Gelli plate experiments, part 1.

Hello everyone,

A little while ago Gelli Arts contacted me via Instagram to ask if I would be interested in experimenting with the small Gelli Plates. They wanted me to use them as stamps. Of course I said yes and they kindly sent me these to play with:

So, I played for quite a while and I will tell you about my Gelli Stamping adventures for the next 5 days. This is the first post. 

Experiment no. 1

I always use 170 gsm drawing paper with my Gelli Plate Printing so I decided to do the same for this project. I started with my favourite colours and some stencils. I didn't use everything in the photo by the way.. 

I mounted the small square Gelli Plate from the set off three on my stamping block.

Added some paint....

and started 'stamping'...... I filled the whole page with a base layer of this.

Here is what that looked like..

Next I took some different shades of blue paint and this flower stencil...

and started re-stamping. You basically brayer the paint on the Gelli Plate, put the stencil over the top and dab some of the paint off with a piece of paper or a baby wipe. Take the stencil off and stamp again. 

This is what the whole page looked like.... You can see the light has changed as the weather went from sunny to thundery.... Sorry about that...

I quite like the result. Of course you could use this as a background for art journaling or as a base for a card; maybe cut it into ATC's. The possibilities are endless. And if you think it is to dark or to bright you can always give is a wash of diluted Gesso over the top to tone it down. 

Experiment no. 2

I used the round Gelli Plate from the set, some different colours of paint and a bottle cap & stamp to create some interest. 

After brayering the paint onto the Gelli Plate I used the bottle cap to create rings.

I continued doing this varying the colours as I went along. 

Next I took a contrasting colour and a rubber stamp by Carabelle Studio (designed by Birgit Koopsen). I followed the same procedure. Brayer on the paint, stamp the stamp onto the Gelli Plate and lastly stamp the Gelli Plate. 

Looks fab, doesn't it ? Again, you could use this for all sorts of things. Background for an Art Journal page, cards, tags, act's....

I hope you enjoyed my first post and are looking forward to the next one tomorrow... 

I certainly enjoyed this experiment. 

Thank you so much for stopping by ! 

Star light, star bright !

Hello everyone,

and happy June.. Can't believe it is June already.
For this month's challenge over at Country View Challenges the lovely Evelyn chose the theme of 'Crackle" and I made a little wallhanging out of a paint stirring stick ! haha... so much fun !
Here's how:

First, here's a photo of the finished project. I quite like how it came out !

and here are the steps:

First I had hubby drill a hole in the top so I could hang it up. Also I covered it in Gesso. One layer is enough. 

I used my PaperArtsy paints and also their crackle glaze... So brown first, then crackle glaze, dry and then the Stone colour. 

Here is the stick covered in the brown paint, not very pretty is it ? 

Actually I panicked after applying the paints and crackle glaze as there was hardly any crackle... Maybe my glaze is too old.. Anyway I rubbed some of the light paint away with a baby wipe and some elbow grease... and had a think of how I could get the result I wanted. 

I then remembered I had a pot of Distress Crackle by Ranger (Tim Holtz). So I just painted that all over the stick and what I didn't expect to happen, happened... Some great big crackles developed ! Yay .... very happy with the result. 

Next I used a brayer and Dylusions paints to create some colour to stamp on.

I used this Dina Wakley stamp set. Had it for ages but not used it very much. A great excuse to get it out and use it ! 

Here's the stamping... I changed my mind in the mean time and stamped some more...

When I finished stamping I cut them all out with a little border. I also stamped the sentiment from the same set. 

I adhered the cut out shapes on top of some scrunched up twine onto the stick and I think it looks rather nice... 

Here are some close ups....

I like it !!! I Hope you do too and I've given you some inspiration to play along ! 

Make sure to read the rules first though ! 

Thank you so much for stopping by ! 

Boo !

Hello everyone,

and welcome to another challenge over at the Stampotique Designers' blog. It is Coby's turn today and this is what she had to say about her challenge:

"Say 'boo' to little children and they will laugh... Use the word 'boo' on your project this week to let us laugh."

I have made a mini art journal for this challenge and this is it :

The background was gessoed first and then finger painted with PaperArtsy Fresco paints. Next I took a stencil by Tim Holtz and some Distress inks in similar colours and stencilled the little blocks. 

The numbers/letters were white embossed. 

