An arty weekend...

Well weekend of sorts -- it was really Sunday and Monday. I went down to visit my friend Leslie who has those 2 days as her weekend and we did lots of artsy craftsy projects.

We played with sari ribbons, covered bangles, and made bracelets...

We did some gelli printing...

We worked on art projects, she made a small book and I worked on postcards... nothing special to show on those yet.

And... she taught me to crochet... again! She had already attempted teaching me before but apparently it did not stick. I needed a repeat lesson and more practice. So we started again and this time I think I have it... at least I can continue on my own now...

ATC for a swap...

ATC (Artist Trading Cards) are one of my favorite things to make. Little pieces of creative bursts to make and trade. The only "rules" are they have to be 2.5" x 3.5" and never sold. The ones people make to sell are called something else (I forgot). More info from the source we love to hate, Wikipedia HERE.

So Karen at MMSA decided to have another ATC swap and I made 4 to trade off. Actually the two yellowish ones with stamps and the green/orange one I had already made (and were just sitting around) and I made the abundance one when I was a Leslie's house a couple of weekends ago for an art play day.

My favorites of these 4 are the top two, the bird stamp and abundance. They are all mixed media in that they are painted (gelli print except for the abundance one), collaged, have pen/pencil doodling, and washi tape (except for the green/orange one).

A few more backgrounds...

It seems once I start playing with my Gelli plate I just cannot stop! I pulled it out again last night and made yet more backgrounds for some postcards! The orange and blue ones are just for me and the metallics is for the upcoming black-metallics post card swap over on MMSA.

These are just the starting layers. Each one is a piece of cardboard that I cut into 4 cards. No idea yet what I will do next but I like to have all phases of the cards around in case my muse hits me on the head and tells me she wants to play!

Sharing these oranges one with Mandarin Orange Monday.

Sharing these blues one with Blue Monday.

And these 2 metallics and black are the start for the upcoming swap over on MMSA.

As I make these into post cards I will show them here... might be a while because I like to have a lot of variety at hand to choose from.

Also linked to:
Creative Every Day

Made a few more postcards...

This time not for a swap but to keep on hand for sending out Mail Art. These are similar to ones I made before but different color sets.  I have pieces of cardboard big enough to make 4 post cards so I did 2 sheets of it with gelli prints and stamping then I cut them up and doodled and stamped more. Now that I have started swapping and putting my snail mail addy out there I am starting to get mail art I want to respond to and now I have a few post cards ready to go!

Linked to:
Creative Every Day

For a new beginning...

I love this poem. I first heard it at the New Year's Yoga workshop I took and then oddly, the author, John O'Donohue's name has been popping up all over things I read on the Internet. I was in the mood to work on a page in my art journal today and decided to add this poem.

The page started out just as a gelli printed page in my journal. I was in the mood to work in purple and ochre last night and this was the page I opened to. I added the ochre glaze (part gel medium, part acryllic paint) over the stark white printed words and then noticed a little scene was presenting itself at the bottom of the page. I took it to be small mountains with trees and cattails around a little lake so colored it in that way with Stabilo pencils and black pen. These are some of my current favorite colors.

Hot Glue Gun Stencils...

Who knew? Well apparently a few people judging from the You Tube videos available HERE, HERE, and HERE... but it was a new technique to me so I tried it this weekend!

You need:

a hot glue gun and a LOT of glue sticks, some parchment paper or a craft mat (I used 2 pieces of parchment paper),and I used a brayer to press down as it gets hot and hard on my hands to press the glue flat.

then for the printing you need:

a gelli plate, acrylic paints, and a brayer to spread the paints as usual, paper to print on.

You can follow the technique in any of the videos above, but basically, you lay down a design on the parchment paper using the hot glue gun, immediately press the other parchment on top of it, flatten it (for the gelli plate I found this is needed), then when the glue has cooled, lift it away from the parchment and you have your stencil!

Here are a few I did today:

Primary set (a la Jane Davies above), yellow layer first, then red, then blue.

Yellow first, then orange, then teal, with a wash of part yellow-part gel medium to soften it.

Olive green and magenta, with a softening overcoat of gel medium mixed with transparent iron oxide (Golden)

and its reverse ghost print (my favorite of all these I did today):

These are mostly tests, although there are parts of them I like and might tear or cut up to use in my journals or other art. When Leslie and I get together again after Christmas we are going to play with this technique more. I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

Linked to:
Colorful Gelli Party
Mandarin Orange Monday
Creative Every Day

Put a bird on it...

Last Sunday I had fun arting with Leslie again. Of course we played with gelli plates for a while (like I need more backgrounds, oh but I do!) then we made some bird inspired things. I made a post card for the MMSA post card swap coming up which she kindly scanned for me. Still working on how to make my scanner show true colors better or I would be working on that if I had a moment of free time to do so!

Gelli plate printed background, cut out collaged pieces from an idea in a book Leslie had by Roxanne Padgett titled "Acrylic Techniques", postage stamp, washi tape, pens, circle inked from (you will never guess this....) a piece of baby bottle nipple that Leslie had, cupcake wrapper for crest, and other miscellaneous paint/inks.

