Pulling thru a stencil on crumpled deli paper

I watched a video from Elizabeth St Hilaire on pulling a gel print on crumpled deli paper, but thru a stencil. I liked the effect and wanted to give it a go. Sadly her own stencils aren’t easily found in the UK (nor her stamps) so I used some of the PMAS stencils. They actually do free shipping over $125 and I saved up to place a large order. I used similar colours, dark blues and purples, and metallics for a pop of brightness.

After pulling some basic solid backgrounds in a dark colour, I crumpled the deli paper into a tight ball then didn’t smooth it out fully before pulling thru a stencil. I did find that rolling over the deli paper wiht my soft rubber brayer gave me more from inside the stencil on my pull.

I did pull thru the stencil for some

but rather than waste the paint of pull it on something else, I pulled the metallic paint after removing the stencil as well, And I really liked those too.

All in all it was a bit of fun. And I have an idea how to use them – shocking!

Son + cat are settling in, slowly. I’ve had a few scratches and strokes accepted, but not yet had her leap onto my lap – Dear Son says that is good, because she needs her nails trimmed and he hasn’t done that yet. Ouch!

One paper finished.

Yeah so the whole getting Son + Cat home thing seems to have kicked into high gear. Flights booked, exit tasks in progress, and we have a busy week leading up to his arrival. His room is clean and tidy, but there are three appointments for Darling Daughter (one a drive away) a mammogram for me, and endless daily Zooms for The Hubster (three to five a day) as well as DD’s birthday party.

Still need to rehang the curtains after washing and yeah, an American king-size bed is bigger than a UK super-king so it dominates the room. But there are two large wardrobes and a dresser behind that partially open door so hopefully not too cramped a space.

All that is by way of explaining why I’ve made so little progress on finishing the papers I shared on Friday. Shocking, really. While I had intended to work on all of them kinda at the same time, in the end I was most inspired by one of them so I focused on it instead.

There are three PM Artist Studio stencils here (gears, asemic writing and the blue bit at the top, I forget it’s name) and I really like them a lot. As the plan was always to cut the sheet up, I wasn’t too bothered at how it looked as a full sheet. I ended up making one of the pop-up cubes that I shared ages back. I printed the template on A3 heavy weight cardstock and used a proper rubber band rather than the linked loom bands like the smaller printer paper version, and it pops a treat. I do have a video of it but adding a video doesn’t really work here. This MIGHT work….

https://www.dropbox.com/s/grbc86sd8atlucq/IMG_5777.MOV?dl=0

Anyway, the sides ended up looking pretty good, to my eye, although I might add more surface decoration to it. Making an “art cube” was from a You Tube video shared in a private group and this was how I chose to interpret that. Sadly, in my box o’blocks under my desk, cubes are in short supply.

I still absolutely love that circle of numbers, a very old Banana Frog stamp set for making calendar embellishments for scrapbook pages, and I use it a LOT.

Now, I still have three more sheets to complete. DOH!

V is for VIOLET – another Gelli bird

As I have mentioned, my first Gelli bird got crushed in a house move. So sad.

One of my favourites – my GelliBird!

Well, the V: VIOLET challenge for the Gelli Arts ABC Printing Challenge struck a chord. I mean, I did make those fun alcohol ink pieces I shared yesterday, but they were just samples, not what I am really bad at, Print to Project. Looking over them, I realized I could quite easily use one of those pieces in a bird project I was considering for V: Violet. So I did!

I heavily edited my bird template in a few ways. I always created a box to add behind the base, to make it more stable, but I was able to add one to the base so it is part of the template itself, also altering the cut lines and crease line so it all worked. Result! I also made the outline curvy and got rid of virtually all the harsh angle. In the end the only bit I preserved was the two angled cuts that join the flat piece into a 3D shape.

I ended up using the same stencil from the alcohol ink play to create kinda feathery patterns on the wings and the body, in purples and gold.

and finally, I added the alcohol ink on contact paper from yesterday to the base. That gave it more weight at the bottom and offered more stability.

All it needed was a few finishing touches, including using up some of the gem swirls I pulled out for the repair of my doll banner!

all I had left in the end!

And the final bird:

Pretty darn happy with that.

WOYWW tomorrow. I think I missed a few people at the end of the list so will check that and visit, so I can start fresh in the morning with the new list. Hopefully, now my back is a bit better, I can scamper up the ladder and hang the doll banner and share that in place as well as a tidy desk.

When I am an old woman, I shall wear PURPLE….

