Christmas Cards

Since buying the set of 3 little Gel Press plates I have become rather obsessive about them and have made a huge pile of prints and a stack of card bases. Some of these have finally become Christmas cards - I had to stop when I realised I had more than enough for this year! So, the rest will become birthday cards at some point.

All of these ones in this photo are made using DecoArt Media Acrylics, I like that because they are so highly pigmented you only need to have a very thin film of paint on the Gel Press plate which lets the underneath design show through well. Some of them have more paint because I wanted a bolder look.

And a closer look ........

I did also make some using inks rather than paints and they turned out really nice but were far more subtle. Unfortunately I have already sent those off to people so can't show them here. 

Having been relatively good posting for Blogtober, I have become rather lax at posting anything during November so far, so I had better put that to rights.

I made this ATC for a swap where the theme was to print using fruit or vegetables. I chose to use onion which I must say was incredibly smelly! I brayered red and yellow and a tiny bit of black acrylic paint on my gelli plate and then used the cut onion to lift paint off of the plate and printed it randomly onto a clean sheet of paper. By using the gelli plate it was easy to keep moving the paint around. Once dry I cut the paper into ATC sized pieces and then stitched around some of the onion ring designs followed by added white highlights. Finally I stamped a flower onto another piece of gelli printed cardstock and finished off with a button.

Blogtober - the final post

Something a bit different for my last Blogtober post.

Going back to March, my children bought me a voucher to attend a glass fusion workshop with the lovely Claudia Weigand of Oh My Glass which is in a little village near Worcester and I arranged to go in April. What a great day! Hubby and I drove up the evening before and stayed in a beautiful little old fashioned pub nearby called The Boot Inn (the food was amazing).! On the Saturday I attended the course and hubby entertained himself in the rain (we actually woke to snow but that soon turned to rain). I think he spent most of the day sitting in his car reading.

We made three items, the first a wall hanging - I chose to do my birthsign:

This is clear glass with an embossed design.

My second piece was a different wall hanging where we made a design laying pieces of coloured glass over a long plain piece. The idea (in my head) was not to have everything in line - I like the more random edges. I tried to depict sunset over a beach.

My last piece was a candle holder - the idea was to make something that 'drooped' (I can't remember the correct name for it!). The design is fired flat at first and then it is fired a second time over a form and it then takes that shape. I used pieces of copper (the hearts), foil and wire to make the design.

I really loved doing this and it is definitely something I'd like to do more of ..... one day!

So it is now the end of Blogtober - thanks for taking a look at my posts. Hopefully having been kick-started into resuming my blog I will now keep it up.

Blogtober 2016 and a little bit of articulation

I've been a bit lax posting this week; life happened!

Today I am going all the way back to 2014 when I did an ATC for my swap group where the theme was 'articulated dolls'. My mind being what it is (!) I came up with the following:

I felt the need to add a little bit of velvet ribbon for a skirt ...... !!

Along the same lines and for the same group, but many months later, I made 9 of these ATCs for a swap with a Halloween theme:

It doesn't really show but the little poison bottles stand proud of the background. They were cut out, glazed and thread wound around them whilst we were on holiday in The Canary Islands - hubby thought there were better things we could be doing (mainly including a glass and some wine!).

Also, someone needs to remind me that I do NOT enjoy making articulated dolls, especially 9 of the little things - my fingers were very sore by the time I'd finished.

One more day to go so if you haven't been and visited the blogs of those taking part in the Blogtober challenge then click on the link on the side bar - take a peek and enjoy :)

Blogtober - my 9th post

This ATC was made for an ATC swap group I'm in, the theme was 1960's. I thought that some people might go for pshychodelic or LSD etc so I decided to just go with the Beatles.

Both backgrounds are made with spray inks, some plain and some glimmery. The submarine is a a royalty free image from the internet

Blogtober - another post and more gelli printing ......

I can see now that the reason I gave up on posting to my blog in 2012 is because Gelli Plates hadn't been invented! It would seem that most of my time is spent pouring gallons of paint on my plates and pulling zillions of prints. Of course there are times when I get side-tracked with Brushos and similar products and yes, I have a humongous box of those as well, but they do all come out and get used as backgrounds ........ eventually!