The wall was stamped twice on pattern paper and I just added some shading to the stones with a Distress Crayon. I then cut them out and separated some stones to create the wall that you see. I added some shading under it with a Faber Castell Big Brush Marker.  The rabbit and little guy were stamped on white card stock, coloured with Copic Markers and cut out. I only needed head and shoulders and hands of  Schmurfy. I adhered them on the page. 

The 'keep out' sign was stamped on white card and also coloured with Copics, cut out and adhered to the wall. I drew the nail and wire it hangs on. 

Lastly I stamped the sentiment and added some white pen around the letters. 

I used the following stamps:

Typewriter Alpha

Never-ending wall

Hare

Schmurfy

Mashup 

I hope you'll play along with us this week. You could win one of two $30 vouchers for the online store at the end of the month. You have all month to play. Just remember NO digi's and only one entry per person per challenge.. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today ! 

Magic

Hello everyone,

I have another postcard to share today. I have made this for my monthly DT post for the lovely Roc Nicholas who, as you might know, designs stamps for Stampotique Originals. I have used three of her stamps on this card. They are listed at the bottom of this post.

I made this postcard on a background I had lying on my desk for ages. It was an experiment with lots of model paste and Mica powders. I really like the result, so today I decided to use it. 

I stencilled the polkadots on with white paint and a blending tool. Next I die cut a large circle and then die cut that with one of Tim Holtz' mixed media dies to create the holes. I think that looks pretty cool. I then coloured the cirlcle with Distress Crayons. After adding some washi tape to the card I adhered the circle and took it to my sewing machine and stitched around the edges. 

The rabbit was stamped on white card stock, colours with Copic Markers and cut out. I adhered him to the circle. 

Next I stamped the 'heart vine' stamp and the word 'magic', coloured the hearts and stems and took a dark blue Archival Ink pad around the edges of the card. 

I used the following stamps:

Bunny

Heart Vine

Capture the Magic

Thank you so much for stopping by today ! 

It's your birthday...

Hello everyone,

For my second inspiration piece for Christine's stencil challenge over at Country View Challenges,  I have made a birthday card.

I started out with a piece of pattern paper on which I stencilled the letters. I used a Tim Holtz stencil called 'Cargo' and Broken China Distress Ink with a blending tool for this. I distressed the edges of the panel and added the same ink. Next I stamped the main image and the gears; all from the same stamp set by Tim Holtz called 'Dapper' (CMS267). I used black and gray Archival Inks for this. 

I then added the sentiments (both TH also CMS219 & CMS236) and decided that it needed a little white. I used a Dylusions polka dot stencil and some white acrylic paint for this. 

I added a chipboard moustache which I had in my stash for ages, I just painted it black and adhered it in between the hat and shoulders. 

Lastly I adhered the panel to a white card. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope I gave you some inspiration ! 

Through the looking glass with Stampotique! .. and a give away !!

Hello everyone, 

Today, for the UK premiere of the new Tim Burton film

 "Alice through the looking glass"

with the delicious Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter

 a few of the Stampotique DT thought it would be a nice idea to make something to celebrate this film. 

I have made a set of three ATC's featuring Janet Klein's lovely Alice stamps.. 

and here are they individually:

Apart from the sentiment, these are one layer ATC's made with.....

the stamps, Memento and Distress Inks and Copic Markers to colour the images...

Oh, and my old trusty typewriter to make the sentiment and a fineliner for the lines around the edges... 

If you would like to receive these ATC's in your letterbox, all you have to do is leave me a comment here on my blog. I will draw a name out of the hat on the 16th of June and announce the winner. 

I used the following stamps:

Mad Hatter

Daisy daisy

Fax to Wolfgang

Rabbit

Mash up

Alice

Design Cube

Thank you so much for stopping by today  !

A lion with a bird on his head, a monkey with earrings and a flying hippo !

Hello everyone,

and welcome to my two-weekly post for Katzelkraft. Today I have a trio of ATC's for you. The plan was to make all of them one layer and it was going really well until I finished the hippo one and didn't like the background, so I made a new background, cut the hippo out of the original ATC and adhered it to the new one. The other two are one layer ATC's and all I used was the lovely Katzelkraft stamps (list under the photos), some Memento ink, Distress Ink and Copic Markers...

Here is a better look at them individually :

Here is a list of the stamps I used:

KTZ118 - for the background 

KTZ169 - for (part of) the sentiments

KTZ168 - Jungle Animals