Another Try With The Gelli Plate. I Like It!

Last week when I did my Gelli Prints I was frustrated with it. It was more that I wasn't organized with items that I would use while printing and I wasn't sure how to add more layers to a print without totally messing it up.

Once I became a little more daring and just "tried" things, without worrying about the results, that is when the magic happened.

I  love the dandelion stencil in these prints.

 Notice the tan background is one of the prints I did last week.  I used my brick wall stencil on it.  It looks great.

   

This is the same print as in the picture above it but I wanted a closer shot so that you could see the detail. I used the method where you let the paint dry from a previous print.  Then cover the plate with another layer of paint (off white).  I used pieces of torn paper across the plate for the white space. You can see the video of the technique HERE. I love how it turned out.

.

 The colors are a little muddied on these but they are still very pretty.  The bottom line is that I DO like my Gelli Plate and have had fun playing with it.  I see more experimenting in my future.

THE Gelli Plate!

I pulled out my Gelli Plate today and played around with it.  The videos that I watched sure made it look easy.  I found that it required some organization skills that I didn't seem to manage. I didn't know which stencils I was going to use and I found myself digging for the right stencil while the paint was drying.  I think that I need to be more prepared with my tools before I start and be a little more daring in trying new prints.  I worried too much about putting on another layer for fear of ruining the layer that I already had.  Anyway, these are my results, which I think are very pretty:

The prints that look like roses are from a stamp I made with "Marshmallow Foam Shapes"  found at Micheal's craft stores.  You heat them up with a heat tool, press them into something with a pattern on it and Bingo, instant stamp.  There is a tutorial of how to do this HERE.

I used this paper clip (also found at Michael's) to get the impression, which looks like a rose to me.

Back From The Garden!

I see that the last time I posted something was back in March.  That was when the weather turned nice and I was out in the garden every chance I had.  The weather is turning dismal again and I am back in my craft room.  My sister came up from Florida and helped me rearrange some things to make my craft room a little more organized.  Organizing created more space and therefore led to a shopping spree to take up that new space.  These are the new goodies:

 

It was hard to get a picture without the glare but I think you can see everything.  I went to A. C. Moore and they had EVERYTHING in the store on sale for 40 % off and sometimes more than that.  So of course more ended up in my basket than I had originally intended.  The items that I am most excited about are the "Typewriter" stamps.  I bought upper and lower case and can't wait to use them.  (the butterfly on the package is one that I stamped on vellum and colored with markers and perfect pearls.)  I added a couple new colors of acrylic paint in the hopes that I will pull out the gelli plate to make some prints.  I added Tim Holtz "Autumn Gatherings" die, a "thing a ma.jig (I've wanted one of these for a while now) and I bought several stamps to add to my collection.

I can't wait to spend some good crafting time with all my new stash.  In the mean time here are a few pages that I worked on but haven't posted yet.

I did this page a while ago.  I love the stampotique stamps.  I used the gold varigated flakes and a heat glue medium for the angel wings.  I stamped the girl on a separate piece of paper, colored her with markers, cut her out, stamped the image on the page and glued the cutout over the stamped image.  The circles were done with inka gold (in red) through a stencil and then embellished with a black Pitt pen and a white Signo pen.  The angel was left unfinished for quite a while.  It took me a while to be inspired before I created the "creeper".  This page started as a waste page.  I used it to clean my stencils or stamps.  After looking at it and wondering what to do with the page, it came to me that the angel needed an admirer. So I used the same methods to create "creeper"  Then stamped the words and embellished with the white Signo pen.

NEXT

I used this Hummingbird stamp to create the next page. 

 

 

I stamped the image on the page and then went about doodling.  I colored it using glitter pens.  You can see the glitter a little better when you enlarge the picture.

This is a close up of the bird to give a better view of the shiny glitterness!

This is the most recent page and commemorates a road trip that I took with my sister.  We were "trying" to get home from Marion, Illinois and ended up going the wrong direction.  We had directions from mapquest and two GPS's and we were still, going very fast in the wrong direction.  The nice police officer did not give us a ticket AND pointed us in the right direction.  I can't wait for the next opportunity to be on the road with my sister again.....never a dull moment.

Just Playin'. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't!

 

I used a lot of different techniques on this page.  I don't feel like it ever came together.    I did have fun while doing it but I have to say it certainly is one of my least favorite pages.

