Stencilled wall art

After 17 years of living with someone else’s wallpaper, carpet & even wardrobes (bought for £20 off the former owner of our PREVIOUS house, ‘just to tide us over for a few months’) we recently had our tired and tatty bedroom re-vamped. Fitted wardrobes, complete redecoration and all new fixtures and fittings. It was like being on 60 Minute Makeover. Or rather, 6 Week Makeover, which is how long we had to decamp into my son’s bedroom, with all our stuff.

They finished the weekend before the Covid lockdown started in the UK, so I haven’t yet been able to shop for finishing touches (I like to do that in person rather than online & I’m still not going out except for the weekly food shop). 

But I knew I wanted something on this wall, to break up the wash of dark teal. My decorator suggested I buy a painting & he would accent it with some of the dark teal paint. And doubtless charge me £200 for the privilege. Err, no thanks.

So I’m currently working up the confidence to paint a large abstract piece for that wall, but I’ve never done anything large before, & these things take time etc, so in the meantime I thought I’d stick with what I know, & work small. 

I watched a fab video on using stencils on a gelli plate to create multiple layers in a single pull, & thought it would be good for creating several 4x4 pieces. Naturally, I can’t for the life of me find it now. It might have been by Carolyn Dube, but I’m not sure - if anyone can connect me with it again, I’d be v grateful. I promise I’ll take better care of it next time.

I used Carolyn Dube’s alphabet stencil to randomly stencil letters on the gelli plate using Paperartsy Fresco Finish in Buff. I let it dry, then placed a Prima Moroccan themed stencil over it & stencilled through it onto the plate in teal, blue & copper - colours I thought would match the wall well.

When that layer was dry, I stamped some text using a permanent ink. Finally, I painted a layer of white paint over the whole plate & immediately pulled it up, using inexpensive mixed media paper. It brought all the layers up with it beautifully, and created a print with depth & interest.

For finishing touches, I collaged some tissue paper into the corners & stamped & embossed some textural stamps.

I mounted the paper on cheap 4x4 artist’s wood panels & painted the sides to match the wall.  (And, yes, I know I really should have ‘staged’ that bed a bit better. But, meh... 🙂)

We locked down before the blinds could be fitted. Nearly six months later, I still have raggedy paper at the windows. Crack den chic.