More Lace

Our Vintage Lace journal group is small; there are only 5 of us, and we've been moving the books along very quickly.  Last week I received Tracy's gorgeous book from Elena, and have managed to not only work on my pages, but finish them.  Tracy's theme is the art of John Willian Waterhouse, and once I found the image I wanted to use, everything else seemed to fall into place.

Here is my double page spread; Tracy will bind it into her book down the middle, between the two rows of buttons.

And closer views of the individual pages.

 

 

I included some beading (pink and bronze seed beads) around the image (which was printed on cotton fabric).

 

 

 

And had the perfect flower in my stash of Prima embellishments.

 

 

 

Some of my antique buttons found a new home too.

 

 

 

The back has to be finished, though not decorated.

 

 

 

I only have one more book to work in, which I should receive some time in March.  If things move along as they have been, my own lace journal should return home to me in April.  Yea!















What To Do.......

......with all those gelli plate prints?  In my last post I shared the results of a weekend spent churning out prints on deli wrap.  Then comes the question of what to do with all those papers piling up around the studio.  The first thing I thought of was a wonderful journal I made last year in Michelle Ward's Debris Journal class at CREATE NJ.  I never did anything with the covers, so decided to put some of my gelli prints to good use.

I started by selecting a few sheets and randomly ripping them into pieces.

I used Ranger's Glue N Seal to adhere them, (also randomly, and with a lot of overlapping) and also applied a top coat to seal and protect the cover.  I generally use the matte finish, but this time I opted for the gloss.  It's not really all that glossy, more of a satin or semi-gloss, and I do like it a lot.

BTW, the journal was constructed of 6x12" pieces of corrugated cardboard, and the only way I could even semi successfully photograph the cover was to lean the book up against something and try my best to eliminate glare.  Like I said, semi successful.

 

After the top coat dried I added some more stenciling and the silhouette on the bottom right.  That is a Dina Wakley stamp, applied to yet another gelli print and cut out.  I added the white dots, red heart, and the arrow and word BE afterwards.  Here's a close up of that.

 

 

 

The arrow and word are actually a little rubber stamp I carved myself....stamped with black archival ink and outlined with a white Sharpie poster paint marker (water based).

 

Oh, by the way, the print the silhouette is on was done on the gelli plate using the new Tim Holtz distress paints.  They react very differently on the plate than other acrylics and result in interesting prints without even adding stencils or other designs.  Hard to describe, but if you have any of the paints give it a try.

 

Not my favorite holiday, but I do realize that it is February 14, and therefore Valentine's Day, so here is a sweet vintage image I found on The Graphics Fairy.

 

 

 

Whether you're a romantic who embraces V-Day, or a non-believer who ignores it, have a wonderful February 14th.









A Perfect Threesome

Did that get your attention?  No, not a description of my weekend, but the combination of stencils, deli wrap, and a gelli plate. 

I was first introduced to the joys of using deli wrap as a substrate by the wonderful Anne Bagby, and I've been hooked ever since.  Later on, I noticed that Julie Fei-Fan Balzer was using it a lot, especially with her gelli plate.  I signed up for her online  gelli plate class (IMO a steal at only $15), and fell in love with the deli wrap all over again.

Last weekend I spent a very happy couple of hours churning out one design after another.  Just experimenting with different stencils and color combinations, not overthinking (truth be told, not thinking at all), and I now have a big stack that will be used as backgrounds, torn up for collages, and who knows what else.

Most of the stencils I used are from Stencil Girls.  I recently joined their stencil club, which gives me three stencils a month (that are exclusive to the club members) and access to MaryBeth Shaw's instructional videos.

For the most part, I used very inexpensive acrylic paint, including cheapo metallics.  A drop of Golden's fluid acrylics here and there, but mainly this is not only low tech, but low cost.  The only thing you might not already have is the gelli plate itself.  Trust me, you will enjoy using it.



Vintage, Shabby and Blue

No, my friends, the title does NOT represent my mood, but the theme I worked with on my newest collaborative art journal project.  Not my first rodeo by any means, but the first round robin in the Kindred Souls group.  And my first pages (not counting what I did in my own book); these are for Kimberly, and vintage, shabby and blue is her theme.

I started with a background I did on deli wrap with my gelli plate, but that was the last paper I used.  It was into the lace and ribbon and bead stash after that.

The center piece began as a little heart with a printed image in the center, but the shape soon got obliterated by all the embellishments,

 

 

The blue lace was actually off white, transformed by a generous spritz of blue smoke Perfect Pearls mist.

 

Originally I'd planned to just do one or two rows of beads, but obviously got carried away.

 

The stick pins, to the best of my recollection are from Maya Road.....except for the largest one, which didn't start out as a stick pin at all.

 

 

 

I just glued a button from Tim Holtz's idea-ology accoutrements collection to a trinket pin (another Tim piece).  I used Ailene's super tacky glue, which is becoming my go-to adhesive lately.

 

 

 

Another close up.

 

 

 

The back just needed to be finished, not decorated, and I began with another deli wrap gelli plate paper, and added a little stamping (stamp from The Stampsmith's Art Nouveau 2 set) and collaging.

 

 

 

As soon as everything is totally dry, this journal will be on its way to Mary-Beth in Canada.  I LOVE these round robins!