Let leonie loose...Carabelle and the wonderful Gelpress

Carabelle....how much do I love these stamps.  The designs, the quality.  The variety.  They're ace.  This weeks LLL show was made up of good worker stamps, you know, the sort that will be a good background for all your other stamps, dies, stencils...all your stash.  Use them with clay, angelina fibres, texture paste or lashings of paint.  Whatever...they will work.

I had my first proper play with the Gelpress.

Addicted.

Honestly, I'm having withdrawal symptoms...I had to do "other stuff" today, and quite frankly didn't want to.  Well, I say this, I wanted to combine it with the other stuff to be honest! Block printing on top of these backgrounds....that is definitely going to happen!






The joy of all the pieces is how easy they are.  I had to have a play to find my feet first of all, but when I got the hang of it, there was no stopping me.  The stamps are amazing, as you lift the paint off the Gelpress, and then take a print.  Layering, and adding more detail, colour and texture adds such depth to each piece.



It did help having a block of card stock at hand.  The Clarity card is perfect, it prints beautifully, and has been cut to the perfect size, so you can easily print in precisely the same place - making the ability to layer your images really simple.  I also used the paints from Barbara, these were the Viva Decor acrylic, and of course the Gel Press.













I used the stencil below, from Indigo Blu, quite a lot, as it's perfect for pulling out specific words, or using it for the full verse. 











Many of the layers were also using the bird stencil from Carabelle, which again is such a handy tool.  I also reached for my Mamma Makes stamps - always handy for journaling and art pieces.



Homework for myself.....who fancies a GelPress workshop next year?  :)

25 days remaining.....Challenge time

25 days.  That's not a lot of time...where on earth did 6 months of my life disappear to?  Isn't it scary.  Well, today has been a play day - which certainly wasn't supposed to happen, but it's all creative learning and developing.  That's what today was, a Creative Development day.

First, I need to thank everyone for getting involved in the challenge, yet again.  I love reading your idea's - there are some absolute crackers.  But there can only be one winner, and this week it's Sheila Joss.  Well done Sheila.  And get this for a strange challenge:

Egg Shell
Rub ons
Tissue Paper

haha.  Love it.  The cool thing about this challenge, it makes me do a little research and try something different.  So, I googled crafting with eggs.  Many moons ago I had a go at blowing the eggs and decorating them.  Quite liked it actually, but crafting has taken a different turn.  Mosaic using egg shell.  And the results look cool.  I'm going to have a go, but I need to soak the shells over night - I've had scrambled egg for dinner (thank you Sheila), and the shells are soaking, as I need to remove the membrane otherwise the adhesive doesn't take as well.

I'm really looking forward to having a go with that tomorrow - fingers crossed they don't disintegrate over night.

Whilst my eggs are soaking, I decided to have a play with the Gelli plate.  As this is still relatively new to me, I thought I would share my journey with you - and show you the rubbish efforts, as well as the okay ones.

This was the first one I remembered to photo.  I applied the paint to the GP, and then used a leaf, which I brayered on, to leave the print.  

I enjoy the experimenting process, and find I was getting rubbish prints initially, until I got the hang of it.  And I still kept quite conservative.  Here I've applied orange

Then green.  The green paint has gone a little strange, and watery, but I thought I'd see what it did.  I applied the leaf again, a few times on the GP

The definition is distorted - but I do put this down to the watery consistency of the paint

Next I applied the orange and green, and popped my stencil into the paint, to lift off the paint

I like this one

I then brayered paint onto a stamp, which I stamped onto the GP

It's quite subtle.  I think a stronger colour would have looked good

Next I brayered over the top of a stencil, then removed the stencil.  It leaves a great print, so I popped the card back on the GP, and you can see the double circle from the stencil

I applied paint to the stencil, and then transfered this to the GP.  I popped my printed card on top.  Like this one

For this one, I lifted the paint off with the stencil again, and got quite a nice print, 

I then added a block of  colour with my brayer, and colour which I picked up with another stencil

I printed this over my original image. 

Okay, I decided to change colour, and applied these directly to the GP

I popped my Clarity mask over the top

Resulting in a very dramatic print

I like the paint left on the GP, so I decided to take a print of that as well

There was still paint on the mask, so I popped it back onto the GP and brayered it to transfer the paint

I put my original print back on the plate, and picked up the excess paint.  I was really pleased that I had managed to line it up almost perfectly!

And then I went and ruined it!!  I added a very strong blue

Urgh

I had taken a second print, so I decided to ruin that one as well!  I added more of the strong blue, but this time with the cirle print

And transferred this to my lovely original - and then popped it in the bin :)

Oh no, wait, not before I added even more of the horrendous blue!!

Yep - this is the point it got binned.  If you're going to ruin something, you may as well do it properly

I didn't learn.  Here's the blue again!

Owww

I still tried.  I popped the stencil on the GP

And brayered a lighter blue over the top

I removed the mask

And then attempted to rescue the horrid print.  mmmm

However, the blue on it's own looks lovely (phew).  This is the first print

And this is the print using the residue left on the GP

I brayered colour through the circle mask

And printed again.  Like this one.

I applied more colour, and brayered through the circle mask again

And did a print on the second piece.

There was loads of paint, and the print left on the brayer, can't waste this

So I brayered onto the GP

And took a print

I added more paint, and made some circles

Which I over printed. 

Change colour again.  I like this vibrant mix.  I used the lid off some bottle to add circles this time

And then brayered through a mask

This is quite a strong print.

Again I had the paint and print on my brayer which can be transferred again

I decided to knock the colour back a little, so applied a lighter shade, which I covered with the mask.  This time I left the mask in place and printed

This is the paint left on the GP, which of course needs printing

It has gone a little muddy - but I do like the print

I added more paint.  I didn't try to get a smooth surface, as this in itself will create visual interest

I brayered paint onto my stamp, and stamped onto the GP

When I printed the trees look really subtle.  I like this one a lot

Next, I applied paint onto the GP, and then popped my acrylic block onto the GP, to pick some of the paint up

Quite like this.  Not sure about the colours though

I brayered paint onto the acrylic block, and transferred this onto the GP

I then over printed onto one of the earlier pieces.  Like it!

And then...I ran out of time and realised I was really late!!  

I hope you join me tomorrow to see what becomes of the poor little egg.