Presence of Wonder

Good morning and happy spring stencil lovers! This is Rachel Kleinman stopping in today to share an ocean themed art journal page… I must be ready for some days on the beach 🙂

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I’ll start right out by saying: I don’t loooove this page. I think the octopus blends in way too much into the background. But you know what? I tried a new technique with him, learned something, and loved painting this page up! The best part about art journals is that you can turn the page and start over.

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I started simple: cover the pages with ocean themed paint colors. I used four different shades of blue and one green acrylic paint to make this background. Then I started adding my stencils. I like to do the smallest stencil pattern first and work my way up to the larger patterns.

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First I stenciled ‘Stockinette’ in a deep fushia paint, then ‘Doodled Pattern’ in lime green, followed by ‘Sweet Posey’ in orange, and finally ‘Tribal Fish’ in a pale pink paint. It’s a pretty busy background but I love being able to see all these brand new stencils on a page!

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Finally I added the Octopus with texture paste. I tried to add some micro beads in green, teal, and silver to the top of the texture paste. Some of the beads stuck, most didn’t… and even when the beads adhered, the color was still too similar to the background. I plan on trying again with darker colored beads and a black texture paste as the base.

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Good idea in theory! 😉

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Thanks for joining me! I hope you’re inspired to MAKE MISTAKES and try again! It’s all about enjoying the process.

Rachel Kleinman

blog / youtube

The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member

The Crafter’s Workshop Certified Educator

Here is a complete list of the stencils I used today… by the way, every stencil is BRAND NEW from The Crafter’s Workshop! (some links may be affiliate links).

TCW 606 – Stockinette

TCW 593 – Doodled Pattern

TCW 632 – Sweet Posey

TCW 594 – Tribal Fish

TCW 607 – Octopus

7 thoughts on “Presence of Wonder

  1. I saw the finished page before I read the post and thought “gorgeous”! Love how the octopus is sort of hidden! Then I read the post and saw your thoughts. Isn’t it amazing how we can all have different reactions to the same art! Love that…

  2. Over all I love the page though and all the different designs of stencils you used and the colors are amazing. It might not look like an octopus from a distance but it looks like yummy texture and more colors so I think it works even if not the look you were going for exactly <3

  3. Your pages are so color and interesting to look at! I love how you used so many stencils on a page. I am inspired to go get crazy with a bunch of stencils I love, too! Thanks for sharing!
    -Briana

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