Hello! Karenliz here.

You just bought new stencils and an art journal. You’re sitting at your art table and looking at that scary blank page and haven’t the foggiest idea how to start. Today I will show you how to use only one stencil design in two sizes to create a fantastic layered background for your art journal page.

For this page I used the Stepping Stones stencil in both sizes 12×12 and 6×6. The fastest way to create backgrounds is with a stencil with repeating patterns like this one. Using the two sizes gives your page more depth.

I used paint by Liquitex in Mars Black, Neutral Gray, Titanium White, Light Blue Permanent, Brilliant Yellow Green, Brilliant Purple, Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue, Medium Magenta and a cosmetic sponge. You don’t have to use this brand of paint, you can use whatever you have on hand. My journal page is Canson Mixed Media paper.

Lets get rid of that blank page first. I added the light blue and white paint in a few spots on my journal page. Take an old credit card and scrape the paint on the page. Don’t do a lot of thinking about it, just do it to add color to the page. Now the page is not so scary.

Now it’s time to add the Stepping Stones stencil. To get a clean stencil impression on your page, you tab in the paint and then tab off the paint. Less is more. If you have to much paint on your sponge it will seep under your stencil.

For my first layer I used black paint and 12×12 Stepping Stones stencil. Move the stencil around on the page a few times. Next I used the gray paint with the 6×6 size and moved that all around the page.

Once these layers dried, I added a light coat white paint over the whole page, sprayed it with water and let it dry. This just gives the page an extra layer.

I continued with both the 12×12 and 6×6 stencils and started adding more color. Remember to move the stencils around the page.

As I added more and more layers, I started concentrating color on certain areas on the page. That decision is just because I wanted to see more of that color and didn’t want to use it on the whole page.  Here is a close up.

Here is a full picture of my page. I love the way it turned out. How many layers do you see?

Although I created this background to start a journal page, I could cut it up to use it for background for cards or use it with dies to create some cool looking embellishments.

Believe it or not there are 10 layers on this page. Its amazing what you can do with one stencil in two sizes. I hope this helps you conquer the scary blank page.

Thank you so much for stopping by!
Karenliz Henderson
Blog: My Creative Endeavors