Gelli Printing Marathon!

I finally had time to do some more Gelli printing this weekend.  I invited my friend Pam over and we spent most of Saturday afternoon and evening cranking out cool prints!  I ended up with around 30 prints and I think she had more than 25.  We were covered in acrylic paint before it was over, but that means we had lots of fun...right? 

Below are some of my favorites from the day.  Now I have to start doing something with the mounds of cool prints I have been creating.  I have used them for envelopes and strips on some cards, but I need to expand that.  I purposely created some this time that were lighter in color and plan to do some stamping on top to make some cards.

Since last time, I ordered some more of the rubbing plates and out of all the things I have been using on the prints, these are my favorite texture creating implements.

I also went outside my normal color palette and did some more wacky color combinations.  I really fell in love with the blue/gray combo ones...  You can choose your own favorites!!!

 

 

 

 

My newest art addiction....

I know...like I need another crafty thing to add to my list...  However, I have been having a lot of fun with this and wanted to share!  So what is this new addiction?  Drumroll please...

Gelli-Plate Printing!

I ran across a video many months ago and saw the cool projects people were creating and had to jump on the bandwagon!  I plucked down my moolah for an 8 x 10 Gelli Plate from Gelli Arts and started experimenting.

I already had most of the other stuff you need to play around with it, so I only needed to buy the plate.  My first experiments were just okay (not even gonna share them here) but it wasn't rocking my boat...  Fortunately, I was able to find many video resources via YouTube and Pinterest, and I have been playing since.  It does take some playing around to find out what works and what doesn't work (for me). 

I ordered a pack of rubbing plates with leaves and had SO MUCH FUN with those today!  Since it was a cooler day and a little fall-like early this morning I was inspired.  I just had to do some prints using fall colors and leaves.  These new rubbing plates worked VERY well, so I guess I will need to get some more in the future!  They come in a pack of 6 and were easy to brayer and use as "stamps" on the acrylic paint.



So...what do my prints look like you ask?  Below is a portion of what I did today.  I think I ended up with 25 or so...  These are my favorites.  Some of them got a bit muddy, but I think they will be great as backgrounds for some card projects.  I have already turned a few of my earlier ones into envelopes and have used pieces to make some cards.  I will share some of those things on another day.   The scans don't do them justice...they are 8 x 10 beauties in person! Enjoy!

Farmin' at the Hambo Hoedown

This week at the Hambo Hoedown, we got to use this fun Bear Farmer Digital stamp from Hambo Stamps!  I decided to break out my Prismacolor Pencils and color him up on kraft paper instead of using my usual Copic markers.  I'm not as savvy with the pencils, but I am getting better.  I especially love the look of the pencils on the kraft paper and thought this image would work well colored this way. 

 

To play on the sentiment of "sewing what you rip," I decided to "rip" some paper to form the turned soil at the bottom of the card.  If I could have unearthed my sewing machine, I would have done some sewing on the strips as well, but I have been doing some re-organizing in my craft room and it is currently buried in my closet.  Why does it have to get messier before it gets better?

Anyway, hope you will join in with the fun at the Hambo Hoedown this week.  You will definitely have to check out the other samples done by the Bacon Bits. 

I have had a snorting good time being a Guest Designer this month.  Maybe they will ask me back again sometime!

Some Kraft Coloring Fun

I have enjoyed using my colored pencils for a change and wanted to share these cute creations I did using some digi and stamped images on Kraft paper and colored with my Prismacolor pencils.

 

The first one features a digi stamp from A Day for Daisies.  It was actually used for my Valentine's cards, but I totally forgot to share it!  I created the sentiment myself and printed it on the cardstock with the image.

 

The next three cards are all done on kraft paper and feature images from several Paper Smooches stamp sets.  I just love these sets.  I need to use them more often!

Birthday Card for My Grandfather's 92nd Birthday

I never got around to posting this card I made for my Grandfather's 92nd birthday.  He passed away recently and I contemplated not posting it, but I had so much fun creating it for him, I had to share it with everyone....it makes me smile and remember all of the precious memories I have of my time with him.  I was blessed with his presence for 50 years. 

This is an over-sized card done on kraft cardstock so that I could get really bold colors with my colored pencils.  I wanted it to be whimsical.  I wish I could have seen his face when he opened it.  I hope it made him smile.

It was created using a plethora of bird stamps/sentiments from various companies (I think it was The Alleyway Stamps and Paper Smooches).

 

Baby Birthday

This card was made for a friend to give his grandson.  I used a digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil and had a lot of fun coloring him.  I found the "cutesy" sea critter paper and thought it would go perfectly with this fella in his wading pool. 

 

Some Catching Up!

I have been doing some creating, but just never seem to find the time to post them!  I have quite a few one-layer technique cards to share, so I am going to put them all in one post so that I can get them out there to share with you!

The first four cards were created with the same basic stamp layout but using different color palettes and sentiments.  I really loved doing this water-colored image overlaid with the crisp images.  I think it is really elegant.  The flowers are from a Stampendous, and all sentiments are from Wordsworth (I think).

 

 

 

These next cards were done using the one-layer technique on ATC's, but then matted and mounted on an embossed white card background.  For these I let the stamped images do the talking.  I used a combination of stamps for each one and can't remember all of them!  Some of these pictures were taken at night with my phone, so I apologize for the wonky background coloring of some of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next set of cards need some explaining... 

 

Several years ago a friend of mine had created some background papers using a palette knife/spatula and acrylic paint.  She called the technique "smooshing" and I can't think of a better term, so "smooshing" it is! 

 

Since I was digging the mini ATC cards using the one-layer technique...I thought I would use the "smooshing" technique on some water color paper and see what happened.  I took the paint and literally splotched it on with a piece of plastic (I took the foam off one of the cheap foam brushes and used the plastic spatula part underneath).  I layered many colors and used regular and metallic paints to achieve the sheets of artwork. 

 

I then cut them into ATC sized cards and mounted them on embossed cards with some fibers and thread to give them some dimension.  They were miniature acrylic paintings and I love them!  I guess I was channeling my inner Jackson Pollack.  I only wish I could sell them for the insane amount of money his paintings go for!  I hope you like them too...