Be Mine

I don't really "do" Valentines Day.  But I have been known to make cards and what a wonderful excuse to use my Gelli Plate!! 

I originally quartered a full sheet 22"x30" of Strathmore something or other - I wish the sheets had stickers on them so I knew what I bought - but I ended up having so much fun I cut up another sheet!

I used my new 12"x14" Gelli Plate and the cut up sheets were just slightly off size but it didn't matter to me - these cards are not going to be precise. 

I decided on my Valentine Palette

Applied the colour randomly

 Spread it using my Catalyst Wedge

And drew random hearts with the smooth end of a paint brush.

 This is the first print pulled - the paint is quite thick and textured in some spots - might make the doodles I have planned for these difficult to draw.  You can kind of see the metallic in the orange paint in these two photos below.

I pulled 3 prints total and also pulled a print in a small journal.  Here they are from first to last and you can see how the paint either was used up by the last one or it dried out. I like all the prints - for different reasons!!

I wasn't done so cut up another sheet and applied more paint - twice!!

  Here are the 8 prints I pulled - love them!! 

  A juicy detail showing the texture and a little bit of the sheen of the metallic orange.

And this one was my fave print!  Now I will let them dry and cut them into cards - then some doodling with my Sharpie Poster Paint pen.  I will take pics and post an update when I finish them. Do you have plans to make Valentines Cards this year?

My Lovely Gelli Plate

First off, let me just say that I am no way affiliated or compensated by any of the brands I mention here on my blog - I fall in love with supplies and want to share my enthusiasm for them. 

I love my Gelli Plate!!  I had never done any kind of print making before picking up this awesome supply and once I started it has become an addiction.  I don't think I've even begun to explore all the different things I can do with it but I am having fun doing what I'm doing. Plain and simple - layers.  I love the layers I can get with it!!!

Here's a little show and tell of one tiny little gelli plate session

I picked some colours to squirt on the plate - these are heavy body acrylics

Then I used my Catalyst wedge to spread the paint around.

I laid a stencil over top of the spread paint - in this pic below you can see I spread some of the left over paint onto a sheet of paper which will become a painted page to use in collage.

To pull prints from the stencil, I used a couple of already painted pages and a vintage book page

The paint was pretty much used up from the stencil so I pulled the stencil off and smashed it down on a journal page to create a negative image of the stencil.

The paint dries quite fast so I had to move quickly (it helps to have several journals and pages and painted backgrounds ready to pull prints with) and laid another painted page over top of the gelli plate and opened my journal to another page to try to use up all the paint before it dries. My favourite prints are the ones from these last few pulls where the paint has dried in some spots and it is really random how the print will turn out. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing one of my Gelli Plate sessions!! Would love to know if you've ever tried monoprinting before!!

A Ticket to Venice

I am going to Venice!! 

Well, not really, what I am doing is following along with Mary Ann Moss when she is in Venice.  Mary Ann is offering an online class called A Ticket to Venice and I thought this would be the perfect way to re-live my experiences in Venice and also to learn a new book binding technique. 

I've been to Venice twice.  The first time was with my daughter Karly's school group in 2001 - we spent one day touring Venice and I totally enjoyed my time there although it was a bit rushed as school tours usually are. 

After my trip I found inspiration in my photos and painted several watercolour paintings.

My second trip to Venice was with my sister Carol in 2007.  That was our Italy "Dream Trip" - our first trip to Italy together had been with my daughter Ellen's school group a few years earlier and it had been difficult to explore or experience on our own so we decided that one day we would go back and do things the way we wanted - our Dream Trip.  Since Venice was not included in Carol's first trip to Italy we decided to spend several days there exploring.  What a wonderful time we had!! 

We stayed at a lovely B&B hotel right on the Grande Canal and this was the view from our room.  Although it can be noisy (who knew garbage collection boats would be an issue?!!) I would highly recommend a room with a view!!

 
During my first visit to Venice I missed out on touring the Basilica - I actually regretted it for years and had dreams - during my SLEEP - of Venice sinking right before my eyes before I had a chance to see inside it.  I cried when we arrived in San Marco Piazza and I saw the Basilica - and it wasn't sinking!! Such a treat to be inside - we paid the extra few Euros and went up the narrow staircase to the viewing area.  It puts you up close to the mosaics - incredible!!! 

Of course we took the obligatory gondola ride - totally pricey and totally worth it!!

I am so excited to see what adventures Mary Ann has during her trip there in a few weeks. Thanks Mary Ann for the opportunity to live vicariously through you!!

Spray Ink Background Tutorial

I've fallen in love with spray inks!  I own Adirondack and also the Dylusions which are my fave for the bright colours.  I stumbled upon a way to use them as backgrounds for my mandalas - it is more fun for me to draw them on colourful backgrounds. 

Spray inks are water soluable and I find when I don't seal them with something the inks rub off on my hands while drawing - they also are a bit too vibrant for a background with marker so I like to knock them back a bit with a glaze of acrylic paint. 

