Making some mail art today

Since I can only work in bits and pieces during the summer 

I have started making a ton of backgrounds.

They have a twofold purpose...use up some of the vast amount of "stuff" I have, 

and two I then have a huge supply to draw from for later.

The other day I created this background.

I started with a 12x12 sheet of cardstock 

(of which I think I shall never run out of I have so much)

and began adding acrylic paint colors.

Lots of stamping, collaging of scrap papers, doodling, splattering etc

and this was the end result.

A finished 12x12 background to use as is or be cut down for other projects.

This one was destined to be cut down into 6 4x6 pieces to be turned into postcards.

Next I added some hearts freehand cut from Gelli Print scraps,

and some stamping using Club Scrap stamps.

They make me happy, and these projects fit perfectly into my time constrained life right now.

Ready for the mail!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Gelli Printing with the girls and NeoColor IIs

As we are reaching the final stretch of summer vacation

I am starting to hear those dreaded words

"I'm bored!"

The other day I heard them followed by "can I make art?"

but not just art, the 8 year old wanted to use the Gelli Plate.

She loves using it but, being 8, she can make quite a mess (and while I am a messy creator sometimes her messes are even too much for me) so I needed a way for her to use it but keep the mess at a minimum and clean up easy.

I pulled out my NeoColor IIs, the Gelli Plate, 

and a spray bottle filled with water.

She would mist the plate, doodle on it with the NeoColor IIs 

(which are water soluble)

and then lift her image with a variety of paper.

This kept her occupied for over an hour.

AND gave me some backgrounds and printed papers that I can include in my work.

BONUS!

Yep that is her arm in Frog Flannel PJs.

100 degrees in summer and she still wears them.

I pick my battles.

She just doodled away on the wet plate.

One more print....

Clean up was super easy, basically just wiping the extra water from the table.

The crayons did stain the plate a bit, 

but no more than when I use spray inks and ink pads on it.

Good news is it doesn't affect the plate at all.

This will definitely be on the approved project list for future reference.

It's a win win for both. She makes art, I get to use it up.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

I'm back.....

It's been a loooonnnnggggg time since I blogged.

Finally starting to unpack my craft room again and find my mojo that seemed to have been packed up with it.

Life has been flying by at the speed of light.

Still looking for that pause button to slow things down.

Today's page started when I pulled out my Gelli Plate to let the 8 yr old play.

I sat my Art Journal next to her so she could use a blank page to clean the paint off her brayer.

Later I came back and had the start of a page.

Guess you could call it a collaboration.

I added scraps of Gelli Prints.

Some stamping with Solvent ink & Acrylic Paint

A few rub ons by Tim Holtz 

and finally my thought came from a Stencil Girl stencil.

The explosion of color is making me happy today.

So good to be back creating and playing.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.