Using Stencils or Masks in My Art Journal

This is a journal spread I did a few days ago. I created this one with a butterfly stencil and mask I made myself. I enjoy making my own stencils, I find images on-line, print them out, put a piece of clear acetate ontop (usually I use those 3-ring binder subject dividers, I had a bunch I bought for my kids that were not used), then cut them out with my handy dandy exacto knife. Sometimes I just use a cereal box, cut a square just the size I need, place packing tape over the square then use my exacto knife to cut out my image. I have made several stencils and masks myself and I love using them. I do buy stencils and really enjoy using those too - some things I just can't cut out myself, so I purchase them instead. This spread started out with me just trying out the butterfly stencil and mask after I finished cutting then went from there. I hadn't intended to make a journal page, the plan was to only cut some stencils on this day, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow and let it happen. So I used portfolios, rubber stamps, acrylic paint, distress ink, cut out more butterflies and thought I was done. But it needed something more so I found and added a quote that seemed to fit. I really like how it turned out. I definitely surprised myself with this one, it just happened. Love it when it does!

Recent Journal Spread

This is my most recent journal spread from an Art Geeks prompt "Flowers For Her Hair". The prompt called for some kind of quilting effect in the spread. I started by putting gesso on my pages, once that was dry I chose two colors of blue and painted the pages (I didn't cover all of it with the blues, left some white spots), I tore small squares from several different scrap papers and then glued them down with matte medium in a random pattern making sure I didn't put the same designs next to each other and leaving a few blocks of the blue paint showing. After that dried I put a watery wash of gesso on top, then wiped some of it away with a baby wipe. I used stamps and stencils with different colors of acrylic paint to add more effects to the background. On a separate piece of sketch paper I drew my girls face and a bit of her hair, then cut her out and glued her to the page using matte medium. I then colored her and her hair using watercolor pencils and acrylic paints. I used a homemade rose stencil with several colors of purple to add some juicy layers to her hair, then used a purple gel pen to outline. I added some cute little blue flowers to kind of bring her together with the background and using my fingers to wipe paint on added some light blue paint to take a few areas down a bit. I like how it turned out but also see some areas I would like to improve but I'm not going to touch this one anymore it will be improved on in the next spread. I am calling this one finished. Thanks for viewing!

Update

I don't know why I can't just keep my blog updated. I do apologize for being off for so long. I have still been making art but I just have not been posting much. I am going to try to make more of an effort to post what I have been up to and keep this up-to-date, I guess I just wonder if what I say is very important. I wonder sometimes if I have anything to say that is interesting? Hmmm. I really just want to get my art seen and maybe have some people comment that aren't relatives that are being nice to me. Lol!

I recently was part of a challenge for Dede Willingham (inkiwell) who has a regular Ustream show on Weds and Thurs mornings at 9am. I found her in March, have been inspired by her and learned a lot, met a lot of other wonderful artists, discovered a lot of new things. So she was working out of a bin containing a bunch of her scraps, leftovers she didn't use in her artwork and she said she was willing to send out 2 ATCs and a handful of scraps to anyone who wanted to try to put something together then send it back to her to swap. I had never done anything like it before and decided to participate. She sent me my ATCs and scraps, then fear set in. What could I make? Would it look okay? Would anyone want my ATCs? But I got inspired and got over it. I all of a sudden had a theme and then I was able to create 5 ATCs - I surprised myself! Then before I could change my minde I mailed them out to Dede.

ATCs are Artist Trading Cards, they are the size of baseball cards, playing cards and are traded not sold.

Here are the ATCs I created. I went with a ballerina theme, its what came to me when I started working on them even though I don't watch a lot of ballet and have never been in a dance class. It was a lot of fun and I did get positive comments. Now I am looking forward to participating in more art challenges.

Here is Dede's website: www.inkiwell.blogspot.com and she had mixed media streams on Ustream on Weds and Thurs at 9am, she is found at inkiwell.