Stencilgirl® June 2020 Project

As I made this spread the United Kingdom was of course in lockdown and I was struck by how appropriate Ben Okri’s words proved to be for the occasion. In fact I keep on re-reading them and taking comfort from them over this difficult time. Always good to take time out and contemplate. Having said that it feels like we are all rapidly losing quite a few of our illusions! We have reached the point in the poem where a bit of meditation is called for.

For  my illustrations of the previous lines, you can search for them in the  Search bar of this blog using the tag Ben Okri (under this post or in the side bar)and you should find them all. There will be more to come too in the future. As always with my monthly projects as Guest Designer for Stencilgirl®Products there is a full step by step tutorial available on the Stencilgirl®Talk website today.

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 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.

Art Cards 225 - 233

Here is the next set of 9 art cards. Remember these cards are part of the #365somethings2018 project on Instagram, where I hope to end up with 365 cards, one for each day of 2018. If you want to see them appear individually each day you can find them all on my Instagram feed.

Some of the cards in this set of nine were made as part of a monthly project as Guest Designer for Stencilgirl  Products® and that means you can find a full tutorial on how I made them on the Stencilgirl®Talk website.

Art Cards 143 - 151

 Here is the next set of 9 art cards. Remember these cards are part of my #365somethings2018 project on Instagram where I hope to end up with 365 cards, one for each day of 2018. If you want to see them appear individually each day you can find them all on my Instagram feed.

You will have seen some of these cards before as they were part of the set of 9 that I made as my May Project for Stencilgirl® Products in my capacity as monthly Guest Designer. You can therefore find a step-by-step tutorial for theseon the Stencilgirl®Talk webpage. I am feeding all these cards gradually into my stream of numbered cards for each day of 2018.

Veni Vidi Vici

The challenge last week for Joggles Art Journal Adventures was to use the number three, and if we wanted, use 3 words that go together. The first thing that I thought of was: "Veni vidi vici". That classical education sometimes produces starting results! This saying that means:" I came, I saw, I conquered" is usually attributed to Julius Caesar boosting after a quick victory. I could not resist incorporating the man himself in an image cut from a book I used during Classics lessons in school. A bit of nostalgia never does much harm.

The background  of this spread (done in a 9 x 9" Bee Paper Mixed Media journal) was made using the L607 Soulful Scribbles Let Go stencil designed by Traci Bautista for Stencilgirl Products. I added collage using Tim Holtz's tissue wrap  as well as rubber stamping with small round Tapestry stamps as well as a stamp from the Mish Mesh stamp set designed by Nathalie Kalbach for Stampendous.

 The focal image came from a magazine although I have no idea which one any more. I have a big box full of stuff cut from magazines and this one seemed to suit with the big eyes and glasses. The stamped eyes on the right hand page came from a set designed by Jane Davenport.

A is for ART

The prompt this week on Joggles Art Journal Adventures was to : use the letter A. In my book A always stands for ART so that's the road I took in my A5 sized journal. I knew I had a rubber stamp with the word ART on it (from the ARTspecially for you magazine) and began by making a fitting background for that. 

I used stencil S501 Letters on Box Stencil by Stencilgirl Products as well as S526 Shape Shifter and a variety of acrylic paints. When I was happy with the spread I added collage with vintage text from old English and French dictionaries, as well as tissue wrap with a French themed paper (from 7Gypsies). The final collage was the face that came from a painting featuring Margaret of Austria by Jean Hay, also known as The Master of Moulins dating to approx. 1490 (in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY).

Some mark making was added with a variety of markers as well as dripping acrylic paint (white and blue) down the pages. I also sprayed on some circles through sequin waste.

How they fit together

This week's prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures was: puzzles. I could have sworn we had at least one jigsaw puzzle in the house but if so it proved illusive. I managed to destash some drawers during the search process, but had to accept that I would have to find an alternative solution to actual puzzle pieces.

I started making the background in my 5.5 by 8.1/4" journal by using acrylic paints and the medium stencil from the October 2014 Stencilgirl Club. I then added rubber stamping with a stamp from an ImpressMeNow stamping sheet, followed by more stencilling, again using the previously mentioned stencil as well as the small stencil from the January 2017 Club and the M080 Repetition Stencil. Some collage was added using tissuewrap (7Gypsies).

I then added the puzzle pieces by drawing on the pages using a thick black marker. I found a quotation I liked: "It is not about the pieces, but how they fit together", and cut words and letters from magazines that were then glued unto the pieces as shown with a glue stick.

The final step was some outlining with black and white markers, only within the pieces of the puzzle.

A Fairy Tale or an Abyss

A new notebook/art journal was found (from Imagination Illustrated) just in time to do this spread for our prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures this week. Like the previous two I used for the Joggles prompts this one too is sized 5.3/4 x 8.1/4". I am using it as an art journal so I'm glueing pages together and start with a thick layer of gesso to make it all more sturdy.

Our prompt this week was to be inspired by mythology, fairy tales or folk stories. As you can see it had to be fairy tales for me and the image I used is from my favourite one: Sleeping Beauty.

