Anouk (Creanouk): Using Stencils in your Daily Practice

Hello you beautiful artist,

Maintaining a daily art journal practice can be quite a challenge. Sometimes life can get so busy that there isn't any room for hours of playing in your art journal. That's why I like to keep my daily art practice quick and easy.

For me, it’s my health that makes my daily art practice a struggle. On good days I like to take my time to create big layered pieces of art, to join a challenge, or follow a course. But unfortunately, there are periods that my health only allows me to create for 5 to 15 minutes a day. In the past, I would feel so frustrated about only having so little time to create. But in the last year, I have learned that those 5 to 15 minutes are just as important as those long creative sessions.

For me creating is something that nurtures my soul. It's like meditation. It makes me feel good, satisfied, happy, and energetic even when my health is at its worst. So allowing myself to create, even for a few minutes a day, is the greatest gift I have ever given myself.

My daily practice also has a huge effect on my art journaling skills. My art feels so much more free and intuitive!

I like to grab 5 to 15 minutes in the morning to do my daily practice. For this, I'm using an A6 journal. Small journals are great for when you don't have a lot of time. There's no room for overthinking, so it allows you to let go and to really enjoy the process.  My small A6 journal is a place for quick and fun journal spreads. It's a place to play in when I don't have the energy or time to create big spreads. 

For this blog, I like to give you some of my tips for creating in a limited amount of time by sharing the recipes of three pages that I made during my daily practice.

Page 1: Collage

Collage is one of my favorite techniques in the art journaling world. Tearing paper is just so relaxing! In my normal work, I use it a lot in the background to create texture and layers, but in my daily practice, I like to use it more as a focal point.

Having a stash of scraps or collage fodder is really helpful to use in your daily practice when you don't want to spend hours waiting for your modeling paste to dry. The book papers also give your page a nice texture, so it's a win-win!

In my first guest designer blog I shared how I used my extra modeling paste on vintage book papers so I could use it on another page. When you do this on a regular base your pile of collage material will be ready for you when you need it!

Another fun thing to use in your daily journal is your failed Gelli prints. You know, the print that didn't really worked out the way you want to and didn't find the way to the trash can because you couldn't say goodbye. Now is the time to tear it apart and glue it down!

Step 01

Start by gluing down a big piece of book paper with modeling paste.

Marocco rug by Kate Thompson

Step 02

Collage with pieces of your scrap pile.
I used a failed Gelli print with Floral Frolics by Wendy Brightbill,

 a teabag with a and another piece of the book paper with modeling paste.

Step 03

Add some texture.

Fabrics, drywall tape, teabags, washi tape, and cookie packaging are some of my favorite things to add texture.

Step 04

Finish off your page with some ink splatters to create an extra layer of spark and definition.

And add a quote, word, or some random thoughts.

Page 2: Use your stencil as a starting point

Using a rather big stencil for the size of your journal is a great starting point for when you only have a few minutes to spare. To make the process even quicker, clean your dirty stencil on a random page in your art journal. This way you’ll always have a few pages with a starting point in your journal that you can continue working on. Large stencils with a big and bold pattern are magical for this way because they don’t need much more to become a beautiful page.

In my daily art journaling, I like to use mediums and techniques that dry fast. But I’ve become addicted to using watercolors, ecoline, and inks. And as you know those don’t really dry fast. That’s why I have become best friends with my heat gun. Seriously, I don’t know why it took me so long to love this tool. It makes my life so much easier because I don’t have hours to wait for my pages to dry, but I also like how it moves my fluid mediums. Every drop goes on its own adventure and it’s so mesmerizing to watch. So I believe that you can definitely use those pretty intense fluid mediums in your daily short art practice as long as your heat gun is there with you. 

Step 01

Stencil your preferred stencil on the page with acrylics.

Try to use a stencil that can be the focal point as well, or use a big and bold pattern.
Mark Making with Floral Embellishments by Jeanne Oliver

Step 02

Collage on the next page leaving some white space where the stenciling is done.

Step 03

Build up your page by using gesso and acrylics.

Apply the mediums with a pallet knife or a gift card helps to create thin layers that dry quickly.

Step 04

Play around with watercolors, ecoline, and inks.

Use a heat tool to dry it faster.

For the inks, I used Colour Blast ink in walnut.

Step 05

Make some marks using the same stencil as you used as a starting point.

Step 06

Finish off the page by adding some textures using collage materials and a quote.
And of course, ink splatters.

Page 3: Stencilling on transfer paper

I wasn't very familiar with this technique until recently. Here in the Netherlands deli, tissue, and tracing paper isn’t something you see in stores very often. But after I tried to trace a pattern for one of my sewing projects I got a lot of tracing paper scraps that I didn’t want to throw away. So I did what every art journaler would do, I found a way to use it in my art. And here’s the best part, same as for the other techniques that I showed you, you can make a bunch of these papers and use them later!

