Cecilia Swatton

 Why do I like using pre-printed papers -- foreign newspapers, old maps, old encyclopedia pages, catalog pages -- for making my stencil prints?

Whether I'm preparing backgrounds for art-journal pages, developing scrapbooking projects, or creating greeting cards or even refrigerator magnets, I think that:

(1) Pre-printed backgrounds offer bonus visual appeal because some areas of the original background will remain visible, altho veiled, in the finished art.

(2) If I want to cut out the stenciled image, these pre-printed lines of text give me handy guidelines, so I can make straight (or nearly straight) cuts.  (If working on a collage on a large canvas, I may not want straight-line cuts.  But I like having this option.)  To use these built-in guidelines, I turn the paper over, stencil-printed side facing downward.  The back of the paper usually has lines of text that guide me toward cutting straight lines.  

In the print below, it's easy to see that I used lines of Chinese characters as my guidelines for keeping my image straight while I made the print.  This print was made with Hot Air Balloon Mask and Mini.  (This is one of my two hot air balloon stencil-and-mask sets available at StencilGirlProducts.  These sets are identical except for size.  An Artist-Trading card-sized version is also available.) 

In making the print below, I used my 9" x 12" stencil Facets -- and a page from an old book of sheet music ....

Below, with my 4" x 4" stencil Fern Fronds Silhouette Mini, I gave new life to part of an old map ....

Mikki's Flowers, a 6" x 6" stencil, came in handy when I wanted to make the greeting card below.  Its background is a paint-tinted page from an old encyclopedia; the original page featured a flower illustration, so I felt it was a good match.

(Mikki's Flowers Mask is also 6" x 6".  Its design is identical with the stencil featured above.)

Webbed Medallion, another 6" x 6" stencil, ended up being used like a rubber stamp -- after I'd first put it to work in making a print.  That print left a heavy layer of acrylic paint on the stencil, so while the paint was still wet, I turned the stencil over and pressed it, wet side down, to an old map that had previously been lightly coated with beige acrylic paint....

Below:  an example of using a magazine page as background--

Above:  Stencil used:  6" x 6" Dance of the Courting Cranes.  The heart was punched from pink paper and added to the central area.

Above:  another page from an old encyclopedia, containing original botanical prints that are now in the background.  Used:  6" x 6" Garden at Nemours Mask.

Above:  This icad (made during an index card daily art-making challenge) includes purple-printed paper strips that were used with 6" x 6" Palm Fronds Silhouette Small (which also comes in 4" x 4" and 9" x 12" sizes.)  This icad includes strips of black paper printed with iridescent paint and my Artist-Trading-Card-sized design Fern Fronds.

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