Five Bold Flowers Journal Page

Hello creative friends! Nicole here with a question. What do you create when you have a bunch of new stencils and want to play with them all? How do you even decide where to start? Easy answer! It doesn’t matter where you start, because you play with them all!

 

For this week’s project, I’m layering five stencils and then calming the chaos with a little reductive painting using, of course, another stencil! 

I grabbed my journal to find one of few blank pages left, and decided on one that is next to a project I created for Nathalie Kalbach’s creative team. Nathalie is also a StencilGirl® designer, so I thought it would be fun to incorporate some of her stencils on the page next door, plus a couple others. I used the finished page as inspiration for the new page I was about to create.

 

After gessoing the page, I layered it with a ledger sheet. I knew that I wanted this page to have cream with white in the background plus use the color palette of its neighbor. So, I grabbed my gesso to add some white to the ledger sheet. 

Next, I picked out the colors that matched the page next door. I even grabbed pink to match the embroidery floss. I knew I’d need a lot of colors for the stencils! I didn't use all of them, but they were ready just in case.

Once the gesso was dry, I began to layer the stencils. I used the same process for each one. First, I stenciled it with a foam applicator a few places on the page and then I distressed my stenciling a bit with some water and watered-down paint.

 

First Layer: Van Vorst 

I ended up adding more of this stencil after the third layer.

 

Second Layer: Arched Fountains 

Third Layer: What’s the Point? 

After this layer dried, I also traced around the circles with stabilo all in graphite and black to add a bit more interest.

Fourth Layer: Hash Marks 

 

Fifth Layer: Alpha Drips 

For this stencil, I cut my applicator foam in half so I could isolate the plus symbols only in the stencil.

Fun side note: I started using an old book to clean off my stencils and applicator. After each stencil, I cleaned it several times in this book. It's going to make a great book of ephemera!

When all my layers were dry, I grabbed the Bold Flowers stencil to calm the incredible chaos I created. This stencil was the perfect contrast to the facing page, so I knew I just had to use it! The large, bold image contrasted the delicate details of the right side and the flower petals matched the stamped crowns I gave the photos. The page on the right is about my crazy dreams, and these bold flowers look like something from a dream, too!

 

The stencil and mask combo is perfect for reductive painting. I used the stencil to see exactly what part of the page I wanted to keep and then put the mask inside and removed the stencil. I grabbed my foam applicator and spread black paint around the mask.

Before the paint dried, I touched it up by filling it in, distressing some, removing some, and adding more. It’s a bit of a process, but the end results are worth it.

Then, I repeated the process with a smaller flower.

Once both images were finished, I grabbed a baby wipe and some cleaning paste to distress the black and the page even more. The paste removed some of the black and some of the stenciling layers, too. Not completely, just enough that it looked like it maybe was an old fresco on a wall, worn from time. I absolutely loved the result. 

I also added a little extra black around the edges of the pages.

Then, I repeated the process on a few tags. If I was doing this again, I would have played on the tags at the same time as the journal pages. So, don't copy my order!

After the stenciled layers were dry, I added a flower to each one using the same process. On two I used the stencil and on the smaller one the mask.

Finally, I layered the tags, stuck them down with clear washi tape on the ends so they'd flip on the page, added a vintage photo and a saying and called it done!

You can watch the entire process in the video below.

 

Thanks for following along!

-Nicole

Connect with me on

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• My website

Stencils

Van Vorst 

Arched Fountains 

What’s the Point? 

Hash Marks 

Alpha Drips 

Bold Flowers

Supplies

• Dina Wakley Media Journal
• Ledger Paper
• Golden So Flat (black, naphthol pink, turquoise, cobalt teal, fluorescent orange)
• Golden Fluid (payne's gray, iridescent bronze fine)
• Stabilo All (black, graphite)
• Gesso
• Matte Medium
• Tags
• Baby Wipes
• Cleaning Paste
• Clear Washi Tape
• Phrase Stickers
• Vintage Photo
• Three different size tags

2022 is the Year of DO!

For the past 8 years or so I’ve chosen a Word of the Year in January to help guide and focus my efforts in the coming months. Past words have been Joy, Thrive, Love, Focus — inspirational, you get the picture.

It helps me to have a large visual image to reinforce it usually placed in a high-trafficked area of my Studio (the bathroom). And, I always create the artwork, usually with a friend or two, using Mixed Media techniques. 

After conversations this year with friends and students, coupled with a sense of inertia, at times, my word of the year for 2022 is DO. My Mantra for 2022: Do Not watch, scroll, ponder, procrastinate, avoid, ignore, but DO.

Coming out of the Pandemic I think something has shifted. Magically we were awash in online content that could take up days upon days of time to watch. I’ve had many conversations of late with folks frustrated that after hours upon hours of watching, they were not nearly as proficient in DOING as they assumed they would be. Not just mixed media videos but also home renovation and repairs, new crafts, and other instructional programs that were solely watched. 

I think my brain can trick me into thinking I did it rather than just watched it. 

I can’t stress enough that it is in the DOING that I learn and grow. I’ve never been able to just hear, watch or read about something and perfect it. It’s in my hands that I learn. And I never regret the time spent in the Studio. 

So, in 2022 I am gonna DO. Help hold me accountable.

This sign was developed with one of my absolute favorite mixed media techniques - reductive painting and collage. 

Here’s what I did: 

1. Grabbed a canvas I had already painted on - @ 18” x 18”
2. Pulled together a random stack of papers (about 15 -20 sheets) including ledger paper, old book pages, rice paper, deli paper, and plain white paper. 
3. Using a variety of colors of heavy-bodied acrylic paint I spent a lovely day painting papers. I used my Boro Stencil, parts of the Stitch ATC Stencil, Michelle Ward's Ray Circles, January's StencilClub Pattern Play (swoon!), and lots of others to paint the papers. For random texture, I used a palette knife through the stencil with the heavy-bodied paint. Because my word indicates getting busy, I wanted lots of color and images going on my canvas. 
   
   
   
   
   
4. Once painted, I got out the acrylic inks and made marks, painted on ink over the acrylic paint,  made patterns, and some illustrations on the painted pages. My favorite tools for mark-making are wooden skewers and vintage dip pens. I even wrote the word DO. Over and over on some of my papers.
5. Satisfied with my pile, I tore it up. 
6. Using Matte Medium I began randomly adhering the pieces to the canvas knowing at the end I would cover a lot of it up with paint.
7. Once glued in place. I made more marks and added stenciling in black and white paint.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Then I covered it in one more layer of Matte Medium. 
9. I struggled with where to put the DO. Cray-pas pastels are great for this because if you don’t like the placement, a baby wipe erases it and the layer of Matte Medium below it protects what you've done. 
   
   
   
   
   
10. I committed and choose a heavy-bodied paint color. Eeek. It's a pale pink but looks white in the photos. 
11. Painted away everything but the word and left a border because I really like the stuff underneath.
12. Came back in with the skewer and wrote in the wet paint. Also went over the black lines with the Cray-Pas for emphasis.
    
    
    

I hope your 2022 is full of DOING!