Linked to:
A Colorful Journey November Gelli Party
Paint Party Friday

Orange Post Cards!

Still coughing but determined to get some art and swaps done as well as resting this weekend. I showed you some swaps I had already done a week or so ago and am now just finally getting them all sent. They were all for Swap-bot. Here are the last of them for this round: 2 Orange Postcards.

Both are gelli-printed backgrounds with collaged bits of other gelli-prints, used postage stamps, and some rubber stamping.

And these are just in time for Mandarin Orange Monday which I can link to tomorrow!

I have gotten a lot more swaps in over this last couple of weeks and will get something photographed and posted soon!

Linked to:
Mandarin Orange Monday

A lot of orange!

This long weekend is turning into a lot of orange!

I checked Swap-bot and found a couple of new swaps for orange postcards and ATCs and then realized it was Monday and I wanted to post a photo for Mandarin Orange Monday and there it was, all over my work desk (to which I may also add a link on Wednesday for WOYWW)! *** Edited on Wednesday: I added it!

The cards are collaged bits of gelli printed deli paper onto yet more gelli printed card stock. I collaged it then cut into 2 postcards and an ATC for the swap. Now I will add more bits to them and maybe some doodles to get them ready to send out. You can see my still orange brayer and bits of gelli printed deli paper (I may start calling that GPDP for short!) in the background...

Makes me want to run to the store and buy some orange juice!!

Linked to:
Mandarin Orange Monday
Colorful Gelli Party
Creative Every Day
WOYWW

Back to Mail Art...

Years ago (like 20) I was very deep into mail art and swaps, with things constantly gracing my table that I had gotten or needed to send out. Then I stopped... (and many years went by where no art happened)... and now the Mail Art bug is back! There is something so fun about making a post card or an ATC (Artist Trading Card) and sending it off to anywhere in the world... and then getting one back again!

And then yesterday I got my first Mail Art in the form of a post card from Leslie! Testing out my new PO Box and making it pretty!

I hadn't played with the gelli plate for a while and it was calling to me so I made some starter background pages this morning which I will turn into post cards (or maybe ATCs, although I prefer to do a whole page then cut it specifically for those). I will do some more with these before I cut them into card sizes to wait to send out. I love the gelli plate... so simple: paper and paint and the result is always fun! (If not, just do another print over and eventually you have an unexplainable thing of beauty!).

Here's a close-up of one I particularly liked:

And here are my very high=tech techniques for some of the patterns...

For the bubble lines:

And for the overlapping circles, I just used this contraption several times on the gelli plate before I printed...

Here is how you make it:

Told you it was high-tech!

So now to just join more swaps and find some new Mail Art buddies and I am good to go!

If you would like to trade mail art (post cards or ATCs) please contact me using the contact form in the tabs above if you want to set up a specific swap. For just random Mail Art postcards, feel free to send me a post card and I will send you one in return. Don't forget your return address! My addy for mail art is:

Rhonda H.
P.O. Box 292745
Sacramento, CA 95829

Looking forward to seeing your fun mail art!

Linked to:
August Gelli Party
Paint Party Friday
Creative Every Day

WOYWW #213

I didn't manage to keep going with this linky in June because I was gone for a couple of weeks, and then for the next 2 weeks I will be gone again (I love summer vacation!), but here is one WOYWW entry in between! A little late in the day but it is still Wednesday here!

I realized I needed to get started on the weekly Summer of Color entry (this week is pale pink and charcoal grey) so I started by getting out the trusty gelli plate and making a couple of pink pages. I used some bubble wrap to get the textures. I made a deli paper page and a couple of pages in my 2 current art journals.

Not sure yet what I will do for the grey part but I will think of something!

Linked to:
WOYWW Week #213
July's Colorful Gelli Party

Summer of Color Week #2

Well it was a lazy summer's day and I was listening to some Taj Mahal... and finally got my entry finished for the Summer of Color Week #2 challenge! I could probably do a lot more doodling and maybe I will later but I wanted to get this one in before I go to my art play day tomorrow in Fremont. More about that after it happens, but it promises to be another fun day in Fremont making paste papers this time!

So remember, this week's challenge was to use orange and hot pink. I already showed you my gelli prints from the other morning. Next I cut a bunch of circles from some of the prints on deli paper, stamped letters on other parts of the gelli prints, and glued them all down. Then I did a bit of doodling around everything and added a little more color. I didn't want to get off the color palette too much this time so I limited my additional colors to mostly pinks and oranges. I love the turquoise background, which is color over another collaged page that wasn't going where I wanted it to go.

Linked to:
Summer of Color 2013
Art Journal Every Day
Mandarin Orange Monday
Paint Party Friday

Summer of Color Week #2 Gelli print prep...

This week for the Summer of Color challenge (orange and hot pink for this week) I thought I would start earlier and actually USE the gelli prints I make for it...

