Two Girls and a Flower

Well - I spent some time writing some witty things about these girls and their large flower but

blogger ate them all (the witty things - not the flower or the girls) - 

Now I am tired and heading off to bed - 

So enjoy -

Two Girls and a flower.

Plus a fabulous gelatin leaf print.

Gelatin Leaf Prints

Gelatin printing!  Have you ever tried it?  Frankly, I thought it was gonna be lame but I am so happy to report that I was WRONG!! It is positively addicting and the "thrill of the reveal" never got old for me.

While there are many, many things that you can print, I stuck to leaves cause I am a botanical kinda gal.  Lots of times I fill vases with greenery only - no flowers.

Kim is my crafty cohort and came to play on Friday.  We wanted to compare her Gelli Plate with the old school technique of using gelatin.  I boiled 4 cups of water and added three boxes of gelatin (4 envelopes each for a total of 12 envelopes) - that is a seriously big gob of gelatin and it didn't all melt - that's okay - just spoon out what doesn't dissolve and throw away.  Poured it out onto a jelly roll pan and let dry overnight - no need to refrigerate.

Used a brayer and a couple colors of water-soluble print ink to ink up the gelatin.

Topped with a leafy sprig,

then a sheet of paper (5.5" x 8.25") - massage the paper to transfer the ink to your paper.

LOOK how cool once the paper is removed!

Lift up your leaf. . .

and make a second print with the leftover ink.  The good thing about using the jelly roll pan is that you can do two sheets with one inking of the brayer (total of 4 printed sheets).

Played with some stencils too and then discovered how fun it is when you multi-print a couple of times!!  That's when things started getting interesting and the printing began in earnest. . .

Here is a parade of some of my favorite prints.

plain white cardstock,

kraft cardstock,

back of an envelope,

music paper and plenty of old book paper!  This was SO much fun!!  Maybe too much fun - I printed a zillion and one sheets.

Be prepared to see leafy prints appearing pretty regularly in the future.

In case you were wondering - Kim's Gelli plate worked great.  They are expensive though and I am notoriously cheap but there is no prep or cleanup with a Gelli plate - so I may spring for one someday although realistically I have no need for more prints any time soon, ya think??

Linking to Creative Every Day.

Illustration Friday: LONELY

This journal page is for Caleb - my sweet nature loving boy.  I always feel bad that we live in town since he is such an outside kinda kid - at least we have a pretty big yard for him and the dog to frolic about in. Even if it is pouring rain out he will still sit outside in the carport if I let him.

He also has the ability to play outside for hours in his own imaginary worlds.

He found himself alone in nature

 and yet he was not lonely.

Too quickly this time will pass by and he will be a grown man.  His older brother, Connor is already bigger than his father and me.  Where did my babies go??

Linking to Illustration Friday: LONELY

She kept her vibrancy hidden. . .

Today's journal pages features some watercolor fun and a pencil drawing that I've had for some time.  She always seemed kinda sad and pensive so even though I liked her look - I put her away for another time. 

She strikes me as one of those people that seem so quiet and unassuming but really has a lot going on inside so I gave her the caption:

sadly she kept her vibrancy 
hidden from others

Here is a conversation between me and the husband:

ME - "I call her Florence."

HUSBAND - "As in Florence and the Machine??!"

ME - "No! As in Florence Nightingale.  I picture her wiping my feverish brow when I am ill."

HUSBAND (guffawing) - "wiping your feverish brow??!!"

Obviously, there is not much sympathy shown to me when I have a feverish brow since it incites such humor in my husband - he doesn't seem to care much if I suffer a general malaise either.  Sigh . . .

edited to add - GUESS WHAT??!!  If you look at this picture with 3-d glasses your head will explode!!  Ok - maybe not explode but your eyes will definitely go a little crazy - thanks to Caleb for discovering this cool fact (its awesome to have an 11 year old boy's perspective - seriously - who would ever look at this pic with 3-d glasses but an 11 year old boy??!!)
Linking to Paint Party Friday,
Art Journal Every Day, and
Artists in Blogland

EDM Challenges 21 - Draw something old, antique or vintage

Do you read Danny Gregory's blog?  Some of my favorite bloggers have mentioned him lately and since I seem to have lived under a rock I checked and found out that not only is he a prolific artist but he has written several books.  A feature of his blog is the EveryDay Matters Challenges. Today's challenge is to draw something old, antique or vintage.

As a young girl I was endlessly fascinated by the little bird I would find deep in the recesses of the china cupboard.  What would be ugly to  most people was fabulous to me - from its BIG open mouth to its broken/glued beak and missing feet.  When I grew up I finally asked my mom where it came from and she said that it had been my grandmother's - a few years later I snagged it for myself where it lives in the kitchen so I can see its quirky beauty daily!  The part that's embarrassing and probably why mom never had it out was that it was originally an ashtray (that and the fact that she is not nearly as charmed by it as I).
Yikes and EEGADS - an ashtray??!!  FYI - He is as clean and shiny as an eclectic old bird can be - no hint of his sordid past remains.

