Thursday Thoughts

 The recent sporadic posts lets you know where I am!  (Two burials in ten days, two food orders plus local food shopping in four days, and so much more.  It is a full time job to be a church lady...!)

Today's "thought" is about something I did at least two weeks ago. 

One of my favorite crafts is Gelli printing to make into greeting cards. I love the colors. I love the way they play on the paper. I can never get bored but I have found a new techniques that pleases me.

These prints were a variety of techniques.  The ones with the "dots" are from using the bag that onions came in.  I spread the paint on the Gelli plate with a 4" brayer then laid the bag over the paint.  After that I placed the card stock on top, covered with a full sheet of card stock then rubbed over the top of the paper for about thirty seconds to hopefully get really good contact between the card-to-be and the paint.

You might also see some stars plus some circles of various sizes on one of the prints.  The stars come from the cap on Pellegrino bottles that someone pointed out to me might work,  The circles are from all sorts of covers as well as defunct pen tubes...the ink having dried up.

You might ask why I put a full sheet of card stock OVER the card stock that is being printed.  Good question! Easy answer: the Gelli plate is 5" by 7". The card stock is 4.25" by 5.5".  I am not fond of paint under my fingernails and all over my hands so I solve that by the big sheet.  It really helps, though does not totally eradicate the problem...since I always manage to get some paint where I don't want it, don't notice, then when I am done, discover my hands still have paint on them and the backs of the cards also have paint.  Oh well.  Amateur artist.

Gelli Printing in Embossing Folder

Tonight my middle-of-the-night work was to experiment with Gelli prints in embossing folders.  Before going to bed I had done quite a bit of Gelli printing for birthday cards. I have so much fun doing that.  Using the brayer in different ways gives such cool effects. Not that I can duplicate them, but...still it is fun.  (The only non-fun part this time was a small splash of paint got into my eye.  I hope it does not turn out to be a bad thing.)

Since I have a Happy Birthday embossing folder I thought I could embellish the Gelli prints.  I tried it and it worked!  So great when things go well.

To do this I pulled out the Big Shot machine and put in the correct shim, placed the Gelli print inside the folder, placed the plastic plate over the top and rolled the folder into and back out of the Big Shot.  This is how it turned out.  I made a big stack of them!

Now to trim them and adhere them to the cards.  And make the envelopes, address and stamp the envelopes, and get the cards into the mail before all the birthdays of the young singles have gone by!

One Note:  I rolled the folders forward and back in the Big Shot.  Some of them embossed so much they almost cut the paper in half.  Next batch I will just run through once.

Second Note:  I am writing this at 4:30 in the morning...after waking up at 1:55.  There is a dog across the pond that has been barking for a very long time.  I hope nothing is amiss.  Now a second dog is answering.  Oh my goodness.  I think I will try to go back to sleep.  Maybe the barking will help!