ATC Letter O Swap #ATC #artisttradingcards #gelliprint #santoro

 One of the groups I belong to on Facebook - 

ATC Trades and Jams - 

is gearing up to do a trade with the theme of

Letter O.

We can trade with two people.

Can you guess my theme?

Hahaha! Hopefully my theme is obvious!

I know these pictures will appear large on the

computer screen, keep in mind ATCs are 2.5" x 3.5"

pieces of art. You have to figure out what you can

fit into that small amount of space that

will reflect the theme. 

For both cards I started with gelli print pulls

I did on water color paper.

I used a stencil and left a bunch of previous

paint on my plate, making some really 

cool looking bubbles.

Inked the edges with a teal StayzOn ink pad,

then tangled some airways, printemps and

IndyRella.

Shading is graphite, highlights is a white

gelly roll pen. 

The sweet little mermaid was part of the

cardboard packaging for some Santoro stamps.

The O tiles, glass flowers and cute little charms were 

stuck down with glue dots. Then I put them into

baseball card sleeves to protect them.

An hour's worth of work at tops.

Can't wait to see who I get to send them to!

And where!

I'm looking forward to being part of this group.

Now I just have to find the time.

Gelli Fun! #zebrapen #zebrapenUS #rangerink

 I love working with gelli plates!

You never know how it is going to turn out,

but it is almost always wonderful!

Awhile back, I was at an art class and we 

were using gelli plates -

I was working with an art journal

and some stencils. 

On the right hand side, I did the above page

using an overlap technique with lemon and grape.

 I have a habit of keeping some blank pages handy 

to rub my brayer on after I roll out a color.

This way I don't waste paint, and I have

some really cool pages to play with later.

The left hand page worked as my scrap 

and I brayered some leftover lemon.

Then I used a stencil to drop in some grape.

The instructor in the class I was attending

said you shouldn't ever mix yellow and purple

because you would get "mud."

I took that as a personal challenge. 

Hahahaha!

Above is the second 'pull' I did. 

 The challenge is "the why" for this next set of pages.

I did the gelli pulls and got the first two 

pages you see.

That night in my hotel room,

I used a Zensations Sarasa Fineliner 

from Zebra Pen to do some tangling on the first.

 These other four pages are much smaller.

They were bits of watercolor paper I took to the

class - specifically to roll leftover color onto.

I closed the book and smooshed the pages 

together and got a really cool mix of the 

stenciled ghost circles and the brayered 

leftover paint.  

Then, I took these four scraps and placed 

them into book - back and back and 

side by side, closed the book again and 

smooshed like crazy.

I was amazed at how much detail I was

still able to get. And really -

not mud at all!

So there is a way to use the 

colors you like and

not get mud. 

If you just think about it first

and go in with a plan. 

For color I used 

Dylusions Acrylic Paint 

from Ranger.

So much fun!

Gelli Pulls at Jump and a Surprise

 Last month I attended an art class in Massachusetts - 

Jump Into January!

The above image came about while we were playing

with gelli plates, making various pulls with several color layers.

On my plate I had several layers of greens, blues, and yellows.

I placed a stencil of the face (Stencil Girl product) on top of the rolled colors, placed a sheet of paper on top of the stencil, and brayered back and forth several times. 

I lifted the page and had this great print of the girl's face.

Once that was dry, I rolled out a layer of magenta right on top of the remaining color on the plate.

I placed a starburst stencil near the top of the plate, 

then placed the paper with the girl's face - 

face down so the starburst would be near the top of her head. 

I brayered over just the top section.

When I lifted the paper from the gelli plate,

the image you see above is what I got. 

I have no idea what I will do with it.

Other than admire it.

Hahaha!

I thought that was pretty cool!

But I needed to clean up the stencils in case someone else in the class wanted to use them.

I used a baby wipe to clean the girl's face stencil on top of a paper towel. 

I didn't expect this to happen -

but -

when I removed the nice clean stencil,

I had this face on the paper towel.

Never one to waste an opportunity, I repeated the

cleaning process with the starburst stencil. 

I really like the paper towel art I got!

So much that I brought it home,

trimmed the edges and put it in a journal.

Love it!

Now I just need to make some more.

Hahaha!

I must have stencils to clean somewhere!

A Little Teaser

I'm getting ready to drive to Clearwater, Florida, where I'll be attending my very first Stamp Fest!
So not a traditional stamper. I don't make cards or cute little scrapbook pages. I do own about 100 stamps and use them on the occasional art journal page. Can't wait to see what they have there for us to do.
I will be attending a make-and-take with over 30 vendors. And I'm taking a class from Linda Malcom, of Lost Coast Design. She does the most amazing artwork!
When I get back I will post about all the gelli art I've been making lately. You can see a little teaser of a couple pieces above. Yay!!!!! On the road again! Talk with you when I get back!

One Big Whopping Mess

A mess party? Yeah, buddy! I know how to throw one!

Actually, I am taking a one week online class with Carla Sonheim. You know Carla? She's the lady with the awesome drawing and painting books about Imaginary Animals, The Art of Silliness, and The Drawing Lab - all for mixed media artists. I love her work! This week she's teaching a class on gelli plates. (No, not a jelly jar, not a jelly plate - - - gelli plate. Google it.)

Because she makes her living teaching classes like this - I won't go into specifics and how-to's, but I do want to show you what I did with today's assignment.

We were supposed to make eight pages. I liked it so much that I made sixteen! It was a big whopping mess! But so much fun to do! I can totally see me doing this all over again tomorrow.

These are two pages (7"x10") that I made. Don't you love the textures? And I totally think that little green sticky-outy thing on the right looks like one of Shrek's horns :). Am I right???

I like the texture in that pink section, and those blues with the pink streaks were total accidents. At least the first one was, then I figured out what caused it and did it on purpose after that :).

These two pages were from the very first set I did. That page on the right is going to be a wonderful underwater tangled garden. I don't have any idea what Carla is going to have us do with our pages we made today, but that one on the right is mine!

These last two pages were my absolute favorites! Blue, a little white, some teal, some of two different shades of pink. Yep! I think I'm going to love this gelli plate thing! And tomorrow we get another lesson. I can not wait! Yay!!!