I'm a guest blogger at Stencil Girl!

What a hoot it was to complete a journal project using three Stencil Girl stencils in a journal spread!  Have you heard that I love to art journal?  What I love about working in a book is the  non-preciousness and freedom to just have fun making marks and playing with color.  There are no mistakes.  I’m a big fan of inspiring words, so those will often find their way into my pages, giving me much needed reminders when I page through the book at a later time.

I’m so thrilled to create this journal spread for you, using 3 of Stencil Girl’s wonderful stencils:

L301  Circles Circles by Traci Bautista

L091  Dots and Dashes by Jessica Sporn

S400  Military Stars by June Daley

Okay….let’s get started…..

I started my pages with some gesso, haphazardly scraped across the pages with a credit card.  I purposefully left some parts of the page uncovered.  When the gesso dried, I spritzed Adirondack color wash in Butterscotch all over the spread, and quickly watered it down with a soaking brush, moving the ink all over the surface.  I blotted the surface with paper towels, leaving a lovely variegated pattern behind.  Next, I scribbled with a Stabilo All pencil, happily and randomly moving my hand around.  I love making marks!

Next, I brushed matte varnish over the lines I had drawn, causing them to activate and smear a little bit.  I do this for two reasons.  One, I just love the way the lines look when they smear and blur.  Two, the matte varnish acts as a fixative for the pencil lines, keeping them in place, so they don’t muddy up future layers on the page.

While the pencil lines dried, I turned my attention to the first stencil, Dots and Dashes.  I sponged a dark turquoise onto some deli paper.  I LOVE deli paper, don’t you?  Its transparency when I use it as collage material is a blast!

When the pencil lines dried, I started filling in shapes with color.  I am not a purist when it comes to paint.  I love it all!  From Golden to craft paint, I use it all!  When painting in my shapes, I am again being haphazard.  I love how some of the pencil lines are obscured when I go over them with the paint, but others remain strong dark marks when I avoid the lines.  It’s up to you how careful or carefree you want to be with this step.

After laying down some color, I pulled out my Circles Circles stencil and decided to add some texture to a few areas with a reductive technique.  I painted a light turquoise over the dark.  When that paint was almost dry, I placed the stencil right on top of the paint, and rubbed through the stencil with a damp baby wipe.  This left a really cool “ghostly” effect to that area. 

I did some more scribbling with Neocolor pastels, and added more texture to the page by pressing tissue and paper towel into wet paint. 

With my Stabilo All pencil, I scribbled through the Military Stars stencil randomly throughout the page, and then added some paper collage elements.  I decided on a quote a friend shared with me….a lyric from a song she loves.  It seemed the perfect sentiment for the light spot on the page.

And here is the completed spread!  A crazy, scribbly, patchwork-y burst of happy thoughts….from me to you! 

Thanks so much for joining me today, I hope you had fun!  Big thanks to MaryBeth Shaw and the gang at StencilGirl for this fun challenge!