Best Snow Day Ever!

I had the day off due to the snow storm and I had the best creative day ever.  This was so much fun to make.  I took two pictures, one with the flash and one without.  The flash shows the details but washes out some of the color.  The one without the flash is a little darker but you see the color a little better.

  I started with my background using Tim Holtz Distress Paint " scattered straw" (one of my favorite colors".  I added some stenciling using "wild honey" distress ink.  I don't know the name of the stencil (sorry).  Then I found the little girl in a stash of vintage photos and cut her out.

 I used Tim Holtz "Angel Wings" die and colored them with tumbled glass, used a Signo pen to add dimension and distressed the edges with "vintage photo" distress ink.  I found the bird and nest from a book about birds.  I scanned it and cut it out.

 

This is the picture I scanned.  It was too big to get the whole page.  But the bird and the nest were perfect for what I wanted to do.  The leaves were done using the stencil technique here.  This is a close up so you can see the texture.
 

I glued the girl, the wings and the nest together and let everything dry.  I used a heat tool on the texture paste leaves to help it along.  Once the texture paste dried, I sprayed them with Tim Holtz Adirondack spray "Meadow".  Then I glued the girl and nest to the page over top of the textured leaves. 

I punched a tag from scrapbook paper with old writing on it using the tag punch shown here.

Then distressed it with "tea dye".  I went around the edge with "walnut stain" but that didn't seem to make it pop so I used "black soot".  I glued a violet on that I had in my stash for a long time.  I either got them at Michael's or Joanne's. They are very fragile.  After the glue dried, I went over the whole tag with Tim Holtz "Rock candy" crackle paint.

.  ,

This is a close up of the tag.  You can see a little more detail.  It is reallllly beautiful.  I'm not sure the picture does it justice.  I stapled the tag with a scrap of old lace to the page.

The border at the top was using a Martha Stewart edge punch from scrapbook paper. I also used distress inks on it so that it blended with the page.  I cut the eggs from a picture in my stash.  I used "Pumice Stone" distress pen to go around things to help them stand out a bit.

The flowers were made using Tim Holtz "Tattered Flower Garland" die.  I cut them from white card stock and colored them with Tim Holtz distress Pens.

I LOVE how this page turned out.  Now I am inspired and have all these ideas in my head but it is back to work tomorrow.  Hopefully I can stay inspired till the next chance I get to play!!!!!

Sooooooooo . . . ?

I had no idea where I was going with this page and I'm not sure I like it.  One minute I look at it and I think yuk,  then I come back to it and say "not too bad"  It all started with a new stamp.  I stamped it on the tag and colored it with Tombow markers and distressed the edges with Distress ink.  Then one thing lead to another and this is the result.  Not even sure how I got here.

A little late with this post...

These are two pages that I did a couple of weeks ago, but a friend borrowed my camera so I couldn't get a picture.

The flash from the camera washed out the color a little.  I can't wait for winter to be over so that I can get natural lighting again.  I love this little girl.  The original photo is below.  I cut and pasted her into a Word document, sized the picture and printed it on card stock.  I did the same thing with the birds and the mushrooms.  The cage isTim Holtz "caged bird" die.  I embossed it with "aged silver" embossing powder.  Then I gave it a patina look by rubbing "Broken China" distress paint and then rubbing gold "rub n buff" randomly.  The leaf branches are from a Martha Stewart edge punch that I cut and colored with distress markers.  I added a flower that I made from the Tattered Flowers Die, cut from white card stock, colored with distress marks and attached with a brad.  I added buttons to the coat from "adhesive faux pearls" by "Recollections".  The background was created by gluing Tim Holtz tissue paper to the page. The page was then given a wash of color by spraying the page with water and  covering it using distress paint daubers.  I added some molding paste through a stincel in various areas.  I used a white Signo pen to outline some items and added the phrae "A bird's song is sweeter when he is free".  The doodles covered my phrase a little.

This was inspired from a pocket folder that my sister gave me.  When I was cleaning my work space I found the pocket and opened it to see what I had put in it.  Low and behold, it was a pocket full of posies that I punched from Tim Holtz "Tattered Flowers" die. I put them in the pocket to use at a later time.  Seeing them spill out onto my work space gave me the idea for this page.