You can try any kind of paper - these papers I am using in this book are everything from copy paper to wallpaper samples to handmade papers to textbook pages etc.  I find that a page prepared with Gesso is NOT a good foundation for the inks - they tend to slide right off and we are looking for saturation with the inks. 

This is my Big Bertha journal which I am using pretty exclusively at this point for mandalas.

Using the spray inks - spray through a stencil of your choice - once your spraying is complete - press a spare book page into the leftover ink on top of the stencil and you have a page all ready to collage or use some other way - and you haven't wasted the ink ;)

 You can blot any excess drops of ink if desired with a paper towel being careful not to scrub - the inks run and mix really easily. Once the ink is dry - seal it with a glaze of clean water and self leveling gel with a drop or two of white fluid acrylic paint per side of spread.

  I start with a brush dripping with fresh water and carefully (no scrubbing) running it over the page loading more water as needed - and then adding a bit of the white paint and making sure it is even and spreading it adding a brush load of self leveling gel to all the page so the water - paint and gel mix without disturbing the ink too much.  My goal here is to seal the page - and to knock back the intensity of the inks without blending the colours too much.  Of course experiment and find the affects you prefer.

Here is the left side of the spread completed - and I am not thrilled with how it turned out - I had 3 drops of white and I find it covered too much of the colour so I wiped off a drop of the white I had laid out on the right side. 

And the completed page which I will let dry - or speed up with my craft heat gun - and then spray with a varnish - matte finish.  The self leveling gel is sticky and tacky even when dry - the pages tend to stick together pulling off when the page is opened - the spray varnish leaves it with a smooth matte finish that is wonderful and not sticky.  I've worked over the varnish with paint, marker, gel transfers etc with good success. 

 Heh - so I wasn't happy with how that spread turned out - the colours were knocked back a bit too much for me.  I made another spread and took pics along the way.  Same technique - all except instead of using book pages to sop up the leftover ink I pressed another spread from this journal over it - I love the negative effect.

I ended up making several pages to blot up the excess ink and now have a nice little stash for collaging or cutting up into shapes to use in my art journaling.

You now have a colourful page to decorate as you wish - I've used this technique with 300lb Arches cold pressed watercolour paper and collage - it worked wonderfully! 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and have fun putting your own spin on it :)

Meet Big Bertha

Meet my newest girl - Big Bertha journal!!

She is 8"x8" - I made her myself thanks to the wonderful instruction of my darling daughter Karly :)  Big Bertha is my first handbound book and I loved the process.  She is filled with all kinds of found papers including discarded photocopies, pages from text books - music books - atlases and also some file folders and cut up paper shopping bags. I never quite know how those pages will accept the spray inks I've been using and that is half the fun of this book - happy surprises!!

This has become my Mandala journal and I am really enjoying the square format!  I have pics taken that need to be resized and I will post them soon along with a tutorial on how I create these backgrounds.

Here are a few pages from my Big Bertha journal -

 This next page is in progress - not completed yet

On a personal note - I am still not well these days - the process to find a medication that will help my depression and anxiety has not been easy.  I am still trying and have just started a new one - which once again is making me extremely dizzy.  I am finding that I have completely abandoned this blog and also reading all my fave blogs because the motion of my eyes going back and forth makes the dizzy worse.  So sorry to all my blog friends out there - I am hoping to get back to routine once I figure all this out.

On my good days I sit at my art desk and use my spray inks to create backgrounds for these mandalas - artistically all I can do on my dizzy days is sit quietly and draw my mandalas.  I am really thankful to have something to keep me busy :)

Doodles Doodles and yes - more Doodles

Hello to all who are still with me here on my poor neglected blog!

Posting from my iPhone with a few instagram pics of my goings on the past few weeks. I am still not well - although feeling a bit better after switching meds earlier this week. The dizzy is not as bad - but still not driving - hard to shoulder check with my head spinning. I've only left the house a couple of times in the past 2 weeks - dr appts mainly and physio. My beautiful daughter Ellen has been taking good care of me :)

I am currently obsessed with my spray inks and have created a ton of backgrounds in a few of my journals - to doodle away my dizzy days. And doodle - have I ever!!!

Here are a sample of the doodles I've been showing my instagram friends - so easy to post with just a few words over there :)

I've gotten lost over at Instagram

Hello everyone!

I had every intention of writing a full blog post or two today complete with journal update photos - I even took photos this morning - but "the dizzy" has taken me over and I am incapable of sitting up and doing the necessary editing on my comp. I am typing this on my phone leaned back in my comfy chair with the boys curled on my lap watching the Nascar race.

Let me explain - I took the next step with my anxiety and depression and I started my meds this week. Dizzy has been my theme this week - a side effect that I am crossing my fingers will subside soon.

So all my best intentions to post will have to wait til the world stops spinning.

To distract myself I have fallen completely in love with Instagram!! If you are on there please let me know - I WANT to follow you!!! If you would like to follow me I am emilylagore there :)

A pic I posted on Instagram this morning - I was delighted to find a few lily of the valley blooms hidden amongst all the quack grass and dandelions in my -heh- "flower bed"

Enjoy your weekend!!