DLP 2015 Weeks 4-6

I've been knocked out for the past two weeks with either a killer cold or the flu (I hope not the latter, since I did endure a flu shot), and finally started feeling well enough to sit up and attempt a blog post. Here are the last three Documented Life Project challenges.

Week 4 Continuing the January theme of Facing The Blank Page
             Art Challenge: Writing
             Journal Prompt: Words With Friends

As often happens, I started out with a "brainstorm" that went nowhere, but wound up happy with what evolved.

The background is a repeat of one of my own carved stamps over metallic paint. The borders are a stencil, highlighted with more stenciling in gold paint. The silhouettes are also stencils. The quote is a variation of one by none other than Aristotle. Hey, aim large.

Week 5 (Still in January)

              Art Challenge: Use under paper (you know, the paper under your work that collects drips, blobs, wipes, etc.)

              Journal Prompt: What Lies Beneath

The curvy borders and the thin rectangles forming the rays are my under papers. What lies beneath them: more layers. Paint, ink, stamping, stenciling, even a few transluscent stickers I found lying around.

February Theme: Layers You Will Love

Week 6 Art Challenge: When Not To Stop

             Journal Prompt: "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough!" (ooh)

This challenge was not really a challenge for me, though I totally enjoyed doing it. I am all about layering, and can (and often do) add them without a thought.

It did, however, give me the chance to finally play with the 8" round Gelli plate I bought ages ago. I have no idea why I bought it, besides that it is adorable. There is nothing I can think of doing with it that I can't also do with the plates I already had. But the round prints that emerged did give me an idea. I cut lots of rings from the circlular prints, cut them into segments and then reassembled them on the pages. (BTW, all the prints were pulled on deli wrap).

My layers, more or less in order: Gelli prints, stenciling over the prints, splattering, doodling with pens, outlining with paint, spreading gold embossing paste over a stencil, stamping with one of my own carved stamps.

This is the palette I used.

These are some of the stencils I used both in the Gelli printing and then on the finished prints.

As you can see, I'm not very obsessive about cleaning my stencils.

Some of the paint I used seemed to dry very quickly, and I was left with some on the plate that refused to come off. An easy fix is to lift the dry paint off with tape. As an added bonus, the tape can be used as an embellishement.

After removing the dry paint with the tape (I used clear packing tape), brush some Perfect Pearls on the sticky side. It will cling to any part of the tape not covered by the paint, and it is beautiful. I cut circles out of one of the strips and that is what I used in the centers of my reconstructed circles.

Did I have enough when I stopped? I'm not sure. Maybe another layer or two are in my future.

A Documented Life - 4 Weeks in a Flash

While I've been keeping up with my Documented Life Project prompts, I've been neglecting this blog. So, here we go, the last four weeks in a flash......

Week 32, use a fortune cookie. I know I have an envelope of them somewhere, but couldn't find it, so faked it with a download. My total inspiration for this was a workshop given by DLP administrator Roben-Marie Smith. I used the insides of security envelopes and gelli print scraps, and a whole lot of doodling.

Week 33, use the underpaper (you know, the paper under your work that collects all the inks, paints and sprays). In my case, the underpaper is the deli wrap paper I used to blot off excess paint on my gelli prints. Over top, some stamping, lettering, doodling, and stitching.

Week 34, use numbers in some way to indicate how the week went. This one really speaks for itself. All in all, a pretty good week.

Week 35, draw, paint, sketch, photograph, alter a face. In other words, do something to get a face on the page. No mention of stencil, but that is exactly what I used.....a very cool one from Artistcellar, which is actually a stencil and mask in one. I started out with a background which was created during a wonderful stencil workshop I took a couple of weeks ago with Michelle Ward. (Haven't blogged about it yet. Like I said before....poor neglected blog). It was the red rosin paper used to protect the table, and while cleaning up, I just had to cut out the section by my seat. This page started out completely covered with this paper. I placed the mask section on the right hand side and covered everything else with black paint. Then I used the stencil section to trace the smaller face on whatever was left of the paint smeared red rosin paper. It was cut out and glued to the left hand side of the page. Some faux stitching and writing with a white pen finished it off.

I know many of you signed up for the DLP. Are you still doing it? 

A Documented Life: Wish, Smash, Pocket

I'm a little behind in posting my prompt pages for The Documented Life Project.  Three weeks, to be exact.

Week 29: draw or collage your wishes. I had just read a magazine article (or a blog?) about using black gesso as a background, and thought it was a great idea. Speaking of wishes, I wish I could remember where I saw it, so I can credit the clever author. Anyway, this is what I did. The actual wishes, which I'd like to keep private, were done after I took the picture.