Today I am sharing a tag I made for a swap using the packing tape transfer technique. Paint and inks etc are layered up on the gelli plate and what you see in front of you is what you get as your end result. Once you are happy with the way the design looks you leave it to dry and then use wide clear packing tape to pull the print and immediately place it down on paper/book pages/music score etc. (There are several YouTube tutorials on doing this technique). You do need to leave some clear patches in the design so that the sticky on the tape can actually stick to the paper. I have tried using gel medium to glue it down but it wasn't as successful as leaving the clear spaces.

As you can see, I used the paint left on the plate after pulling the print to make up another similar sheet (paper, not clear tape) which I used for the back of the tag. I also made a little pocket for a mini tag to sit in.

Close up of front of tag

I made this tag with 1.5" wide tape but a lady in the group this was made for has suggested using a roll of clear book covering. I have now purchased a roll so next time will be able to pull a print off the whole plate rather than having to do it in sections and try, not extremely successfully, to piece it together!

As usual, don't forget to click on the Blogtober button to see what everyone else has been up to lately.

Aztec Metallic paints on the gelli plate ......

Just a quick post today as I've been asked to show how the Colourcraft Aztec Metallic paints mentioned in my 'new stash' post last week beaded up on the gelli plate and the results of pulling a print with them.

I've used the bronze paint here:

Brayered on to the gelli plate:

Print pulled on white card:

Print pulled on black card (I'm liking this one!):

I'll definitely use them on occasions on the gelli plate, possibly as a middle layer - who knows! Things are very random in my craft room!

Blogtober Post 8 - The best way to spend a Saturday ......

We have a farm shop/craft shop a few miles away called Pickwell Farm and a few times a year they have guest professional artists in holding workshops. On Saturday I was lucky enough to go to the one run by Mark Gould of DecoArt - a great down to earth guy and great teacher. 

When we first sat down we had a pile of MDF pieces which we had to glue together to make a 12 x 12 box and lid - that was a joke and I can tell you, the air inside my head was very blue and occasionally some of it would escape and a naughty word would come out! I wasn't the only one having trouble with it which made me feel a bit better!

Eventually the box was made and we slathered it with moulding paste. Once dry we painted, painted more, grunged up, stencilled etc and the end result is below. I can't tell you how much product we used - we got through gallons of the stuff! I hadn't quite finished mine at the end of the workshop so completed it at home, adding, as an extra, some crackle paste to the topper which I let dry overnight then rubbed a little Antiquing Cream over - after all you can't have too much crackle, can you?

I must say, I arrived home with extremely painty hands and with numerous splatters over my face and neck which hubby thought was very funny :)

Don't forget to take a look at what others are doing for Blogtober - just click on the Blogtober button on the side bar.

Blogtober - post 7. My home made gelli plates .....

Although I already have 2 gelli plates, when I saw a recipe demo'd by Jennifer Petz on her YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ZyvDSmI30) and I had the ingredients to hand, I had to try it out.

I'm not sure that I had the right sort of alcohol; the recipe is for American ingredients and states 95% alcohol - I had surgical spirit so used that. I guess a high proof Vodka might have worked too ...... but why waste Vodka trying?! I made one tiny plate and one a about 3" x 6". I used the tiny one first; it worked fine for the first few prints pulled but gradually started to break up on the top (this is when I thought my alcohol might not be right as all other ingredients were as the recipe). It did leave some interesting patterns, so not a total waste. The larger plate seemed sturdier and I used that several times without it breaking up at all. I did find pulling the last of the paint off of the plate wasn't quite so easy as with a purchased plate but I cleaned up with a baby wipe and the paint came straight off.

The one thing I would say is to have some ventilation in your room; those plates totally stink! It wasn't helped by the fact I was also using an onion to print with today so the mixed vapours around me were very pungent!

This is the larger plate - the frilly edges are from the pot I used to make it in, they didn't affect the use at all:

This is the little plate - not quite big enough for the prints to be used for an ATC - I should have thought that out better! But it can be melted back down and made in a different container next time. You can see how the top is breaking down slightly.

This print was done on the smaller plate:

Here I was pulling the remains of the paint off of the larger plate; there was a bit of paint left on the plate after this pull but I just wiped it clean with a baby wipe, let in dry and popped it back in the pot it was made in. 

So, will I continue to make these - possibly not but it was fun to try and I will keep these on the go, melting down and re-setting when necessary. If you haven't got a gelli plate then this is a very easy and quick way to get one and if you can get the correct ingredients I would imagine it would hold up better than mine!

