The Stencilfied Journal Prompt Twelve

Finally it was time to decorate the outside of our #thestencilfiedjournal. I am using a 9 x 14cm Clairefontaine one from their 1951 Back to Basics range which is stitch bound. It originally had a pink Perspectives Paralleles pattern on the outside, that can still be seen vaguely through all the paint layers. I started those by using white gesso all over the pages.

The next step was to add colour using acrylic paints and the L646 Floral Mandala Lace stencil by Stencilgirl  Products®. More circular patterns were added using the small stencil from the October 2014 Stencilgirl® Club. 

 I added some acrylic inks and collaged on pieces of Tim Holtz's tissue wrap. Then I stencilling the title onto vintage paper using a mix of alphabet stamp sets.

The final step of the prompt was quite frightening and with a lot of trepidation I put my journal into the tea. I should probably admit to spraying all the inside pages with a fixative. Is that cheating?! Perhaps but I couldn't help myself. Here is the result of the soaking:

 I went for a total submersion in a bowl with teabags! It came as a bit of a shock (what did I expect?!) that the journal was totally soaked and the paper very soft inside so a lot of towels came to the rescue and the journal then spend some days in the airing cupboard with all the pages spread out in a fan shape.

As you can see the damage to the cover was minimal but the same was not completely true (completely untrue in fact!) for the inside spreads. They needed some remedial action. The main upset was that everything adhered with an archival glue stick had come undone (matte medium glued items stayed put!), so I glued them back in after salvaging them from the wet pages. But it's something I will keep in mind although I don't anticipate putting my journals in warm liquid ever again!