A Vintage Journey's November Card Making Post

Julia here today with a card I made using the Die Cut Relief technique for AVJ's November card making post.

Here's how I put this card together.

I got out some dies that would create a layered scene:  trees, a fence, a wreath and a sentiment.  I also got out some dimensional sticker snowflakes.  I used a background embossing folder (Weathered from Taylored Expressions) to emboss the water color paper panel before layering the die cuts over it.  I cut all the dies out of watercolor paper and adhered them over the embossed panel using a Matte Medium.

Once dry, I brushed over the whole panel with the Matte Medium

Because the stickers were silver I went over the panel once again, this time with Gesso so it would all be white.

When Gesso was dry,  I started adding layers of acrylic paint. First, I dry brushed the panel with Manganese Blue Hue, being sure to get into all the cracks and crevices and removing any pools of paint in corners or depressions.

After this layer dried, I dry brushed with Burnt Sienna, just hitting the high spots and open spaces, not fully covering the blue.

After this layer was dry, I dry brushed the final layer of paint using Titanium White, brushing just across the raised pieces and open spaces, turning the panel and brushing from all sides so all the edges of the die cuts were brushed with white. 

I trimmed the panel and layered it to a white card base.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I put this card together. 

You still have time to join in on our November Challenge -  Toni's fun Pairs Trios and Sets Challenge.  You'll find it here.

Gelli Time Tutorial

As promised, today I'm sharing a tutorial for my Gelli Plate print framed wedding project made for this month's Gelli Time Challenge!

Here are the supplies I got out to create the print.  A 9"x12" Mosaic Flowers Repeat stencil from Stencil Girl, a 6"x6" Gelli Plate and a rubber breyer. (you can see that things don't get perfectly clean when you do this!)

Then I chose the acrylic paint colors I decided to use - Golden Liquid Acrylics in Quinacridone Magenta, Teal and Diarylide Yellow.  

(You may need to try a few colors until you find the mix you like with the stencils you have chosen.)

 

I dropped some yellow onto my gel plate and breyered it to cover all of it - not too thick.

I pressed a piece of white cardstock over the gel plate - pressed with my fingers over the whole thing a few times - and then peeled it off - they call this a pull.

Then I laid my stencil over the gel plate, dropped some teal and magenta over it and rolled the breyer over to cover all the openings of the stencil.

Here's how the gel plate looked when I removed the stencil.

I placed the yellow background 'pull' I made above over the gel plate being sure the yellow was centered.  And again, I pressed with my fingers all over the top of the gel plate.

This resulted in a very bright panel as shown here.  You can also see that there is quite a bit of acrylic paint left on the gel plate.

I saw this technique on one of the YouTube videos I looked at.  So the paint from the stenciling is pretty dry by now.  I added a few drops of the yellow on top

and spread it over the gel plate to cover with a thin layer using my brayer.

I waited just half a minute or so to let the yellow dry a smidge (technical term) and then pressed a clean panel of white card stock over the gel plate and rubbed really firmly over the whole area of the gel plate.

And this pull came out looking more vintage and not so bright.  The down side is that you can see on the left edge the paint didn't lift off - either I didn't press hard enough or the paint had dried too much. It was my first try with this technique.  There's a fine line between the ink drying and being too dry I think?!  But I love the look. And will have to try it again!

I painted a Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Vignette Frame with Carbon Black acrylic paint and let it dry.

I colored the bouquet, dress, lips, faces and hands of the Paper Dolls wedding couple with Copics, using similar colors to the paints I used on my panel.

I rubbed Bronze Age Metallique Wax over the black painted frame and added some Idea-ology rub-ons to the panel, laying the couple over the panel to help with placement of the words.

I adhered the panel to the back of the frame with glue, and added the wedding couple with thick foam dots - having them standing on the bottom of the frame.

I like the unexpected mix of modern brighter colors in the background of the vintage wedding couple.

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial and that you will join us at A Vintage Journey this month by linking up a project you have made using your Gelli Plate!

You'll find the challenge here.

You have up to April 30th to join in!

Happy creative spring!

Julia

It's Gelli Time!

Welcome to the April A Vintage Journey Challenge.   Julia here as hostess this month and this is our new challenge!

It's Gelli Time!

Yes, get those gel plates out and have a play.  Printing and mark making are unique and somewhat addictive when you start so let us see what you create and how you use it in your project.  Just remember to create your project in one of our preferred styles: vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

There are lots of videos on YouTube using all kinds of media to print with a gel plate. If you need a little jump start inspiration please check that out!   We also have beautiful inspiration by the Creative Guides here on this post so please read on!

Julia

I have not played with my Gelli Plate very much (and definitely haven't previously made anything I liked!) so was excited to host this challenge, as it made me get into my craft room for a marathon gel plate printing session!   I watched videos and tried several mixes of colors and stencils before getting anything I liked at all but I'm very happy with this background piece I finally created!  I will be posting a tutorial on how I made this framed piece here at AVJ in two weeks, but for now I have more photos of my completed project and some of the other pulled prints I made as I was learning over at my blog, Create With Me, if you'd like to take a peek!

