wonderful reticulated gelli pulls

Happy Friday one and all.  While in SFO this week, Flax had some free paint samples and one was a watercolor tube, it was sitting on my table waiting to be put away, my gelli plate was out, so I started to play, the sample rendered a wonderful blended background.  I had some really cheap tubes that I purchased last year for a Christmas project and went and pulled those out and oh my goodness, so in this case cheaper is better.  You want to put small dabs all over your plate about the size of a pea and then brayer it out, when you have the desired amount of reticulation do your pull.  I am pulling these on tissue paper and if you are going to pull on tissue do not press down on the tissue, just lay it on top of your plate and then pull it up.  This one is my favorite so far.  I love the lacey look of it.

This is a card I did using the background, I found the Day Gecko in a September 2010 National Geographic magazine my friend Christy gave me, thanks so much Christy.  The Gecko was featured because it had two tails, I performed PhotoShop surgery and extracted it and then cut it with my Cameo.  The photo is by Joel Sartore, I love how he is only partially there, running off the card. Hugs

It was a perfect day

It truly was a perfect day in San Francisco yesterday, the weather was something you wanted to bottle up and bring home, the breeze off the Pacific, the smell of salt water, the skyline, the color, our first stop was Flax Art, oh my goodness, paper and toys galore, inspiration and graffiti that defies the imagination.

Flax is definitely a must see when you go to SFO.  We then went on to Dick Blick, again the senses are tickled, I have never seen so much Golden Product in one place ever.  I finally brought home some NeoII colors, a Montana marker and also picked up an Encaustic color block I have been wanting for a project.
Nothing like a day trip to adjust the attitude.  The icing on the cake was having Christy and her family sharing
it with me.  Have a great day, hugs

Fun in the Sun

For all you multi media artists, so you have done a gelli pull and really like it and would like to use it multiple times on a card, a digi page, your hybrid journal, you will never get another exact pull what do you do?  Scan it in and then print it, but here is the fun part, I am so loving my pulls on tissue paper, I love the look of it and I adore the feel of it, printed out on copy or cardstock you loose some of the beautiful transparency, so today I figured out how to print on tissue paper and oh my goodness that opens up an entire new world all by itself but we will save that for later.  

To print out on tissue paper, take a good piece of white card stock, I used 8 1/2X 11 - 80lb cover, my gelli block is 8X10" but I did not need the entire pull because I am using it on some cards, so I cut the tissue to 7"X7", then traced around it onto the cardstock, then liberally apply repositionable glue, I use Elmer's repositionable glue stick, let it cure for at least 1min, the begin with the top of the tissue paper laying it down and burnishing it onto the cardstock with a bone folder so there are no wrinkles, (this is why you want to trace the size), you do not want to have excess glue edges go through your printer, then send it through.  Begin with a corner and gently pull the tissue paper off the card stock and let it dry, you may have some rolling, after it dries you can flatten it with an iron but cover the tissue with a light cloth to iron.  Then if you want any additional water mark turn the tissue over and spritz (Very) lightly with a mister and dry with your heat gun and you are done.  This might sound like a lot but once you do it, it goes really fast and the results are amazing,  I adhered the tissue to a cardstock block and then added some misc. rub-ons and my card is done.

another view, have a safe and happy Memorial weekend, hugs

Card SKins

A fun new technique I am calling Card SKins, this is a card template from Silhouette Library, meant to be a gate card and I had an idea as I was looking at it, what if I cut the card out on transparency, used it as a stencil and then color the transparency with alcohol inks and attached it to the stenciled card. The butterfly on the cardstock was colored with Derwent "Inktense" pencils and blended with a water pen.  The added color to the transparency just gives it more depth.  I used a very low tack adhesive on the inside of the butterfly so it closed but after a while the wings pop out for even more depth, how much fun is that?

this is a side view of the card with the wings popped out.  The white portion on the right wing is a sun reflection.  So the transparency wraps around the top of the card from inside out.

another side view showing the transparency open


Hope everyone is ready for a safe and happy weekend, hugs

Find the gold

Another gelli pull with the glazing, I am liking this technique more and more as I work with it.  I wanted to do a thinking of you card for a friend that is going through a really rough patch and as I was cleaning out my garage (which is my least favorite project in all the world) I found this sizzix die in an old project box, I bet the die is about 15 years old and has been buried for quite a while.  That is when I had the idea of finding gold in what is not the most pleasant experience, it has helped me get through the days of sorting and tossing, which by the way are still not over, but it is so much better than it was.  I am taking today off to get a pedicure and tomorrow off to really play, so hope all of you are moving in joyful direction, hugs

Wild Blue Yonder

Yesterday I experimented with my tissue gelli pulls and glazing medium (gloss), it gives a great background for a card, the medium adds so much depth to the pull and when it dries and becomes part of the block it almost looks like the card has been oil painted.  I did not use medium on the bird and like the contrast of the matt with the sheen.  Have a great Thursday, hugs

big stamps for your gelli plate

So now that I have the hang of my gelli plate I am experimenting, all those little "what ifs" that occur as I am doing a pull.  Regular stamps are fun, but what if you had an 8X10 stamp for your 8X10 gelli plate?  

