Gelli Printed Elephant Walk Canvas

I spent Saturday with some friends at Younique Country Retreat near Fergus.  We had a full day of fun which ended with us wearing moustaches LOL...don't ask!  I decided that I'd rather paint than scrapbook for this crop session.  I had an idea in my head for a canvas featuring a family of elephants.

I started by using my Gelli plate to make some papers and then cut out an elephant shape in three different sizes. 

Then I painted the background of my canvas using stencils and acrylic paints.  I adhered the elephants to the canvas using gel medium.  I then added some details on and around the elephants, including shading with Faber Castel Pitt Markers.

I love my Elephant Walk canvas!  Hope you do too.

Gelliaxing - Relaxing with My Gelli Plate!

I felt the need to get the creative juices flowing this weekend and what better way than to get out my Gelli Plate.  I had a piece of cardboard that was already folded and perfect for a journal or mini-book cover.  I still have to punch the holes, add the inner pages and decorate the rings, but this is what it looks like so far.  I'm leaning towards filling the book with watercolour paper and using it with watercolours, Twinkling H2Os and Gelatos.

Old Gelli Scraps + New Stencil + Homemade Ink Spray Pad = Journal Page

Last week I saw Dyan Reavely's demo on YouTube of her new Dylusions Ink Spray Pad...and was immediately fascinated.  A few days later I saw Carolyn Dube's video using the ink spray pad.  By this time I'm almost beside myself wanting to try it, but haven't had a chance to check out any of the local stores to see if they have it in yet.  So this weekend I made my own!  I used some fairly dense foam and a plastic food storage container.  I sprayed my Dylusions onto the foam and then used a couple of stamps to try it out. ...with mixed results.  I think my foam was actually too thick so I will try it again with a thinner piece....unless of course I find the real thing first!

I stamped onto a journal page that I had left unfinished.  I had used the new Ronda Palazzari Moroccan Tiles stencil and modeling paste to create texture on the background.  I then added random strips from Gelli prints that had been trimmed from another project.  Finally, I added some random dots with black ink.  I'm not sure if I'll go back and add more to this page yet, but for now I'm liking it.

A Week of Artsy Fun

I was on vacation last week and spent the week with my good friend and partner in scrapbooking and most things artsy.  Monday was a holiday here and on Tuesday we took a quick day trip across the border to Buffalo to do some shopping....scrapbook and art supply shopping.  For the rest of the week we both had a list of projects and techniques we wanted to try.  Most are still a work in progress, but I did want to share these Gelli prints that I did.  I used up some old scrapbook papers (from my "ugly paper pile" and printed either on the blank white side or sometimes on the patterned side of the paper.  If you look carefully you can see some of the patterns peaking through. 

I then took the pages and folded them in half.  I had picked up a chipboard album on the Tuesday shopping trip (for a whopping $1.99!) that was long and skinny...perfect for the 12x6 inch papers I had now created.  I have started to Gelli print the chipboard album as well, but this is still one of those work in progress pieces.

These are my favourite pages (yes, there were even more than these!).

 

And these are just 3 of the 8 chipboard pages.

 

Gelli Fun - Long Overdue

I managed to get in some Gelli Printing fun this weekend.  It was long overdue and is such a great way to get creative juices flowing for other crafty projects.  On Friday, I picked up some new Crafter's Workshop stencils so was very excited to use them....Moroccan Tiles, Fancy Feathers, Well Rounded, Four Ferns, Mod Spirals and Microbial.  I used a limited palette of colours and only had about 8 sheets of paper that I printed on for my quick Gelli session.  In addition to the new stencils I also used some other favourites...Here are my favourite prints from the weekend.  I definitely won't go too long without having some more Gelli fun.

Gelli Cards and Twinkling H2Os

Last Saturday I went to a crop with some friends and decided that I would make cards (something I usually only do occasionally).  I had some Gelli prints with me and I had also just purchased my first Twinkling H2Os. 

