STAMPlorations™ Blog: Playing "Outside The Box" In My Art Journal by Lynne

Hello and Happy Friday everyone! It's Lynne Mizera here today with my mixed media tutorial for May and I am sharing with you a wonderful masking technique using a stencil and some transparent glossy gel medium. I used this technique to create this dynamic and colorful layout in my Art Journal.

Deceptively complicated looking, this page uses only one stencil, one mask and has just five steps, and as always, I am sharing below all my steps with lots of photos. So come along with me as we scroll through my process together.

Steps 1: Apply your first layer of paint. I am working in my oversized Dylusions journal so I used Dylusions paint in Lemon Zest, Bubblegum Pink and Vibrant Turquoise, which I applied with a sponge applicator. (I forgot to take a photo but you can see the background in this photo.)

Step 2: Add transparent gel medium: Next I added four flower images using Finnabair Art Basics Transparent 3D Gloss Gel and the ARTplorations Peony Number Two stencil - allow this to dry completely.

When dry the gel will be completely transparent, which is what I want, because now I am going to add a second and third layer of paint to the page. These layers of paint will wipe off the glossy flowers easily, leaving the flowers the original color as the background colors change.

Step 3: Add subsequent layers of paint and wipe wet paint off the flower images: I started by adding a layer of white paint to the entire page and then used a babywipe to wipe off the wet paint from the flowers. You can use a wet paper towel or even a wet cloth for this step.

Because the paint is water soluble the paint wipes away quite easily and you can see the colors beneath quite clearly, and notice how the white paint colored the lines between the petals, making the flowers pop even more. But the white backround was not dynamic enough for me so I added a third layer of paint to create more color.

I used the same process as above, and wiped away any paint that got onto the flowers.

I really like how, when I apply the Dylusions paints with a sponge applicator, they layer and the colors below show through...

Step 4: Add words and lettering: I used the ARTplorations Inspire Mask with Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise paint to add the word "Inspire" to the bottom left corner and Posca acrylic paint pens to add this quote by Deepak Chopra.

Step 5: Finish off with black and white pens: Finally, I made my different elements pop by outlining them with black and white pens as well as adding doodles and marks as until I was finished.

So that's my tutorial for May! I hope you learned something new or saw something you knew but had forgotten and are now inspired to go play with your stencils. And if you do create something don't forget to link up to our May Mixed Media Challenge where anything goes except a card as long as you use any stencil!

Thanks for popping in today and please do leave me acomment if you like what you see...

Lynne Mizera, Mixed Media Artist

for the STAMPlorations Mixed Media Design Team

STAMPlorations Products Used On This Project: