Ingenious Inkling

Gel Printing Fun

I'm continuing to have fun and challenge myself with the #marchprintingchallenge at GelliArts.

Day 7's theme was Transparent.  I realized I had never tried gel printing on a Transparency, so I pulled out Dina Wakley Media Transparencies and gave it a try.  I did several pulls mixing green and turquoise.  When I got a look I liked, I pulled up the rest of the paint with a sheet of paper.  I love the tiny bubble effect the transparency produced on the plate.

 

 

Day 8 was CardBoard.  I went to our Condominium Trash Room and picked up a piece of torn cardbard that had fallen on the floor as it flew down the trash shoot.  I peeled back one layer and used it like a stamp on my plate, first going vertically with Dina Wakley's Neon Pink Acrylic and then horizontally with Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise paint.

 

 

Day 9 was Book Pages. I chose page 473 of Automobile Ignition Starting Lighting and printed with layers of four translucent golden paints, so you can still see the cool schematic. I love using pages from books like these for masculine cards.  I used my leftover piece of cardboard to provide some texture on the layers.

 

 

Day 10 is Tissue Paper. I’ve saved this cool shoe-printed Tissue Paper for a long time for some sort of artsy fun ... and this was perfect.  The printing is on the back of the paper.

 

More March Printing Challenge

I had fun Gel Printing over the weekend for the GelliArts #marchprintingchallenge on Instagram.

Day 3 is Crayons.  I had fun trying a new technique with Distress Crayons.  I put the Flora & Fauna Criss Cross Stencil on a dry gel press, sprayed on water, added crayons and then picked-up three prints.

 

 

Day 4 is Pattern, which is defined as a repeated decorative design. I chose this repeated globe-like pattern stencil and had fun creating multi-layer pattern prints.

 

 

Day 5 is Feathers.  I pulled out my favorite hand-carved feather stamp from Tyggereye.

 

 

And lastly (for this post) is Day 7 - Initial.  I attached foam letter stickers to a clear acrylic block and used Dina Wakley Orchid Acrylic paint.

 

CLEAR-ly Winter Fun

The new prompt at Jingle Belles is to create a holiday card that contains at least one see-through element, whether that be glass, a transparency, some vellum, acetate or "ghost" shapes, clear stickers, lucite buttons, shrink plastic... whatever you like... if you can see through it (& figure out how to attach it!) put it on there and link it up! 

I started my card with a new Dina Wakley Media Pattern Play Set 1 Transparency cut into a square.  Next I attached a tiny little Penguin Sledding Gift Tag Card to the transparency with foam tape and then added a Simon Says Stamp Reverse Sentiment Strip.

 

 

I used strong two sided tape behind both images to attach it to the glitter card base.  I finished with several clusters of sparkling clear sequins to complete the design.

Uproot & Move

Another collage card that combines vintage maps, music, images with some gel prints.  I'm a glue as I go collager ... Just pick a piece I like, glue it down, and continue building up the layers. It makes me trust my decisions.

 

 

I loved combining all of the flowers, especially the one that fit right on top of her head like a fabulous hat.  I also loved the vertical feel of the trio of paint brushes.  I also love those Dina Wakley Collage Words ... the transparency is perfection.

I'm linking-up my collage at the Vintage Challenge at My Time to Craft.

And since Stencils were used on my Gel Prints on the background and along the right side, I'm joining the Stencil Challenge at Inkspirational Challenges.

Spend Energy on What Matters

The TGIF Challenge is What Would You Do Without Stamps?

 

 

That's a pretty easy one for me, but today I'm picking Collage as the answer to that question.

I started with an inky foreign texty die cut piece with washi tape on the right side.

 

 

I added a few layers and decorated the traced butterflies with some hand-drawn bodies & some nuvo drops (you can see I got in a bit of a hurry before they dried, so there was a but of mush, but I'm okay with that).

The sentiment is a Dina Wakley Collage Words that impart a wise thought (one of the many options for sentiments that don't involve stamping).

My Time to Craft is celebrating their 500th Challenge with Numbers ... if you look at the top right of the text, you can see 1435.

I am the luckiest.

Tonight's card features one of my favorite song lyrics by Ben Folds from Impression Obsession Love Songs 1.

I created my background using a combination of red & pink Dina Wakley Media Gloss Sprays.

