What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday - Gelli Art Prints

It's time for some WOYWW - What's on your work desk Wednesday.  You can read all about it here on Julia's blog the Stamping Ground.

This photograph was taken yesterday (Tuesday) and it's still that way now.  I had an afternoon of painting and pulling prints with my gelli plate.  I only have the one size and it just fits neatly into the space where I make stuff hehehe sounds very techie doesn't it?  But you know what I mean.  I have a large desk but only a small space to create in - nice and cosy.  

Anyway what you can see on my desk are the prints I made using the Gelli art plate.  I'm finding it very addictive and have to be strict with the time I spend with it - it's like having a creative relationship haha.  I've used some of the new goodies I bought from hobby craft on Sunday (I'd only popped in for some white envelopes).  

These prints will be used as part of a Christmas card project I am involved in for a company in London and will be part of a blog post - the 12 days of Christmas.  I'm really drawn towards the print on the right hand side of the photograph.  You can just see the colours on the first print and I've purposely hidden the rest of the image as it was the first one I pulled and I really love how it's turned out and will feature in my little project.

Gelli art prints

My goodies from Sundays visit to Hobby Craft

(the envelopes were on the other table).

Right I'm off to grab a cup of tea and heading over to the Stamping Ground to have a nosey around what everyone else has on their work desks.

Anita

Create Art Every Day November Day 1

New month, new challenge.  November's challenge is to create art everyday - check out the details here on the Create Every Day blog.  I did this challenge back in May of this year and found it a little difficult to create something new everyday.  So for this months challenge I have decided to work on one piece of art which will eventually be left in a public space to be picked up and taken to a new home as part of "FLOOD the streets with ART".  The day of abandoning the art work is 28th November or as it's known in the USA as Black Friday.  There are nearly 4000 participants from all over the world.

So this is what I have started today and hope to work on everyday and have it finished for the 28th.  It will be a mixed media piece.  The colours aren't quite right as it's more pink than orange but that will probably change as I work on it.  It measures 12 x 9 inches.  

Anita

Take A Hand or Two or Maybe Even Five

Do you remember when you were little and you traced around your hands and then coloured them in?  Well this is the same thing only you now have bigger hands and the art is a bit more sophisticated.

Why am I tracing and decorating my hands?  Well why not it's just another shape of paper/card on which to create art and you might as well make it unique............right?

I've made these for a swap over on ATCsforAll (Artist trading card site).  It's nice to have an alternative shape other than your basic shapes.  I think they add a different aspect and design element and also makes you think about how and where to place your designs.  I can't wait to see what I get back in return.

So what do you do with them I hear you ask?  Well you can make them into an altered book, add them onto a ring binder or even hang them up as a mobile (hence the decorated backs) or string them like you would bunting. The possibilities are endless -I've had mine on my art wall before packing them up - I'm hand delivering these to the host of the swap..................yes your eyes aren't deceiving you - I'm off to Rochester NYC in a few days for a weeks holiday and art weekend with around 20+ artists.

So here are my hands all using mixed media - acrylic paints, neo II colours, rubber stamps, etc. there are too many to list.

Even the backs have been decorated.

See you all soon.

Anita

How to make bookmarks or gift tags from scraps of paper

Gather your ingredients - scraps of paper, glue and a sheet of card to stick your scraps onto.  I used an A3 size card you can use A4 which is what most crafters have in their stash of cards.

This is what I call the "eww" stage because it looks like a 5 year old's work.

Next start adding paint - I used acrylic paint and added it using a crumpled up piece of bubble wrap - randomly.  You can use anything you like to paint with fingers, crumpled up paper towels, an old credit card etc.  

I then used a stencil with white acrylic paint to sections of the background.

  Over this I added spots of gel medium (with my fingers) and sprinkled some embossing powder (the turquoise bits) into it and heated it with a heat gun - on top of this I did the same again but this time I added some gold embossing powder.  

I also added some fibres which added texture but lost its sheen as I went over it with paint and glue - so you may want to leave it out or add it at the end.

These 2 pictures show a close up of the embossing powder and the texture it creates.  The more I heated it the bubblier it got - just make sure you have a good ventilated room - embossing powder is meant to be used with embossing pads to adhere the embossing powder but I like to experiment and gel medium worked really well (didn't give off any smell but just to err on the side of caution make sure you don't over heat it).

After the background has dried you can cut them to any size you want.  I cut mine to 12cm by 6cm.  I then mounted these onto coordinating card and cut around them so the clean card showed around the edges - you don't have to do this I just think it finishes the tags/bookmarks off and it covers the back of the original background - mine got glue and paint in parts.

Now you don't have to do this stage but I added some embellishments just to make them that more interesting and unique.  I used some odds and ends I've had in my collection box - you can use images out of magazines, text from newspapers in fact anything you like. 

To finish off I punched a hole at the top and added some fibres.

I hope you enjoy the tutorial.

Anita

Same Elements Different Look & Handmade Monday

It's time for Handmade Monday over on the Handmade Harbour blog.  My post today looks at how you can use the same elements but make each card different and unique.

I don't know about you but I get bored making multiple card that look the same (unless they are for an order).  I also like to give my customers unique cards to buy.  

I made the following using some text paper which I had printed and cut into triangles and mounted onto co-coordinating background paper.  The circles are lengths of quilling paper from my quilling days many moons ago - I have quite a collection.  I like how the tight coils lend themselves to the design of the trees as baubles and tree trunks.

I added a silver snowflake which was cut from a tree garland and the greeting is a rubber stamp from Stampendous.

I made different size coils with the quilling paper and added them in a line to make them look like a tree. 

I've also linked up with the following blogs.

Creative Monday

Art Every Day

Have a wonderful and creative week.

Anita

Lilac and Silver Christmas Trees.

It seems like ages since I used a rubber stamp in its own right.  So when I saw the challenge on the Artful Times Challenge Blog I knew I had to join in especially as the colour scheme is one of my favourites - lilac and silver.

One of the stamps I've used is from Penny Black called Xmas Constellation the other I'm not sure of as I'd taken it off the wooden block for better storage and the ink on the back where I had written the company name has smudged - if anyone recognises it please give me a shout so I can credit the designer.

This is the Xmas Constellation stamp from Penny Black.  I love all the swirls and fluidity of the design.

I liked this one for it's non traditional style again with the swirls - can you tell I like swirls?  

These cards are linked to the following blogs as well so why not pop over and have a nosey around at what everyone has been making.

Handmade Monday at Handmade Harbour

Creative Mondays 

Art Every Day

Artful Times Challenge 

Happy Crafting

Anita