Party after math!

Well, today is full of picking up toys, cleaning up and sorting laundry.  The cloud of white at the right of the photo is an almost full box of Kleenex which is now a mound of snow!  :(

The art time left me three sheets of background and some gelli prints. Before I did a big clean up I did some playing of my own.

I remembered  some of my Creative Jump Start tutorials which are drawing to a close with ordinary household objects providing the theme.

 I do really like mono printing.  One excellent tutorial used a black plastic garbage bag taped tightly around a glass cutting board. This was a  wonderful substitute for the trademarked gelli plate.  The paint was white and the printing was done with black card stock.  Very doable and also very striking.  I like the effect of rubber bands on the cardboard roll but next time I'd use rolling pins of even just a bottle as they would roll smoother.   I hadn't thought to use ink sprays on my gelli plate and they add another dimension.  There is an artist grade tissue paper which I didn't have but cheap tissue (left side of photo) gave 3 prints off one prepared gelli plate.  Tissue disappears in collage work even better than deli paper. :) 

This isn't getting the playroom back to pre-party state  nor the rest of the upstairs. :o  But I certainly have some more party ideas to try tomorrow!

Trying new things

The weather is once again trying to blow up a situation. That is certainly not new and is starting to get real old!    I did get out to the chicken coop before the path began to blow in AGAIN.  My Rooster is spending all his spare time clearing paths! :O

I am working away on getting the hutch painted. I had left it with just some primer for the holidays. I had totally forgot the middle section of glass so I primed that and started in with a can of 'old white' chalk paint on the rest.  I hope to have the knobs and hinges back on for a photo finish on Friday! ;)

The new journal calls for a 'selfie' for the second week.  VBGROAN!  oye!   I take all the pictures for the family and I'm happy not to be in any.  I am NOT photogenic.  Ha!  I'm sure I can't be that old biddy I sometimes glimpse as I pass large areas of glass in a mall.  ;)  Okay, I did that and now to hide it in amongst all the extra's.  Actually that wasn't too hard and I printed it on a dictionary sheet. Upside down but...

Next I wanted to try using a stencil on my gelli plate and transfer the image to cloth.  VERY COOL!

Just for fun I cleaned off my stencil by flipping it onto some fabric and I like that as well.  This has oodles of possibilities!  I can't wait to try more new things!  :)

Finishing February

The lovely holiday is finished.  They have such colourful rosy grosbeaks in Ontario.  The hoar frost was amazing.

The 'puter is back from its spa and seems kinda cranky but it needs to have an attitude check as that is as good as it gets!  lol

I finished the No Compromise Decorating book and I have already been doing my decorating with 'out of the box' thinking and just need to translate some of that to my mixed media approach.  Lynette Jennings, the author, suggests getting to know your space and and your style.  This is an ongoing evolution that is part of life but sometimes it is good to stop and take stock of where one is.  "Your taste, what your eye sees as beauty, has a self-coordinating effect once you edit out the things you don't like."  Then sort, prioritize, rearrange, and recolour.  It is already there but the clutter creates confusion and the uglies will pull you/compromise you where you do not want to go. Your home is a collage of things you love, arranged comfortably and you do that to your own sensibilities.
So-
1) go with the flow (traffic patterns)
2) analyze how you live (remove the names of the rooms on the floor plan)
3) find where your very most favourite spot is and decorate from there (sofa corner with a window view)
4) realize that what you luv may not be feasible but it should be what you like, truly like  (luv modern but not neat)

I already switched my small dining room into a sitting room with no couch.  The living room is our dining room and the master bed room is the sewing room.  The kitchen is now under the spotlight!  De cluttering is happening and grouping similar things/colours is enlightening.

I now need to stop compromising with my art and apply these excellent principles to it!  

My class on Getting Started is up to date.  I finished the basics of gelli printing.  That is a LOT of fun.  I added paint, I subtracted paint.  I got layers happening but I think the biggest aha! was on the intentional gelli printing.

