It's Fall Y'all and some boxing

 

It's Fall Y'all: Autumn

This is my card for jlsd0218's "It's Fall Y'all" LTC swap.  My card is called, "Autumn."  For this tracker, you were supposed to use some sort of embellishment.  As you can see, I used eyelets.  I bought them a long time ago but I don't know if I ever used them.

THIS was the inspiration for my card.  I considered carving a tree blowing in the wind but couldn't find just the right image.  

For the background, I used my Geli Plate.  I have been having problems with my plate lately.  Can they dry out or go bad?  I bought new paint at the end of last year and thought it may be the problem.  So I got new paint and it worked better.  I'm very happy with how the cards turned out.

Haubstadt, Ind

I went letterboxing last Saturday and had a great time.  The weather was beautiful and I found all 7 boxes that I looked for.  

I started off in Haubstadt looking for a box that someone planted passing thru. I also explored a nearby park.  Next month is my 10 year letterbox anniversary and I have been thinking about planting a ten box series.   I checked out a park that used to have a few trails.  Now it is a disc golf course.  I think I will plant there anyway if I can get my butt in gear and carve the stamps. 

Owensboro, Ky

Then I went to Owensboro, Ky.  Big jump, I know.  There is a new boxer there and she has planted a bunch of boxes.  I went over back in July and got some of the boxes.  This time I got all of them but one that is inside a library.  

A while ago, I got a message that one of my boxes in Owensboro was missing.  The area had flooded and the box washed away.  We went on a field trip to an orchard just 2 miles away and I had to check while we were so close.  I found the box!  It was in a pile of flood debris.  It was in bad shape so I cleaned it up and rehid it in a better place last weekend.  

I was great to be out boxing again.   I love this weather and all the awesome stamps :)

Winter Craft & Swap

This is my LTC for aMAZEing adventure frog's Winter Craft & Swap tracker.  My card is called, "The Holy Family."

For this card, I used the same technique as my last New/Underused Product LTC.  HERE is that blog post if you want to see it.  And HERE is the video that I tried to copy if you want to go straight to the pro ;)

I rolled a layer of alcohol ink on the Gelli Plate with a brayer.  Put down a stencil and press it down with the bubble wrap.  Now, add more alcohol ink colors and use the cardboard/bubble wrap to add texture/transfer color from one area to another.

I went to buy more alcohol inks recently and accidentally got the pearl kind.  I had never used it before and tried it on these cards.  It looks pretty cool.  I'll have to use it more often.

Winter Craft & Swap 2019: The Holy Family 

When the inks are dry, roll out a layer of paint.  I used cream color paper and white paint.  You can add more texture after the paint if you want.  The first pull I smashed a wadded up plastic bag, but forgot about it on other pulls.

I have been using a lot of vellum here lately.  I stamped my stamp on vellum and attached it with a simple brad.  Then glued it to brown textured scrapbook paper.  I carved a small star stamp to stamp on the Gelli background but didn't end up using.

New/Underused Product Part 4

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 it in different ways to make four sets of cards.  I picked the Gelli Plate.  I have used my plate a few times but I thought I was not using it to its fullest.

This is my final one of these swaps.  This is the one technique that I have been dying to try since these swaps started.  I had no idea that you could use alcohol inks on a gelli plate.  HERE is the video that I tried to copy.

Start off by putting the alcohol ink on the plate, spread it around with the brayer, and let it dry.  Then, in the video, she puts a stencil down and pushed it down with a piece of bubble wrap.  I love the stencil she uses and wish she gave more info about it.  (Sorry that my stencil is clear.)

Next she adds ink with a kitchen trivet.  I have a silicon oven mitt with a similar texture and used that.  She put the ink on a "puddle pad" and stamps the trivet in that.  I have no idea what a "puddle pad" is and I put the ink directly on my oven mitt.

The woman in the video is a little annoying and adds more texture items and another color with the brayer.

After this last layer of ink she stamps the whole thing  (stencil still down) with a large texture plate.  I don't have one of those but saw this serving tray at the dollar store and thought it would do that same thing.  I didn't really see the pattern from the serving tray on the plate but some of the ink does come off so I assume it works. 

Now it's time to pull off your stencil.  When the ink is dry, roll out a thin later of paint.  In the video she adds more texture after the paint and I did the same with a wrinkled up grocery bag.  Finally, you pull your print.  For this set, I used only white card stock.

For the first go I followed the video religiously.  But after a few pulls I kinda did whatever.  After a while I stopped with the oven mitt and used a corner of the bubble wrap instead.  I changed up the colors a little bit each time, sticking with a fall theme.

The hardest part about these cards was picking a border color and stamping my stamp.  I wanted to stamp my stamp in a maroon color on velum but it bled and looked like a red blob.  I tried two different inks pads one of them being Stazon.  I ended up stamping it with brown.

