Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Power of You by Amanda Southern

Hi Everyone


Today I would like to share an art journal page with you which was quite a cathartic make for me. I had a huge change in circumstances last December when I lost my job after 30 years and now am in the unenviable task of finding a new one, and for those of you who have either been in or are currently in that position it's not easy out there is it? One of the things I always craved was time and now I have an abundance of it I'm finding it really hard to kick start Mr Mojo. So what better way to try and get it back than to surround myself with paint and stencils and just play, this is my result of that play.

Here's What I Did:

I took to my Dylusions journal and found a page that I had previously used to clean my brayer on, thee wipe off pages quite often prove a great place to start. Over that I cut an image from a magazine and added it to the page using matt medium. To soften the edges around the cut out image I blended Distress crayon to help blend the edges of the image into the page. I then riffled through my collection of That's Crafty! stencils and chose several and started layering up the colour using Dina Wakley paints. I concentrated on working to diagonally opposite corners stencilling over a lot of the image to help lose it into the page. I used cut and dry foam to apply the paint through which also allowed me some precision around the image. I just kept going with the stencilling till I was happy with the effect. it always hard to stop yourself keep going. I then repeat stencilled the words using white acrylic paint, this time applied through using a stiff paintbrush, or a stencil brush to keep the words defined.


I then added the same word stencilling in the top left corner to balance it off. I also added the fabulous sticker words which fitted in so well with the theme of my page.


After adding them to the page I drew around each piece with a white gel pen along with some additional white doodling around some of the circles to finish off my page.

Here's What I Used:
Art Journal - I used an 8' x 8' Dylusions journal but there are loads to choose from HERE
Dina Wakley Acrylic Paints - Magenta, Sky, Lemon, Midnight & White
Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - Chipped Sapphire 
That's Crafty! Melina's Masks - 6" x 6" Mandala 5
That's Crafty! 6.5" x 7.5" Stencils - Lynne's Affirmations 4
That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils - Bubbles Background TC005
Art by Marlene Sticker book 2  (currently out of stock)
Image from Magazine

Have a great week and I will see you all next Tuesday.
Love
Amanda X

5 comments:

  1. An absolutely amazing page Amanda and hope that it helped you with your troubles as I didn't realise you'd been made redundant from your job after so long! Hope you find another one very soon.
    Absolutely stunning layering and stencilling.
    Fliss xx

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  2. Fabulous make, loveit and good luck with your job search. I see no lack of mojo! Xx

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  3. Horrible news about your job - and I'm not surprised it knocked you sideways so that, despite having the time, your mojo deserted you. Brilliant that you were able to work through some of that with this amazing page - the power of the main words as well as the stencilled white mantra over the magazine image is so strong, and I love the depth of the painty layers. Utterly fabulous!
    Alison x

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  4. So sorry to hear about your recent job loss. I hope Life will bring you something amazing to take its place. This is an incredible piece of art! I am completely blown away!

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  5. I am sorry to read your news, it surely did knock you sideways.
    To find your creativity to create such a powerful piece of work shows the strength that you have within you.
    Lynne x

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