here is my 8X10 stamp, I used an old Cricut mat for my base, just used the grid lines to cut it to size.  Then I took fun foam and cut the piece at top by hand and then ran the fun foam through my big shot with Memory Box dies, the bird cage and branches.  The stick right to the cricut base.  I loaded my gelli plate and then with a brayer went over my "BIG" stamp with white paint and stamped that into the gelli plate and did my pull.  When finished just rinse the whole stamp under running water and blot dry with a paper towel, do not rub the paper towel over the foam it will lift it.  So now I have to go dig 4 years worth of old Cricut mats I have stashed somewhere, LOL, hugs

Creating textures with tissue gelli pulls

I decided this morning to add one of my tissue gelli plate pulls to a sheet of patterned paper, wow, I just wish computers already had touch features, the finished paper feels like raw silk.  I adhered the tissue to the paper using Golden Soft Gel Medium.  I then inked the edges with Tim Holtz distressing ink.  If you use only acid free products for your pages, they do make acid free tissue paper, read the label closely, if it does not state that it is acid free then it is most likely not.  My gelli plate is an 8X10 but the big one is on my wish list, this page is 8 1/2 X 11.

close up showing the little nooks and crannies of the creases.  Hope everyone has a great mid-week, hugs

Tin Foil Gelli Pull

Tin Foil was sitting on my counter top as I went to do some Gelli Plate pulls, grabbed a piece, love it.  I don't know that I would use it on a journal page, but I will definitely use it on a card, love the shiny tin foil peeking through the matte surface of the acrylic paint.  These pulls would be so much fun for Christmas projects.  Hope everyone has a great week. Hugs

Love Life

Happy Mother's Day all you moms, hope you are showered with love and appreciation.  I tore some book pages to see how they did with the gelli plate and love love love how they came out.  On this one I did some acrylic ink (white) drips and spatters and it looked like cocoon material to me, so grabbed one of my butterflies for the background.  The sentiment block was done with Pan Pastels and Tim Holtz distressing inks and I used a word stamp.  It is fun getting back to my cards after 6 weeks totally immersed in journal pages, hugs

Post Script:  I may be the happiest mom in all the Universe, my son called this morning and he and his wife are moving back here after being gone for 3 years, they are moving back tomorrow, wow what a mother's day gift.  I am Blessed

gelli pull tissue card

Happy Saturday everyone, I still am playing with the tissue paper and gelli plate.  This is such a versatile media, I adhered the tissue with soft gel medium to a chocolate brown block, this pops out the creases and deepens the color of the tissue paper pull.  One of my favorite things is the feel of the background after it is all done.  Have a safe and happy weekend.  Hugs

Gelli pull on craft paper

This is a gelli plate pull on craft paper, I then went in and did a treatment with alcohol inks to help bring out the creases.  It looked old world and mappish (lol, a word?) to me, so I used it to do a digi page on Atlantis.

This is the digi page, using Tangie Baxter - May AJC kit, Dawn Inskip, Maya and JMK kits, I love this month's itinerary in Atlantis, hope everyone finishes out their week and rolls into a wonderful weekend, hugs

Blue with butterfly

I am intrigued with how these tissue pull cards are coming out, both the background and the blue stripe are tissue paper pulled on the gelli plate. I like the way the background wrinkled a twig like crease in the tissue when it was pulled.  If you did not know the process, you would almost think the background was raw silk in texture, feel and appearance.  Fun fun fun, have a great wednesday, hugs

that wonderful feeling of completion

Morning peeps, well that wonderful feeling of completion is upon me.  I have 21 - 8X10 art journal pages all packed and ready to post this morning.  Wow, what a project, I had so much fun doing this swap and pulled out all my forgotten, unused tools and even picked up some new techniques along the way.  Since the first tissue pull on the Gelli Plate, this idea has been roaming around in my head but would not let myself play with it until the swap was done and packaged, so this morning after that last piece of tape went on the box I pulled out a piece of the pulled tissue and started playing.  Using the tissue as my background and then used one of my "nez leafs" as an element, quick and easy but I think it renders an elegant card.  So this one definitely goes in my bag of tricks.  I am giving myself permission to take a couple of days to get straight with myself, veg with a book, maybe a couple of black and white movies, no schedules, deadlines or emergencies looming on the horizon.  Hope everyone has a grand week, hugs

Atlantis

 I continue to play with the gelli plate, each time I do a pull another idea pops up, rofl.  The above is another pull done on tissue paper, it takes the light and color so beautifully.  At the Art Journal Caravan we are in Atlantis for the month of May and I thought that this paper  would work great for a mystical underwater world.

So I scanned in my tissue paper, used Tangie Baxter's May AJC2013 kit and her "The Princess with Green Hair Kit and came up with this digi Art Journal Page.  That fish cannot decide if she is a dream left over from long ago or real, lol, hope everyone has a great Sunday, hugs

adding dimension to washi tape

adding dimension to your washi tape is fast, easy, FUN.  Grab your favorite stencil, a strip of washi tape and some modeling paste.  Then some acrylic paint and modeling paste, blend color into paste and mix then lay your stencil over the tape and apply your paste, let it dry.  You can then go over it with another color of acrylic paint, I just worked some Golden gold over the top of the squares for a project.  There you have it.

close up to show the dimension.  Happy Wednesday, hugs