Jennie

Well you know what it is like ... once you start with the Gelli Plate it is very addictive. I used both fabric and paper on my plate along with Acrylic Chalk Paints and had enough pieces to make a Needle Case for my large knitting pins and needles and some matching accessories. Do join me over at Live the Dream for more details and a little tutorial on how I made the Needlecase.

Nikki

I decided to make a collage in my journal using some recent Gelli Prints. We all love taking the prints - but sometimes don't know what to do with them! More details today at Addicted to Art.

Alison 

As anyone who's ever played with a Gelli plate knows, you can never pull just one print when you're playing.  I ended up with eight tags - front AND back - and a few spares!  So I turned them into a simple tag book with stamping and collages on each spread.  Come over to Words and Pictures to turn the pages with me.

S@ndy

For this fun challenge from Julia, I decided to add a spread in my art journal.  Just a little something playful with a nod to the Easter Bunny.  To see all the details of how I created this page, please join me at my blog here.

Amanda

For Julia's challenge I have had great fun creating some stencilled gel prints using some of my favourite art supplies. I've used the prints to make myself an ATB desk tidy. If you would like to have a look around my ATB you are welcome to pop by my blog - ink-a-pink

Toni

I love experimenting with my Gelli plate! For Julia's fabulous challenge, I've been exploring image transfer techniques. If you'd like to see how I created this canvas, please hop over to my blog, and all will be revealed.

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So please show us what you create using a Gel Plate and link up your projects below!  The link is open up to April 30th.
Just remember to create your project in one of our preferred styles: vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

We would like to thank you for sharing your beautiful art with us.  We always look forward to seeing the wonderfully creative ideas you have and how you bring them to life.

We also hope you, your families and friends are all healthy and safe in whatever country you call home during this unprecedented time of the Coronavirus crisis.

Good luck in the challenge, don't forget the Creative Guides choose their Top 3 for our Pinterest Board where your post will be linked to if you're entry is chosen.


virtual hugs to everyone!
Julia and the Creative Guides xxx

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Creative Card Making - Buffalo Plaid and Pine

Hello everyone!  Julia here with this month's Creative Card Making Post.  I'm sure everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that the mad rush of the holidays is over and hopefully we all found some time to settle down and enjoy them as well!

So with winter officially upon us, my mind has turned to snow and cold weather, cozy warm houses and buffalo plaid blankets!  

(Buffalo Plaid definition: a broad checkered plaid pattern usually of two colors)

I have two cards to share today inspired by winter and warmth.  

They are the same design but made with different colors.

I recently purchased these lovely dies from The Greetery, Botanicuts: Pine Bough and the Cozy Cup Coaster die and couldn't wait to get them out and create with them. 

I splattered this card with white water color paint.

I adhered chunky glitter to the pine needles.

 How different it looks just by changing colors!

 I splattered this card with yellow ochre water color paint and added just a touch of Distress Evergreen Bough on the white pine needles.

;'

Here are a few photos of my process.  

I die cut lots of pieces as my plan is to make more cards than just these two. 

Easier to do it all at once, right?!

I die cut the pine needles out of green cardstock for the first card but then also sponged them randomly with Evergreen and Pine Needles Distress Inks to give them more depth.

I glued the brown pine branch over the bigger pieces of pine needles and glued the smaller pine needle pieces over the branch (like a sandwich!) which adds even more dimension.

I assembled the pine cones (you just glue the little top piece onto the base and the other pieces just slip into the slots!) and then used colored pencils to color them along the under-edges (is that a word?!).  I brushed over the coloring with a water brush to soften the colors a bit.

I die but the coasters - one red and one white.

To create the plaid,  I masked along the lines impressed on the coaster using sticky notes and sponged every other section with Distress Black Soot, moving the masks along as I sponged.

The lines on the coaster make it very easy to keep your sponging straight!

One direction finished!

Then I turned the coaster and repeated the sponging in the other direction. And there you have the buffalo plaid! I love just looking at this!

And here are all the same pieces done with white card.

I just used a dark orange colored pencil on these pine cones, sponged the branch piece with Distress Vintage Photo and sponged just touches of Evergreen Bough on the pine needles.

Before putting the cards together, I ran some glue along the pine needles and sprinkled with chunky glitter.

After assembling the pieces onto the coasters I splattered the kraft card with white watercolor paint and the white card with yellow ochre water color paint.  Then I adhered the coaster to the card base.  The scalloped edge card base was cut with the Noted: Scalloped Square die from Papertrey Ink.  

My cards are 3 3/4" square.

I hope you have enjoyed my Creative Card Making offering today and I would also like to remind you that you still have until Jan 2nd to link up your card for our December Challenge: Holly Jolly Christmas found here.

From all of the Creative Guides at A Vintage Journey

We wish you a very Happy New Year!

We look forward to you joining us each month in 2020 for our AVJ challenges!