Art Journaling with StencilGirl® Stencils by Frieda Oxenham

As I made this spread the United Kingdom was still in lockdown and I was once again struck by how appropriate Ben Okri’s words proved to be for the occasion. In fact I keep on re-reading them and taking comfort from them over this difficult time. We have reached the point in the poem where a bit of meditation is called for. For my illustrations of the previous lines you can search for my name in the Search bar of this blog and you should find them all. There will be more to come too in the future.

Here are the steps I took to make these pages:

1.      Gesso 2 facing pages out of the large ArtbyMarlene art journal. This is a ring bound journal so it’s easy to remove the pages from the journal and work on them separately. Very convenient!

2.      Paint a variety of yellow, green and blue acrylic paints onto a large gel plate and take prints from the plate onto both pages.

3.      Stencil on both pages using stencil Mountain Landscape and royal blue paint.

4.      On the right hand page add the tree using stencil Windswept Tree Mask and brayering on brown and blue paint onto the gel plate, then put the stencil on top and hold it down while removing the paint all around it by taking prints on spare paper and removing the remnants with a baby wipe. Make sure all surrounding paint is gone and then remove the stencil. Take the tree print on the page.  To make this easier there is now a mirror image stencil available Windswept Tree Reverse Stencil  but I didn’t have it yet at the time of making so had to go about it the long way round!

5.      Stencil the Buddha  face onto the left hand page with dark blue acrylic paint and stencil Chinese Garden Buddha Small.

6.      Stencil on leaves to the bottom of both pages, using the dark blue acrylic paint again together with stencil Leafy Doodle Border.

7.      Glue on the magazine image of a Buddha under the tree using matte medium.

8.      Stencil on the lotus flower using stencil Chinese Garden Lotus to the left hand page.

9.      Glue on eyes (mine came from an image of Tutankhamun) and colour in the lotus flower from step 8 (I used Jane Davenport Mermaid Markers).

10.  Outline the Buddha figure and head with a permanent white marker and outline the tree with a sparkling blue gel pen.

11.  Print out the lines of the quote: “The Buddha sat beneath a tree, and from all illusion became free”, and glue on as shown, after edging each word with a blue ink pad.

12.  Spray on some blue mica spray here and there over the pages.

13.  Edge the pages with the same ink pad.

© Frieda Oxenham 2020. To see more of Frieda's work, please visit her BLOG.

Art Journaling with StencilGirl® Stencils

I find the act of art journaling calming.  One of my favorite ways to art journal is to add unique features that allow me to add interest to my pages. In this project I was so inspired by the StencilGirl® Klimt Trees stencil designed by Cathy Taylor. I immediately knew I wanted to create a forest scene incorporating Klimt’s colorways. I also knew I wanted to add a flip out feature to my page centered around the trees of the stencil.

I selected 2 pages in my art journal and sprayed them with Dina Wakley Acrylic sprays (Ranger Ink) in Turquoise, Olive, and Cheddar. I allowed the sprays to dry completely.

I sketched a figure inspired by Klimt’s paintings on to some sketch paper. I then cut out and glued my image to one side of my journal spread with Dina Wakley Gel Medium.

I then sprayed the StencilGirl® Klimt Trees stencil with Acrylic Spray in a dark color, here I used black.

With my sprayed stencil facing down, I placed it on top of a sheet of tissue paper.

On a separate sheet of cardstock sprayed with the same acrylic sprays, I repeated step 4 (placing the sprayed stencil onto the cardstock face down).

I applied my “stamped” tissue onto my journal page (opposite your figure) with gel or matte medium and allowed it to dry. Once my page was dry, I began to fill in and doodle on my page. I painted my figure “into” my page.  

I added detail to my figure’s dress with the StencilGirl® Soulful Scribbles Dots Dash stencil by Traci Bautista. It complimented the Klimt theme perfectly!

Lastly, I cut out some trees on a small portion of my printed and sprayed cardstock to create a flip out on my page. I attached it to my page with coordinating washi tape, and added some text on the inside of the flap. This was such a fun spread to do, as I am such a big Klimt fan (aren’t we all?) and I hope I have given you some inspiration for your art journaling!