The ABC Printing Challenge I am working on is U: Upcycle. At the moment I am sharing experiments. I was watching the sample video, gelli plate printing on plastic bags, and it made me think of clear things, like plastic page protectors, hard plastic packaging, and clear contact paper. And I thought about things that would remain clear – like Alcohol inks. That set me off on a journey LOL!

First experiment was thinking I might make a version of the circle curtain, using page protectors or contact paper instead of plastic bags. I thought they would be too opaque. Interesting but not very crisp, visually

So I tried adding the AI to the plate thru a stencil then sat looking at all that wasted ink ON the stencil. With the ink drying on the plate

I shifted over to another idea. I stuck a sheet of contact paper over the STENCIL – both sides had plenty of AI on them – and dripped a bit of straight alcohol into the holes. As part of the Upcycle part, I was using that hard foamy, plastic packaging to apply the ink, so pouncing that thru the holes added some of the ink on the packaging as well.

Such a lovely burst of colour! I stuck that to a bit of hard plastic clamshell packaging and held it up tot the light. Yummy!

Much like the first one, it is still indistinct, albeit pretty enough. Possibly need more of a play. In the end I peeled it off the plastic and added it to some white paper. And I pulled the print off the plate and did the same.

Love it but not sure how to use it. I do have a thought for the other bit, and will share that tomorrow!

A bit brief – K is for KEYS

Scheduling in advance cause all day today is taken up errands and stuff.

With the challenges, I sometimes catch the sponsored shorts on YouTube (under one minute, bare bones info) and I think to myself Well, that was MY idea for the challenge too – now what will I do? In some cases, really there aren’t a lot of options. Take the J: Jeans one. They used a pocket to put the texture on the plate, almost like an image transfer. So what else is there? I mean I have … two other ideas, but one is going to take a bit of experimenting to see if it will work, and the other (of course) requires an old pair of jeans. Which I don’t have – all bundled off to the charity shop at some point. Should I go buy a pair back??

Anyway, I kinda felt the same about KEYS. I played a bit with using some different things like alcohol ink and pan pastels, but frankly it was all just a key or two or three and not very interesting. So I went another way. A bit like my choice of using an image transfer of Joe EXOTIC for E: Exotic I used an image transfer of typewriter KEYS for this one. Inspired? Not really. It was still just an image transfer, but I do like the look of it. I used Payne’s Grey for the transfer part, and Quin Gold for the pick-up and the contrast is stark.

Just a bit of a close-up:

Sometimes, the amount of detail you can get surprises me!

That’s it for today, short and sweet.

L: Layers – yeah I am all over the place…

Still trying to catch up and get the house back to normal. My crafty space is getting there, but there are other places that need more attention so it keeps getting a bit of time, the promise of more, then forgotten for a bit.

I have a piece I was playing with and another use for a bit of rubbish. You may recall I showed using some plastic packaging to get a textured effect with acrylic paint.

Well, I had a thought…the fact it is plastic might make it an interesting thing to use with Alcohol inks!

It’s maybe a little hard to explain, but you know when the AIs are kinda more on the dry side and you pounce over them, the ink disperses into little cells? You can get that sort of effect better with the plastic packaging than with the foam pads. Or at least *I* think so. Anyway, this piece had a lot of layers: alcohol ink, mica powders, a few layers or stencils, acrylic paints…

And the final piece I really like.

I feel like this could end up as a tip-in art journal page. I had a further play and made a similar piece with only a couple of layers. What I loved about this was how the mica that was clinging to the edges of the letter stencil transferred and gave me an outline while also kinda containing the alcohol inks! I love it so much and (like happens all too often) wish I could re-create the effect reliably. I plan to play with this a bit more for sure.

I will be at the hospital for the day, but am still hoping I manage a decent WOYWW view of my space tomorrow. Fingers crossed I also manage a full day of visits, before and after a potential knitting mate visit!

P is for Pastels!

Firstly, the whole window replacement thing was a LOT more mess and disruption than expected. Long days cleaning up 120 years of dust from the sash windows being pulled out, and truly endless cups of tea and coffee took up more time than expected.

Back to the Gelli Arts challenges. I had an idea I wanted to try so I skipped over a few of the ABC Challenge letters to jump right to Pastels. Weird, how we interpret things. When I first read it my mind went to pastel colours – pale, dreamy soft colours, very much not me most days. But I realized it was probably PAN Pastels so grabbed those instead.

I had this feather stencil I got a while back, I think from WISH, and it was a bit big for most things so I grabbed than and a rainbow of colours

I mean, I knew this was going to work in the usual way, obviously, but I also had my pot of mica powder on my desk so…

Both things are dry so I didn’t have a lot of concerns about rubbing the mica over the Pan Pastels, but I still took a bit of care. If I did this again, with this sort of stencil, I think I would take the time to cut out the image to make a mask for the rest of the background, or take even MORE care when smudging on the mica. Still, it turned out pretty cool.

