Summer of Color, week 4: Red and Metallic with Gelli Plate and Stencils

Hi! The fun Summer of Color challenge series is already in its week five, but I'm running late with my posts, so here comes the palette number four: Red, Red and a Metallic colour! I like the fact that in Summer of Color, you can add your weekly links also later on - you just won't be joining the prize draw after the deadline, which is always the Sunday of the challenge week.



For the red and metallic theme, I decided on free experimenting with my Gelli plate and stencils. I got my Gelli plate recently and have only had a chance to try it a couple of times. I can't wait to do more soon!



In this piece with the hearts, the collage background is a Gelli print. The one in the first photo, on the other hand, began with all the leftover paints that I just spread around and stenciled here and there. So in that one, the background is not made with Gelli, but I cut collage elements from the printed papers instead.

These are the shades of red and the metallic colour that I chose.



I didn't make my own mixes this time, but used three different brands of paint as they were.



I can already tell that I love the Gelli plate! I was expecting I would, too, because I've loved all kinds of printing so far. I have a lot to learn with the Gelli plate, though, so I really look forward to playing with it more - and moreover, it's perfect summer crafting, don't you think?

One of the things that could work better is different sorts of paints, for example. The ones I tried now did not feel an ideal consistency, so next time I'll mix them with a bit of water before I start. I sprayed water on the plate but the paint could still have been more easy to spread. Especially my metallic paint was quite thick, so I did the last prints using only the leftover reds on my palette.

The following three are simple monoprints with Gelli, nothing added!







While in this one, the punchinella pattern is stenciled onto the print afterwards.



I really enjoyed the creative session just experimenting, not planning any particular end result! These will serve as backgrounds and for cutting collage elements. One of the backgrounds I can't show you here, because I already made it into something else! You can see what I made with it in my next post, soon to follow!

And be sure to pop in at the Summer of Color to see the palette for week 5!

Summer of Color, Week 3: Purple & Yellow

Hello! June is nearing its end and that means the Summer of Color is on again! Busy with other duties after my trip, I've missed the first two weekly challenges, but luckily you can join in anytime. The Summer of Color is a fun and friendly challenge blog with different colour themes for six weeks in a row. You can participate with any kind of art and craft, from layouts to cards and paintings to crocheting.



The colour prompt for week three is Two Purples and One Yellow. I chose a dark violet purple and a lighter metallic one.(I'll pop in to add the colour names a bit later!)

My yellow is a bright lemon yellow with just a bit of white in it.



In the near future, I hope to use my mixed media products and ideas also for cardmaking more than before. So the Mixed Media Card Challenge was a very welcome find! I haven't joined it before but I'm glad I fount its inspiring themes now. This month it's Collage, and optionally also a Frame. My card has both elements.

I started the very background with a collage, under my first layer of paint. It does not show through a lot, but you do see for example the little black hand that is the logo of 3rd Eye Stamps in the bottom right corner! After the first layer of paint, I glued napkins for the frame with modeling paste. Between these layers, I added texture stenciling modeling paste on the edges of the card, so that adds to the frame, in a way.

I meant to add a photo of how I started out the collage, but I'm having a very bad connection and can't seem to make it work right now. I'll edit to add it later, as this is one of my favourite ways to make a background!

The third challenge I'm joining with this project is at 13arts, with the theme of Textures and Layers. I love making both of them, so it was a perfect theme!



The heart is hand painted and scratched with a spoon. This was not an easy project to finish - I tried both the Girlfriends Silhouette stamp and the painted heart for focal images alone but was not happy with either of them. Finally I thought of cutting and lifting the heart out, and added the stamped image behind it. I'm still not perfectly happy with it, but I'm glad I tried something new!



I wish you a nice weekend and hope to see you at the Summer of Color! The new challenge is up each Monday, and if you wish to create in Purple & Yellow you still have until Sunday to join this week!