Blogtober - Day 6 and new stash arrives .....

I had a good post day today when 2 small parcels of goodies arrived from Chocolate Baroque. As I was already in my little craft room and had just started to get some supplies out to play with, I put them to one side and started unpacking and, of course, playing with the new goodies.

First of all, Colourcraft Aztec Metallics - these are really shimmery and pretty.

Sadly they don't put the names of the colours on the bottles and some are similar; they give a lovely sheen and I can see these coming out for the Christmas crafting.

I did try using them on the gelli plate but they just beaded up. This did create a nice effect when printed but I possibly wouldn't bother to use them on the gelli plate on a regular basis.

In the next box were these not so little pots of shimmery, glimmery joy and a bottle of acrylic wax.

I used the soft form relief paste through a stencil and left it to dry and this is the result - isn't it beautiful?!

I didn't get around to having a play with the wax so that's my unpacking done for today. Don't forget to head on over to Syreeta's blog via the Blogtober button on the side bar.

Blogtober - Going Asian

Today I am sharing an ATC I made for a swap, the theme being 'Newspaper and a Button'. I had some old Asian newspapers in my stash so took the fashion and food pages to be sure there was nothing 'suspect' written there and folded them into little kimonos. Finished with a ribbon sash and a very mini button painted with Krylon gold pen and with a little bit of coordinating thread tied through.

As ever, click on the Blogtober tab on the side-bar to see what others have been doing this Blogtober.

Blogtober - Day 4

This little bird was made for a swap - I cut the base from thick board and used gelli printed papers for the body and wings and buttons for the eyes. I added a few white pen and gold highlights The aim was to have both sides totally different, which I succeeded in doing (and far easier than trying to get them exactly the same!).

Click on the Blogtober box on the side bar which will take you to Syreeta's blog and from there you can see what others are doing with this challenge.

Here I am again for my third post for Blogtober.  Don't forget to click the Blogtober link on the side bar so that you can visit the blogs of others taking part.

I'm not one for actually drawing or painting 'things', mainly because I'm rubbish at drawing! Last year I watched a video tutorial (sorry, I can't remember who it was by) on painting tulips so I had a go. I enjoyed making the background, that's far more my scene, but the tulips didn't turn out toooo badly. My mother got this as her birthday card - I'm not sure she appreciated the effort that went into it though! So, my first and last foray into painting an object; I'm now back to doing more random stuff until I find another tutorial I fancy trying.

A close up of the background elements:

Blogtober - second post

So, I've managed to find my way here again; things are definitely looking up :). Certain friends will finally be doing big sighs of relief as they've been 'encouraging' me to come back to my blog for many months - to be honest I think they'd just about given up with me!

If you would like to go and see what others are doing with this challenge click on the Blogtober link in the right hand side bar, this will take you to Syreeta's blog and she is hosting the Blogtober Challenge.

Today I am going to share a notebook I made for a swap a few months ago. The backgrounds are done with Distress Inks and the fairy image is a stamp by Enchanted Ink, She is coloured, cut out and pasted onto a Distress Inked book page. A few ribbons, threads, beads and charms finished it off. I must admit, I do like playing with Distress Inks, they are very addictive!

Blogtober - my first post

As it's been so long since I did anything on this blog I have forgotten how to actually do stuff! I am sure that by the end of October I will have worked it out though; maybe with a bit of help from my friends ........ :)

Firstly, if you are interested in taking a look at what others participating in Blogtober are doing then follow this link: Blogtober 2016

Today I am sharing an ATC I made for a swap in one of my online groups. It features a gelli print background and the stamp of Charlie Chaplin is by Stampers Best.

Also, from the same set of stamps, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. I have no photos pre-framing so excuse the reflections

I'm Back!

Well, it's been over four years since my last entry! Much has happened in both my world and the art and craft world. I mean - Gelli plates have arrived - and how much fun are they?! I love playing around on mine and can spend many hours pulling print after print.

This is one of the first prints I pulled (in 2015) and I still have it because I like it and don't want to actually use it! Sadly it has lost a bit of its oomph whilst sitting it a box so I guess I really should do something with it soon.

I'm planning on being back more regularly now especially as Sy, Wendy and Karen are trying to convince me to take part in Blogtober (see Sy's blog (karmacraftblog.blogspot.co.uk) for more information and ........ watch this space!