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Monday 1 September 2014

Nautical metaphors - for Country View Challenges

I was over the moon to have won the stencil challenge at Country View Challenges and to be given the opportunity to be a guest designer for their September challenge which is Nautical.  This is my first time as a guest designer so I admit I had a complete attack of nerves and wondered why on earth I had agreed to do it!!  I also have NO nautical items in my stash so I had to engage in lateral thinking to do this project which in the end was a lot of fun.

I decided to do an art journal page using nautical images as metaphors for Jesus:
  • He is my Saviour so the lifebelt shows He rescued me and has given me new life.  
  • He is the anchor of my soul and I hold tight to my hope in Him - with an unbreakable chain He links me to the Father heart of God.  
  • He is the Light of the World and the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Like a lighthouse shining in stormy seas He shines His light in my life and shows me the way to live and to go.  
  • He is the wind in my sails and I want Him to be the driving force in my life.

 I wanted plenty of texture to replicate stormy seas.  I started by scraping my home made texture paste (white acrylic paint, pva glue and talc) over the lower two thirds of the page, then pressing a swirl embossing folder into the paste:

I added acryic paint:
The texture shows through:


I tore white paper into strips for waves:

Then scraped white all over:

The texture is still showing through:

Then I added stencils (Tim Holtz Rays and Crafters Workshop Mini Flying Geese) and stamped all over with a lovely script stamp which has lots of the names of Jesus:


I embossed the four tags with the swirls embossing folder and coloured them in different ways.  The words were printed out.  I journaled on the backs of the tags then cut red card strips and doodled love on them - can't leave love out when doing a page on Jesus!  I downloaded the images and stuck them to the strips.  The strips are glued down on 3 sides and the tags are slotted in so they can be removed to read:


So here are the finished tags and pages:




After being in a complete panic when I saw the challenge I ended up really enjoying doing this spread.  It was also really inspiring and a blessing to come up with the metaphors and think about all that Jesus means to me in this way.

May He be these things to you as well.


I'm linking up at:
Create with Joy Inspire me Monday
Creative Every Day
Art Journal Every Day

18 comments:

  1. Love your journal page,nice to have you guest designing this month.xxx

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  2. This is fantastic. I'm glad you took so many pics so I could see all of your wonderful elements. The red against the blue really pops. Your love of Jesus shines through as a testimony of his loving nature.
    Blessing hugs,
    Teresa

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  3. This is awesome, Susan!!! So beautiful and creative. You really thought outside the box to come up with the nautical theme you needed and it paid off. This is one of my favorite pages ever. Blessings and hugs!!!

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  4. Wow...this is amazing Susan! What a testimony of faith this represents. Love the textures, colors, and embellishments.

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  5. Love how your page came together, the script stamp and stencils are fabulous! I'm singing "My Lighthouse" by Rend Collective just looking at your pages !

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  6. Susan, this is just super, super amazing and a beautiful testimony! I love this spread, all the beautiful colors and textures and of course the powerful words! So wonderful!! Love it! Blessings! :)

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  7. I was so happy to see you as guest designer and this wonderful journal entry. It is certainly a testimony to your strong faith. This is a very touching display of what God does for us. I can understand your sense of panic, but as an artist, something will always come to you, and In God Nothing is Too Extreme. That is our youth art/music ministry's name-- IGNITE. Thank you for sharing your talents and your faith.

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  8. I just love all the meaning in this Susan, and how you have explained it all.

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  9. You've really captured the stormy seas with your colours and texture. I hadn't really thought about how many of the metaphors for Jesus are nautical, but I guess if you're dealing with a lot of fishermen, that's what they understand best :)

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  10. I really enjoyed how you took us through the making, step by step. Thanks so much for sharing - very nice page!

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  11. Thank you for visiting my blog, Susan. I've popped in to reciprocate! My favourite part of your project is the little prompts you used to illustrate your message: anchor, lighthouse, sailing boat, etc. They suit your theme perfectly!

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  12. Beautiful pages, and lovely to have you playing along with us this month.
    Alison x

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  13. LOVE the tags!!! so cute! and thanks for visiting my blog!

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  14. Thank you for sharing your inspirational artwork with us at Inspire Me Monday at Create With Joy, Susan!

    Congratulations - you are one of our featured guests at this week's party (Week 141)!

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  15. I'd like to try the textured paste! Very interesting! Patsy from
    HeARTworks

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  16. Great to see it in real life and feel the textures well done you have inspired me yet again!

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  17. fabulous use of texture and I love the maritime imagery.

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