 I need to get better at it and the mono printing itself is very serendipitous but I liked it.  The left page is the painty paper shapes laid on a spare page.  The centre is my gelli printed paper with some layers on it.  The right paper is a catch all and the cut shapes are laid on it and can be collaged on.  :)

We are waiting on the contractor for the go ahead on the front rooms.  So our thoughts are turning to the kitchen.  A visit to the new IKEA in the city sparked all kinds of dialogue!  I want it pretty and 'he who cooks' wants to know where all the pots are going!  lol  

I had an aha! moment a week ago.  Life is far too short to stress over the past.  Reconcile and move on.  So this wedding quilt is a promise to be met and finished as best as I can make it.  After chatting with my DD we will go with the floral and the new green and asap!  I have one more month to complete my goals for the finish a long.  The dreaded coveralls are hemmed and it will be full steam ahead!

The light is going so perhaps I'll post the calendar journal another day.

February is finished and I am marching purposefully into the final month of winter!

Creativity 101 off and running

Designing with dots is such an exciting concept.  My mind is just full of all the ideas I see and all the what if's...

I am very random.  Jenn is obviously more linear.

We did some doodling with dots on paper with markers after we'd moved the glass dots around.  I do think they really are dots because they are not balls.  They have flat bottoms.

And then we played with the Gelli plate.

We are getting into open circles here, but this was my most favorite.  I am so appreciating working with Jenn because she does things different from the way I'd do them and I hope we are learning from each other. 
                    
                                                          It was an amazing day!

WOW- Gelli anyone?

Well, when the Gelli plate comes out of its package and lays on the worktable it looks about as exciting as sliced bread.  But I have to tell you that when the peanut butter and jelly is spread things begin to get very tasty and exciting!  And I don't even like peanut butter and jelly! 

 
I have the larger size and it is a bit pricey for a peanut butter budget.  BUT- it is worth every penny and you can always make your own jelly to stretch the food budget! lol

                                    I added cheap craft acrylic paint right on the Gelli plate's surface.
                                                I have it placed on an old glass cutting board.

I spread it with my brayer.  Two brayers are ideal as one is wet and one is or should be dry.

I began to create.  It isn't necessary to clean every time.  A little forethought helps though.

I had to stop and flap my chin back up in place sometimes!

And I began to move. Might be due to hyperactivity, just saying.   I had prepared various kinds of papers and some cotton fabric but I was soon avalanching paper and book piles in a grab for more.  Paint bottles were knocked over.  I stubbed my toe on a drawer that had not been closed after a search for texture.  No time for compassion.  Whoo hoo!

I tried a new rubbing plate.  Needs some technique tweaking but do-able.

      Plastic netting.  This was very cool and the net could be placed on something else for another effect.  The netting is still laying on the Gelli plate in this photo.  Later there is a photo showing the netting placed on another piece.  This worked so clear and sharp that I was flabbergasted!

 A Feather!  This is just how the fabric pulls back from the Gelli plate and leaves the feather with the paint under it.  The feather itself didn't make such a good second stamp image. 
Who cares!  Look at that first image!

        

Now if there is some paint left and you want to get the pattern one more time,  you can add a better, full bodied  white acrylic, brayer it and take another print.   I may be using too much.

 This is the second pull.  I'm learning to do the last pulls on vellum or tracing paper for a subtle effect.

The third 'pull' really shows the original before the white was added. I had used string on a bright green.   I'm not sure why this works but I can tell you that there needs be no waste with this process. 

                                                   These are some printed on very light paper.

                          I started with lighter colours.  I often went over the originals another time or two.

                                                              
                                                                     And worked to the darker.

                                               

                                                         The top right was just cleaning my brayer!
 

                  

The net with the paint that didn't get used was laid on this aqua and brayered down and the net transferred wonderfully.

               

The top left was some full bodied acrylic that I had pulled using large bubble wrap on.  I knew I'd get what I was after on the second pull so I used the white on the bubbles after I lifted it to press onto another  paper.  I was scrambling to find a place to do that and did it on the floor.  Not too bright but...

This amazing piece is that plastic canvas I got at the thrift shop.  I tell you, my heart almost stopped I was so thrilled, even with the smudged part!

The terms for some of these prints are direct print, indirect print and ghost print.

I have had an exhilarating worktable day!  

I hope my fellow Canucks are as exhilarate!

Please have a look see over at The Needle & Thread Network.