What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 291

Well this is the last WOYWW for 2014.  I missed last weeks as I was ill (spent all of Christmas in bed) I had all good intentions of writing a very quick post but it just didn't happen.  To see what WOYWW is all about then pop over to see Julia she'll explain it all over at the Stamping Ground.

So what's on this weeks desk well I can't really share what's on my desk as it's for a magazine article.  I can however show you what I had left on the desk yesterday (and was still there this morning) so technically it still counts right?  This is another painting I started last week.  It's on a much bigger scale than the one I made in the 5x7 journal - very daunting to have all that white space staring at you.  

Well that's it from me short and sweet.  I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years eve and brings in 2015 with a massive flurry of sparkle.

Stage 2 adding colour and details

The beginning- stage 1 

Gelli prints from last week.  The bottom 2 right prints are on Daler Rowney cartridge paper - ghost/clean off pages they always seem to be my favourites.  The other prints are on fusible interfacing.  I used Stewart Gill textile paints.

Happy New Year

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #289

Welcome and good evening to another Wednesday WOYWW #289.  What's it all about?  Find out here on Julia's blog the Stamping Ground.

I hope your Wednesday has been brighter than it has been up here.  It's been a day of constant drizzle and rain and today of all days I decided to visit the Christmas market in Manchester.  It was now or never as it ends this weekend.  It was a nice day out just drifting along from one stall to another.  

Anyhow you're not here to read about my day out.  Here is how I left my desk this morning. What you see on the desk is some magnetic backed frames which I bought from Pound World they were a horrible pink colour (see 2nd picture).  I've applied some black gesso to them to which I'm going to add some metallic paint and some of the gems I bought yesterday which are in the round containers sat on top of the wax crayons on the left.  I'm thinking of putting some of my gelli art prints inside them instead of photographs.  

Here are yesterdays bargain buys from the local Pound World in the nail art section they had these pack of gems which you use on your nails but you know what they're also great for your artwork and you can't argue at the price either.  The large pack of crystal gems (540 approx per sheet) I found those in the stationary and craft items.  The packs of coloured gems were off the local market at 50p each.

Thank you for all the visits and I must apologise for not doing many visits last week as it's been a case of making and delivering stock to Authentic and then a day or so later getting a message saying my stock is running low.  Not that I'm complaining.  I'm just over whelmed with how much people are liking my work.  I'll try to do better this week.

Have a wonderful week Anita

Christmas Card With My Gelli Printing Plate

If you're on twitter and post your work there then you'll know how wide and far your image can travel not just to your followers but to anyone who is on there.  I posted a gelli print I had created and it was picked up by a pen company - Pen Heaven based down in London (follow them on facebook).  Paul came across the twitter picture and was intrigued by the process and asked if I would create a Christmas card which they could use in their 12 day of Christmas project.  So here I am writing this rather long post on a sunny but cold Monday morning.

This tutorial show you how I created my gelli prints using the Gelli Arts printing plate.  There are endless possibilities and and no two will ever be the same.  What I will say is have fun and go with the flow -  slap the paint on if you don't like it wipe it off.  There really is no right or wrong.  This is how I created my print and I know if I do it again I will create something else which will be unique and different. 

I am by no means an expert in fact I would say I am still a novice at the gelli plate.  So why am I doing this tutorial?  Well mainly because I was asked and also to show that you don't have to be an expert to do this type of printing.  I know when I first bought my plate I was intimidated by the whole process and never thought I would like creating in this way.  I'll put my hand up and say I love it and it's not going to be one of those fad buys where you use it for a short time and then it gets left on a shelf somewhere.  

So lets get started - the first image is the card I created and the 2nd is of the print from which it was made from.

Gelli print Christmas Card

Gelli print from which I created the above card

Some of the supplies I used for the card

Gelli plate by GELLI ARTs

1. apply blobs of acrylic paint to the gelli plate

2.using roller spread the paint to create background add paper on top and rub to transfer colour

3. cut triangles to use as a mask

4. apply blobs of colour in lighter tones 

5. spread colour over the plate and masks

6. using the corrugated board, sequin left over and bubble wrap create texture on the painted surface

7.  apply the background paper over and pull 2nd print - let dry

8. using black pen add the outlines and and 'bubbles' 

9. paint the bubbles with the water soluble wax crayons

10. add white swirls over the coloured bubbles and go over the edges with black pen to make the bubbles stand out

11.  crop the image to neaten the edges and add other elements using the black and white pens.

12.  using some left over pieces from another gelli print cut out the trunks of the trees (or you can draw them in)   Apply a thin layer of Golden regular gel - semi gloss - let dry

13. once the gel has dried apply  Golden's clear tar gel to create the bubbles as you can see it's cloudy but will dry clear (you can use any glue which will created a dome diamond glaze/glossy accents)

14 the bubbles will dry clear and give another texture to the artwork.  Now at this point you can cut it down further and create 2 cards or leave it as it is.  

I've left mine as it is for now - the above image shows how it would look if it was mounted and framed.

I hope the above steps have given you a starting point of pulling a gelli print.

There are more detailed and informative videos and tutorials by the lovely people at Gelli Arts. So why not pop on over to their blog website  or facebook page.

Have a fabulous week and enjoy your gelli printing

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #288

Good morning time for another WOYWW - go check out Julia's blog the Stamping Ground for all the details.

On my desk this cold Wednesday is a painting or at least my attempt at a painting.  It's at the very early stages where I've added some base colour.  I've never painted dark to light so it will be interesting to see if I can paint this way.  When finished it should be of a traditional Indian woman - well that's what I'm aiming for but we'll see.  As you can see the shading looks a bit dodgy hopefully that will correct itself as I work on it.  

I'm off to put it away for now as I need to make some more cards for the shop. Thank you to everyone who commented on last weeks post and apologies that I couldn't visit as many blogs as I would have liked to - hope to rectify that this week.    

Have a lovely day

Anita

I'm Late Very Very Late WOYWW #287

I'm running very late with this weeks WOYWW - better late than never right?  Would you believe I've visited 3 different hospitals in one day?  Yup that's right 3 - 1. for my mother's appointment, 2. to pick up mother's letter and 3. bring the father home after nearly 10 weeks in hospital............phew I'm tired from just typing that out.

Anyway this is how I left my desk this afternoon.  I have some work in progress penguins.  They're waiting to be embellished with my favourite rubber stamp (for now anyway) they will be attached to a coordinating clothes peg and will be making their way to a lovely little shop in Uppermill (Saddleworth) to be put on sale.  These 2 are to replace the 2 which were sold recently. 

The owl is going with them.  As you can see he's keeping his beady eye on the penguins as they can get up to mischief - see the last two pictures.

Penguins waiting to be finished off.

Mr Owl keeping his eye on the penguins - wings and eyes are made with my gelli prints.

They started on the wine as friends.....

.....and ended up falling out over chocolate

To find out more about What's on your work desk Wednesday pop over to Julia's blog the Stamping Ground and all will be revealed.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to leave a comment I really appreciate them and will always reciprocate.

Anita