Guest Designer Frieda Oxenham

Sometimes my quilting background insists on popping up when working on mixed media projects and this is one of those occasions!

Here is the tutorial:

1.     Paint white gesso all over a sheet of A3 sized watercolour paper

2.     Paint the sheet with a variety of different coloured acrylic paints. 

3.     Add imperfect stamping with a text stamp and a permanent black inkpad.

4.     Stencil on the sheet with white acrylic paint using a baby wipe and stencil LL1018 Urban Rhythm Matrix. 

5.     Glue on pieces of vintage text and images.

6.     Outline some of the above with pencil

7.     Drip a variety of acrylic inks onto the sheet and spread by spraying with water. 

8.     Stencil on more shapes using some of the acrylic paints from step 2 as well as white, using stencil LL1020 Line Up and a cosmetic wedge. 

9.     Repeat step 7 but without the water. 

10.  Using one of MB’s Grid Stencils (the one with the 2.5” squares), mark out (in pencil) 4 of the squares in the centre of each of 2 facing pages in an 8 x 8” art journal with black pages

11.  Use the same stencil as in step 10 to mark out 2.5” squares on your big sheet, selecting areas you like best, and adhere these onto the squares marked out in step 10. I used soft gel medium for this.

12.  Find a vintage image you like and cut out parts of it. I selected a face. Glue these onto 2 of the squares.

13.  Outline the squares with a sparkly gel pen. 

14.  Glue on text from a magazine.

15.  Afterwards I still had lots left of the original sheet so I added another spread in my journal, this time using 1” squares and stencil S404 Grid Outline 4 by 4.

© Frieda Oxenham 2024

Guest Designer Frieda Oxenham

By November I think it’s justified to introduce some sparkle into your life in honour of the upcoming festivities and this is my contribution.

Here is the tutorial:

1.     Using an 8 x 10 gelli plate and a variety of different coloured metallic paints (I used Lumiere)  brayer paints onto the plate and take partial prints onto black paper sheets (mine were sized 8.5 x 11.75”). 

2.     Again using the metallic paints, brayer them onto the gelli plate. Then put stencil LL1025 Boro on Steroids on top and take partial prints onto the papers made in step 1.

3.     Using the pages from step 2 and stencils LL1028 There goes the neighbourhood Houses, LL1029 There goes the neighbourhood Towers and LL1030 There goes the neighbourhood Warehouses, mark out the various buildings on the papers using a pencil and cut out (Pic3). Do as many as you can so you have a good selection to choose from

4.     Try various lay-outs of the buildings on black pages in your art journal till you’re happy with one, take a photo of that way so you can recreate it and glue them down starting with buildings in the background and working your way to the foreground.  I used an UHU gluestick for this step but matte medium would work just as well.

5.     Outline the buildings with black and gold permanent markers (I used Posca ones).

6.     Put the house stencils from step 3 back onto your houses and add some or all of the window shapes with the gold marker 

7.     Glue on text of your choice

8.     Using stencil L856 ATC Mixup-Kerr add stars to the sky using Lumiere paints and a cosmetic wedge.

9.     Outline the stars with permanent white and sparkly blue markers.

© Frieda Oxenham, 2024

Guest Designer Frieda Oxenham

Here is the tutorial for this project that is inspired by the stencils I used, specially the Stencilgirl® Guts Bird shapes:

1.     Using a selection of previously painted or gelli plate printed papers, tissue paper, vintage book pages and postage stamps, collage them onto 2 facing pages of a 7x9” ring-bound art journal.

2.     Paint over the pages with watered down white gesso and drop some pink acrylic ink on top.

3.     Repeat step 2 but using gold acrylic ink.

4.     Add a final layer of watered down gesso

5.     Using a permanent black inkpad, stamp the pages randomly with a textured stamp. I used Circles and Dots from Carabelle, now sadly no longer available.

6.     Using  Distress Crayons, add a variety of colours to the pages and then remove using a baby wipe through the B stencil of the July 2024 StencilClub. Spray with some water to let the colours run. 

7.     Using gold paint and cosmetic wedge, stencil on the pages using the same stencil as in step 6. 

8.     Using gold acrylic paint and stencil S893 Triangle Leaves with Masks, add gold leaves to the pages and outling with black pen. 

9.     Using an 8 x 10” gelli plate add several colours of acrylic paint to the plate and take prints on copy paper.

10.  Add white acrylic paint to the plate and put the same stencil as used in step 6 on top of the plate, and take prints on the papers made in step 9. Remove the stencil and take more prints. Needless to say I made quite a few papers but in the end only used one for this project. Always good to have a choice!

11.  Using one of the birds from SG01 Stencilgirl Shapes – Birds and the paper from step 10, mark the shape on the paper twice, using a pencil and cut both birds out. Glue onto the pages and outline with a permanent black marker. 

12.  Glue on postage stamps and text to the pages and outline with a black marker.

13.  Edge the sides of the pages with a permanent black marker.

©Frieda Oxenham 2024

Guest Designer Frieda Oxenham

Here is my September project inspired by summer. Our Scottish summer this year hasn’t been the best but there have still been days when it felt and looked tropical. I always try and hold on to that during the winter months to come.

This is the tutorial:

1.     Working in a 7 x 9” ring bound journal on 2 facing pages, I covered the pages in paint using 4 different colours of acrylic paint, including one metallic gold one. While the pages were still wet I dropped water on them and then rolled a paper towel over them to dry the pages. I also rolled a textured brayer to add more interest.

2.     Brush white and gold acrylic paint onto the pages and remove again through the A stencil of the June 2024 StencilClub, using a baby wipe.

3.     Drip on green liquid acrylic ink and spray with water to make it spread. Distribute it around the pages by moving the journal in different directions.

4.     Repeat step 2 with both blue and green paint.

5.     Stencil on the pages using stencil S970 Yin with pink Stencil Butter and a cosmetic wedge.

6.     Using stencil L719 Jardiniere outline one of the vases on a piece of blue and white dots wrapping paper, embellish with permanent coloured markers, cut out and glue onto the pages.

7.     Using a variety of green acrylic paints, stencil on leaves using the medium stencil of the December 2021 StencilClub. Outline with turquoise permanent market.

8.     Add a flower to each vase by tracing through stencil L600 Mosaic Flowers. Colour with permanent paint markers. Outline with a black Stabilo All pencil.

9.     Using stencil L211 Simple Geo Circles and a previously gelli plate painted page (I used one left over from my July 2024 project) mark out circles on that page and cut out. Glue them onto the pages and outline with water soluble oil pastels.

10.  Using stencil S767 Crocodile Repeating, stencil on titanium white paint and pink spray ink. Spray with water to make the spray ink run. 

11.  Drip on some red Bombay ink

12.  Outline the circles with a permanent white marker

13.  Glue on text

© Frieda Oxenham 2024