Jill K. Berry Stencils and Artistcellar

Hello everyone...it's the start of a new week and I'm raring to get back to work, took a little time away from creating art. Today I want to share a guest designer post that I was really honored to do over at Artiscellar. If you love stencils you have to go and see what there!

Hi everyone…Martha Richardson here. I’m thrilled to be a guest designer on the ArtistCellar blog today. I love using stencils in my mixed media work, love making my own backgrounds…just love the freedom stencils give. I was even more excited when I received Jill K. Berry’s Signature Series in Rivermap and Roadmap. I have been a fan of Jill’s since I received her fabulous book Personal Geographies: Explorations in Mixed-Media Mapmaking.

One technique that I often use is to create a STENCIL STUDY…I want to know how the stencils will look, react with paints, sprays and mists and how different papers will react. Let me show you my process and all the projects created from this stencil study.

First up is both Jill K. Berry stencils on a 6x6” square of Strathmore 140lb. watercolor paper using Dylusions Spray Inks. I thought that Roadmap would be the one I liked the most but I was pleasantly surprised to find the opposite to be true. From these papers I then went onto to create mini journal pages that will be collated into a journal at some point and several postcards that will be sent to Jane Davies postcard project. I have several of these mini journal pages created already from other stencil studies.

Below: Roadmap Stencil & Dylusions Ink Sprays in Dirty Martini, After Midnight & Calypso TealBelow: Roadmap stencil & Dylusions Ink Spray in Funky Fuchsia, Dirty Martini, After MidnightBelow: OOOPS! Oversprayed Dylusions Ink Spray...appears the watercolor paper REALLY soaks up the color. THE SAVE...Wendy Veechi Studio 490 Embossing Paste in black applied over the mistakes. SHHH...we won't tell anyone and they'll think I planned it that wayBelow: Rivermap stencil and Dylusions ink SpraysNext I tried the Rivermap stencil on Strathmore 140 lb. Mixed Media paper with a background wash of Dylusions Spray Inks {ink sprayed on baby wipe and then washed across surface} and stenciled with Distress Inks. Love the finished feel and look. I used this background to create a gift tag which will hold a gift card for a soon to be traveler.I again used the Rivermap stencil {see how much I liked this one} on a mop art journal page. As I’m creating the leftover paint, spray or mists get wiped onto a blank journal page so I’m always creating backgrounds in my journals. This background is in one of my Dylusions Creative Journals. The experiment this time was to see how the stencil reacted with Luminartes Silks Acrylic Glaze in Olive Vine and Bolivian Blue. Now I have created another layer on my page and added some beautiful shimmer and that same time. Is the background done? … nope! But it’s ready for another layer to be added.Finally some other random stencil studies created over random papers created with more random sprays, mists, or paints. I applied black acrylic paint over 2 of the papers and Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Embossing Paste and both black and white over the stencils. Then using my Vagabond and various dies cut out different shapes that will be utilized in other projects down the road. I also applied black and white embossing paste over another background…really loves the effect. You can see the hearts used in the gift tag above

So to recap from my “stencil studies” I have created 2 mini journal pages, 3 postcards, 1 art journal background, 1 tag, random die cuts and a page that I’m undecided on. Am I finished with these stencils...no! They will added to my ever growing collection and with creating this stencil study I know have a visual aid that will help me when I go to find that perfect stencil to be added to a project.


Finally the winner from last weeks giveaway is:



carolMarch 31, 2013 at 7:18 PM

I would like to try them, I keep seeing people get great results with them! My favorite (because I only have two) is the one I cut myself, of some kind of pod-like flowers.

CAROL...Please contact me through my blog ;)

Thank you for joining me today. Maybe you will try a Stencil Study...if you do let me know what you think.

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