Art Journal Page – Using masks with stencils

Hello again TCW Creatives

I am trying something a little different today… a monochromatic layout. Black, white & grey.

I also wanted to use masks to add layers to my page and to be able to work withing circles across my page. Masks allow you to get a clean stenciled image in any shape and work one stencil over another without too much interference or mess.

I wanted to show off some of the fabulous patterns that are available with TCW stencils . I was looking for the patterns to be the showcase rather than the colours. Keep in mind this page would work well with a single highlight colour or alternatively in a rainbow of pretty coloured circles showing off the stencils…. Would love to see that, if you decide to have a go!


– The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with some product to create this project. The opinions I share are solely my own –


The Crafter’s Workshop products used within this page

Of course, as usual, If you enjoy seeing a page come together quickly, you can just go ahead and watch the process video below. Captions within the video will tell you what products I have used along the way.

…here is a step-by-step so you can see how the page came together…

1 – Draw some circles across your page. At the same time, draw each of the same circles onto light card and cut the circles out. Make sure to keep intact both the cut out circle and the page where the circle was cut out from. These will be your masks

2 – Choose three circles and paint them in TCW9002 – Black Gesso

3 – Take one of the circles that is unpainted and cover with a mask. Tape the mask down. Using TCW884 – Explosion and TCW9009 – Black Modeling Paste, stencil through a thick layer of texture paste

4 – Make sure the texture paste is dried well in between applications so you don’t get any transfer of paste across the white parts of the page.

5 – Choose a blank circle as far away from the first and mask that circle off. I use TCW835 – Plaid Fringe and stencil through with TCW9002 – Black Gesso

6 – Taking another blank circle, again, on the opposite side of the layout. This time, trace through TCW5017 – Lattice with a black pigma micron pen and doodle a cross hatch pattern into the small squares of the stencil.

7 – Mask off the next blank circle, again on the opposite side of the layout. This larger mask doesn’t cover an overlapping gesso’d circle. Mask over that circle with one of the cut out circles. Using TCW9009 – Black Modeling Paste stencil through this larger circle using TCW155 – Daisy Cluster

8 – Mask off the first circle that was painted with TCW9002 – Black Gesso. Using TCW9004 – Light & Fluffy Modeling Paste, stencil over the black with the white texture paste through TCW879 – Gauze. Above on this same page, I do the same thing with TCW5019 – Waves, again using TCW9004 – Light & Fluffy Modeling Paste

9 – Doodle through a couple of the empty smaller circles and rub out any remaining pencil marks.

10 – Stencil onto the last painted circle using TCW887 – Circle Grate and white paint

11 – The final stencil I used was TCW632 – Sweet Posey. I masked off all the completed stenciling with the corresponding cut out circles and stenciled through the large Sweet Posey stencil with a light grey paint.

12 – Finally, I stamp out a few flowers from the TCW2208 – Precious Sentiment Clear Stamp and fussy cut them out. I adhere them to the layout in three spots to soften the hard lines. I add a small single word from TCW568 – Moving Vines… “Breathe”.

I do hope you have enjoyed this walk through of my page and the video. Hopefully, it gives you some inspiration to have a go at either a monochromatic layout or using masks to create stenciled shapes across a layout or creative project. Tag #tcwstencillove so the Design Team can come and check out what you create.

Until next time… have fun creating!
Dani Choate

To follow along on my art adventures and/or view the complete supply list for this page, please visit my blog, my instagram or the youtube description – here

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