My plate was VERY dirty, so I got a lot of residual stuff pulling up, and yeah, it looks a bit lackluster but, as ever with mica, when you tip it towards the light…

Just not able to truly capture the lovely effect. As ever with these challenges, the first attempts are only ever experiments. But taking what I learn with each one will inform further play.

I have a couple of classes I still need to either begin or finish, and J: Jeans thru O:Oval to catch up on but the house is still not back in order, although the windows are IN. Phew. Probably share a shot or two for WOYWW, where (for the first time in a couple of weeks) I will hope I can fully participate. Might try to squeak in a few visits before then if I can.

Seems weird, sharing such a colourful image on a sombre day. Luckily my important and much re-scheduled Drs. appointment is tomorrow, not today, so it was not cancelled. Phew. Life goes on.

ABC Challenge – Image transfer

Oops. Forgot the schedule this one… here it is, a bit late in the day…

Today, I: Image Transfer! Well, of course I was always going to play with the mica powder layer under an image transfer for this one cause I really love how it looks, and I have an image I really wanted to use. But I also had to play with my pan pastels to see if it does actually work on the same principle, as Zsuzsa mentioned she thought might be the case. So begin with the expected – smear the mica powder all over the plate in a thin but fully-covering layer:

Roll on the black paint in a thin layer, lay on the image (this one is a laser print, but yeah, magazine images work too) and rub fully but lightly. Remove, add the white paint in a thin layer and pull the print. I have walked thru this a few timesso won’t bore you with a ton of phots of paint on the plate LOL!

Such a funky image LOL! I love the paper used for the transfer too. Very interesting as well.

And it is fun to tilt to see the shimmer and then as it shift to a black image

So I did try the same with Pan Pastels and it does work in a similar fashion but for me, not as well. My rainbow-ish colour choice was wrong, the fuchsia and purple too dark, I think, and possibly the brayer should have been cleaned between black and white layers, but yeah, kinda it works

Wroth playing with a bit.

H is for hexagon but…

…no hexagonal plate! I considered using a mask to block all but a hexagon shape, but then I remembered my high school Geometry class – it reminded me a hexagon is basically just a series of triangles. And I DO have a triangular plate! Woo hoo!

I grabbed it, some blues and greens, and a stencil, then set about creating my hexagon

For some reason my paint is beading up more than I would like – maybe it is that I am using too much, maybe it is because the brayer needs cleaning or it is the wrong one? I got there in the end but it could have been better.

Then I decided to try a different version. Bearing in mind there are workmen constantly wanting cups of coffee or tea or needing me to move something or have questions, I kept both getting interrupted and rushing to finish, it wasn’t awful, but not my tidiest work. Again, something I will play with again. I men, I know the mica works, but certain colours work better and certain paints work better to pull them off. I think I would love to try some sort of higher contrast version at some point, but not this week for sure!

Th tipped version is more about trying to capture the shimmer of the mica. The next one shows more the stencil patterns and colours.

WOYWW tomorrow. I did not manage a single desk last week and that might be the first time ever I joined but did not comment. I will probably join, if only to show how stark a contrast my room is now to usual but they will be working in there (I think) so time will tell if I get to my desk – or have internet if the server room is shut down. It will be quite a relief to have THAT done as it is one of the critical “business” room in the house, one of many LOL!

More ABC Challenge, if a bit late and out of order…

Not managing to do the challenge on the day, cause of the chaos. But I did have a go at something I was keen to try, image transfer on fabric. Now, to be fair, my transfer was on the smooth side of a scrap of leather, one that I got in the grab-bag when the local glove factory closed down. It worked pretty much as you would expect it to!

You can see how clear the transfer was.

So the issue might be how waterproof the image is. In this case I tried heat-setting it with my embossing gun, then tried wiping the paint away with a baby wipe. I mean, you aren’t going to toss a leather anything in the washing machine, now are you? The paint didn’t move.

I pulled the image off without adding more paint, so the image is not as dark as I maybe would like, but it works for me.

I think this could work as a patch on a jacket, for example, but I do have a few ideas to also try:

• will it work on materials other than leather?
• would it be more permanent if the image was transferred using something like clear gesso?
• what about gel medium instead? what about sealing it with Fabric Mod Podge?
• …

So yeah, I am thinking this challenge is doing what it says on the tin – challenge participants to push the edges of the envelope and try crazy new things. Love that!

Seems I did I: Image Transfer here but I am not really claiming double days, so I still need to have another go at that with a different sort of technique…