Friday 22 February 2013

Workin' the Stencils

Last week in this post, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer inspired me to make a page with lots of stencil layers. I usually play it safe with stencils and use one or two on a page but I wanted to stretch myself.  So, I grabbed my stencils and headed to my desk. As you can see, I didn't bother to tidy it or crop out the mess in Photoshop. This is what it looks like...all the time.

I started with a spread in my Dylusions Journal and I covered it in Tim Holtz Tissue Tape.

AJED Stencils_Pic 1

The green paint underneath is a leftover experiment that didn't work out. So, I didn't mind covering it up. Then I added some blue craft paint...

AJED Stencils_Pic 2

...and covered the whole page.

AJED Stencils_Pic 3

I let it sit for a few minutes. I wanted it to dry a little but I had no intention of hiding all that Tissue Tape so I grabbed a baby wipe...

AJED Stencils_Pic 4

...and wiped until I had brought back a lot of the Tissue Tape.

Then I added some orange craft paint through one of my all time favorite stencils - Blazonry by Balzer Designs.

AJED Stencils_Pic 5

The paint was thick in places so I added some texture.

AJED Stencils_Pic 6

Then I added a few more stencils. I got caught up in the process and forgot to take pictures of each layer. I don't remember what order I added the stencils but I used Jenni Bowlin for Ranger Paint Dabber in Lemon Drop with the Chevron Arrow stencil, gesso with the Chunky Chevron stencil and Dylusions Black Marble ink spray with my alpha stencil.

AJED Stencils_Pic 7

Finally, I added some dots with the Dylusions Dotted Flower 5x8 stencil and Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paint in Classic Teal.

AJED Stencils_Pic 8

And here's a look at the final page.

AJED Stencils_Pic 9

How about a closeup?

AJED Stencils_Pic 9

Honestly, I cannot believe I made this page. I only used paint, stencils and Tissue Tape but I didn't feel limited. I love the variety of images and the overall feel of this page. In the end, I layered up 5 different stencils on this page. If you add the paint layer and Tissue Tape that's a total of 7 layers.

So, now I'm layering up stencils like crazy. I'm trying to figure out what I like and how much is enough and how much is too much. It's a lot of fun.

I hope you have a weekend full of inspiration and creative time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie



14 comments:

  1. Wow Cathie! I love these pages! I am crossing my fingers that I am off that day you teach your class.

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    1. Thanks, Lori. Hope you can make it to my class, too.

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  2. Love it! Have to try playing with this myself!

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    1. Thanks, Sara. Look forward to seeing what you make...maybe at the next art night.

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  3. great pages. you did a fantastic job with your layering and colors. tfs

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  4. Wow Cathie..this looks FANTASTIC!! I am fairly new to art journaling and still finding my 'style'. I am going to have a try at this, thanks for showing :-)!!

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    1. Thanks, Janene. I hope you enjoy your art journaling adventures. I have had so much fun since I started and have learned a lot of my style.

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  5. these step-by-step photos really reveal how you achieved the complex texture...gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks, Dianne! I thought I a step-out might be fun and I'm glad it worked it out so well.

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  6. this is such an awesome spread Cathie-really fantastic layers and colors!!

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    1. Thanks, Linda. I find that as long as there is blue in there somewhere, I'm happy! It was fun to experiment with all those stencils, too. I had no idea you could layer up so many different patterns.

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  7. Beautiful color combo! I love stencils and usually don't layer too many either, but you have inspired me!

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    1. Thanks, Kathy! I just picked the colors and stencils that I like the best and went for it. I thought if I didn't like it, I could just gesso over it and start again.

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