JoFY Bingo Wk.13

Woo hoo!  Its Bingo time again!  Two flower sets this week - 25 & 33

Another journal spread...

I started on a page in my journal which was a clean up spread - one where I'd wiped a brush/gelli plate/roller clean - and it was not pretty! lol 
I painted over it using a slightly dry babywipe (leaving some of that 'nasty' showing through to add depth) using Snowflake & Sea Glass - one of the lovely new Fresco Finish colours by Courtney Franich.
If you haven't seen them yet - here they are:

l to r, starting at the top: Mustard Pickle, Lemon Meringue, Mulled Wine, Peach Nectar, Blah-mange, Vintage Lace, Twilight, Surf's up, Pine Grove, Sea Glass, Koala, Eggshell.

I used Sea Glass and Snowflake on the background and then for the stenciled thistles I mixed Koala and Slate (irl Koala is lighter than shown on the photo) to get a mid grey colour.  The die cut stems are painted in shades of Peach Nectar mixed with Snowflake. The small 'flowers' are painted with Snowflake and Blah-mange.

The Thistle stencil is from the lovely people at Stencil Girl Products - if you're a stencil fan go visit their site - sooooo many stencils! lol

I coloured the stems with FaberCastell polychromos pencils - very relaxing to just sit and colour isn't it. :o)

OK, feeling good - 2 more weeks done and dusted - I am back on track....

I've been doing a bit of planning for the Bingo project - seeing where it will now finish because of the unscheduled breaks... it finishes (IF I don't take anymore unscheduled breaks...) on the 31st December!!!  How neat and tidy is that!  Couldn't've planned it better if I tried! lol

Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you next week...

Take care

I'm a Guest Designer!....

.. over on the Stencil Girl Products blog today - chuffed to be asked to contribute to their blog - thank you Stencil Girl! - and really happy to share the project which you can find HERE, and here's a sneakpeek

Its a project using some of my favourite products - PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints and {Stencil Girl} stencils and masks!

Please go take a look

x

Paints, stencils and gelli prints... Oh my!

So I've been a bad/abset blogger for a few weeks... the reason for this is my PC became a victim of the curse of 2016 and we had to add it to the list of 2016's fatalities - it died the week before christmas! This was a drama for me because
a) I use it A LOT!!
b) EVERYTHING is stored on it - you know things like holiday photos, work bits and pieces, existing designs, working designs....
c)  I HADN'T BACKED IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My friend was brilliant & took the pc apart and retrieved the hard drive and all the information (he is now my tech'geek hero!) ... YAY! WOO HOOOOOO!! (a massive thank you to him!)
aaaand breeeeaaathe!

I can now see all my information and use it but I'm working on hubby's laptop which is good but its not like using my pc - I feel like I'm working with one hand tied behind my back!  sigh  but, I appreciate it could be worse & I could have no pc at all.... so I am grateful (very grateful!) for what I have.

aaaanyhooo enough about my PC/technical woes an on to prettier paintier things...

I made this box canvas late last summer (inspired by the gelli print play day I had with friends) and forgot to share it with you (like I said at the start  - bad blogger, bad blogger).. its a gelli plate printed box canvas, painted with Fresco Finish paints in various shades of green and blue and stencilled using Stencil Girl, Artemio & Donna Downey stencils.
I really like how it turned out - so much so its actually on the wall in the lounge! I know! Shocker!! My own work on the wall in my own home! Whatever next!

x

Day 4 of a FABULOUS blog hop!...

I hope you've all enjoyed the last 3 nights of blog-hopping - its been really inspiring hasn't it!

Tonight's four blogs are listed below and they are fabulous so hop on over and enjoy - don't forget to leave a message!

Live from Dec. 24
Kay Carley
Emma Godfrey
Cindy Gilstrap
Karen Gaunt

We're halfway through the PaperArtsy / Stencil Girl blog hop and I'm sure you'll agree the projects so far have been fabulous and I'm sure those coming in the next 2 days will not disappoint either, and will be well worth a visit. 

