This weekend I’m back “outside” after winter, doing art in my parents covered terrace.

Hurray for spring
, approaching slowly but surely, how I adore thee! Finally some good light for taking photos while cutting out my first stencils. There happens to be just “a few” photos in this post, I hope you don’t mind.

Stencil cutting

Cutting out a stencil how to! With this post I’m joining crusade no 19 called Cut it out II! The street team is all about cutting your own stencils in April.

I’ve been drooling over stenciled pages in other artist’s journals for years not but not until the crusade called me did I decide to sit down and do it. And just as when I carved my first stamp this felt difficult. First my old xacto knife was dull. I got it 15 years ago from Mattons when I was studying to become a Window Shop Decorator (dekoratör) in Stockholm. I guess we cut out stuff back then? I don’t remember. Dad found me some spare blades in his workshop so I was lucky I could continue to cut out the letters I’d printed on card stock. But I didn’t cut any whole sentences. I didn’t enjoy it very much.

The sentences I printed was too long and the words too tiny I guess. Bleh for being a beginner at everything these days. I want to be experienced now! *whining like a child*

I will...

I cut out “I will” and the word “love” – then I got tired of cutting tiny words in the very idiotic font I used, at least for stencil cutting it was weird. Did you know there is a special font called stencil font? It’s a font that is designed to be easy to cut out and not make those “islands” that fall out! Want to download a stencil font?

I found one on my laptop and there are even more fonts to download if you like the stencil style! Awesome!

Stencil cutting

Stencil cutting

I drew a bird free hand on my card stock and cut that out instead, just as a test. Next I will cut out some different hears perhaps? Or swirls if I can manage those!

Stencil cutting

Stencil cutting

I then painted a simple watercolor background in my hand bound art journal (oh how I love this one so much!) and gave my new stencil a test drive! I painted from the edges and out with acrylic paint (don’t mix with water or it will drip underneath the edges). One white bird and one turquoise. It’s not a revolutionary cool spread but to me it’s awesome because it’s something new. Something I haven’t tested out before. It’s a page that surprise me when I open it. It makes me think… “Hey, what’s this? Did I do this one?”

Stencil cutting

Collage materials I glued down some magazine papers I have in one of my many plastic sleeves with collage material, and also glued down the cut out bird piece. So three birds (doves I guess) in one spread. This is how the page looked when I had to close it up to set the table:

Art journal spread

I love taking photos in the spring light we have on the terrace!

You can also join the crusade if you feel like cutting out a stencil this month! I want to have another try at this for sure.

Oh, by the way, did you see the banner I made for the Just be connected site? If you want a new banner I could make one for you too, for a small price. Contact me if you feel like letting spring into your blog header!

Have a great week!