Stencilgirl® November 2019 Project

I’m returning to my project of illustrating a poem about time by Ben Okri (you can find the previous ones here and here) and have now reached the lines: “We can plant deeds in time as gardners plant roses”. The pages I’m using for this spread once again come from the large art journal by ArtbyMarlene and are sized 8.1/4 x 11.3/4”. As always I have done a full step-by-step tutorial for these pages and you can find it on the Stencilgirl® Talk website today. 

The Final Art Cards

Here is the last set of the remaining 6 art cards. Remember these cards are part of the  #365somethings2018 project on Instagram, where I hoped, and now have, ended 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.

And this is the last card, no. 365, posted to Instagram this morning. This project will leave me with lovely memories. It was lots of work, both making and posting the cards but it has also been another learning curve and progressed me in my art making. I won't be doing something like this again any time soon. In fact I have no plans for 2019 as yet other than to take it a bit easier!

Many thanks to all who have followed me in this journey both here and on Instragram and Facebook. I am very grateful for all the comments and support!

Wishing you all a peaceful and artful 2019

Art Cards 351 - 359

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.

The end is nigh! Only 6 more cards to go before this project comes to an end. And although I'm relieved I made it, I'm also feeling a bit of sadness that it will soon be over. It was both hard work and lots of fun, things that seem to go together quite often. As mentioned above, the cards will remain visible on my Instagram feed in numerical order. If you are interested in buying any of them contact me via the email address in the right side bar here. 

Art Cards 342 - 350

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.

Art Cards 333 - 341

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.

Art Cards 324 - 332

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

Art Cards 315 - 323

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

Art Cards 306 - 314

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

Art Cards 297 - 305

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

Art Cards 279 - 287

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 and you can find them all on  my Instagram feed

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.

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.

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!

Art Cards 216 - 224

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 206 - 215

 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.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt Seven

Here is my contribution for prompt 7 on #thestencilfiedjournal. The tags with the prompts are lovely and were produced by Tina Walker, the instigator of the project that you can follow on Instagram and Facebook using the hashtag above.

This is my finished spread in my 9 x 14cm journal before I tore out the left hand page. It was made using collage with vintage papers, rubber stamping with both a face and a texture stamp as well as collage with tissue wrap and washi tape. Then I used a variety of paints and Stencilgirl®'s L311 Tropical Floral stencil for all the stencilling. The text relates to the prompt too. Somehow this seems to have become part of what I'm doing in this journal.

After I removed the left hand page I tore it into strips and then added the strips to the empty page that had then appeared on the left. I painted that blue first. I didn't use all the strips. You may see them appear on another spread (or not, it all depends!). Then I wrote it text relating to the words on the right hand page.

The Stencilfied Journal Prompt 6

Prompt Six of The Stencilfied Journal told us to poke holes in the page. First I made the spread in my 9 x 14 cm journal by using paints combined with stencil L600 Mosaic Flowers Repeat by Stencilgirl  Products®. To this I added rubber stamping, collage with tissue wrap as well as vintage text relating to holes and pokes. I then added the dots (using stencil L380 Circles Layer Me) and poked them with a Japanese Punch.

 It proved to be difficult to capture the holes in a picture and above is my best effort where the garden can just be glimpsed through the openings in the page.

 The vintage text I used on the spread also refers to the prompt.