New/Underused Product Part 1

Linden Leaf is hosting some different LTC swaps this year.  She posted them last year giving us plenty of time to learn, play, and work on our cards.  For the swap you are supposed to pick a new or underused product and use that in different ways to make four sets of cards.  I picked the Gelli Plate.  I have 2 Gelli Plates and I have used them a few times but I thought I was not using it to its fullest.

The swap was posted in September with the due date in February.  I took advantage of a Saturday in November with nothing going on and made my cards for the first two swaps.  I saw this technique on Instagram and loved it immediately.  Here is the You Tube video if you want to watch.

It is pretty easy but I'll walk you thru it.  You put a little paint on the Gelli Plate.  I think in the past I used more paint than necessary.  In many of the videos you see them rolling extra paint off on a scrap piece of paper.  You want to use one tone of paint in the first layer and a different tone in the second layer.  For example, you don't want black in one corner and yellow in another corner.  I hope that makes sense :D

After you have the plate covered with paint, you lay down a big stencil and pull a print.  LEAVE the stencil down.  I made the mistake of taking the stencil off the first time, oops.  Leave the stencil down.  If there is extra paint in the open areas you can wipe them off with a baby wipe/damp paper towel.

While the stencil is still down, take a contrasting shade of paints and apply them with a sponge.  My first layer was light colored so I used dark colors for this next layer.  In the next part of the video, she takes a rubber stamp, put paint on it, and stamps it on the Gelli Plate/stencil to add texture.  I did this too but you can't see it on my cards.  I would probably skip this step next time.

Finally, you pull the stencil off.  I was really nervous about this next part.  You let the Gelli Plate dry and apply a thin layer of white acrylic paint. (I forgot to take a pic of this part.) I loved what I saw on the plate and I was worried that covering it with the white paint would ruin it.  But it did not :)  Now you get to pull your awesome print!  I love how they turned out.

I had to do this three times to make the number of cards I wanted.  The first time, I printed on plain white card stock.  The second time, I printed on text paper from an old book.  And the last time, I took a brown paper lunch bag, opened it up, and printed on that.

Linden Leaf said we could reuse old stamps or use the same stamp for each of these swaps.  I carved the finger print heart and I will use it for all of these swaps.  As you can see, I stamped it in pink on white paper, cut it out, and attached it with a 3-D glue dot.  Then I glued the whole thing to pink scrapbook paper.

New/Underused Product: Gelli Prints-Stencils

One of the things I discovered in this process it that the paint does matter. :P  I always bought cheap acrylic paint and I noticed that it is not glossy.  The more I work with the plate, the more I want a glossy finish.  As I buy new paints, I will defiantly look for nicer quality or a high gloss paint.

Thanks Linden Leaf for hosting these swaps :)

Winter LTC Swap

 I am participating in another one of aMAZEing adventure frog's LTC swaps.  This one is called "Winter Craft & Swap" and my card is called "Joy to the World."  When I first signed up, I planned to make a card with a snowman on it.  But after a while I realized that I hadn't made any Christmas themed cards in 2018.  So I changed my plans.

This card is basically the same as my Heart Art card.  I took strips of old text paper that I bought on Etsy (dictionary, encyclopedia, music, etc), spread a thin layer of glue on watercolor paper using an old gift card, both over and under the papers, and let it dry.  Then, I spread Gesso with a gift card and let it dry.  Next, I took an old sock and rubbed Ground Espresso & Rusty Hinge Distress Inks.

Finished card, card before extra ink,
card before crackle (L-R)

When I was done with that, I cut the cards to size, stamped my stamp, brushed Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint-Clear Rock Candy on top, and let that dry.  Last time I used this technique, I wasn't happy with the crackle effect.  This go round, I was disappointed that the Distress Ink background really smeared when brushing the crackle paint on.  I tried using my heat tool on some of the cards before adding the crackle and the problem didn't stop.  So in the end, I went back and added extra Distress Ink on top of the crackle.

I punched the corners of the cards before adding the crackle.  I glued the whole thing to brown paper.  I struggled to come up with a name for the card.  I wanted to use a Christmas Carol but I have already made a card called "Mary Did You Know".  I thought about calling it Madonna something but that didn't feel right.  I was listening to Christmas music and Joy to the World jumped out at me.  I love how they turned out.  I know it is February but I made the cards in late November <3

My First Coin

Beetle has started hosting Letterbox Trading Coin swaps.  Instead of 2.5 x 3.5 cards you make a 2.5" circle coin.  The first one she hosted had a cow theme.  I passed on that one but joined her next one about birds.  She called the swap, "LTCoins: BIRDS!" 

Like most of my cards, I carved the stamp right away.  I knew that I wanted to use Distress Inks/Oxides.  I rubbed the inks/oxides on my mat, sprayed with water, tapped/rubbed the card stock thru the ink, dried the paper, and put it in the ink again.  I was quite happy with how they turned out.

Then came cutting a million circles.  A few years ago my mom got me this scrapbook thing that makes cutting circles easy.  My mom is a big scrapbooker and I asked if she had an easy way to make circles for round logbooks.  She had one of these and let me borrow it.  After I borrowed it a few times she got me one for Christmas.

My coins are called, "Owl With Attitude."  The coin has 3 layers, I made 20 coins, for a grand total of 60 circles!  I glued all the layers together with a glue stick.

My original idea for the card was to stamp the owl on white card stock and color it in with Distress Markers.  But I liked the background so much that I didn't want to cover it with the owls.  It was supposed to be brown circle, distress circle, and colored owl on top.  When I switched to Plan B, I couldn't decide what background color to use.  The coins with a lot of blue got orange circles and the ones with a lot of orange got blue circles.  I really like how they turned out :)