 

 

I attached it to a card base covered in iridescent silver cardstock and finished with a scattering of silver hearts.

Collage Fun

When I visited Lauren in the fall, we decided to have what we called Collage Camp.  She worked on amazing mini-books, and I had fun shopping her stash to make some cards.  What it reminded me is that I should spend more time cutting things out, so I can then have fun playing and combining images.

This one was one of my favorites.  I started with a Gel Press print and then built the elements.  The top back piece reminded me of a Ruth Bader Ginsburg collar.  

I'm not a collage planner.  I find a piece I like and I glue it down ... I'm committed.  I just keep adding layers until it makes my heart happy.  Lauren told me that style of college is something that is recommended you try to learn to trust your artistic voice ... love that.

 

I added the Buddha, a sea shell, a lotus and lastly an image that reminded me of The Electric Company (a happy memory).  I figured the Buddha would be listening to some relaxing meditative tunes.

I finished with a tissue sentiment from Dina Wakley Media Collage Words.

Here's one more that was a lot of fun.  This one starts with some very subtle design paper as the base with a cool inky print on top.

 

 

Next cam layers of burlap, a patterned piece of wood from a magazine, an Asian print page stenciled with Pinwheel Bricks stenciled on top and the final layer is a Wax Seal on a doily.  Playing with your artsy besties leftovers is so fun ...  I love how they all work together.

I finished with another Dina Wakley Media Collage Words.

Happy Love Day

I spent part of today purging my studio and trying to decide which backgrounds to keep and which Reverse Confetti products to keep.  

This background was made on a day I spent playing with Dina Wakley Gloss Sprays.  It's sort of an unexpected color combination (Lime, Blackberry & Orchid I think), but I love it.

 

 

I paired it with bright green cardstock in the same hue and coordinating Glitter Paper.  After choosing a card with these Reverse Confetti dies and stamps as a favorite of 2022, and loving this card, I moved them from the donate pile to the keep bin.

It also reminded me that I need to intentionally just "play" with product groups more often like these gorgeous Gloss Sprays.

Bring Your Heart Comfort

Today's design started with the Retro Rubber Stamp Challenge to use a Tag.  I went hunting through my Gel Press/Inky drawers looking for tags.

 

 

I chose the tag at the top left that I made with Dina Wakley Gloss Spray, because I thought it would have nice contrast with some Autumn leaf colors.  

 

 

Next I took one of those orange tags and used My Favorite Things Die-Namics Falling Leaves.

 

 

I pulled out a rusty Gel Press Print and a golden Alcohol Ink Roll-Off paper from the big-drawer-of-prints, and pulled the card together using the layout from Sketch Saturday.

 

 

And for my Retro Rubber Stamp sentiment (in this case Retro Acrylic), I chose one from Simon Says Stamp Moments of Grace from December 2018.

 

 

I'm also linking-up at Global Design Project.

 

ABCs of Gel Printing

It's September, and that means it's time for the ABCs of Gel Printing on Instagram.  Even though I have more prints than I'll ever know what to do with, I love the creative process of making a few prints ever day.

 

 

One of the challenges with an Alphabet on a Gelli Plate is that you need it to be backwards to print readable.  I went hunting through my supplies to try to solve that problem.  I thought about die cutting some letters and flipping them, but then I found this We R Memory Keepers Alphabet Embossing Folder and the problem was solved.  

One thing I like to do with this exercise is stretch my creative muscle, so I combined magenta and red (which I normally wouldn't) and loved the effect.  Those will make some great card backgrounds.

 

 

Here's a close-up view.

 

 

Day 2 is B for Brown or Black.  I decided to use four different Brown Distress Oxide Inks and a new Lined Circle Stencil from Dina Wakley.

 

 

I used the three lighter inks to print an ombre solid print.  Next I used the stencil to add the darkest brown.  The second print is a clean-up print.

For day 3, C is for Circles I used the same stencil with a different combination of Distress Oxide Ink.  This time I applied the ink to the plate, but didn't brayer after.  I got this unexpected but very cool bubbled effect with the inks.

 

 

I also did what I refer to as the Gel Printing Happy Dance when I got that middle print.  I don't use an alignment tool, so I couldn't believe how perfectly I lined up the two prints ... those little bits of art-making magic are why I love this process so much (and I love the color combination of Victorian Velvet and Uncharted Mariner).