So this morning I started gelli printing some papers to use for collage or a journal page. Here are some of the prints. I have discovered my camera doesn't want to give me as bright colors as the real thing, as well as making the photos all have a more yellowing tinge even though I am using fluorescent lights and not regular light bulbs. I am sure there must be a setting on my camera for that but I have to figure that out once I download the manual since I no longer have any documentation (it's an old Panasonic Lumix). There really IS some hot pink in there!

Here are some closeups:

and some music and old book pages too:

Now I have a few days to make something for the challenge and will post it here by the deadline on Sunday!

Linked to:

Creative Every Day
Carolyn Dube's Colorful Gelli Party
Pink Saturday

Summer of Color Week #1

Getting this one in under the wire here! I had forgotten the entry had to be posted by noon on Sundays so since I am not quite back to doing art (as in painting) yet I decided to make a few background gelli prints from this week's colors (which happen to be among my total favorites!): citron and turquoise.

So at 9:15 am I dashed out my gelli plate and quickly made a few deli paper prints -- one can never have too many deli gelli prints right?

I won't worry about what to do with them now, but I have a feeling a few of them might end up in a new painting idea I have... more later!

Linked to:

Summer of Color
Colorful Gelli Print Party
Inspire Me Monday

Figuring out what art supplies to take...

And WOYWW for this week.

THAT is always the hardest part of a trip for me. The clothes are generally easy but figuring out which art supplies to take often takes a lot more thought and time. Oh, didn't I mention it? I am going to Alaska to visit my friend Evie and her family. Since I will only be gone for a week and want to travel light I won't take too much.

I am starting a Moelskine journal for this trip. Never used one of those before but I have had this journal for years and never used it. It is just the right size for a week's trip to Alaska!

This is how I bring my washi tapes when I travel. Not the big case, that is how I store them here. For traveling I lay out what I think I might want to use (based on the colors in my head the moment I am packing) and then lay them out on a sheet protector, both sides. Light and easy, keeps the sticky going, and I can use the sheet protector for collage scraps on the way.

Then I will take a small bunch of gelli printed deli and other papers so I have some backgrounds and collage fodder. I plan on using the ephemera from the trip as the rest of my collage fodder.

And here are the supplies I narrowed it down to (late last night). You can see I did a pen test in the Moleskine to make sure this time anyway I was taking pens that would not bleed through. The copic and the regular Sharpie bled through so not taking any of those.

All that stuff amazingly fits into this little bag. Not sure where the bag is from either as I have had it a long time. Maybe I got it from Jet Pens, but not sure.

And finally it all closed into this. The bag with the supplies is actually larger than the journal! But it will be just the right amount of stuff to have in my carry on bag for the lay-overs on the trip and when I am there.

Leaving tomorrow and going to test out using Instagram for the trip... this will be a first for me as I am an Instagram newbie! My name there is rhozza. Guess there were too many Rhondas already and my favorite art name rhoz was already taken. Feel free to follow me there!

Linked to:

Ruby Tuesday2
Colorful Gelli Print Party
WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday)

Working on the 21 Secrets class today...

I decided to pick another of the 21 Secrets workshops that had doodling and working a bit outside my normal zone so I picked Roben-Marie Smith's Baby Got Back-to-Back class to do next. I have enjoyed Roben-Marie's work for many years and have taken a class or two from her here and there but have never attempted to do a journal page in her style, which is how this workshop starts out. HERE is a link to her wonderful journal page tutorials!

So the workshop starts out by making a journal page in her style, which actually took me 2 days. Once again I was working on pages I had taken out of the 9" x 12" Canson Montval Field All-Media Journal. I decided last night to start by making 2 pages so it took a little longer, and then part way through I wanted them to dry completely so I left them overnight. I made 2 pages because one of them has to get cut up for the book part of this workshop and then I would have an extra, although now I have to decide which one I want to keep and which to use for the Back-to-Back book part of the workshop!

It starts by adding color to your page (painting and gelli printing):

Then some collage and stamping:

Then lots more inking, painting, doodling...

And finally both finished pages.

What I enjoyed about this part of the workshop was using colors together that I normally do not use much of and making a page much busier than I normally do and having it look nice in the end. What I found difficult was having to constantly go back over things and doodle more or fix doodles that got covered or painted on that I wanted to show, and the general fussiness of working these pages. It sure looks easy when Roben-Marie does it but it takes a lot longer than I thought!

But I gotta admit, these are two of my favorite pages I have done lately! I think I will incorporate some of this working over and over in my art journal pages now and see where it takes me! Thanks for pushing my envelope Roben-Marie!

Playing with more gelli prints...

Started doing up a bunch of lighter colored gelli prints for additions to art journal pages and scanned one to test out how it scanned. I didn't like the plain scan all that much so I started playing with the colors in PaintShopPro (my cheapo version of Photoshop) and made a mosaic in BigLabs to see some of the various colors I adjusted it to. The darkest one I made a negative of the colors. I have not played around with PSP for a long time and I had forgotten a lot of the cool things it can do, so I think I will be playing with it a bit in the coming weeks.

This was the original scan:

Linked to:
Pink Saturday
Colorful Journey Gelli Party
Ruby Tuesday2
Mandarin Orange Monday
Mosaic Monday
Blue Monday