Art Journal Diary

Every year I buy both a large planner, always on my desk, and a smaller diary to take around with me. This year the latter was a 4 x 6” one featuring images of New York. Well, you can guess just how much use it got since March when going anywhere became almost impossible.Instead the diary hung around serving no useful purpose.

That seemed to be a bit of a waste so I decided to do something with it. As you can tell it is ring bound which is a bit of a hindrance and the pages are very flimsy indeed. But  I decided to consider all this as a challenge. 


I started by gluing some pages together for sturdiness and started putting on a few layers of gesso before starting. These will be spreads made over the course of several days, doing only a little bit every day: some stamping, some stencilling, a bit of collage, ink dripping etc. I might not fill the diary for quite some time but that’s okay. Time is something none of us are short of at the moment. 

This is my first spread. All stencils used are from StencilGirl (r) Products.

Stencilgirl February 2019 Project

February is a sort of nondescript month as far as I am concerned. The days are still short and spring seems far away. Sometimes there is snow but even if not, it is mostly cold. What better time to do some arting, and this is my latest project for Stencilgirl  Products®. 

You can find the full step by step instructions on the Stencilgirl®Talk website. For some reason my picture of the initial collage layer didn't make it onto the memory card of my camera but I almost covered the two pages in the 9 x 9" Bee Paper Mixed Media journal completely before adding colour. You can use whatever collage material you prefer. If you have a closer look you can see of what I used peeking through.

The main focal points come from the November 2018 Stencilgirl®Club. The club offers its members exclusive stencils (one large, medium and small) i.e. you can't buy these in theStencilgirl®store. But if you join the Club as a member, you can order previous club issues such as this one!

It's always difficult to get a good picture of the texture on the pages. Above you can see how I used Distress Crackle paint on the house shape.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt 24

You can see the final prompt for #thestencilfiedjournal below. And I didn't entirely stick to it. I did put tape on the pages but did not cover it completely as that word was missing from the prompt!

Instead I made the background for this spread (in a 9 x 14xm journal) using a variety of paints together with stencil L635 Tiger Lily by Stencilgirl  Products® as well as the large stencil from the October 2018 Stencilgirl®Club. Once the background looked right I added the brown trees using stencil L635 Winter Trees Bark also by Stencilgirl®

Then I grabbed my rather overwhelming collection of washi tapes and started to populate the forest with animals, mushrooms, birds and I also found a washi tape to add leaves to the trees.

 It was great fun specially as I  found a suitable vintage text to accompany it all. 

This is the last prompt for this fun project, organized by Tina Walker (who also made the prompt tags) and Stencilgirl  Products®. It's always sad when projects finish but I'm sure I'll find other ones and, shock horror, I could just make spreads for the fun of it!

Stencilgirl November 2018 Project

I have been making many art cards this year (and that project isn't finished yet!). Occasionally however I suddenly get an urge to make art on a surface that is larger than 3 x 3"! Changing size in art making (also applies to quilts) gives you a new perspective and it also means you can use art supplies, specially stencils in this case, that are not so suitable for small backgrounds. The ladies on this journal spread are a perfect example of that. They feel very much at home on this 9 x 9" Bee Paper Mixed Media journal that I'm using for this art journalling spread that is my November project for Stencilgirl  Products®.

I was inspired by a quotation by William Wordsworth, that reads:"Thanks to the human heart by which we live, Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears, To me the meanest flower that blows can give, Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 

You can find a full step-by-step tutorial as well as a list of all the stencils I used for this spread, on the Stencilgirl® Talk site.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt 22

You can read our instructions for prompt 22 of #thestencilfiedjournal below and I'm almost embarrassed about the simplicity of my spread in the 9 x 14cm art journal.

I used just one stencil after painting the entire spread with black gesso. It was stencil L477 Versailles from Stencilgirl®, designed by Nathalie Kalbach and I used titanium white paint to stencil with. It had been the plan to do more but once I had done the stencilling I suddenly saw a face looking back at me. A bit like the Green Man sculptures you find hidden in cathedrals and the like.

The face was emphasised  a bit more by putting pupils in the eye shapes and then I collaged on the word ESCAPE from a magazine as my contribution from a friend. It's not quite as per the instructions but we tried writing on the page and it just didn't show up. I also overstepped the black and white brief as I simply couldn't help myself and had to outline with a red gelli pen. So a lot of rule breaking here! But I think it makes for effective pages and suited my mood at the time.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt 21

Prompt 21 for #thestencilfiedjournal asked us to used numbers 1, 2, 3.... and for some reason I immediately thought of the battle cry of The Prisoner: " I am not a number, I am a free man" (or woman, of course!). The Prisoner was a tv series way back when in the 60s and yes, I remember watching it then. And I wouldn't mind watching it all over again. It seems as pertinent for the world today as it was originally. So I embraced this opportunity to put the quotation in my art journal (sized 9 x 14cm).

The background was done using the medium stencil from the December 2017 Stencilgirl®Club as well as stencil L471 Hamburg stencil designed by Nathalie Kalbach for Stencilgirl  Products®. To this mix I added rubber stamping with both a circular stamp and a stamp featuring numbers both from PaperArtsy, designed by Everything Art, as well as collage with tissuewrap (Tim Holtz) with numbers on it.

The large black words were stencilled on using Stencilgirl®'s L748 I Get to Choose stencil. Then I glued on the postage stamps with the numbers 1, 2 and 3. The final addition was the quotation that was stamped onto vintage paper using a variety of alphabet stamps.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt 20

As you can tell below, our latest prompt for #thestencilfiedjournal told us to us office supplies to embellish our pages. I used little round tags as well as washi tape. All my spreads for #thestencilfiedjournal are done in a 9 x 14cm art journal.