Hello! My name is Megan Whisner Quinlan. I have been art journaling and book binding for about 20 years. However, I took a 10 year break from paper arts when I had my first 2 children. About 5 years ago, I came back into journaling after some big life changes, including 2 more children. Journaling had always been a part of my life, especially to work things out in life on paper. When I first started out, I really only focused on making books by hand and some basic collage and stamping. I was intimidated by the amazing art journalers out there who had elaborate, mixed media spreads in their journals.  When I came back to journaling after such a long break, I decided that I was going to really push myself to learn all the techniques I had been too afraid to try.  Painting and drawing have really allowed me to find so much joy in my creative process, and I now almost exclusively create mixed media every day. I feel excited to have joined the art journaling community and you can find me on Instagram @Megan_Whisner_Quinlan. 

Stenciled Poetry: Love in Nontraditional Colors

Greetings and Salutations!

Carol Baxter looking up from a book of poetry waving at you! Do stories and poems you read and songs you hear inspire your art? They often do mine.

"Ditty of First Desire" inspired this art journal spread. The idea of love and soul in nontraditional colors of green and orange intrigued me.

I started out with a page I'd previously painted on an excess of Payne's Grey, Navy, and Powder Blue.

I scattered and glued my gelli printed stash paper scraps.

I used Lemonade, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, and Lucky Clover Distress Crayons to color in and draw a heart, then I painted each color individually starting with the yellow accents.

Next up I used Kristie Taylor's hand-mixed Sparkle Spirits Ink in Helios Orange to draw around the heart. It's pretty dry with the heater on in my office so I was not quite as quick as I might have liked spritzing it and getting it to drip. But I did turn it upside down and I like the subtlety of the drips. (And you know sparkles make me happy.)

 

The stencil on the lower right is Dancing Lights by Daniella Woolf from the public collection -- I used it for the little paper rhombus elements. Above it is the small stencil from the exclusive StencilClub set: Borderlines by Seth Apter. You'll see below it is from the previously gelli printed paper I used to fussy-cut the bird. The bird is the mini from another club set, Boho Collection by Cathy Taylor. Black Birds in Trees & the Reverse are stencils in the public collection by Kimberly Baxter Packwood.

I highlighted the birds with PaperArtsy's White Fire and then used black and brown pens to give them a little detail. I wrote the poet's name over and over to create the branches. I think it makes them look thorny. (If I wanted a thicker branch, I could write two lines next to each other in opposite directions... a technique I shall remember.)

Adding lines from the poem and gluing down the heart and the bird. I thought about writing them on the orange heart but ultimately, decided not.

Watching Andy Garcia portray Federico García Lorca in the film "Death in Granada" prompted me to seek his poetry.

Theatre director, playwright, and poet, Federico García Lorca brought surrealism, symbolism, and futurism into his work. A rebel on many levels, outspoken and often anguished, he thrived in the 1920s art community in Spain and is presumed assassinated at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

This poem has been in my head for a bit.

Ditty of First Desire 

by Federico García Lorca

  In the green morning
I wanted to be a heart.
A heart.

  And in the ripe evening
I wanted to be a nightingale.
A nightingale.

  (Soul,
turn orange-colored.
Soul,
turn the color of love.)

  In the vivid morning
I wanted to be myself.
A heart.

  And at the evening's end
I wanted to be my voice.
A nightingale.

  Soul,
turn orange-colored.
Soul,
turn the color of love.

Is it morning or night in your life? What color(s) will you paint & stencil your soul?

Trivets & Trees, Alcohol & Haiku Mean NEW Stencils by Jill McDowell and Cathy Taylor

And by "alcohol" we mean Cathy's lovely Windswept Tree stenciled works with inks.

By "haiku" we must show you Jill McDowell's incredibly awesome Kabuki Haiku journal with her Trivet Stencils. 

By popular request, Cathy Taylor's Windswept Tree is now a stencil and comes in small and large sizes.

