Stencil Test Drive - Borders

Welcome to the Borders Test Drive & Giveaway, featuring Marjie Kemper, Natasha May, Maria McGuire, Maggie Nemetz,  and Judy Shea.

I love borders.  I never feel like a creation is complete unless I've added some sort of border around it.  So I created the borders stencil.  It has an assortment of borders that can be used around the edges of your project, or to give texture, or as design elements.

On the book I altered for my parents, the checked border on the top and bottom of the back cover are from the borders stencil.  I used one of my favorite texture techniques -- mixing gold mica powder into glass bead gel and spreading it across and through the stencil with a putty knife.  Here's the back of the book again...

Now for the front of the book!  There, I pulled the gold-tinted bead gel through the leafy border, as well as through some of the stars and spirals:

 

On the inside spread, I covered the book pages with gesso, and used a credit card to scrape Quinacridone Magenta and Nickel Azo Gold over the gesso.  When the paint was barely dry, I scrubbed it off with a baby wipe through the geometric border on the stencil.  I like the distressed, textured look this gave me.  It inspired the other elements that I added.

On the spine, I wrote: Sam and Ellen, a love story.  They'll be married 59 years this August!  Here they are seeing the book for the first time! 

You can also use the border stencil to create an overall design:

Here's a journal spread I did using inspiration from Marjie Kemper's use of tags in this post, and Carolyn Dube's tag post from her free online workshop, Use Your Words.  

1.  I laid out three tags side by side on scrap paper.

2.  I placed the border stencil across them horizontally, and sprayed randomly with Dylusions spray in Calypso Teal and Fresh Lime.

3.  I placed the border stencil vertically and sprayed again.   

4.  Using a neocolor  II crayon in golden yellow, I scribbled around the areas not touched by the stenciling.

5.  I misted the three tags with water and spread the inks and neo color crayon around.  Then I sealed them with clear gesso.

 
6.  I wanted the tags to go from small, medium to large in my journal.  So I cut the bottom off of one of the tags, and attached it to the bottom of another tag.  This created 3 different sizes.  I stenciled across the tags using the border stencil and white acrylic paint, to give them contrast and make the bottom tag more cohesive.

7.  Once I knew the layout of the tags, I removed them and used my yellow crayon to color in letters from the letter stencil Carolyn's been using in her workshop.

8.  I removed the stencil and loosely colored around the letters with Vermilion and Scarlet neocolor II crayons.

9.  I misted the page and washed the colors around.  The letters disappeared into the background, but one step inspires the next -- plus I know they're there!

I adhered the tags onto my background using heavy gloss gel, which both sealed the background and tags, and also acted as an adhesive for scraps of lined paper for journaling and some inspirational words from a sheet of Tiny Text stickers by Cosmo Cricket.  Then I darkened the background with a red Portfolio Pastel. 

 I liked it so much, I had to do the other side of the page for a full spread!

I added letter stickers to spell "GUATEMALA" on the top left of the spread.  By the time you read this, we will be in Antigua, Guatemala, for a week with our families and the children at the two schools.   I am excited to have my art journal all prepped to memorialize my trip.  I will be sharing pictures and observations as soon as I can!
 
Please be sure to visit Marjie Kemper, Natasha May, Maria McGuire, Maggie Nemetz,  and Judy Shea and see how they've used the Borders stencil.  I am so very grateful that they took this test drive with me!

GIVEAWAY!  Comment by Sunday, March 3 for a chance to win the Dots and Dashes stencil!

UPDATE:  and the winner is Arnold Romero! 

And finally, I just have to share these gorgeous tags that Annette made using the stars and swirls stencil that she won as a giveaway and uploaded to the Jessica Sporn Designs Flickr pool.  I LOVE THEM!  

http://nettyscraftings.blogspot.com/

Thank you for visiting! I read and treasure every comment and will answer any questions as quickly as I can.