Ever have a background that you love and when it comes time to cover some of it up, you don’t want to? That’s what happened to me but I found a way around it by using a butterfly stencil-mask and some white paint.
You’ll also see a new gizmo that I used to stencil the words with little letters. Yes, the letters are filled in with little letters!
Watch How I dealt with a background I loved and didn’t want to cover up on YouTube.
This is the background at the start of today’s play. You can see how this was created here. This background was a blast to create with the paint splatters and I didn’t want to cover it up. But I had an idea for this page that would involving covering up at least part of it.
Using a mask and white paint isolated parts of the background creating the color and pattern in the butterflies. When stenciling with a mask, if you pull the paint away from the mask as you apply it, you are less likely to get any paint under it. That will give you a crisper image. You can see it in action in the video.
The butterfly masks come as a part of my Butterfly Journeys stencil set.
There was a part of my brain that was a bit freaked out by the white paint covering up the background. After all, what if I don’t like it? I can never ever ever get that white paint off and go back to the background I loved.
A bit of high drama happening in my head. But if I don’t like it, you know what I’ll say. OOPS. And the absolute worst case scenario is that I have to splatter more paint and make another. Twist my arm!
As much as I loved this background, it needed to be covered up.
The layers underneath began still peeked through a touch, a compromise to the voice in my head. That voice also would not agree that the white turned the butterflies into magic.
To create the title, the stenciling was done with a non-traditional tool, an identity protection roller stamp and the Jumbo Vintage Typewriter stencil. I just love that was pre inks and rolled little letters and gibberish text. There’s a link at the bottom of the post if you’d like to more about this gizmo.
Since it rolled and was little it was a snap to get into the stenciled areas of the letters. When you try this, just be aware that you do need a more open stencil or a large pattern so that the stamp can get in there to make contact with the paper.
Outlining the letters and butterflies gave the page the finishing touch it needed.
Here are the supplies used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming!
The to-do list felt never ending. There wasn’t enough time to get it all done. Ever felt that way? I was feeling overwhelmed so I turned to my art journal to help me, the 150 year giant tome of a art journal. It’s fitting that something so big will help me with a big to do list.
What happens when primary colors mix and mingle while making a flip pour? Rainbow happiness! Just the 3 primary colors were added to the cup, along with white, and a whole lot more color appeared. Along with a whole bunch of cells.