The doodling was done with Sharpie water based poster pens, souffle pens, and metallic markers.

Week 30: do a page in smashbook style. Easy for me, as I gave up on traditional scrapbooking ages ago, and have totally embraced the smashbook concept. This page is all about my week at CREATE, NJ.

Week 31: create a pocket for the week's ephemera. I either didn't do much, or didn't save many receipts, but there are a few. The pocket is thanks to my Envelope Punch Board. Pretty much everything was done with Gelli Plate print scraps.

I realized a while back that with all the tip-ins and embellishments that my book would soon outgrow its binding. This morning I took it apart and rebound it into two books, Jan-June and July-December. Since I didn't use a Moleskine planner, but a wire bound sketchbook,(and I own a Cinch binding machine) this wasn't difficult to do. I even found Gelli Plate prints in my stash for the covers that more or less go with the original book.

A Documented Life - Quote Worthy

The current prompt at The Documented Life Project is to incorporate a quote from the Bible (or a favorite book) into the work.

Words to live by, I think.

The background is (as usual), a Gelli Plate print on deli wrap paper, over which I did some stamping of grasses and flowers. The cornflowers(one of my favorite stamps, a VERY old one from Stampin' Up) were stamped with clear ink and embossed with Distress Embossing Powder.  The grass was also stamped with clear ink, but I used clear embossing powder there. I really like the contrast between the glossy embossing and the textured matte finish you get with the distress powders.

The lettering was done with a gold paint pen and outlined with a black Micron.

I often find myself wondering how I got along all those years without a Gelli Plate. 

A Documented Life -- Have a Heart

Just hours from the reveal of the new prompt, I've finished my response to The Documented Life's week 25 challenge:  include a heart.

First on the to-do list, spend a happy afternoon making Gelli Plate prints on deli wrap paper, then cut some up into heart shapes.

Next, use another Gelli print for the background, then arrange the hearts on it. Add some doodling on the hearts and a heart stamp (on the right, by Dyan Reaveley) and a quote (written with Sharpie water based poster paint pens). 

The final touch, some machine zig zag stitching down the center of the hearts.

A Documented Life - You Can Quote Me

The current (week 18 already!) prompt in The Documented Life Project is to use a quote on your page that will be an inspiration for the week. The weather here has finally changed, and winter has begun to give way to spring. The quote I chose to illustrate communicates my happiness and relief to see an end to freezing temps.  I saw my first tulips of the season this week.

The background is my usual go-to technique: a Gelli Plate print. This one was done on a textured handmade paper I had in my stash. I added some stamping to it.

The flowers were all cut freehand from scraps of various other Gelli Plate prints. I adhered them one at a time with a glue stick, then stitched around them on my machine. I also stitched around the entire page, both as decoration and to make sure everything stayed where it belonged. Here are close-ups of the very imperfect stitching. It's a good thing I like imperfection.

The lettering was done with a blue Sharpie water based poster pen. When dry, the letters were outlined with a black Pitt pen, and some simple doodling inside the letters was done with the same pen.

A Documented Life -- Separated At Birth

I've often said that I generally begin a project with a rough plan, but how it ends up is a whole other story. This week's prompt in The Documented Life Project is to include a bird image on a page. All I knew at this point is that I wanted a metal bird and I also wanted one made of fabric.

I looked at these two guys and the phrase "fraternal twins" came to mind. And the piece wound up being light hearted.

The background is a collage of strips of three different gelli plate prints. Metal bird was cut from a piece of aluminum which I stained with brown ink and stamped with black (both permanent - I used Ranger's archivals). Holes were punched with an awl and the wing attached to the body with needle and thread. His eye is a metal brad with the look of a screw.

Fabric bird was machine stitched on muslin, following a very lightly drawn outline, then colored with highly diluted water colors. When dry, I cut it out close to the stitching, and adhered it to the page with Ailene's tacky glue.

The moral of the story: a chance encounter can be life changing, even for a bird.

A Documented Life....That's How I Fold

A fold by any other name, is.....a tip in. Our Documented Life Planners are full of them, at least one for every week. This week's prompt is to do a fold (AKA, tip in) on a fold. I've been doing that all along, because my book is not an actual planner, and I have to tip in the weekly journaling pages, and they usually wind up on one of my pre-existing tip ins. But, in honor of this being a challenge of sorts, I did more than one fold on a fold.

This is what the page looks like. Just about everything on it is the result of gelli plate printing on deli wrap paper.

On the top of the page a tag had already been tipped in. On it, I attached (AKA tipped in; AKA folded on) a small brown paper bag. Here is what's under the bag.

