The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

-
I had a fabulous idea to create a beautiful card for my friend from a Gelli Print. I kept putting it off and putting it off and then Cloth Paper Scissors posted a card tutorial by Tammy Northrup that I fell in love with!  Follow the link above to see what I had in mind.

I thought that rather than flicking paint at a blank piece of card stock, I would start out by stamping some color with my 3"x5" Gelli Plate.

 This was very pretty.
I wanted the bottom to be a green or yellow so I brayered a bit of yellow at the bottom so that I could splatter green over the top for the grass and flowers.  This wasn't so pretty. 
I had a hard time splattering until I found the right paint brush to get my splatters just right.  Once I did the method worked perfectly but I was tired and it was taking awhile to cover the yellow with the green.  Finally I decided it was time to start over.
For my next attempt I laid down a mask.  The dog mask was from a stencil I had created.  The painting was going okay until I decided to try taking up some of the splatters with a piece of deli paper.  OOPS!

The splatters became big blobby blobs of blobbity mess.
Looking at it now I could probably go over the blobby blobs with a pen and make them into flowers or something but I wasn't thinking very clearly that day.  That is the way some days go. 
I did try to salvage it by stenciling the dog in where he had been masked.
But. . .Blah. . . Yuck. . .No. . .
The mask on the other hand came out very pretty!
Maybe he'll get used in something later.

I put it all aside and decided to go for something different:
A blank sheet of paper with the dog mask underneath.
I filled the stencil in by stamping with the small Gelli Plate.
It didn't work out like I wanted it to.  I can't even find the piece to photograph it.  It was a lot of white and the dog wasn't well defined.  It probably just needs more layers and some drawing to define the dog.  Again this wasn't the card that wanted to be made that day.  It was time to pull out the big guns.
I took one of the "ugly" pieces and using my Silhouette electronic cutter, I cut out several dog silhouettes.  Next I pulled out my 8"x10" Gelli Plate and printed some plain-ish backgrounds, followed by a light Gelli printing with a stencil over the top.  I added some outlines with a little white pen, a piece of black card stock and FINALLY, after a full day in the studio, I had created ONE card I could get behind! Whew!
The card was Mistyfused to a second piece of card stock to make it nice and strong. 
I feel good about sending this card to my friend!
I hope she enjoys it!
Since my Gelli Plate, brayer and paints were out, I decided to continue playing.
I pulled this piece onto a black piece of card stock and I just LOVE it!  The stencil is from The Crafters Workshop (Dandelions TCW255).  I don't think I want to fold it in half for a card but I'm not sure what I will end up doing with it.  I do know that I want to play with it digitally.  Maybe something like this:
Anyone have any brilliant ideas?

Comments

Lynda said…
Lisa, First of all, you Mistyfused the card onto another card? Humm... never thought of that. Your final card turned out great. However, I still like your first one that could be drawn or doodled on. It's not finished! I like how he's sitting in color. Love what you did with the last piece.
November 23, 2014 at 6:30 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gelli Plate Tutorial with Leaves

-
Image
Here's the Gelli Plate Tutorial you asked for! My Gelli plate has been well used and well loved. 1. Place Gelli Plate on a flat, covered working surface, and place small dots of paint onto the plate.  My demo photos are with me using acrylics and paper but it works exactly the same with fabric paint and fabric.  I like using Jacquard Textile paint when I make fabric prints. 2. Use a brayer to spread the paint evenly across the plate. 3.  I used the leaves as a resist for the first print. 4. Place the paper/fabric on top of the printing plate and smooth it out nicely to get an even print. 5.  Carefully lift up the paper/fabric. Found a photo from when I printed the fabric - see same process. This is a first print. 5.  I know that MONOprinting means ONE print but seriously, when you remove the leaves from the plate there are these beautifully textured leaves left on the plate just dying to be printed.  I couldn't ignore them!  So this is wher
Read more

Quilt National

-
Image
My husband and I took a red-eye flight to Columbus, Ohio, and then drove the one hour to Athens, Ohio, to attend the opening of the Quilt National quilt show where my piece, Wild Flowers was being shown. Made a stop at Tim Horton's, a Canadian chain for some delicious breakfast sandwiches and donut holes. We went to the Kennedy Art Museum, on the Ohio University campus. This is the side of the building. Photo of the front of the building from the cleveland.com website. The building was designed in the 1860s by Cleveland architect Levi Scofield, and was originally part of the Athen's Lunatic Asylum. It opened in 1996 as the Kennedy Museum of Art. There were some lovely prints, paintings and exhibits. It didn't take long to tour, which was good for my knees. I was glad to be able to see this Elizabeth Catlett print. I admire her work. I've seen some of her her other prints in person, and was anxious to also see this one. Friday evening, the Quilt National show opened, and
Read more

Autumn is for the Birds

-
Image
I was thrilled when my friend Jamie Fingal ask me to create something using her new fabric line, Autumn is for the Birds, from Hoffman Fabrics. I decided to use my favorite method of creating: free form piecing.  When I create a quilt with this method I rarely plan anything out, other than perhaps a general size and a few elements.  The problem with this method is that I often have to rearrange as I go.  And sometimes I need to unpick - a LOT.  I took a few photos as I went to help me get an idea of where things were going and then based upon those photos I added or changed.  I put the photos together in a short power point so that you could see a little bit of my process.  I apologize for the dark photos as my design wall is in a dark hallway but I think it still gives you a good idea of how things went. The final quilt is approximately 30"x 37". I love the focus fabrics!  There are a lot of textures in all of the fabrics.  Honestly, I could have quilted
Read more