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Stencils are a great way to add layers to your art journal, or any kind of art play. One of the reasons they are so great is because of the freedom you have to use all of it or only parts of it. And they’re very helpful when things don’t go as planned!

When adding the green, that design was almost completely stenciled, then only selective parts of it was used. The stencils that I’m using are ones I created in collaboration with Mary Beth Shaw for this month’s StencilClub set.

The next layer of stenciling was the pink with the 9 x12 flower stencil. That stencil was larger than the page and that didn’t matter one bit. I simply used partial bits of it .

That’s the cool thing about stencils, you can use all or some of it as you see fit in your play.

The butterfly stencil and mask helped make it easy to build up the layers as I had one O.O.P.S. after another, an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly.

The yellow didn’t pop the way I planned. O.O.P.S. So in came the next layer, the orange using the mask. O.O.P.S. The orange was too orange.

So then another layer of yellow. Which led to the pink that defined the edges. Now it popped on the page. Dealing with all those O.O.P.S.ies was a lot easier thanks to the stencil/mask combo because they allowed me to quickly add the next layer and keep clear crisp edges.

The final touches for the page came from some scribble journaling with colored fountain pens.

All of the stencils that were used on this page are included in this month’s StencilClub. So that means on the 15th of this month it ships and that’s also the day the exclusive video made by the designing artist (or artists in this case) is released!

In the club member video, Mary Beth Shaw and I are using gel plates with the set. You get to see how differently we each make prints with them.

You can find out more about StencilClub over at StencilGirl Products and members mark your calendar for the 15th of the month! I can’t wait to see what you create with them!

Here are the supplies used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. For example, I’m an Amazon Associate & I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you get a really good feeling knowing that you are helping keep the free tutorials coming!


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What do I do when I don’t know what to do? I’m sharing that along with the video showing how I made this reminder to hang on the wall not to take things so seriously. It’s all over in my guest post at StencilGirl Talk.

StencilGirl Talk is the blog for StencilGirl Products where they share all sorts of stenciling techniques and inspiration. And I’ve been a huge fan of them since I found them many years ago. I fell in love with their designs and the fast shipping before speedy shipping was trendy.

But what I’ve learned since then working with them as a designer has shown me another side of the company. It’s a true family business. Not a faceless corporation, but real people who continue to get excited about stencils and what you can create with them.

So if you like stencils, take a peek over at StencilGirlProducts.com, they’ve got a few. And by few I mean 1500+

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Ever make an art journal page where you don’t like it no matter how many layers you add? Nothing seemed to work and it had a lot to do with the serious mood I was in (and it was for no particular reason). Thankfully, something unexpected snapped me out of this headspace and suddenly I began to like the page.

Below are all the layers that I didn’t like. Not one bit. It’s interesting that as I’m writing up this blog post, I kind of like this now. It’s fascinating to me how what we create can look yucky one day and the very next day, the exact same thing can get a totally different response.

While adding these layers of loose color, the play came back. Why? Because of leftover bit of stenciling. I found an stenciled car, from my Coming and Going stencil, and that got me thinking about something completely unexpected. An old tv show with the silliest theme song intro. Keep reading to see how it helped!

Alcohol inks are usually used on glossy papers. That does create great effects but you can also use them on things like art journal pages to make quick and easy splatter. One reason I love using this more than paint lately is because of how quickly it dries!

What was the tv show that got me out of the serious headspace? It was Car 54, Where Are You? I can’t remember the details of a single episode but the theme song sure stuck with me from seeing reruns as a kid.

Ever since finding that stenciled taxi, the theme song to Car 54, Where Are You? was running on a loop in my head. Those lyrics are what I’m scribble journaling there, after all it does capture the spirit of how this page has gone.

Leaving the car white just wasn’t an option. After all, it needed some color! But blue, that would be historically accurate to the tv show, didn’t have the color pop I wanted. So I went with yellow making it look like a taxi again.

I definitely used a bit of artistic license here and that’s part of the fun of art play!

Here are the supplies used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. For example, I’m an Amazon Associate & I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you get a really good feeling knowing that you are helping keep the free tutorials coming!


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