Windswept Tree Reverse, 9" x 12", L772

Alcohol Inks are one of Cathy's go-to mediums for painting.

Windswept Tree Inverted, 6" x6", S778

You can feel the wind blowing through the forest in these stencils. Cathy is inspired by her enjoyment of the woodlands near her home. 

What is the difference between a stencil and a mask? Easy:

Now you know!

All of the stencils Jill designed form hidden patterns when repeated - repeat a stencil 4 times in a block pattern to reveal hidden circles and an unexpected central image.  Repeat the stencil four times around an open space at 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 9 o’clock and 12 o’clock to creates a square frame, (or rectangular for the trivet duo designs). See what Jill means:

You can also change the look of the stencils by masking areas.

Jill simply couldn’t resist using her Trivet Stencils to make her own Trivet Tiles out of plain glazed white ceramic tiles from the hardware store.  

1. Lay down a background of alcohol inks. Go outside, put on a mask, and burn off the alcohol with a blow torch. (A technique borrowed from an encaustic burn.). 
2. When it cools, stencil the tile with embossing ink and then sprinkle Rusting Powder all over the tile. 
3. Mist the tile with white vinegar and within a half an hour you will have rust. 
4. Wait a few days for the tiles to completely dry and then pour a coat of resin over the tops.

Trivet Duo, 9" x 12", L770

See Jill's amazing Kabuki Haiku book in 60 seconds!

Jill made her KabukiHaiku Soft Coffee Table Book out of canvas, tea stained muslin, scraps of vintage kimonos, thread, Pearl cotton thread, Pigment Ink Pads, TAP (Transfer Artist Paper), and Public Domain Images. Tools - Trivet Stencils, ink jet printer, iron, ruler, and a sewing machine.

Are you ready to get swept away with Cathy Taylor's stencil designs? 

How about making your own stenciled poetry with Jill McDowell's designs?

February Art Delights with StencilClub Voices

Layers of paint stenciled on tags, cards, and a canvas is what StencilClub Voices Kim Kendell, Eva Gronroos, and I Carol Baxter made with the Folk Embroidery Set that Cathy Nichols designed for this month.

Hi, my name is Kim Kendell and I am from the southern part of New South Wales in Australia.

We have just recently experienced one of our worst fire periods on record with a massive blaze starting in our area and covering approximately 450,000 hectares of land. So when I sat down to create I decided to create with green and color after seeing so much black around us.

I have used this month's stencils to create an A5-sized tag that is about self-belief. 

I have managed to use elements of all 3 stencils there are some awesome patterns within each stencil. I have used Paper Artsy paints they are my favorites.

(The other stencil you see in the tag is the small one from the Stay in Your Magic Oct 2018 StencilClub set by Nancy Curry.)

Hi, I am Eva Gronroos. 

This is an AMAZING set. So versatile! I decided to use some old supplies my inks, and alcohol markers. I also did a lot of masking. So much fun! 

The 6-inch one has a little circular piece that I found was wonderful to use. 

                              (The small stencil from Grandmother's Kitchen February '18 club set by Kristie Taylor 
                                                               is in the background of  the bottom card.)

Carol Baxter here. Hello!

Do your stencils whisper to you in your dreams? "Table runner," is what this set is saying ever louder. To which I reply, "Yes. Eventually." 

     "What about the back of a jacket?"

          "Yes, that would be pretty too."

     "A quilt?"

          "For someone else to do, certainly."

This little project has quieted the whispers for the moment. Ha!

A sweet StencilClub Secret Santa sent me ephemera that I was determined to use and a phone call with one of my dearest-lives-too-far-away friends spurred this piece with the small stencil from the fabulous club set Cathy designed. Here it is in simple layers.

Layer 1:

Layer 2:

Layer 3:

Tada!

Remember, you too can be a part of StencilClub and get these exclusive stencils, the project Cathy designed, a loyalty coupon, and more!

You can sign up here.

Undecided? Cathy tells you all about her club designs here.

Cathy's stencils in our public collection are waiting for you to discover.