The bag serves as a pocket, and inside, a small tag. The flower makes it easy to pull the tag out. BTW, the stripes (arrows and banners) that are all over this page were done with the gelli plate transfer technique. I've seen it demonstrated with packing tape, but I used Scotch Magic tape because it has a matte finish, which I prefer to the gloss of the packing tape.

If you lift the tag, the underside is covered with that tape. Shall we call it faux washi? And under the tag a continuation of my I'm-sick-of-winter-gimme-some-spring theme. Flowers and birds, people, flowers and birds.

Moving down to the bottom of the page are two small tags. The bottom one is hinged on the right, the top one on the left. Why? Absolutely no reason other than variety. To find out what I long for, you have to lift the top tag.

Good guess. I need some spring!

If you lift the bottom tag, a short rant on the subject, and another glimpse of what lies beneath the whole shebang.

The three larger birds were cut free hand from some gelli plate prints. The little guy on the bottom is from Prima (I think).

As far as art and folds go, I am finished. But I just may be inspired to add a few more words. We'll see.

A Documented Life - Let Me Repeat Myself

I find myself looking forward to Saturdays, when the creative minds behind The Documented Life Project post the prompt for the week. Week 7's suggestion: select a shape and repeat it throughout the page. My immediate thought was to do circles because I love circles, I'm always doing circles, and I have about a million circle stamps and stencils. Hmmm, where's the challenge there? Then I thought about silhouettes, for largely the same reason. Lots of silhouette stamps and stencils in my stash. So, naturally, I ultimately decided on triangles, not a shape I often use, and guess what? Barely a stamp, stencil, or other embellishment in that shape anywhere in my vast collections.

I went to the bag that holds all my gelli plate prints and started cutting triangles. I then used matte medium to adhere them to a page I had previously painted with a wash of turquoise. The triangles were overlapped, and in the spaces where there were none, I drew some in with pens. I created some triangular stencils by masking half of diamond shaped stencils with painter's tape, and stenciled some areas with black paint. I also outlined some of the triangles with black fluid acrylic.

I added some triangles of fabric, decorative napkins, and textured grungeboard. Then some doodling with glaze and souffle pens, and finally, a trip to the sewing machine.

Some of the triangles are lifted up with dimensional adhesive dots. That, along with the stitching, adds some texture and interest without adding a lot of bulk to a journal that is already getting very very big.

While I had the machine opened, I worked on a little top secret project. I'm "auditioning" ideas for an upcoming swap, so I did a little hand-felted heart, which is embellished with some fibers, held in place with machine stitching. 

BTW, the heart is actually about half the size of the photo. Don't know if I'll wind up using this technique in the swap, but I do like the way it looks. 

My Newest Toy

I preordered this little gadget back in February, and the company had delays in getting it out to vendors, but it finally arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I love it!  I've made plenty of envelopes with my score board, but this is so much easier, and the end result is perfect and professional looking.
I got mine at Marcos Paper, and I believe they still have it in stock.  (And no, I have no affiliation with We R Memory Keepers or Marcos Paper; I just love a good gadget).

One of my online groups is having a mail art swap, and judging from the sign up page, it looks like I'll have at least 20 pieces of mail art to get out.  This is where the envelope punch board comes in.  Like most of you, I suspect, I have piles of unused backgrounds I've made.....experiments, extras, even some journal pages I don't mind giving up.  I've been busy turning them into envelopes, and with very few additions (some stenciling or stamping or bits of washi tape) they are ready to go postal as mail art.

Here are just a few.  What do you think?

I used some of my favorite Wendy Vecchi stencils on these next few.  I dabbed Ranger's Embossing Dabber right through the stencil, lifted it off, then sprinkled embossing powder over the image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were made from gelli plate prints on deli wrap or old music paper (reinforced by pasting the prints on cardstock), and more Wendy stencils:

 

 

 This one, done on an old piece of sheet music needed reinforcing on the folds, so I used tape for that:

 



 

 

Wendy's Mail Art stamp set is perfect for this project, and I'll be using elements from it on all my envelopes.   Here's an example.  (I also used the dandelion from her Botanical Art set.)



 

 

This one features a great stencil designed by Ronda Palazzari for The Crafters Workshop:

 

 

 

I love the stencil of people holding hands; I've had it for ages and use it a lot.  It's from Retro Cafe Art.

 

 

 

If you happen to use paper that has art on both sides, you wind up with an envelope that is decorated inside and out:

 

 

 

 

I have a few more to go, and will probably add to some of these, but I've made a good start.

Oh, and by the way, the Envelope Punch Board makes MANY sizes, from the smallest gift card size to one that will hold a 6x8 1/2" card.