Express Yourself by Amanda Southern

Hi Everyone

Welcome to my first That's Crafty post of 2018 and sadly my last, I have had to make the very difficult decision to leave this fabulous team due to my current work pressures. So for my final piece I have used one of Dina Wakleys stamps I bought at the end of last year that I never managed to ink at the time. So I thought I'd start the year to give it its first outing.

Here's What I Did:

I wanted to create this as a wall hanging so is made using 2 sizes of That's Crafty! MDF squares, 6" x 6" & 8" x 8. First I prepared my layers on heavy white card stock starting with the main image background. I watered down Dina Wakley paints and onto my craft mat and picked the watered down colour with the card stock. This was then quickly dried with my heat gun. Over that I then stencilled through a couple of Dina's stencils in Sky Blue and then Magenta. On top of all that I then stamped the main image using the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform, this took a couple of goes to ensure that I got the image in a strong black.

I then took the card to my sewing machine and added a lot of stitching to add texture. I then stencilled the word 'Express' using black texture paste onto the piece, again using another Dina Wakley stencil. To complete the sentiment I used the word 'yourself' from one of Dina's stamps and heat embossed in white on black card, stamping with Versamark.

To make the larger layer to mount the main image on I brayered Dina Wakley paints to create a blended change of colour ending in white. Over this I stencilled some of Dina's words using black Archival Ink and Cut & Dry Foam. Again to this I added more stitching.

I then mounted each piece onto an MDF square using That's Crafty! Multi Purpose Glue and glued the two MDF pieces together.

Here's What I Used:

That's Crafty MDF 6" x 6"
That's Crafty MDF 8" x 8"
Dina Wakley 1oz paints
Dina Wakley Stamps - Splatter Girl
Dina Wakley Stencils & Masks - I Want, (fractured circles & Affirmations from my stash)
Speedball Brayer 
Decoart Black Modeling Paste 
black Archival ink pad
Versamark ink pad
White Embossing powder
Tim Holtz Stamping Platform
That's Crafty Glue
Heavy Duty white card stock
Black Cardstock
Sewing Machine
Heat Gun

I would like to thank you all for all of your lovely comments over the last few years and hope that you all have a fabulous creative year ahead

Love

Amanda X

We are very sorry to see you go Amanda and thank you very much for all your hard work over the years. Wishing you all the very best for the future.