WOYWW

It's time to share our workspaces for WOYWW, that fun meme hosted by Julia at "Stamping Ground"

On Tuesday, I had fun playing with paint and created a number of things.

I have started a free art course at Strathmore "Bold and Expressive Printmaking with Tracy Bautista andam really enjoying it so far. (I have her book and enjoy working with it)

I created some foam stamps and then did some stamping with them.

Then I did some backgrounds with the gelli plate.

And finally, did some stamping with junk (for the ABC Wednesday challenge - J was the letter of the week)

(Green was for St. Patrick's Day!)

SOL #6 and WOYWW

Day 6  of the Slice of Life March, the challenge at "Two Writing Teachers", which is run by Stacey and Ruth.

 Tuesday night I got to play with paint.
I am spending more time creating  - ATCs (small art trading cards), gelli plate prints, collage, painting. I am taking part in many challenges as well.
I am trying to create daily - even 10 minutes  of sketching counts.
Art is becoming a necessary part of my life. When I retire, I hope to do much more, possibly teach art to children, take more courses, even  open my own ETSY shop.

The following is an entry for a new meme that I found very interesting. It gives a glimpse into what creating on the gelli plate is like:

I have been following this meme for some time - several people I visit, share their worktables with this site.
Usually mine is either so piled with stuff or empty that I have not even tried to take part.

But tonight (Tuesday), I was so involved with printmaking with my gelli plate that I knew I had to take some photos.
I am addicted with that little plate - mine is 6x6.  But  I love the effects I can create  even with this size.
I had just purchased some new stencils and wanted to try them out.
 As well I had just created a new stamp with foam (check out the tutorial here - lots of fun!)

Here is my desk - rather a long table that works perfectly for printmaking. To the left are the prints and to the right , the supplies.

Notice to the far right, are the extra papers I have been creating from cleaning off my brayer. I love these as much as the gelli prints.

Here are some of the prints I made tonight.

Check out some great workspaces here.

ABC Wednesday

This week at ABC Wednesday, our letter of focus is "H".

I have chosen H for Horizontal.

In art, horizontal lines run parallel to the horizon.

I have been working with a gelli plate lately and was trying out a process of using foam sheets to create my own stamp.(check here for a wonderful tutorial on this process and a link to the gelli plate website)
As I cut the foam, and taped the pieces  down, the lines  became  horizontal.

 I followed this up with printing with the stamp.

Once dry, the sheet reminded me of water. I then created this ATC:

Be sure to check how others around the world focus on H  here.

Sunday Weekly Wrap-up

This past week has been another week of longer times to create. Friday was a bonus day as schools were closed because of the "monster" storm. I am so glad I did not have to drive my usual 30 min. on snow-covered roads.
I completed a challenge for Collage Obsession (see my post here)  as well as the following:

Gelli Prints
I can't get enough of creating with the gelli plate. I have tried different stencils and found objects. I now use these papers for most of my backgrounds.

Carolyn Dube has an excellent tutorial and fun gelli plate parties to take part in. \be sure to visit here for more information.

ATCs
I finished off  3 sets of ATCs:



Photo cards for a PAT

Bird Postage stamp swap

Joy cards
I created a few more cards for my "word of the year" JOY:

I am also continuing a project I started awhile ago - action cards. I had originally made them fairly large, but as I have so many old business cards, I thought I would crate them in the joy card size.

Photography
I couldn't resist getting out in the snow yesterday with my camera . That snow was beautiful.

Footprints in the snow:

Looking across the street at all the piles of snow  - including our plowed in driveway

Gung Hey Fat Chow and happy Valentine's Day! 

 Have a wonderful week!

Gelli Plate Fun

Tonight I am still recouping from a looong ride home - a 25 min. drive from school to home, took me 45 nerve-racking minutes. Most of the drive home was not over 40-50 kmph. The roads were slick with snow and luckily, people were sensible and drove slowly.

But after supper, I needed art. I grabbed some new stencils I just bought

and had fun with my gelli plate.

Just laying on the paint and trying different effects.

Here are several of my favourites

If you haven't tried this, you really have. There are many videos on line to explore the how-tos.
Carolyn Dube offers some great ones.


Linking today with:

In the Studio: Sneak Peak Friday

Paint party Friday

Gelli Plate

In September I won a gelli plate from Marcia Beckett of "Art is Basic" - a fabulous blog for art teachers and those wanting art ideas.
It wasn't until tonight that I actually got it out and experimented - and now I am addicted! I was feeling sick today and really not feeling like doing too much. Then I remembered the gelli plate - and the video I  had recently watched.
What fun it was to just play and not worry about what I would create.

Here are a few of the pieces I made:

This was the table top after I was done!

This is using bubblewrap.

I can see so much potential for this. great for journal pages and ATC backgrounds.
I will definitely be playing with paint, stencils and the gelli plate a lot!

Thought I would an some additional video for you to see and check out the fun:

at Carolyn Dube

There are so may more on Youtube - be sure to check them out as well.