Crafter’s Workshop Spring 2012 Stencil Blog Hop

 

I am one of the artist’s participating in the Crafter’s Workshop Spring 21012 Stencil Blog hop to promote Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s Spring line of stencils. I chose to use the Pointy Circles stencil, and naturally wanted to use it on a journal page. I took pictures to show step-by-step not only how I used the stencil, but also how I created the journal spread from start to finish. So in a way, this is a mini-tutorial. Grab some tea–there are a lot of photos!

 

 

After applying a thin layer of gesso to my journal pages and drying it, I applied a watercolor wash using my Koi watercolor set. Instead of using the waterbrush that comes with it, I used a larger brush since I was applying color to the whole spread.

 

 

I dried the spread with a hair dryer, then I used a sponge brush to apply the paint by dragging it over the 12″ x 12″ Pointy Circles stencil.

 

 

After stenciling the other page, I scrubbed around with a baby wipe to remove some of the paint and have a distressed look. I mainly did this because I had gotten too globby with the paint when I applied it.

 

 

The baby wipe removed most of the watercolor, so after I dried the spread, I applied a thin layer of blue acrylic paint.

 

 

I felt like I couldn’t see the stenciled design as well as I wanted to, so I re-stencilled with a stiff brush this time, using the same color of green paint.

 

 

Before I removed the stencil, I scrubbed around with a baby wipe because I didn’t want a solid look. I left the stencil on while I did this to keep from spreading paint into the other areas. That insured the design would be crisper, but still distressed somewhat.

 

 

Then I stenciled the other side.

 

 

After drying the paint, I added some collage and a tape border using a metric ruler decorative tape. Then I stamped the large letters with my Pistolgrip alphabet stamps, did a little writing with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, then more stamping with my Labelmaker alphabet stamps.

 

 

Next, I used the line stamp from my Journaling stamp sheet to have lines for writing on. But first I placed a foam sheet under the page to help get a better impression with the stamp since it is big.

 

 

And then I did some writing.

 

 

After I finished writing, I added some stickers, did a little more collage, and stamped the hand from my Astrology stamp sheet. Then I used the 6″ x 6″ Pointy Circles stencil to create a border.

 

 

After the paint was dry, I stamped near the stenciled borders with one of my stamps from my Doodles & Carvings stamp sheet, then I used some Portfolio Watersoluble Oil Pastels to add a little more color in places. Last but not least, I dated my spread with a date stamp, and I was finished!

Please check out my book “The Art Journal Workshop” for more in-depth info on art journaling, along with a lot of journaling exercises. I’m also one of the teachers in the group of online workshops, “21 Secrets,” that focuses on art journaling. Also, I have my own line of rubber stamps as well as other mixed-media supplies right here in my online shop. Check it out!

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I create a journal page, and how I used Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s stencil that she designed for the Crafter’s Workshop. Please check out the other artist’s who are also using this stencil as part of the blog hop:

• Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
• Jenny Doh
• Ronda Palazzari

To see the WHOLE spring stencil blog hop, with artists using all of Julie’s stencils, go here. And, May 17th I’m in the blog hop again with a different stencil. For that, I’ll be doing something different besides a journal page.