Hello my creative friends! This week I wanted to share with you my love for stencils and acrylic paint. What better way to explore stencils than using the Get Toasted stencil by Nicole Wright!
What I love the most about this stencil is the versatility of the designs. This stencil has a combination of quotes, arrows, stars as well as mountain imagery. I love how stencils can be used in so many ways on a variety of projects. They can be the central focus or a background layer. You can use them with paint, inks, pens and a variety of other pastes, gels, and mediums.
In this week’s art journal project, I use the Get Toasted mountains with acrylic paint to create a beautiful art journal page.
Step 1: Adding Acrylic Paint with a Brayer
Start by adding layers of acrylic paint with a brayer to your page. I chose to use monochromatic colors for this page, but any combination of colors can work. Add a little paint at a time, overlapping the layers. This will create unique mark making and add more variation in your colors.
Step 2: Apply Paint Through the Mountain Stencil
Lay the mountain stencil down on the paper with the bottom of the stencil sitting about one third down the page from the top. By doing this it will leave room for the quote and makes for a stronger composition. Using a blending tool and foam, add white gesso or paint to the mountain stencil. To shade the mountains, use Tim Holtz Distress Paint Hickory Smoke to add color variation to the images.
To add in a second set of mountains in behind the first, either mask off or carefully add paint through the stencil without covering the mountains in front. Also add shading to the mountains using the Hickory Smoke paint. By adding more grey color to the mountains further back, this gives the sense of distance and depth.
Step 3: Painting the Sky
Use a paintbrush and apply white paint or gesso to the sky. To keep the paint translucent, mix with a bit of water or glazing medium. The intention is to not cover up all the color underneath, but to soften it and let some of the blue tones to peek through. Paint in different directions to get interesting mark making and variety in the sky.
Step 4: Adding the Quote
For the quote, use a combination of stamping and writing to add variation. For the stamping I used the Wild Whisper Designs Road Trip and Brush Script stamps with Jet Black Archival Ink. I then went in with a fountain pen with black ink to add my own writing to the quote. You can use any sort of marker or pen to add your writing, just make sure ensure that the paint is fully dry. If the paint is not fully dry, it can damage the markers or pens that you use on the project.
Using Stencils on a Scrapbook Page
As you can see with the example below, you can easily move these designs from an art journal to a scrapbooking page. The process is the same, just add your title instead of a quote and you have a beautiful scrapbooking page.
I hope that you have enjoyed this project and that you will give stencils a try on your next journaling or scrapbooking project. If you would like to purchase any of the Wild Whisper Designs products, use DTNADINE to get 10% off your order.
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I hope that you all have a great long weekend and take some time for creative self care!
