Stencils have always intimidated me, probably because the decor fad of the 80’s when I bought my first home was to stencil things on your walls, and they had to look perfect! I tried them a few times and they were always crooked or not filled in all the way, or the edges looked too smudgy, just not the look but in mixed media, smudgy, crooked, imperfect perfection is the goal.
I think I belong to a large club of art supply collectors who don’t necessarily USE all the lovely things we buy. I wanted to start using some of my pretties so have been watching the masters use their stencils in unique ways in art projects and journals.
Well, I have used a few of these at least! Good to look back at pictures of my pretties from Scrapbook.com. This pretty below was in my cart for a while and I’m so glad I finally bought her!
A recent purchase there for this flower stencil is really making me happy with this month’s Fodder School lessons by Megan Whisner Quinlan. The Felicia Daisy stencil is just gorgeous and you can use it in so many ways. In this example below, I used Dina Wakley Acrylic Sprays, Daniel Smith Watercolors & Ranger Spray inks.
You can see more of Megan’s work here on Stampington as well.
Stenciling Techniques for Mixed Media Art
Tamara Laport goes through several different ways to use her whimsical stencil pack including spray inks, heavy body acrylics, liquid acrylics, modeling paste, and more.
Aimee Bishop and her cool techniques with Plaster of Paris and Stencils
Another of my art journaling heroes is Dina Wakley. She taught me in her art journaling books that it’s OK to copy, it’s OK to trace, it’s OK to learn from your teachers. Yes, you should credit them with being your inspiration of course but if you’ve ever tried to copy what an art teacher does exactly I’m sure you’ve learned that yours looks like a sister or a cousin to the original example but it really never looks EXACTLY like the originals piece of art.
How to Monoprint with Stencils by Dina Wakley – Art Journaling Live
Dina is using a few of her stencils as well as heavy body paint in her demonstration.
Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic Paint
Dina Wakley Mixed Media Stencils
Dina Wakley Art Supplies on Amazon
You can also take art classes from Dina Wakley here.
Tim Holtz Stencil Layering Ideas at CHA
Tim demonstrates how to layer random stencils and stamps with inks to get lots of different effects The goal is always perfectly imperfect. Love that quote from Tim. Stenciling first with acrylic paint and then adding ink on top creates a resist of the original layer.
- Tim Holtz Layering Stencils – On Amazon
- Tim Holtz Misters – On Amazon
- Dylusions Spray Inks – On Amazon
- Tim Holtz Art Supplies on Amazon
Jessica Sporn demonstrates stenciling on Tissue Paper Techniques starts at about 4:20 and it’s pretty brilliant.
Dry Stencil Techniques from Stencil Girl
She uses pan pastels and sandpaper in ways I’ve never seen before in this video tutorial.
I hope these tutorials from some mixed media artists will help you get some of your lovely art supply collection a little dirty instead of staying in their pristine condition in the box. As Dina says. Done is better than perfect!
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