I'm very happy with how these cards turned out.  I am very likely to use this technique again :)  BIG THANKS to Linden Leaf for hosting these swaps <3

Here is my first card:
https://wchristmas6.blogspot.com/2019/02/newunderused-product-part-1.html

My second card:
https://wchristmas6.blogspot.com/2019/05/newunderused-product-part-2.html

And my third card for the new/underused product LTC swap:
https://wchristmas6.blogspot.com/2019/08/newunderused-product-part-3.html

New/Underused Product Part 3

Drawing on the Gelli Plate.

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 it in different ways to make four sets of cards.  I picked the Gelli Plate.  I have used my plate a few times but I thought I was not using it to its fullest.

I have said before that I work at a day care and I get inspiration there.  It seems that all the baby girls at the day care have blankets, sheets, sleepers, outfits, etc with the same floral pattern (from Target).  I like the design and colors from the set and it was my inspiration for these cards.

Pulling the prints.

This technique is super easy.  Take felt tip markers and draw on your plate.  I was a little concerned that scratching the marker on the plate would destroy it, but it did not.  Like all of these new/underused product swaps, I printed on card stock and text paper.  The text papers are a little busy but I still like it.

I don't really like this technique; it is very repetitive.  If you were making one or two tags, bookmarks, greeting cards... it would be nice.  But making 20 trading cards was very tedious.  I also don't understand why coloring on the gelli plate is even necessary.  What is the benefit to coloring on the plate instead of coloring straight on the paper?  

A side from using my gelli plate in four different ways, I am also stamping my cards in different ways.  For this one, I stamped my stamp and embossed it. Using an embossing pen and I did some of the leaves too.

Gelli Prints- Felt Tip Markers

I found this technique on Pinterest and HERE is the YouTube video.   

Here is the first New/Underused card I made:

https://wchristmas6.blogspot.com/2019/02/newunderused-product-part-1.html

Here is the second one: 

https://wchristmas6.blogspot.com/2019/05/newunderused-product-part-2.html

New/Underused Product Part 2

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 had 2 Gelli Plates and I have used them a few times but I thought I was not using it to its fullest.  I liked the bigger of the 2 plates best, so I donated the smaller one to work.

The swap was posted in September with the due date in May.  I took advantage of a Saturday in November with nothing going on and made my cards for the first two swaps.  I found this technique in Pinterest and here is the YouTube video if you want to watch. 

I tried this technique and could not get it to work.  I tried text from 3 magazines (recipes, calendars, articles, etc) and when that didn't work, I rummaged in the attic and found an old college text book.  I tried it multiple times and only got a small area of text one of the times.  I don't know what the issue was but I would like to try again in the future.

Plan B- layers in one step.  This is more like what I would traditionally do with a Gelli Plate but you do it all at once.  Normally, I would put down some paint with a design and pull a print.  Then put down a different color paint with a fancy design and pull a print on top of the first, etc.   

This technique is very easy.  You basically roll some paint on the plate then you can stamp stamps/texture plates with or without paint on them.  You can transfer paint and designs from one area to another with stamps/texture plates.

One of the things I enjoyed most was making my own texture things.  I made a hot glue stamp, wadded up a plastic grocery bag, and tore an outside layer off corrugated cardboard. 

Like my last card, you let the paint dry and cover it with a very thin layer of transparent/fluid acrylic paint.  Then you pull your print.  Ta da!   This go round I pulled my prints on card stock and text paper.

When the paint was dry I cut my cards to size and stamped my stamp directly to the paper.  Like I said in my last post, I wanted a glossy finish.  So, I covered the card with glossy Mod Podge.  Once that was dry, I glued it to the black background.  Here is the YouTube video of this technique, if you want to watch a pro.

New/Underused Product: Gelli Prints-
One print, many layers

My Gelli Plate is 8x10 and one of the things I love is the white/blank edge left from the paper being larger than the plate.  I try really hard to cut the prints in a way to use as much of that edge as possible.  I don't know why I like it so much.  You think my OCD would be the opposite.  

Anyway, I'm really happy with this set of cards.  I just got my cards back from the first of these swaps (today is 3/14).  I really enjoyed all the cards and reading/learning about different techniques.  I'm really glad I joined these swaps <3

Here is the first New/Underused card I made:

https://wchristmas6.blogspot.com/2019/02/newunderused-product-part-1.html

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 :)

Gelli Fish LTC

This is my card for aMAZEing adventure frog's Spring Craft & Swap LTC tracker.  My card is called "Gelli Fish".

I have been thinking about using my Gelli Plate more and thought this tracker would be a good opportunity.  I carved my stamp got started on the card right away making the blue gelli background.

Then I made the paper for the fish, stamped the fish, and started cutting them out.  When I had a few cut out, my daughter dumped a big glass of tea over on my craft desk.  I had to throw away all the fish.

I was so frustrated that I put the cards away for a while.  But I got over it and finished the cards.

The sequins were a pain.  I had some mixed sequins and went thru them looking for clear ones.  I couldn't find very many so I went to the craft store to buy some.  They didn't have the color I wanted.  I bought some on Etsy and they ended up being the wrong color.  I bought another package online and they were perfect.