I put my happy bird on a branch - this way we are clear that he isn't waiting for ashes but for worms or maybe a nice fat grub or perhaps a grasshopper. . .

Do you have "a beauty" that you love that nobody else seems to find charming??

Illustration Friday: CARRY

WHOO HOO - It is Sunday night and I am posting my entry for the Illustration Friday challenge!  Wanted to try my hand at collage.  Lots of items layered on top of each other is a real challenge for me - intimidates me big time but I've been a voyeur of

Donna Downey's Collage Monday posts for a year now and decided that now was as good a time as any to try my own "hand" at it!!  HAR HAR - did ya get the joke?  Try my HAND at it?? 

The basic collage workhorses are represented - book text/illustrations, quirky quote, patterned paper, washi tape, etc.  Do you see the unusual element(s) - candy wrappers!  I didn't even eat the candy (I did eat cookies, though) while working on this layout - for some reason the wrappers were on the counter one day and I stashed them away in my scrap bin.  LOVE the touch of metallic sheen it adds to this masculine look.

I leave you now with my new motto - 

Always CARRY a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always CARRY a small snake. . . 

- W.C. Fields

Linking to Creative Every Day.

cQc146, OLW97 - Line it up

Felt like making a quick card this afternoon so tapped into the One Layer Wednesday Challenge to "Line It Up" to make a card featuring lines.  The Grunged Sunray stamp from A Muse Studio has been a favorite for some time so it is featured along with a Studio G fern that I picked up some time ago at Michael's. 

The Colour Q challenge is a new one to me but I couldn't resist this color combo - Don't ya just love that print??!!  Brought in the red with a "line" of washi tape.

Caleb naturally asked me what I was sorry about but frankly I was attracted to the "line" of dots in the sentiment.  However, the day is not quite over, I still have a little time to do something that I'll need to apologize for - good thing I am ready with a card for such an occasion!!

Illustration Friday - LOST

This week's Illustration Friday topic is LOST - once again I am cutting it as close as possible posting my picture merely a few hours before the next topic is announced.   

The other day a certain young man in this family had to write "I will feed my lizard in the morning." 50 times.  When he finished he left the finished paper on the counter by a pen - with all kinds of empty space on the back just begging for some doodling.  I was thinking about all the things I needed to do that day and used the ballpoint pen to quickly sketch some girls which inspired the caption - 

"She doodles girls while LOST in thought."

Anyhoo - after I was done I made a copy on the inkjet printer.  I layered old dictionary paper in my art journal covered with a thin layer of gesso and then tried to do a transfer with Golden Soft Gel.  It worked!!  I was so tickled - I've watched Donna Downey do this technique so many times on her Inspiration Wednesday videos but had never braved it myself - easy!! 

Got some letters from my box purchased during an excursion with Kim and then colored one girl with

 hues inspired by the current Play Date Cafe Challenge.

Linking to - Art Journal Every Day and

Paint Party Friday

CIRCLES -

How about this crazy canvas??  It is all about circles - big circles, small circles in the basics of black and white.  Not what I intended to make in the beginning but I am kinda in love with it now. 

A fairly big canvas, it is hanging in the hallway outside of our bedroom next to the office.  The circles were not made directly on the canvas.  I recently saw on Tracy Bautista's blog where she said she had made embellishments from Tulip Slick dimensional paint on butcher paper and I just had to try it out.

So I made gobs of circles - black, white and some that were a combo of both.   If you try this technique be prepared to wait a while - it took overnight for the shapes to dry.

Here is one peeled off the paper on my hand.  It reminds me of playing with Colorforms as a kid.  Do you remember those - vinyl people with clothes that you stuck onto a background to make scenes?  Anyway, the plan had been to draw leaves/foliage on the painted canvas but then I saw my sticky circles and decided to try them out.

So I just stuck them on randomly all over the place layering and overlapping at times.  If you don't like where it is you can peel it off and stick it somewhere else!  In fact, in a few months when I get tired of this look I may peel them all off and go with my first idea.

I love all the movement in what is a very simple concept!  BTW - do you want to see what was originally on this canvas?

GASP!!  How ugly is that?!! - This was purchased for our first apartment over 20 years ago and I had held onto it for sentimental reasons - I can still be sentimental knowing that it is the same canvas but reworked to something more jazzy! 

Linking to Creative Every Day, 

Artists in Blogland Show 'n Tell Saturday,

Sketchbook Challenge - July.