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

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

StencilGirl® Stencils on Collaged Postcards from Lauren Bergold

Hello, it's Lauren Bergold, a StencilGirl® superfan, and I'm thrilled to be a guest here on StencilGirl Talk. Today I've got a brand new project... with vintage flair. I've collected postcards since I was about ten; but I also love making my own. For this post, I've made a set of travel-inspired 5x7" postcards, using four of Mary Nasser's beautiful designs: Map Stencil, Metro Map, Map with Roundabouts (are you sensing a theme?!) and one of her travel word stencils, Let's Go 2, which has the best typewriter font ever! 

I started by making base collages of torn vintage paper, just slightly over 5x7". I used bits of old train schedules, foreign text paper, aeronautical diagrams and... well, a little bit of everything that felt travel-related, but fairly neutral. I covered the reverse side with an old NYC Subway map. Since my favorite postcards as a kid were those which came in a special little folder, I made one of those, too, out of a piece of wallpaper from a retired sample book.

The first thing I do with any new StencilGirl® Stencils is test them out; ok, actually I just play with them, lol! I try different inks and pastes on various types of paper; I experiment with colors and blending; I consider outlines and doodles using my favorite pens. For this project I chose Distress Oxide Inks, in strong but muted colors. I outlined the map images, but left the words alone. 

I don't always cut out all my vintage images before I start, but in this case I had a pretty strong vision and I knew I wanted a car, a ship, a plane and a train. I chose a few travel-related quotes and typed them on vintage labels. There's no earthly reason for flowers to make an appearance, but as in many of my pieces, somehow they worked their way in.

I used the travel words from Let's Go 2, in a medium grey ink on all four cards, scattering them across each panel and letting them run off the edges. I used the three map stencils selectively, sometimes taping off bits of the design, to get a more interesting shape. For example, I used the deepest curve of Map Stencil, to convey the idea of waves under my vintage ocean liner image.

My vintage car collage has words from Let's Go 2 and an angular section of Map with Roundabouts in a strong but muted yellow.

The airplane collage is built around the 6x6" Metro Map in a soft shade of blue; and once again the words from Let's Go 2 are nestled over and under bits of the background.

The ocean liner is floating on the "wave" from Map Stencil, with a sky adorned by that perfect typewriter font from Let's Go 2.

The railroad image is again paired with the finely geometric details of Map Stencil, in a soft green that echoes the foliage. You cannot exactly *read* the words from Let's Go 2, but they definitely add more of the travel spirit just by being there.

My folio has a small car, a huge floral and the anchor of Metro Map, in amber, on a piece of a vintage latitudinal chart, which I cut out with scissors, to capture the beautiful circle shapes.

The four cards tuck neatly inside their folder and tie with torn strips of sari silk. They will be winging off to a travel-loving friend.

I hope you'll be inspired to make your own map-inspired art using StencilGirl® Stencils; until such time as we can all dream of traveling again in real life!

Lauren Bergold

loves vintage paper, colorful inks, 

and (especially!)

StencilGirl® Stencils!