Monochrome Madness, Part 1

 Hi Crafty Friends,

I'm in a monochromatic state of mind and wanted to share a few of my most recent monochromatic creations with you--all in summery shades of blue-green--from light pool to deep teal, but each in a very different style:  

I made all of these for our June monochrome challenge over at A Blog Named Hero--and my center (shaker) card is also for this week's Beyond the Blue Challenges.   And all the stamps and dies above are from Hero Arts!  I am getting pretty attached to this idea of a simple singular color palette--it gives my brain a chance to focus on other aspects of a card--texture, material, layout.  

In fact, I like this idea so much that I have one more one color card--and my second YouTube video to help illustrate a background technique I use in the card.  Perhaps you'll drop by again tomorrow for this Part 2 blog post of my monochromatic obsession.

I hope you like these cards--and that you'll visit these two challenge blogs for some more inspiration from my very talented co-designers and also to join the challenges.

Thanks for stopping by,

Essie  

Abstract Seascape with a gel press and stencil

It's Friday.  Let's daydream a little. 

During these unprecedented, often difficult, times, art takes me away from the worries of the day. While I'm immersed in colors, shapes, and textures, my doubts just recede into the back bits of brain.  

Lydia Fiedler (aka Understand Blue) is a great artist AND a great teacher.  Some of us get together most weekday evening for her Facebook Live "classes" and we chat with her and each other--and it is a saving grace, for me, of the pandemic.  At the Beyond the Blue challenge blog we try out Lydia's techniques, share them, and encourage you to join us with your own creations.

So, our Beyond the Blue Challenge this week is to make a "folded" gel press landscape--and Lydia's short video explains it best.  Do watch it -- and all of us on the BTB Design Team would LOVE you to give it a try.  Please post it on our blog and let us see what you make!

Here's mine: 

I added a favorite swirly Hero Arts stencil to the bottom of my print, and used two yellows and a blue and a blue-green acrylic (Golden Open is the brand I've like best for gel press) for this abstract print.  

Here's what I see:   (and you can see what you want!). This is my imaginary view from aboard a large ship as I lean out over the water, and peer into the hazy, hot horizon, where I see a foreign port coming into view.  I see minarets, or tall masts of sailing ships.  If I close my eyes, I hear the ocean.

I've put this 8X8 framed gel print in our family room--where I can look at it and dream of new adventures.  

I hope you'll try this technique and post your creation on our challenge blog!  It's much easier than it looks--and so much fun!

Thanks for stopping by,

Essie

New Year, New Challenge (Blog): Beyond The Blue

 New Year, New Challenge (Blog)! 

I have been crafting with some new Facebook friends for a few months now (thank you, Pandemic), and, under the guidance and tutoring of @understandblue (Lydia Fiedler), we've all been discovering the wide world of mixed media papercrafting techniques.  The new techniques and new friends are a powerful combo--and the results often pop up in my cardmaking.  

Enter this:  Beyond the Blue--a papercrafting techniques weekly challenge blog, where a few of us will try out one of Lydia's techniques that are mostly demo'd in one of her many YouTube videos, and we'll post our results, in order to inspire you to try out that mixed media craze.  As our fearless leader, Lee is choosing the techniques, and we're trying them on, one at a time.  

We hope you'll try these techniques, too and link them to our new challenge blog--anything goes and definitely, definitely Use. Your.  Stash!  My fellow design team members are all Understand Blue followers, and I hope you'll follow them, too!  

Looking forward to seeing what you create, and we'll all be "showing some love" to your linked creations.  

How I made it:  Today's new technique is to use your gel plate or gel press (same, same)  with something most of us have in our cardmaking stash:  dye reinkers, embossing ink (like Versamark) reinkers, and stencils.  Lydia's instructional video is linked in the challenge blog.  The card above is my favorite result--so far!

What I used:  The reinkers were a combo of things in my stash, the stencil is a leafy bordered 6X6 from Simon Says Stamp, and the die cut is a set called Botanic Images from Mama Elephant (that I coveted, bought, and never used...until now!). And the gel plate measures 6X6 The bits below the card are to show you that I've used EVERY little bit of the print I made--those scraps are all that's left!--and also peeking out beneath the card and scarps is a second print I pulled that uses the stenciled image in reverse.  I'll use that in another card, or maybe in my art journal. 

I hope you'll check out the rest of my friends' creations when you go to our challenge blog.  Most of all, I hope you'll try this technique for yoursel, and please post your creations!

We'll be back next week with a new technique--and a new challenge!

Thanks for stopping by,

Essie

Use Those Gel Press Prints!

 

I struggle a bit with backgrounds (I may have mentioned this previously) but with gel press prints, I have a ready supply of interesting colors, patterns and even depth and shine to use as card backgrounds.  Today, instead of focusing on one of those backgrounds, I've used my gel press prints for die cuts the clean and simple 5X7 inch card you see above.  

Method and Chat:  Using a gel press is easy and relatively inexpensive. The only real equipment you need is a gel press, a brayer, copy paper (yes, the stuff you use in your computer), and some pigment. For the card above, I used Golden Open acrylic paints, but  I've also used dye inks, pigment inks, distress inks, alcohol inks, and watercolor (so there's almost certainly something in your stash that works).  Understand Blue has great gel press videos on You Tube - if you're interested in good tips and techniques and videos, I've linked you to her playlist. 

I've made some pretty successful prints (meaning: just what I wanted!).  Here are three I like:

 I've also had some failures (meaning:  not what I was aiming for....cue sad horn music, mwah, mwaaaah, mwaaaaaaah).

And that's where today's card originates--with this gel press failure:

This print was just NOT pleasing to me--the cake impression is blurry, and the gifts didn't work out at all, but I did like the colors.  I decided to salvage the print because of those happy, saturated colors--they look like a party to me.  

First, I pasted the copy paper print onto a thin piece of card stock (65#, the inexpensive kind) to give me enough body to be able to die cut the page.  Next, I grabbed the (Hero Arts) cake die I used to make the impression you see above and die cut the cake from a colorful part of that same failed print.  

I grabbed a (My Favorite Things) sentiment die, and cut it out twice from a second (similar) failed print, which I'd also (first) pasted to lightweight card stock.  Tip:  The glue needs to be FULLY dry before you die cut...ask me how I know!

Next:  I aligned and die cut the sentiment out of white cardstock, and carefully pieced in (inlaid) the gel press letters.  I put the cake on a wobbler and placed it to the right of the sentiment.  Done.  I get wobblers from Art Impressions. I think they not only elevate the piece cake to give the card some texture/interest, but I really like the whimsy of that cake kind of wobbling about.  

And that's it--I'd love to hear what you think of the card and whether you've entered the gel press craze!  

Thanks so much for stopping by, 

Essie