The Gelli prints are always fun for me...whether creating new ones, or choosing ones I have on hand to use on a project.  I had a cute little stamp "I Love You Just The Way You Are" that I stamped onto some scrap Gelli prints and trimmed down.  I also cut a bunch of hearts out of some scraps in various colours ready to use as well. I stamped some black hearts onto this page and added a sticker doily.

 

 

On this one I added a white doily and wrapped the hearts in some turquoise twine and added some bling.

I still want to add some ribbon to this card.  I had some scrapbook paper that had the perfect colours in it to match this Gelli print.  Some more stamped hearts in black and some scribbled frames around the edges to finish it off (except for that ribbon I'm still looking for!)

Now on to the Twinkling H2Os...loved these! LOVED, LOVED, LOVED!  I purchased 5 different colours to start...can hardly wait to get some more.  Basically I just dragged my papers through the colours on my kraft mat and let them marble and drip.  On this first card, I added some teal rub-on flourishes and some bling...a few black dots around the flourishes, matted in black on white on teal and it was done! Easy Peasy and I love it!

The colours of this one are a bit more vibrant and I have to say this is my favourite background.  I used a script stamp over another H2O print and trimmed it down to provide another background for the face stamp (also stamped over a print made with H2Os).

I used the face stamp and script stamp on the same print this time, added some bling and mounted it on white, then teal, then a base of the scrapbook paper.  A green ribbon finished this card perfectly.

I haven't put any specific sentiments on these cards, and will decide what to use when I determine who/when I will give the card away...if I can bear to give any away that is LOL.

I'd love to hear which one is your favourite!

Gelli Play with Packing Tape

Well I finally had a chance to try the packing tape technique shown on the Gelli Arts website http://gelliarts.blogspot.ca/.  Was a lot of fun! (although I have to admit that waiting for paint to dry was hard...I was so anxious to see the final result LOL)  Will definitely do more of these and use them in my journal and on scrapbook layouts.

This is the Gelli Plate before laying down the tape.

And this is the tape with Perfect Pearls and some dictionary pages adhered to it. 

Thanks to all that visit my page and leave such encouraging comments.  It means a lot!

Gel Medium Resist with Gelli Plate

Well I finally got a chance to try the gel medium resist technique! Ever since I saw the tutorial on the Gelli Arts site I've been dying to try it out (http://gelliarts.blogspot.ca/).  It was a long weekend here in Canada, and I even took a couple of extra days off so that I would have more time to get everything done and still have time to play.  And this is what I did....

First...yes, I am one of those people that don't clean their Gelli Plate too often.  However, most of the blue and green on here is actually newly dried paint from the previous prints.  I decided to leave it there to see what would happen.  I applied a thin layer of gel medium on the plate with my brayer.

Then I added a few stencils...



 

 

And took the first pull.  Love the blues and greens that came up with this print.  I set it aside to dry...

Once dry, I added some Distress Paint...

Then wiped it off to reveal the resist.  A little bit "muddier than I had envisioned...but I still really like the blues and greens peaking through.

Next I added a fuschia paint to the Gelli Plate and added some small doilies to mask parts of the print.

I then started working on some other prints, adding to this one as I went along and the mood struck...dark blue aboriginal stencil, teal blazonry stencil, red harlequin stencil and bubble doily stencil, green rain drops. I also used the die cut bird on a print and when I pulled it off the plate I pressed it onto this print to stamp the image. 

 

Finally, I doodled around the bird and some of the teal blazonry images. 

 

 

This was another one of the gel medium experiments.  This time I sprayed with Dylusions ink sprays.

 

I added some orange Bubble Doily over the resist print.

 

And while trying to decide what to do next, I spotted this "eye" and thought I could do something with that...looks a bit "Egyptian" to me...

 

As I contined to look at the print I spotted a lion..or tiger (almost cartoonish)... Can you see it in the hexagon?  How cool is that!

 

 

I'm going to have to think about where I want to go next with this print.