Gosh, where does the time go? It’s hard to believe this is my last post as a TCW Design Team member! The last two years have flown by in a creative, fun-filled blur of projects and posts!

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

This post today is nothing new in the art journal scene, but it’s new for me and something I have always wanted to try. Today, I decided to use a stencil to create a decorative edge page for my summer adventures travel journal.

This is a super simple technique that really consists of one step: Using a stencil to create a decorative edge to your page:

Step One: As shown in the image above, I started my project using a pencil which I used to trace the outside of TCW929 Felicia Daisy stencil down the right side of the page. I moved the stencil down the page to create one full image, and one partial image on the page.

Step Two: As shown in the following images, I then used a cosmetic sponge to lightly dab acrylic paint through the stencil using three different colors of acrylic paint. Notice that by overlapping the colors slightly, it creates blends and shades of additional colors.

Step Three: As shown in the image below, I then moved down the page and applied the paint to the partial flower at the bottom of the page.

Step Four: Clearly, I am not a perfect stenciler when using paint! I tend to be a little too heavy handed when applying the paint which makes it seep under the edges of the stencil, despite the fact that I dab most of the excess paint off before I begin dabbing the paint on. Later in this post I’ll show you how I correct this as best I can.

Step Five: As shown in the above image, I used scissors to cut just inside the pencil traced line to create the decorative right edge of the page.

Step Six: As shown in the three images above, I used acrylic paint pens to trace the stenciled image. The white paint pen was used in an effort to unsuccessfully cover up the places where I traced that I should not have (where the two flower images overlap). I’ll touch this up with white gesso later, after the paint pens have fully dried, and that way they won’t mingle and turn to the dirty grey that you see here!

Thank you so much for following my posts for the last two years and for all your kind comments and encouragement on my projects. It’s been a pleasure to work for The Crafter’s Workshop and I can’t wait to play with their newly released products. Happy creating!

Michaela Butterworth
The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member

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