 x 11.7”) and made a selection from my smaller 6 x 6” stencils to use with a blue background.

I enjoyed making these booklets very much and expect that I will make a lot more of them. Using different stencils and/or background colours makes them all look very different as would using different colouring media such as watercolour.

© Frieda Oxenham 2023