Facing Up to Life

I was so honoured to be asked to make a project forStencilgirl. I’m a relatively recent art journaler, my main art form being making art quilts. That’s probably why I love how quickly art pages can come together! I’ve been a member of the Stencilgirl Club for well over a year now and enjoy looking forward to what each new month will bring! You can see this project on the Stencilgirl Talk website too.

For this project I used three different StencilgirlStencils: the 9 x 12 Aztec Sun Large Stencil, the 6 x 6 Starlight stencil andthe 6 x 6 Mystique stencil (I’ve fallen head over heels in love with that one!).

Supplies

Here are the step by step instructions of how I made the spread but there is absolutely no need to do them in this order. I learned all this layering from Dina Wakley (specially her book Art Journal Courage) and I always vary with what I do first and in which order I work to keep things interesting! I do let things dry thoroughly between steps, usually by air drying and sometimes using a heat gun.

1. Gesso your spread (I worked in the large Dylusions Journal).

2. Use two different colours (pink and purple in my case), scrape on the paint using an old credit card. Using the Aztec stencil and a baby wipe, remove the paint through parts of the stencil.

       3. Using yellow paint repeat step 2.

     4. Using Paynes Grey paint, and the Starlight stencil repeat step 2 again

5. Add white marks stencilling through the Aztec stencil.

6. Glue on vintage and scrapbook papers using matte medium.

7. Stamp on text using a black Archival ink pad.

8. Using blue paint repeat step 2 using the Aztec stencil.

9. Using red paint, stencil random areas of the pages using the Starlight stencil.

10. Let orange and yellow Liquitex ink dribble down the page using a water spray to encourage the ink to spread.

11. Add washi tape.

12. Using a handmade foam stamp and white paint add stamping. As this stage I begin to pay more attention to where I place things, covering up areas I’m not keen on and trying to leave exposed those areas I like.

13. Stencil the entire complete circle from the Aztec stencil using turquoise paint as shown.

14. Stencil face from Mystique stencil on vintage paper, using black paint. Cut out the individual items, while leaving the page intact so when you glue the items onto your page you have a template of where they need to go in relation to each other. Use matte medium to glue them on your page.

15. Write your page’s title using a permanent black marker and your own handwriting.

16. Outline the turquoise Aztec circle with black and white marker pens and outline other shapes .

17. Glue on fabric circles using matte medium. I used them because I was working on a quilt and the circles were left over and laying on my work table. Suddenly I felt they needed to be on the page. You can simply use paper circles too!Outline them with black marker.

18. Drip and splatter white Liquitex ink.

Here are some detailed pictures

I will let you in on a little secret. I’m an artist who lets her art happen. Yes, my larger quilts have some element of planning because they take months to make and it seems sensible to decide whether they are worth making before starting, but in my smaller textile pieces and my art journaling I usually just start with a vague idea, and see where the journey takes me. It makes life so much more interesting.

When doing a special projects such as this one for Stencilgirl though, doubt overcomes me and I start to get nervous that the piece I’m making might not work well or have some sort of disaster befall it,and in such cases I double up and make it twice at the same time.

So I also worked on a 9 x 12 piece of heavy duty water colour paper. Fortunately both pieces worked out in this case and I think it’s only fair to show you version 2 as well, called Face to Face with Anguish. All steps to make it are identical apart from step 14. I achieved the shadow effect on the face by first spraying the face through the stencil with lots of blue spray ink.Because it’s so watery it spreads underneath the stencil, which in this case I wanted to happen. Then I stencilled the face again on top of the blue using black paint. The other place where I did something slightly different is Step 15 where instead of writing the words, I cut out suitable vintage text, edged it with a gold marker and glued it on. It reads: "her visions began to be distorted. She was awake, and face to face with anguish again". 

Look out for more Stencilgirl projects to come! 

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