Monday, May 26, 2014

Get gelli with it

Have you tried Gelli Plating? As a frugal scrapper, I don't want to invest a ton of money into the "next" big thing of scrapping. I don't own a die cutting machine or an embossing machine or tons of stamps. When a new "thing" comes out, I try it out instead of diving in.

So when my friend Sonia bought a gelli plate and invited me over to play, I went with hesitation. Now I can't get enough. We use the cheap acrylic paint (less and $1 bottle at Michael's), a brayer and a gelli plate from gelliarts.com. For paper, we often use the white B side of paper that we hoarded and now no longer like. (Reduce, reuse, recycle!!)In addition- we add masks/templates to get cool designs and mists to add more color.

Usually when creating, I just start mixing colors that call to me, with no photo or page in mind.
Here are some the the papers I made turned into scrapbook pages. There was no rhyme or reason to the colors or design as I painted, brayed/rolled, lifted, added more paint and lifted again.


This page I specifically selected to colors to look like the beach, since I was running low on beach themed paper. So I made my own. I LOVED how it turned out! This is just various paint and a brayer on gelli. I let the sandy colors mix with the blues to look like the horizon.



In a swap I participated in, I needed some additional "sports" embellishments. I had seen at Big Lots some dimpled orange paper but when I went back for it, it was gone. So I used yellow, orange and brown for a base, then used a circle stamp over for that dimple look. After I circle cut with my old trusty Creative Memories circle cutter, I hand draw black lines to make it look like a basketball.



This I did intend for a general "nature" page. I used leafy colors like green, yellow and brown. You can even see the subtle stamping of leaves on the background.



The new thing I did with the starburst paper here was to use preprinted paper. Instead of using the white side of a paper I no longer wanted, I found a paper with a white background and very subtle pink strips. But gelli printing a mix of yellow over this print, you could still see touches of the strips seeping through. I then used a template and green mist to get the rays. 

These next two pages came from the same paint. The first was just the swim paper with green and blue. Then I added a template over and lifted the excess paint from between the template openings to get the paper on the summer page. 



This blue and yellow paper was a bit busy after I gelli'ed it. As was the red and blue.  I found some pictures that coordinated and made it work. 

I like the natural look of the teal and blue and green paper along the bottoms but only had one piece. I wanted it for a 2 page spread. By using it only on the lower half of the page, I was able to get gelli goodness across 2 pages. 


Now get your gelli on and show me what you can do.




Monday, May 19, 2014

Washi Tape overload

So a bit over a year ago, I got turned onto washi tape. It is like masking tape, inspired by a Japanese trend with pretty colors and graphics. It is easy to use and just transparent enough (sometimes) to add an extra dimension.

So I bought some. And my friend Mindy showed me how to "store" my wash on a rope to hang. They can be used as jewelry at crops too. ;) Ok, maybe that's just us. Here is a page of Mindy wearing her washi that Rebecca scrapbooked. I love the idea so I had to make my own "necklace" of washi.
http://byondbzr.blogspot.com


Well I'm a practical gal. If I have something, I want to use it so went exploring on ways to play with Washi on scrapbook pages. Here are ideas I found and what I created with it.



Arrows (along bottom of page)


Diecut - lay strips of washi on flat paper and die cut into shape like my hearts here


Flower -I made the page but Mindy (photographed above) made the washi flower as a gift to me


folded washi strip


Little flags (on toothpicks). Could use as a flag on a paperclip too. 


Layered corner embellishment strips
Layered corner embellishment strips again, this time mixed with strips of paper


Clean strips


Layered, messy strips


Photo corners


Ruffle (fold and pleat)


Journal strips


Create own background


Little tears as accents here and there


"Tape" or secure pictures to page


Frame the page


or frame a photo


or frame a row of photos to give that film strip look


torn, multi-strip border -use a variety of small torn pieces around border of page. Either all the way around like the colorful page or just in places in the light green Spring Hike page below



Create separation


12" border across entire page



Create a banner (more time consuming then I thought)




And so many more ideas I have yet to try:
Make rays with washi
Bows
cover brads
use washi strips UNDER a die cut for inverse look
use strips to create a Christmas tree or bday/wedding cake
Anchor photos to the page along a strip of washi

Now get out your WASHI and be inspired!

Friday, May 9, 2014

Well yes, I do "got" Moxxie!

Guess who is one of the newest members of the Moxxie Muses? Yep, you guessed it. Little old me.
Check out their paper line at http://www.gotmoxxie.com & http://gotmoxxie.typepad.com


So I haven't had a chance to play with their papers much yet, but that is about to change. As for now, this little oldies will have to hold you over. Both pages use Moxxie's Martial Arts line. Both pages use rub ons as well as paper. I love how the B&W looks strong against the bold red background or page one. These are my nephews and niece- all who went on to earn black belts. Impressive! The next page is my son in a Karate class. He loved wrestling a game of speed where they had to battle an instructor with a pool noodle. 

On both pages, I used the Honor paper in strips behind the photo to allow just enough to peek through without overwhelming the photos. 
 More Moxxie coming soon!


Monday, May 5, 2014

Easter Egg DYE it


Dying eggs with the kiddos and I thought, I can work with this.
After the eggs where done, I had all this left over water with dye in it. 
What to do? What to do? 

For this background, I used gesso moldering paste and stencils to create some pattern and texture on white paper. After I let it dry, I then poured my blue and green egg dyes over. I had to let it dry again. After drying, I had to press the paper under books to get it to lie flat. But once I had created my background, I didn't want to cover it up. So I silhouette cut my son (on Easter from a previous year) and added some ribbon, twine, flowers, doily and stick pins. A small title and I had "PURE JOY."

Here's another using that same left over blue egg dye. I simply got a cheap paint brush and quickly slopped on some blue lines on white paper. Made for a fun background of pictures from a previous Easter of hubby and sonny boy. 

This Easter page used just a touch of watercolored paper at the top. Just like on my eggs, I used a white crayon to draw circles before painting. I scallop cut it and it made a sweet accent for more Easter photos. 
Now you don't have to use the Easter Egg dyed paper on Easter pics, it just worked that way for me. 

I'd love to see if I've inspired anyone to do this. Post your work!