The background was done entirely by using stencil L568 Crazy Quilts Bold and Beautiful by Stencilgirl Products. I added rubber stamping using a stamp set designed by Nathalie Kalbach, while the focal image, the circular sticker and the Once upon a Time text all came from Alpha Stamps.

The quotation is by Paulo Coelho and was stamped using a mixture of alphabet stamp sets unto vintage paper.

Artmarks continued

varied

It has been awhile since I last added the artmarks pages in my small (3.5 x 5.5) notebook/art journal to this blog. I'm just about managing to keep up with the project on Instagram though, where you can find all the artmarks contributions by looking for the hashtag #artmarks30daychallenge. This project is organized by Rae Missigman who provides us with the prompts. I have added the prompts under each picture. I used a wide variety of techniques and paints, with rubber stamping, stencilling, washi tape, collage etc., etc. All the stencils are by Stencilgirl Products.

mirrored

dripped

many

scratched

scattered

collaged

torn

#artmarks30daychallenge

dense

There are always fun challenge to be add on Instagram and all too often I simply can't resist. Here are 3 little pages in a tiny (to me) art journal, sized 3.5 x 5.5". It's in fact a notebook but I have prepared it by glueing alternative pages together and added heavy gesso as the bottom layer on every page. The art challenge has the hashtag #artmarks30daychallenge and is organized by Rae Missigman. She is also one of the teachers in a lovely online class to make a mini journal just for the mark making challenge. I have bought the class but at the moment there wasn't the opportunity to make it in time for the challenge, hence the little notebook.

scrawled

I am also not aiming to do these challenges in 30 days, but at the moment I am managing to keep up.

curved

I did so many different things on the pages that it's impossible to let you know, mainly because I have already forgotten what I did. There is collage, stencilling, rubber stamping, vintage imagery, mark making and a lot more. I'll only show you some of the pages here with the prompt underneath. You can find the rest on my Instagram feed in due course.

We are Light

The Stencilgirl Club is one of my most favourite places to build up my stencil collection. You pay a monthly contribution and you get a set of exclusive stencils; a large, medium and small one. These are not available in the normal stencilgirl shop. It's a surprise to find out what the new stencils look like on the 1st of every month. You also get access to a monthly video in which the designer of the stencils that month shows how they can be used. I became a member in January 2014 so amazingly I seem to be in my 4th year already in what was originally a Christmas present to myself. Definitely a gift that keeps on giving!

You can imagine my delight when I was asked to become a member of Stencilgirl Voices. Here some artists are send the monthly stencils way ahead of time and are asked to make something with them to show as examples of how the stencils can be used on the Stencilgirl Talk website. This is my first contribution as a Voice! The July Stencilgirl Club stencils proved to be gorgeous. They were designed by Jessica Sporn and inspired by her aid work in Guatamala, and it's Mayan culture. You can see Jessical reveal her July stencils here.

 I wanted to stay very much with that Mayan culture and found a Mayan saying that inspired my spread in an A4 art journal. It reads: "We are the children of the earth. We are beings of the sun. We are light".

I started by brayering on the background using a variety of mainly pastel colours. I then used patterns from the stencils to form a framework to put in the central figure and the words of the quotation that were stamped onto vintage paper and glued on. I added the sun by using Wendy Vecchi's gold embossing paste.

The page was finished with a lot of outlining and doodling within the various shapes. A lovely Zen like activity that I enjoyed very much.

A great big Thank You to Stencilgirl for asking me to be a Voice!

We remember Moments

The prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures this week was to start by brayering on the paint, which I duly did. After that I started to collage on vintage images and text  (from an old travel guide to Switzerland) as well as pieces from a Tim Holtz tissue wrap which by chance featured the word Memory. I took that as my leitmotiv for the rest of the spread.

 The background was further enhanced using Distress Crayons and more paint, combined with the small stencil from the January 2015 Stencilgirl Club as well as the small one from January 2017. I also stamped the circles, using one of the stamps from  the latest stamp set  (No. 6) designed by Everything Art for PaperArtsy.

 I had long wanted to use the skull image that I found on an old calendar published by The Metropolitan Museum in NY. It's a detail from a rosary dating from the 16th Century. This seemed to fit in with the words of the quotation by Cesare Pavese: "We don't remember days, we remember moments".

The quotation was stamped on vintage paper using a variety of alphabet stamp sets, and then glued on as shown. A Stabilo All pencil was used around the edges of the torn paper.

Tell the Truth

The prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures this week was: Hand. As luck would have it I already had a stencilled hand to hand so to speak, probably done as a try-out for a previous project. It uses L231 Tangled Tribal Hand Large stencil by Stencilgirl Products.  It became the focal point for this spread in an 6 x 8" art journal.

The background was done by first collaging on the pages with 7Gypsies tissue wrap, wrapping paper, vintage imagery and text as well as deli paper stencilled with the smallest stencil from the March 2017 Stencilgirl Club.

On top of that I used Distress Crayons as well as fluid acrylics with the L491 Organic Roots Large stencil, also from Stencilgirl Products.  The quotation was cut from a magazine some time ago, simply because I liked the words. I have a whole collection of such cuttings to use if and when they are appropriate. This one fitted the bill for this spread perfectly.

Here are a few detailed pictures on which you can see the various layers even better than on the relatively small pages.