Another thing that I like is that when you glue these papers down with mod podge or gel medium is that they dry completely transparent. I have a very big love for using napkins in my art, and now I can basically make my own! These papers are great for layering, adding texture, and experimenting with colors. I would encourage you to make a bunch of these papers by using one stencil. You can play with different colors, make a gradient, or create your own pattern by using different pieces of the stencil. When you are done you’ll have your favorite stencil by hand and ready to go when you need them.

Step 01

Stencil on a piece of transfer, deli, or tissue paper.

Bouquet Greenery by Wendy Brightbill

Step 02

Build the foundation of the page by gluing done some collage.

Step 03

Use a pallet knife to add gesso and acrylics.

Step 04

Add more texture by layering teabags on top of the collage.

Step 05

Glue down your paper with mod podge or gel medium.

Step 06

Do I need to write this down? As always 

Finish off the page by adding some textures using collage materials and a quote.

And that's it three quick and fun ways to incorporate your favorite Stencilgirl® stencils in your daily art journal.

Thank you so much for reading my blog post. I hope that I have inspired you to create today! My name is Anouk, or Creanouk on social media, and I'm an all-around creative from the Netherlands. I love art journaling because I can put my heart and soul into it. You can find my work on Instagram and Youtube.

Going in the Right Direction

   

     For about 30 years, I made my living as a children's book author.  I wrote quite a lot of books for children and teens, and many of the books I wrote were illustrated, although not be me.  In addition, all my books had covers (obviously) designed by either the in-house art director or a free-lance illustrator and/or designer.  As an author, I was never consulted on matters of book design and interior art.  I did, however, learn a great deal over the course of my children's book career about illustration and cover design, and about some of the key concepts related to narrative art.  Because many of us in the mixed media community are working in art journals where we have some narrative component, I thought it might be helpful to share one of these concepts as it relates to faces and figures: direction.

    At its most basic, direction in illustration or narrative art is determined by the direction of text.  In other words, if you read from left to right, anything moving to the right, facing right, pointing to the right, can be interpreted as heading forward. This is the direction we go when we read - we go to the right.  Typically, people who read from left to right also "read" artwork from left to right, read a crowd of people from left to right, inspect a room from left to right, and so on.  The left side is presumed to be the beginning, and the right side is presumed to be the end of a sequence, or a pause in the sequence.  (Incidentally, in cultures where text is read from right to left, the opposite is true; for example, the cover illustration of one of my books was reversed when published in Japanese.)  

    In the art journal spread below, featuring the Angel Circle Stencil by Kate Thompson and the Near Miss figure by Wendy Aikin, the figure is at the right side of the spread, facing right and leaning right.  With printed text above to reinforce the direction, and crows also facing right rather than retreating in alarm, this figure can easily be presumed to be focused intently on something interesting up ahead, rather than something behind. 

 

 

    Taking the idea of forward, ahead, and right a little further, we can manipulate this design choice to imply an emotional content for faces or figures pointing or facing right.   Figures in this orientation can indicate optimism, progress, hopefulness, success.  Conversely, faces and figures moving toward the left can imply return, regression, regret, the past, and so on.  Take for example, the two figures below, using the same mask from Figures Praising by Valerie Sjodin.   In both cases the background and colors are the same, but depending on other choices (color, line work, contrast, composition, massing, etc.) you could make the first figure seem to be bounding joyfully into the future, and the second figure running away from danger to safety. 

 

    Now, I do not mean to imply that every face or figure in your artwork is doomed to carry this kind of subconscious baggage depending on what direction it's going.  However, sometimes when narrative art featuring a face or a figure doesn't feel right, it's due to this - the brain is getting mixed signals.  Our brains are hard-wired to read images this way (for left-to-right language readers); we have this 'right is right' unconscious bias whether we like it or not.  As a test, try holding your work up to the mirror and see if it strikes you as emotionally or psychologically different.  A great advantage to using stencils is that they can be flipped in either direction.  So a composition that doesn't quite seem to hit the right note can be given another go by changing direction of the stencil.  

    Of course, when there are two figures or faces in a composition, they might be facing each other, in which case no particular psychological reading is especially pertinent - they are interacting.  The interaction may be negative, neutral, or positive, but the orientation is probably not going to factor into that reading.  However, if the faces or figures are not interacting, but oriented away from each other, there is a lot of room for inference.  With Jeanne Oliver's Thougtful Face, we also have the advantage of playing with scale, because this stencil comes in two sizes.  Now, with the smaller face on the left, facing left, and the larger face on the right, facing right, it is not hard to read this as the past and the present (or future) in  an autobiographical composition. 

