{"product_id":"the-meaning-of-life-project","title":"The Meaning of Life by Kate Crane","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs a fairly prolific and long-term art journaler, I am always looking for new ideas to try out in my journals. However, there are recurring and repeating features that always seem to appear – bright colours, lots and lots of layers, stenciling and stamping!\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRecently I have been playing with repeating images. We all like a bit of familiarity and therefore repetition can be soothing and relaxing. It’s also a great way to use a small stamped image on a larger page, an image that would usually get lost on a larger scale page.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ch2\u003eThe Meaning of Life by Kate Crane Directions:\u003c\/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eBegin by painting white \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/paints?page=2\"\u003eacrylic paint\u003c\/a\u003e onto the page, and then brush touches of turquoise paint into the white while it is still wet allowing the turquoise to blend into areas of light and dark.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen this is reasonably dry, add areas of lime green in roughly blended patches.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRandomly sponge both of these colors through a stencil all over the background. You can also stamp these colors using paint on any of your background stamps (just make sure you wipe it off straight away!) As long as you stick to these colors you can keep going with the layers and your background will look nicely busy but not too cluttered.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eScrape a little black around the edges with a palette knife, and add some circles by using an old bottle lid dipped into paint. If you add a little water to the paint you can also add a few black splats with a fine paintbrush. I love adding black, it makes the other colors pop!\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNow it’s time to add a contrast color with a little more junk stamping. I chose to add a hot pink because I had already colored my stamped images and I wanted to choose a color that was featured on those.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDoodling is a lovely way to add some definition to a background and I especially like adding detail with a white Signo Uniball \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/artist-pens-and-markers\"\u003epen\u003c\/a\u003e. I most often doodle around shapes that I already created with stenciling and stamping.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/art-stamps-wood-mounted\"\u003eStamp\u003c\/a\u003e your chosen image four times, color and cut out. Cut one image in half down the centre. Uneven numbers usually work best as a repeating image, and even though I stamped four here I cut one in half so the eye sees five.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOnce the images are glued to the page it helps to ground them with a bit of stitching, or maybe just a strip of Washi tape or even a strip of vintage text.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFinally add a quote or some journaling. I typed and added a quote that I stumbled upon on Pinterest, I just love the simplicity of this quote and it really reminds me not to overthink things! A few scribbled circles on some old text help to bring everything together on the page.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple.” — Alan Wilson Watts\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cdiv style=\"width: 593px; height: 192px; border: thin dotted #990000; margin: auto; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;\"\u003e \u003cp style=\"padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 5px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #98996d;\"\u003eYou will also \u003cspan style=\"color: #990000;\"\u003e?\u003c\/span\u003e these publications:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cdiv style=\"display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; padding-left: 11px;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/Somerset-Apprentice-Spring-2016\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"width: 130px; height: 130px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn11.bigcommerce.com\/s-87od2q0wh1\/image\/cache\/data\/issueImages\/1APP-1601-Somerset-Apprentice-Spring-2016-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv style=\"display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; padding-left: 11px;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/Somerset-Apprentice-Autumn-2015\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"width: 130px; height: 130px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn11.bigcommerce.com\/s-87od2q0wh1\/image\/cache\/data\/issueImages\/1APP-1502-Somerset-Apprentice-Autumn-2015-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv style=\"display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; padding-left: 11px;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/Somerset-Studio-Mar-Apr-2016\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"width: 130px; height: 130px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn11.bigcommerce.com\/s-87od2q0wh1\/image\/cache\/data\/issueImages\/1SOM-1602-Somerset-Studio-March-April-2016-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv style=\"display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; padding-left: 11px;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/collections\/Somerset-Studio-Jan-Feb-2016\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"width: 130px; height: 130px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn11.bigcommerce.com\/s-87od2q0wh1\/image\/cache\/data\/issueImages\/1SOM-1601DE-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Free Projects","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45452531368087,"sku":"PROJ-1083","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0659\/5546\/3319\/files\/PROJ-1083__79204.1558406122.1280.1280.jpg?v=1746793579","url":"https:\/\/stampington.live\/products\/the-meaning-of-life-project","provider":"Stampington \u0026 Company","version":"1.0","type":"link"}