I’m not mad keen on Christmas but I do
love the sparkle! That means a decorated tree and ornaments. My project this
month shows 2 ornaments, this time not to hang in your Christmas tree but to
reside in your art journal. You can put a Christmas related quote around them
or choose a quotation or song lyrics that you like as I have done.
After working on last month’s Project
where I used my Gelli plate to add color to the pages of my Sketchbook Project,
it reminded me how much pure fun playing with the plate can be, so I decided to
continue using it for this month’s project.
Here is the step-by-step tutorial:
1. Using
your 8 x 10” Gelli plate, cheap copy paper (A4 size or US letter size) and 2
colors for each page, squeeze the colors onto the plate and brayer them out,
making sure not to mix them too much. You still want to see that two colors
were used. Take a print.
2. There
will still be plenty of paint left on the plate so take another print with a
clean piece of paper. Sometimes you can
even take a third. I occasionally overprinted one second print with another. Let the pages from step 1 and 2 dry thoroughly.
3. Grab
a set of stencils. I used L435 Ancient Marks, the large stencil from the January 2014 StencilClub set, Mod Ovals and Circles, Buildings and Cornish Petals. Please feel free to use stencils you like best. This will work with any
stencils. Add one color of paint to
your Gelli plate, put one of the stencils on top, grab one of the pages made in
step 1 and 2, and take a print. Again
continue to take those ghost prints and make sure your Gelli plate is clean
before using a new color of paint. Let the pages dry.
5. Paint
two pages in your art journal with black gesso. I used a 9 x 9” Bee Paper
Company Mixed Media journal.
6. With
a protractor make templates by drawing circles on a spare piece of paper. I
used a radius of ½”, 1.1/2”, 2.1/2” and 3.1/2”. You can also draw circles
directly onto your painted paper or the back of it. But using templates means you
can select the area of the painted paper you want to use (this is known in the
quilt world as fuzzy or fussy cutting). Cut out 2 of each of the templates.
7. Mark
the center of your art journal pages and glue on the smallest circle, followed
by the other rings. I used a UHU glue stick for this step.
8. Outline
each circle/ring with a black marker. I used a Sharpie medium point pen.
9. Add
your chosen quotation or lyrics around the circle with a white marker. I used a
Signo Uniball one. My “ornaments” were surrounded by parts of the lyrics of
Dusty Springfield’s song The Windmills of your Mind.
(C) Frieda Oxenham 2017. To see more of Frieda's work, please visit her BLOG.