    It would be an interesting exercise to use these two stencils in all possible configurations simply to see how different the compositions feel.  Obviously, many additional factors go into the emotional or psychological content of a piece of art - but going in the appropriate direction is one you don't want to miss if that's the one that can get you where you want to go.

Stencils used in these examples:

Angel Circle Stencil S271 by Kate Thompson, Three Crows Stencil S207 by Kimberly Baxter Packwood, Circle Up 6x6 from Club set March 2016 by Suzi Dennis, and Near Miss Stencil and mask set, S622 by Wendy Aikin

Figures Praising L727 by Valerie Sjodin, Dancing Lights S355 by Daniella Woolf

Thoughtful Face Large L839 by Jeanne Oliver, Thoughtful Face Small S862 by Jeanne Oliver, Periodic Table L837 by MaryBeth Shaw

 

Rust Dye Printing with StencilGirl® Products

Hey everyone, Lorri Scott here to talk about my journey into rust dyeing on fabric using StencilGirl® stencils.

I became interested in rust dyeing several years ago when I was learning how to eco-dye using leaves and flowers.  The rusted areas that transferred from the iron pipe used to roll fabric on for eco dye prints intrigued me.   I began gathering iron objects such as trivets and gate pieces to create rust on and transfer print onto fabric.  The transfer method was to take the rusty metal object, lay wetted fabric on top and then weight the fabric down and let it sit.  Warm sunny days are the best to create rust prints!

After several years of rust printing on fabric I wanted to introduce the technique in classes.  And I have done that but it became cumbersome to lug heavy metal pieces around with me, let alone enough for students to use!  Seemed I would need one of those “Got Junk?” trucks.

One day I was reading a post on Facebook and a woman had mentioned using steel wool and stencils.  I could not find that post again and nothing came up when I did a search online. 

I knew I could figure it out and just started experimenting.  Right away I was hooked and I thought how much easier it will be to take stencils with me to teach workshops rather than super heavy boxes of metal!  LOL!  And so many choices of stencils too!

This is a sample of my own private “junkyard” treasure trove. (Well some of it).

These are samples using StencilGirl® stencils.  These will make great background pieces for art.  These could become wall hangings, modern day prayer flags, and/or get stitched onto garments and accessories.  I use cotton muslin, silk fabrics such as noil and broadcloth and also vintage napkins and placemats, either cotton or linen.

Stencil on left – Labyrinth #1 Vision Quest (M227) Cynthia Silveri

Stencil on right – Basket (S327) Daniella Woolf

Stencil - Winter Trees Bark (L635) Valerie Sjodin

Stencil – Wrought Iron Gate (L224) Cecilia Swatton

Art Nouveau Rug (L695) Kate Thompson

Protector of the Fields (S407) Roxanne Evans Stout

Here are examples of how these could be used for backgrounds.

Kate Thompson sells images of her paintings printed on organza in her Etsy shop.  I have taken one of her prints and laid it over the Basket stencil rust print.  I could attach this using Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 fusible bonding.  It could be that simple or could be further embellished with paint, stitching, lace, etc.

I made this rust printed fabric image into a simple prayer flag.  I printed The Apache Blessing onto organza using an ink jet printer and stitched it onto the rust dyed fabric.  I wrapped the stick with some red embroidery thread and attached to the fabric. 

The Process

Supplies:

Choose the stencil you will use and be sure to use masking tape to cover the StencilGirl® information at the bottom or else that will appear on your rust print.

Fill a spray bottle with ½ white vinegar and ½ water.

Fill a quart size (or larger) baggie with sand and make sure it is sealed securely.

Take the piece of fabric and wet it, wring it out until it’s just damp.

Put a towel down and put a piece of plastic down larger than your piece of fabric.

Lay the fabric on the plastic and then the stencil onto the fabric.

Take a roll of steel wool and unwind it.  Stretch it out a bit and tear/cut the size you need to cover your stencil.  Lay it over your stencil.  If the steel wool exceeds the size of your stencil then the rust will show outside the cut of the stencil.  See the image of Roxanne Evans Stout stencil I used for the prayer flag.  Those rust areas outside the stencil were because the steel wool overlapped. Be sure to wear a mask when handling the steel wool, you don’t want to breathe the tiny particles, and it’s a good idea to wear gloves too.

Using the 50/50 vinegar water in the spray bottle, wet the steel wool until wet.  You do not want it saturated but you need it evenly wetted.

Lay the sand bag on top of the whole “sandwich”.  Plastic, stencil, fabric, steel wool, sand bag.  The sand bag will weigh the steel wool down onto the fabric.

Now the tricky part is how long?  Rust needs, moisture, air, and heat to promote.  So if it’s a hot sunny day this could go fast, within an hour or two.  Keep lifting the sand bag to make sure the steel wool is moist.  If it’s dry spritz it with the vinegar/water. If you have this in a warm room it could be done within 5 – 8 hours.  Or leave it overnight.