Blog Hop Order:

Live from Dec. 21
Darcy Wilkinson
Kim Dellow
Mary C. Nasser
Gwen Lafleur

Live from Dec. 22
Jo Firth Young
Lauren Hatwell
Kristie Taylor
Tina Walker

Live from Dec. 23
Clare Lloyd
Lin Brown
Anna Friedan
Janet Joehlin

Live from Dec. 24
Kay Carley
Emma Godfrey
Cindy Gilstrap
Karen Gaunt

Head on over the blogs listed above (on/after the dates shown) for lots of inspiration and a chance to win a prize - remember to leave a comment.

Thanks for all the comments left on my blog - so glad you liked my project, and I hope its inspired you to get busy with the stencils, masks and paints!

x

Its a Gelli print...

.... but not as we know it... well it is... sort of - these are pages in my journal that I've covered in the underpapers that are on my desk when Gelli printing.. rolling my brayers on it to remove paint, or make a gelli print to clean the plate... sometimes they're just too nice/interesting to throw away..

These first two are my 'favourites', I really like the print of the mask (stencilgirlproducts.com) I was using...

I haven't put them in a journal - I can't decide what to do with them... I don't want to 'spoil' them - which is ridiculous because they are junk papers! Meant to be spoiled!

These next two are the result of rolling my brayer on the underpaper to clean it...

I am kicking myself that I didn't take a photo of the underpapers glued onto the pages below before I stenciled the numbers on!  The background is lots of ghost/clean-up gelli prints.  I really like how the big numbers look so prominent against the background.... and everything looks more interesting with paint splats!

(The number stencil is Donna Downey, doily stencils is The Crafters Workshop, spots are bubble wrap)

Using the underpapers is a great way to add immediate interest to a journal spread.. and if its too bold, pale, or the wrong colour simply add another layer of interest - with stencils or stamping or a colour wash.

x

ALBOTAT: Life is good, Live it

.. is the mantra on this recent art journal spread

Starting on an existing spread of pale blue I clouded over it with a slightly darker blue before using: Stencils:  Stencil Girl's Marrakech stencil (L177), The Crafters Workshop Mini Circle Grid (TCw203S), Stamps:  JM54 (alphabet block), JM 49 (mini flowers), big flower, text and mini circle clusters are JOFY45.
The grey letters are foam, American Crafts - I really like the dimension of these letters but they made working in the rest of the journal a bit of a challenge! - The journal's pages aren't flat anymore!  But the letters are worth it!

ALBOTAT: A day with Seth Apter...

... a couple of weeks ago I went to a workshop with Seth Apter, organised by PaperArtsy.  Such a lot of fun, and learning...

I lost count of how many layers were used to create this. :o)  All done with Fresco Finish paints.

Detail of front cover... mono printing, stamping, painting, stenciling, doodling - you name it, we did it! lol

A great day.  If you get the chance to do a class with Seth - take it!  You won't be disappointed.

Be still my Gelli® print loving heart....

Last Sunday I spent a 'Gelli® plate play day' with Emma, Emma, and Leandra (such a good day) and the following Monday I was still inspired so I thought I'd get creative... 

I decided I needed to work bigger than the previous day's experiments so I laid out my 12x14in Gelli® plate.... now we're talking!... so much lovely space to play with!

This was only going to be a quick printing session (unfortunately other things to do - don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of creative time!).. but it was a good session AND I remembered to take photos!!

Here we go:

Adding paint to the Gelli® plate - spacing them out, then spreading and blending across the area with a brayer.

I laid my chosen masks onto the wet plate: (LOVE these three 'deconstructed lilies' masks from Stencil Girl, available from That's Crafty)

This is the first print I pulled, I really like the different colours blended through, and how the masks lay over the edge of the plate/print:

Once the first print was pulled, I removed the masks which revealed paint underneath where they had been - so I pulled this print:

and this is the clean-up/ghost print:

I liked those prints so much - but you must know by now from reading this blog - I love a bit of vintage printed paper!... so laid the masks out again and printed some more:

I love how these turned out - can't bring myself to cut them up! Might need to frame them in someway!

I think these might be the first of many!

If you don't have a Gelli® plate yet go and get yourself one - they are such a good mixed media tool.  Seriously! You won't be disappointed.  

PaperArtsy will have Gelli® plates at the AllyPally show this weekend

I'll have some more samples over the next few days....

(Gelli® used with permission. Owned by Gelli Arts® LLC)