I glued them on with craft glue and I hope they survive the trip.  A few of them fell off while I was getting the cards ready to go.  I am very happy with how the cards turned out :)

Frogs, Toads, and Turtles

Frogs, Toads & Turtles: Toad Friend

I am in the Frogs, Toads & Turtles LTC tracker.  My oldest and youngest boys love toads/frogs.  In the warm evenings you can hear them croaking around our house.  Lil Ewok says that he wants to see them.  So he and Lego Clone Trooper get flash lights and go looking.  Lil Ewok always comes back excited about all the critters they found.  Below are some pics of the toad/frogs we have seen in our yard.

For this card I needed camouflage paper.  I thought the best way to do that was with my Gelli plate (of course).  I tried a few different things but for most of the cards I put down tan paint first, put a circle stencil, and pulled a print.  I didn't clean the plate and put the green paint down, stuck a swirly dry embossing folder on it, and pulled a print on top on the previous paper.  I think they turned out really well.

I stamped the stamp, applied a layer of antique Mod Podge, let them dry, cut them out, glued them to the textured grey paper.  They needed a little something so I took the same brown stamp pad that I used to stamp the toads and rubbed it on the edge of the cards.  I am very happy with the whole thing :)

Frog in the holly bush.

Frog on kitchen window.

Frog on the kitchen door.

Owl LTC

Owls: Gelli Owl

I am in the "Owl you need is love" LTC swap.  My card is called, "Gelli Owl."  I got my Gelli plate in January and I really like playing with it.

When I got it I bought a book too with many ideas, tips for tools to use, examples of others work, etc.  I have also watched a lot of videos and pined ideas on Pinterest.

This technique is laid out step by step in my book but I thought it would be easier to show you the video.  I love this way to use my Gelli plate and I will definitely use it again.  In this technique you use packing tape.  (Video at the bottom.)

I got the idea for leaves on Pinterest.  I wasn't a huge fan of Gesso when I used it before but now I have a whole jar of it sitting around so why not use it, right?

So, I cut my dictionary pages to size, took a craft knife thing, and smeared a thin layer of Gesso across the page.  When that was dry I did the same thing with green paint.  I did the dark green, let it dry, then the light green, and let it dry.  Then I drew the edge & vein with a fine Sharpie, and cut them out.  I glued the whole thing together and decided that it needed something so I added the brad.  I recently got a big hole punch/grommet thing so you should see some of those in the future.

Think Spring LTCs

Up in the sky butterfly by DFP

Daddy's Favorite Princess and I are participating in my "Think Spring" LTC tracker.

For DFP's cards she carved her butterfly stamp and stamped it to some paper that she found.  The paper kinda fades from blue to green.  Then she colored the image.  The stamp was supposed to have antenna but that was to hard for her so she drew them.  I have borrowed this stamp for a Gelli Plate LTC tracker due in August.

For my card I used my Gelli Plate for the background.  I put two different shades of green paint on the plate and rolled them out with the brayer roller.  I scraped some of the paint away with a fancy comb.  And then I took a toilet paper tube, dipped the end in yellow paint, and put that on the plate too.  I placed my darker green paper on and rubbed it.  I think they turned out pretty good but they are all different.

Tulips by christmas6

The stamp is embossed and then colored with Sharpies.  This is not at all what I had originally imaged for my card.  I was going to do some sewing on this card.  But I love playing with the Gelli Plate :)

Box of the Month & Gelli prints

Me, Daddy's Favorite Princess & Lil Ewok

This year we are participating in the Letterbox of the Month club.  Twelve people sign up, make a stamp and a logbook, and hide it for the first month.  Then, like a postal, you mail the logbook and stamp to the next person and they hide it for a month.  And it goes on and on until you get your own stuff back at the end of the year.  

Yesterday we got our box for February and we planted it today.  In the pic is me & the princess.  Lil Ewok was mad that I would not let him bring his blanket on the walk and he would not face the camera.

I have a cousin who is a geocacher and when she comes to town she caches.  The last few times she has loaded up all the kids and went off geocaching.  Now the princess thinks caching is more fun than boxing because you "get prizes."  So we have looked for a few and not had much luck.  We looked for one today and couldn't find it.  I give up; it is just too stressful looking for something with no directions.  

On a happier note: I told you that I got a Gelli plate last Friday and took it to a GS leader retreat.  I had a lot of fun playing with it.  These are my first prints.  I am using my Gelli plate on two cards and will probably use it a lot :)

New Toy

I ordered a Gelli Plate and it came today.  I am really looking forward to playing with it.  This weekend I am going to a Girl Scout leader retreat and they encourage you to BYO crafts for Saturday afternoon.  I have packed up a lot of paint, stencils, string, paper, etc.  I am in a Gelli Plate LTC tracker and I have another card that I plan on using it on.  I am so excited!!