Patchwork Inspiration

I got together with the gang in our g+ hangout again, this time we decided to follow along with a video from Dyan Reaveley. We wanted something a bit different to do in our journals and this fitted the bill.

This is the video that we all watched...

Dyan's Patchwork Journal 

 I won't show step by steps, as all the instructions you need are in Dyan's video, so go and watch it.

So I started with a scribble all over my page..

The areas were all filled in with colour and patterns. I used letraset Aquamarkers and also Dylusions Inks , the patterning was done with a Mitsubishi uni-ball eye pen. 

Once the shapes were all filled in, I needed a mask to create my focal shapes. Now I don't have the masks that Dyan uses in her video...and I can't afford to buy them, so I made my own. 

I found some images in a magazine, and glued them to medium weight card, then cut them out. 

When cutting out, don't be tempted to try and cut very skinny shapes like strands of hair. They will be too thin and useless. If parts are missing from the image, like this girl's elbow, then just add them in on the cardstock. 

Next, cover the whole thing ON BOTH SIDES, with acrylic paint, any colour. Give it a good coat. 

The reason for doing this is twofold. 

Firstly you need to make the stencil/mask durable so that you can spray over it or use other wet media such as paint around it. It won't last forever, certainly not as long as a bought one, but by coating it both sides you will get a few uses out of it. 

Secondly, blanking it out means you are no longer influenced by the details on the original image, such as clothing and faces. Now they are blanks shapes you can add whatever details you want. 

I did a few more.. look for interesting shapes.. 

Here are all the ones that I made..

Here is my page by the end of our hangout... you can now see all my patterning, and how I used my homemade masks.. I used Little black Dress Fresco paint to do the blacking out.. 

The next day I went back to it and added some journalling, 

and other details using a white posca pen. 

Here is the finished page..

this was fun to do, the colouring and patterning takes aaaaages to do lol. I do love the technique and would use it again, though maybe not on a huge double page layout. 

I am really enjoying trying out different styles in this journal....always on the lookout for new and interesting ones to try, if you have seen any around then please let me know. 

Thanks to Dyan for the inspiration and instruction video. 

Darcy x