Stencil Inspiration - A quick tutorial for gorgeous miniature art journals to keep or gift!

I have little notebooks everywhere. All of my purses, bedside table, in the car…I love them and always want to be ready when inspiration strikes or a to do list needs to be written down. Yeah, I know, I’m kind of old-fashioned that way, but I love a list!

Here’s a quick look at couple of ways that I have used my latest stencils to make a few journals.

These started out as small kraft paper blank journals from Moleskine, I like these for the paper quality and size but any little notebook will do. The paints and gel medium I used are from GOLDEN Artist Colours.

1. Start by painting your journal covers - I kept these plain and used Cobalt Violet for one, and Quinacridone Magenta mixed with Fluorescent Pink for the other.

2. After the covers were dry, I mixed some heavy matte gel with the same paint colours I used for the covers.

3. Position your stencil (Pretty as a Peacock Mini) on your cover and using a palette knife apply a thick-ish layer of the paint/gel combo over your stencil, kind of like icing a cake. It’s pretty obvious I think, but I used the fuchsia paint mix on the violet background and the violet paint mix on the fuchsia background.

4. Lift the stencil up without sliding and you should have a brilliantly clear raised impression of the stencil on your journal cover.

5. CLEAN your stencil! When you are using any of the heavy gels or pastes with your stencils it’s important to clean them off right away.

6. Wait, and let the cover dry. Because we added the heavy gel and applied a thick layer it’s going to take a lot longer to dry than before. Ideally leave it alone for a few hours.

7. Once completely dry, I just added a little bit of washi tape at the top and bottom of the stencil to add a little more flourish.

You’ll see the same technique shown here but with a different colour palette and on a mini hardcover journal I picked up at my local art store.

Last one with this same stencil. Here a plain white background is used, the stencil is painted with GOLDEN copper mixed with their Coarse Pumice Gel instead of the Heavy Matte Gel. After it’s dried some golden paint is applied with a paintbrush and a black Micron pen to further bring out some of the details.

I have four mini face stencils and any of them would work great with this technique. Have fun making your own mini journals! Here’s the link to StencilGirl if you want to check them out :)

Connecting during Corona Virus

While several in-person workshops have been cancelled, you can still find me online! Are you on facebook? Please feel free to join me at my Matus Workshop Junkies Group where students and collage enthusiasts can connect, share artwork, ask questions and participate in challenges. You can of course also find me on instagram @andreamatusart if you are just looking for pictures and don’t feel like participating as much. I have a couple of colour mixing videos on my youtube channel - and for those that know me and my adversity to video - that’s a big deal for me!! I’m working on creating some colouring pages as well as a few other surprises which I will have available for you guys on my website. Wherever you are, and whatever challenges you may be facing - please know that while we are all self-isolating we really are all in this together. Sending you my love, stay strong and keep safe! xoxo!!!

Matus Atelier has launched!

If you get my newsletter then you know that I’ve recently launched my own clothing line under the label “Matus Atelier”.

It was important to me to create the kind of clothes that I would love to wear myself. Items that were inclusive and flattering on a variety of body types and created ethically and sustainably as well. The horrors of work place safety and the toxicity of some of the fashion brand practices are really quite shocking. Eco Warrior Princess has a great article with a link to several documentaries on the topic for those who are interested.

Every single item in the store started off as an original work of art which was then scanned and digitally manipulated to be optimized for each fabric type. I’m not gonna lie, the learning curve has been steep! Did you know there are more than 50 different kinds of silk? And each one has special considerations. Honestly some days I think my head is going to explode with all of the new vocabulary I’m learning to be “designer” savvy.

Would love for you to visit the store and let me know what you think? What else would like to see added?

In the meantime, I’ve also been cleaning out and organizing my studio to get to ready to start a new series of works. Working in a different format, I’ll let you know how it goes!