A Great Rainy Day

It really rained yesterday. A good day to hang home and just have fun. I pulled out my Gelli plate and had a great couple hours making tons of deli papers and watercolor paper  prints. Just call me the Gelli Print Queen. Ha-Ha!

My paint covered plate waiting for some design. I don't make gelli prints regularly but every few months I get a big hankering to play, and when I play, I make a whole stash of prints. 

I bought this big design roller stamp early in the summer. Wasn't sure if it was really going to work but it worked great. I love the straight lines it makes.

I am always amazed how cool these prints come out. I used some stencils and a plastic disposable knife and some plastic wrap along with my big roller stamp to make these designs. Nothing too fancy. Its all about the layering.

 Then I spent my rainy afternoon cooking and relaxing. I made some of these yummy ginger cookies. These are the best. I haven't made any in forever.

 And in between baking cookies it was a chick flick afternoon. Some days just call for those fun romantic movies you've watched like 10 times before. Still, great to see them.

And I thought I needed to go out. But staying inside and doing things I don't normally do made it an excellent day. How was your day?

Linked to Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Every Day.

Gelling

Now that my studio is a bit more picked up, I can actually find things.

YEAH!

And Sunday I spent some time playing with my gelli plate.

I haven't played for a bit and man, it was so much fun!

Can you see by my paint color choices that I had Halloween on my mind?

I have a fun idea for an altered book that I want to get started on.

So all my gelli prints were made on deli wrap so I can use them in that book.

I used a bunch of stencils. A few were new ones I bought recently from Artist Cellar.

And here's what I made.

I think the map in black look spectacular, as do the black stars up in the top left corner.

I love how this page come out.  I think it will be great for my Halloween project! This light green paint had a great glow look to it even though it is not glow paint.

I'm sure you'll be seeing these again, but they'll be in a different form when you do.

Have you been gelli plating lately?

I'd love to hear or see if you have.

Thanks for visiting.

New Toys

So last Thursday I had a few hours to kill between leaving work and going back for 8th grade open house which started at 6. Plenty of time to take a trip down to my favorite sort of local craft store which is on the North Shore of Massachusetts. 

I didn't NEED anything but of course what I wanted was a different story.

Here's most of my purchase. I found some fun things to play with in the studio. Then I spied this one item that I have been wanting, almost lusting after but haven't seen any where except on-line on blogs.

My heart skipped a couple of beats and then started to race.

I have a small one already-the 6x6 size, and have been wanting this rectangular 8x10 plate. 

That is my plans for today, to make some prints. I love this size for journaling because it will fill the whole journal page.

Even better, I found out I had a store credit that covered the cost of this plate, which they were selling for $32. This is like a belated birthday gift from the store to me!!!!

I was one happy bioartgal that day, I tell you.

Even made going back to school/work that night a lot better.

So I am off to go play.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steampunking Love

I told you I was into hearts lately, and here's a journal page where I played with this love theme some more.  I left the journal page white and added this scrap of gelli print image. I had die cut the middle out of the gelli print for another project but couldn't waste the edges. Too bright and colorful for the trash!  And what better place for a frugal crafter to use the left overs but in an art journal?

That sounds like the name of a book, doesn't it?

Hmmm.

Then I used this pink heart I die cut and scribbled the design along the edge in black and red. The saying I cut from a book, the postal mark stamp is from Tin Can Mail-a favorite I have had forever.

Cool steampunk butterfly and tulips are from Chocolate Baroque- a cool British stamp company.

I colored this butterfly image with silver,gold and white pens, along with inking it with a rust and brown ink pad. Then I added a bit of Sharpie marker color too.

Here's the rose close up.I really like how it came out.

Here's the saying in the middle of the heart. I cut it out of a book I have. It was one of those, things to do now that you are 50 book, and for me, it was kind of silly. I think at 50 you most likely know a lot of things you still want to try, but it was still fun to read through (just once) and it was a gift from a friend. So now it is being recycled as some good journal advice quotes. I thought the boomerang seemed to fit here.

It is fun to try different styles and try new things- especially if you stay true to your own vision. Yes this page is grungy-but I am

not very good at this many layered and frilly fancy pieces that are so beautiful to look at.

Mine are more like too busy, over loaded , look like I didn't know when to stop.

But journal pages are OK no matter how they came out.

And I am happy with this experiment.

Thanks for visiting.

Studio Chatter

A clean studio table (finally got around to doing that) so now I don't have a 12 inch x 12 inch square on which to work. Yahoo.
Look at this super clean work table!

How long will it stay this way-hhhmmmm I wonder?

And a new Gelli plate. Have you seen these?

People have been talking a lot about these in the last 2 classes I took. How much fun they are.

So last week I took a little trip to my favorite craft store and they had these in stock so I bought a 6x6 one. I thought long and hard too, walking around the store, because they cost $20 which isn't a lot but isn't cheap either.

I am glad I did though and now I know what all the chatter is about.
Look!

Talk about fun. I made a bunch of prints which I can use for various card backgrounds, scrap pages, altered books, what ever.

I had a blast and could make a bunch more.

And my recommendation-

VERY easy to use, Very easy to clean, and The results are very cool.
An A+++++++ tool.
Wish I had one of these a long time ago.
Have a great day.