Melanie Testa

Flash Card Friday: Stencils

One Flash Card for every technique in the book!

Here is the scoop, Chapter 3 of Dreaming from the Journal Page contains a lot of the techniques I use to play around in my journals. I encourage you to mix and match these ideas by engaging with the concept of ‘Throw Downs’, A Throw Down is a challenge or a creative ‘Double Dog Dare’, where you will take 1, 2, 3 or more techniques and use all of them on a single page of your journal. This is a way to get you layering and building imagery.

What better way to learn about each technique that to make a set of Flash Cards for yourself. I am not going to go into detail about how to do each technique (I wrote the book and would love for you to get a copy) but I will talk about each technique and how I go about using them.

The card up above is an image of Arrow, my supercat. I created the image by making a stencil inspired by a photograph. I have been using stencils in some really creative ways and I will share samples of each  technique and its use, here, on my blog on fridays, Flash Card Friday.

You may also be interested to know that my first Clever Guild class is called Stencil Magic, please sign up today!

A sample from the Stencil Magic Class.

This is a sample from the Stencil Magic class. I fully illustrate how to create this piece of cloth in the Stencil Magic class.

Find inspiration where you are.

Here is an example of a stenciled image photographed on a walk in my neighborhood. 

I am about to use my Arrow stencil in my journal, and will post the image later in the week.

If you would like to purchase a signed copy of my book, please check out the sidebar on the right hand portion of the blog. And. Um. I was thinking of charging a small fee to create signed Art Sticker for those of you who would like a ‘signed copy’ but have already bought your copy elsewhere, is there interest for this idea out there? Leave a comment.

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Comments

  1. Hey There, just wanted to say I listened to the webinar yesterday and thought you were great. It inspired me to purchase your book even though my new credit card cycle just began and I have already far exceeded my supply budget! Also, I was happy to hear you draw with pencil first–not ink. I find I waste precious paper drawing straight away with ink and then have to find a way to save it. I still try to do journal doodles in ink to get more comfortable. I am also a birder and am also fascinated when I come across a dead bird. It just gives you ample time to study it close up. I work at an art school in Philadelphia and when the scaffolding came down from a near by building I found a couple of dead birds on the sidewalk (a Blue Jay and Rufous Sided Towhee–of all things!). I was able to scoop them up and give them to a professor and student. The professor made a print and gave me one (blue jay). I was not drawing at that time–was a devoted knitter–otherwise I would have kept them myself.

    I am glad you are doing well.

  2. I like these flash cards much better than the ones my Mom used to use to teach me multiplication tables! LOL! I would love to have a signed Art Sticker for my book and that is a fabulous idea! I have read your book all the way through and now I am going back and re-reading bits and pieces. This weekend will be spent doing the exercises and playing in my journal. Yes, I am going to get dirty and make messes on the page to get the scary blank page phenom out of my head.

  3. I love the idea of flash cards to separate the techniques to then use them together! This makes sense to me in a way that a multi layered image doesn’t quite…yet! And I would love to have an art sticker to put in my copy of the book that I ordered before it ever came out!!! Unfortunately it has gotten misplaced in a creative whirlwind….I hope I find it soon, otherwise I will be ordering a signed copy from you!