I started by making the background, using acrylic paint with the large stencil from the September Stencilgirl®Club set and I added rubber stamping as well as collage with tissue wrap and vintage text. I stencilled on top of the previous layers using blue acrylic paint and  Stencilgirl® L471 Hamburg, designed by Nathalie Kalbach.

The little round tags were coloured on a gelli plate, rubber stamped and then stencilled with white paint using stencil L606 Soulful Scribbles Flourishes, also by Stencilgirl®. The pattern was outlined and then I added words to each tag. The tags were adhered to the background using the string they come with and washi tape.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt Nineteen

Prompt 19 of #thestencilfiedjournal project told us to stencil a page and write one word over and over. As you can see I used the word memories

The background of the page was made using the stencils from the September 2018 Stencilgirl®Club and I collaged on some pieces of a vintage music sheet as well as a piece of deli paper that had been printed previously on a gelli plate using stencil S290 Deconstructed Zinnia

I also sprayed on some gold Perfect Pearls Mist Sunflower Sparkle which sadly you can barely discern on the pictures but gives a very satisfying (to me) effect on the pages. I added some rubber stamping with the text Destination Unknown to combine with the memory words, as well as the text on the music sheet.

It makes sense to me and tells a story but it's open to whatever way you want to interpret it! As is all art.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt 14

You can see the latest prompt for #thestencilfiedjournal below. It was good to make a simply journal spread without bathing or stamping on the journal I'm working on (sized 9 x 14cm). So I grabbed the chance to use some of my favourite colours as well as my favourite quotation (from the painter Magritte).

The background was made using rubber stamping (stamp designed by France Papillon), collage with tissue wrap (by Tim Holtz) and a paper napkin, plus of course stencilling using the following stencils by Stencilgirl Products: L439 Stripes, L501 Letters on Box as well as the large stencil from the August 2015 Stencilgirl Club. 

I had already made this spread before the journal dived into the tea but fortunately it stood up very well to all the dampness! If you want to see all the spreads I've made so far, simply click on thestencilfiedjournal tag below this post or in the sidebar.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt 13

After dipping our journal in tea, it was a  relief to only be asked to step on it! I made a background using acrylic paints, the large stencil from the October 2016 Stencilgirl  Products®Club and some tissue wrap.

 Once I was happy with that I grabbed a pair of my crocs and covered the sole of one of them with white matte emulsion paint. I put stencil L566 Woodcut Blossoms Inverted on my journal and then stepped on it hard.

The result was quite satisfyingly textural as you can see above. The shape of the shoe was outlined with a black Stabilo All pencil.

I had already found the quotation (by Chief Seattle) and it was added by rubber stamping with a variety of alphabet stamps on vintage paper, tearing it and glueing it in.

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!

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt 11

Prompt 11 finally allowed us to bring in the page that we were told to hang up outside in Prompt 2. Fortunately the Scottish weather was extremely kind to the page. Normally I would have expected it to be totally destroyed by wind and rain!

But the tropical conditions meant it only got wet once and the damage was restricted to very strong fading.

You can see that clearly below where the page that spend time outside is on the right set against the page that was originally made at the same time but that stayed in the journal (size 9 x 14cm). As a textile artist I'm only too well aware of the damage the sun can do but this demonstrates it very clearly once again.

The prompt also told us to stencil the page. I also made another page to go next to it. Both pages were covered in black gesso. On the torn page (see below) I then removed the gesso with a baby wipe using stencil L640 by Stencilgirl  Products® (all stencils in this project are to be from them). I then stencilled onto the other page with a variety of paints and using the same stencil. You can see the result at the top of this post. Embroidery floss was threaded through the hole I had punched to hang the page up outside, and the page was glued into the journal using double sided tape.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt Ten

After Prompt Nine it was a relief to move on and be in control of my pages again. This prompt for #thestencilfiedjournal told us to document our day in stencils. A large part of my day is taken up with Flora walking, and lots of that walking takes place in the forest near our home so I knew I needed leaves and tree stencils to make my vision come alive.

The background was made using Stencilgirl  Products® L433 Clustered Leaves and a variety of acrylic paints.  To that I added the sun (very much present of late!) in the shape of stencil S041 Mandala #1, used with gold paint and mica spray to get a glittery effect.  The trees themselves came from S329 Trio of Trees (a real favourite of mine).

 As I was documenting my day it seemed a given that both Flora and I would have to feature and as luck would have it we had a bit of a photoshoot in Penicuik Estate a few days before I made this spread.

The aim was to capture the black dress which is very vintage (just maybe I am too!), as it was bought more than 40 years ago in The Netherlands. This was the mid seventies when cheesecloth cotton was all the rage and hippy dippy was the style of the day. I had re-discovered it in my cupboard in a search for clothing suitable for our highly unusual tropical conditions. Usually you can manage with spring or autumn outfits to cover the Scottish summer!

So I found the dress.  Still remember the exact shop where I bought it although not how much I paid for it. It's amazing that it has survived all the wear and tear, as well as my many moves. It has faded considerably from the original black that can still be seen on the inside. It has travelled far and wide and is full of memories which came flooding back as I put it back on. Unlike all my other clothes this is one piece of pure nostalgia that I have never been able to part from.

Have to admit I wasn't so sure about wearing it in public but in the end went ahead perhaps because I had lost my mind and found my soul! And I have loved remembering where it has taken me, who saw me wear it and what life was like way back then. I'll definitely wear it again soon weather permitting.

Finally more for my own entertainment than yours, I had a quick search through my past and came up with the two pictures below of me wearing said dress:

Near St. Peter's Basilica in Rome 1977

On the way to Capri, with Sorrento in the background 1977