Gelli Fever

I've posted about gelli plate printing before and how much fun it is. I found my stash of papers the other day. Some of the prints I thought were not that pretty at all. I discovered it wasn't the whole page that parts of it looked great. So I decided to cut them up for ATC's. I don't make a lot of Artist Trading cards but thought these would be fun to have some backgrounds ready.

Once I started it was hard to stop.  I love some of these colors and patterns.

Then I thought of tags.  So I got out a vanilla tag and started tracing it on various papers. It was so fun to pick part of a design out and focus on a certain area.

I love the bright yellow with the black green and blue in this one.

The layers of color in this one are so varied and subtle.

More yellow and black that seems to pop off the page.

The set of four here all go together even thought they are different. In some of the patters I can't remember how I even made them.

I love the gold in the one on the right. These are going to be a blast to decorate.

This is one of my favorite ones.  There is something about that blob of red paint that speaks to me.

Another thing I thought that might be fun would be to cut the scraps up into inchies and then combining them together to make new patterns.  Its great when you find a treasure in your own studio. Do you ever find surprises that you didn't know you had?

Getting Back in the Flow

This is my tag for this week.  Its a little bit dark, I am not sure I like it.  Maybe its too much black and white.  The theme was recycled materials. I used parts of old calendars and scraps from a catalog, in addition to paper scraps from many sources.

I have not spent much time in the studio yet this week.  I added some stamping to this page but not much else. I am stuck on where to go next with this, so I'll let it sit for awhile.




















I did some beginning painting on the black sheep portrait. I thought I'd do light layers at first but that is not what happened at all. This is turning out to be quite a challenge/

This is the reference photo I am using. I am finding painting something black is not that easy. I started using black, paynes gray and white. Mixing them has not given much of a variety. The next round maybe adding some purple or blues to the mix might help. Its all a journey after all.

This week I've started exercising again. A walk on Monday and then to the gym to lift weights on Tuesday has me more tired than usual.  It is hard to get back in the swing of things.

A New Find - At Last

I have been looking for one of these for years.  Its just a plastic doily but alas so hard to find.  I have a friend who works at a thrift store and she saved this for me.  The best 25 cents I have ever spent.

I used it in this background.  This was one of those pages that I hated so I kept putting things on top.  The last use of spray ink using the plastic canvas made the page look great. I am so excited to be able to use this.

Here is the tag I made for this week.  The theme was weather, so I just used raindrop paper. This was fun to put together.  It was the third tag I tried, sometimes things just don't flow. Art is like that sometimes you just have to keep going.

Paint Party Friday

Lots of different things going on in the studio this week.

Some doodling I did with markers. I wanted to start using my markers more and I think I used every kind of marker here.  Aqua markers, Sharpies, Copic etc. I got the idea for sea urchins on Pinterest.  I like the idea of just repeating an image in various sizes and form.

A face in oil pastel. I created this on Fabriano hot press paper with Sennelier oil pastels. I am trying to get better at profile views. So its practice and more practice.

A tag with the theme board games. I used papers, cards and Faber- Castell gelatos and embellished with a chines coin.

Some work in my art journal. This is in my new journal. I used gelatos, tissue paper, paper scraps and more.  It was a fun page to do.  I love the quote by Van Gogh.

"I am always doing what I can't do

 so I may learn how to do it."  

That is my art journey in a nutshell. I want to do something so I try try and try again.

Don't forget to check out Paint Party Friday to see what others are doing today. There are often over a hundred people linking. There is bound to be someone who can inspire you?

Little Steps

I need to keep reminding myself that this recovery is a series of little steps. Some days I get down because I can't do much of anything and then other days I realize I have come pretty far.

Today I need to remember that:

*I took my first shower without any assistance.
*I don't have to wear those awful support hose anymore.
*I get dressed every day like a normal person would.
*I can walk further each day.
*I can do a little bit of art if I pace myself.

I did this page last week at a time where I was really enjoying just laying around reading a good book.















On this page I had the background done and then added a copy of a face I had painted previously. Then I got this free download from Carmen Torbus and one of the words was passion so when I added that word the journaling followed.

In some ways its been strange I have wanted to do some art but my heart and soul
have just not been in it. I find I just can't sit there long enough. So to still have my hands in things I went for a couple tags instead. Sorry to say these are not the best pictures. Just don't have the will to go retake them like I normally would.














This one is just a collage and then I layered some distress ink on top. The dots on the paper are raised because I had put them through an embossing folder and through the cuttlebug machine. When I rubbed the stamp pad over the tag just the raised dots took the ink. I like how that came out.















This is just a series of layered things. I layered paper over a tag and then added the plastic flower layer and fabric tape and then the bird seemed to fit in well. Even these little bits of art have been satisfying to do.

What little steps are you taking in your own life? Do you notice that you are doing them, that you are making progress towards a goal?