Guest Post: Tracing Your Stencils with Tracy
December 23, 2014
I am super stoked to be guest posting on Julie's blog! Her blog is so chock full of inspiration and her stencils rock! One thing I love to do with my stencils is outlining/doodling. You can use just about any pen you want. Sharpies, copics, markers, ballpoint pens; and you can experiment with different surfaces and materials to see what works and what you like. For this post I used my Sharpie fine point black pen, my white gelly roll pen, and my white paint marker.
My first example is a photo border on a scrapbook layout.
I had added some white paint around the edges of my photos, and I didn't mind the doodled stars overlapping onto the actual photos. Using Julie's Mini Punchinella...
...I lined up the long side of the stars section with the edge of my photos and used my black sharpie.
Using the long edge every time meant the stars weren't going to be completely uniform, which is fine by me. I also extended the stars out at a few corners for visual interest. I also added some stars at the bottom to help tie the layout together.
Then I grabbed an altered tag. I'd previously collaged some patterned papers onto it and sprayed some Dylusions, which gave it a blue/purple tone. Then I grabbed a Balzer Bits stencil Numbers in Arrow and positioned it over my tag.
You can use washi/masking tape to hold the tag and/or stencil in place. I just held it with my hand while I traced it with my white gelly roll pen.
I found working in small bits an being patient was the best way to ensure that the stencil didn't move and the design didn't get all wonky.
I really love tags (can you tell?). This started out as a plain manila tag. Then some project mop up and Dylusions & homemade mask gave me an interesting background to play with. First I traced the Arrow Wheel stencil with my Sharpie...
...though the stencil did move a little bit. With this stencil, I can't really tell, but it might be more obvious with others. A looser design can also make it look more freehand. I used my gelly roll pen over the darker areas for a bit of contrast, then grabbed the punchinella stencil again and doodled in different spots.
I used all three designs and all of my pens/markers. The circles on top are with my gelly roll pen. The circles on the left side are with a white paint marker. And the mini hexagons on the upper right. I also decided to fill in some of the "pie" slices. Again, I used all three punchinella designs with my Sharpie.
There are so many possibilities, using different writing tools and surfaces, and colors! I want to thank Julie once again for having me and hope you had as much fun as I did!
My name is Tracy and I live on Long Island, NY, USA with my fantasy writer hubby and our munchkin. I'm a mixed media scrapbooker, art journaler, card and tag enthusiast, and I love inky fingers. I love getting messy and experimenting, and learning new techniques. I'm a huge bookworm, I like all things weird, I'm obsessed with Halloween, and I love dark chocolate!