Gently lift the stencil and check to see if the image is showing yet.  If not you may need to wet the steel wool some more and leave a bit longer.

After you remove the layers and have the image on the fabric you need to iron it.  Remember that some of the rust is not going to set into the fabric and will rub off so be sure to put down a press cloth on your ironing area and also put a press cloth on top to protect your iron.  I buy cotton sheets at the thrift store and tear them up to use as press cloths.  Be sure the iron is on the hottest setting, this will help set the rust a bit more.

Fill a tub with ¼ cup baking soda and hot water.  Soak your rust piece in that for about 10 -15 minutes.  Then wash your fabric using a mild soap and rinse.  Let it dry and then iron it again and it’s ready to use.

If you want to explore rust dyeing techniques further perhaps you would like to join me and Jen

Cushman for an intimate gathering in Cottonwood, AZ in a private retreat compound.  Oct. 21 -25, 2021.  Five days of art and inspiration, sisterhood and creativity, intention and self-discovery (and rust dyeing).  Mundane meets magic … or better known as “Rust and Stardust”.  The perfect balance of chemistry and creativity with a sprinkling of mysticism.

For more info visit Rust & Stardust — Soul Stir Magic

Lorri Scott

www.lasfibers.com

Art Journaling with StencilGirl® Stencils

Hello All, my name is Tracy Hickman, @anonymous.palette and I’m an art journaling junkie who has a mild addiction to stencils….  I’d like to share my step-by-step process on how I made the following journal spread, Bohemian Totem #3.  This is all about descending layers that are built up with stencils that pair well with each other; the combinations are endless!  It also highlights homemade washi tape that is a blast to make and I’ll give you a quick walk through below on how I made this as well. 

I work in altered books and used white gesso over the text.  When dried, I messily blended Annie Sloan Cream Chalk Paint with Paper Artsy Buff (darker at top) over the Gesso.  I placed Elegant Fence over the center of each page and daubed more Cream Chalk paint only down the center creating a subtle pattern to start the totem.  I next used Morocco Rug and sponged through Annie Sloan Paloma Chalk Paint down the center or each page showing the wider pattern at the top.  Over this I used Archival Ink in Coffee for a more transparent layer through Van Vorst. Next I crushed up some Ochre pastel into Hard Modeling Paste to color and used a palette knife to scrape through Quatre Rounds Background.

Now comes the homemade washi tape that I cut, edged in black archival ink and stuck down the center of each page in two spots.  Stencils used here: R & E, Boro, and Collage Textures and Patterns - Medieval Cyrillic.

I used a few stamps, Indigo Blue stitched circles over and under the washi tape and AB Studio “Be Creative Every Day” stamp set in the upper corners on either side and splattered some Dr. Ph. Martin’s Iridescent Yellow ink up toward the top.  The final steps consisted of using the edge of a clear embossing pad at the top of each page with Seth Apter’s Baked Texture Powder in Eclipse to anchor the circles to the top.  I then sponged clear embossing Ink through Decorative Flower Stamen Medallion and embossed Baked Texture Powder in Blizzard over the washi tape and black texture powder to marry all the elements together.  The last and final detail was the collaging of a French stamp to the bottom of the larger washi tape section and the embellishment of an ancient alchemy coin charm from Dry Gulch on top of that.  

I was inspired by Robyn McClendon who introduced me to Scor Tape, a double sided tape roll that comes in a bunch of widths and can be found on Amazon.  I used vintage journal pages but any paper would work as a substrate from dictionary or music pages to scrapbook or copy paper.  Cut several pieces of tape the length of your paper and peel off one side of the plastic backing.  Apply the adhesive side to the BACK of your paper NOT the side you want to stencil on, I left about an 1/8th inch space between my tape pieces.  Keep the plastic back on while stenciling and only remove when ready to use in your creations.  Use various StencilGirl® stencils with different mediums: Ink, Watercolor, Acrylic, Modeling Paste, Sprays, the options are endless!  When your layers are done and dried, cut out the tape and store for use. Stencils used: Decorative Flower Stamen Medallion and Soulful Scribbles Dots Dash.

These are some other journal pages I was inspired to create highlighting designs by StencilGirl® and all the stencils used in the pages are listed below the images. 

Stencils used for “Home”:  Soulful Scribbles Dots Dash and Blueprint.

Stencils used for “Remarks”:  Blueprint, Decorative Flower Stamen Medallion, and Pixels.

Stencil used for “Goodbye Summer”: Striped Mandala with Border.

(This one is so fabulous it needed to stand alone, and is a must have for gel printing.)

Hope you found some inspiration!

Tracy

@anonymous.palette