Friday, September 30, 2016

The Art of Well Being

EVERY LEAF SPEAKS BLISS TO ME

Two things bring me calmness, peace of mind and a feeling of being one with the Universe: Communing with Nature and Creating. I have been very fortunate to be able to be close to Nature 
my entire life. So, Nature is very important to me and obviously very inspiring as it shows up 
in my Art all the time!

The very first thing I did when I received my Gel Press ® plate, was make lots of prints with 
real leaves I had collected from the woods. From that moment on, every time I walked in the 
woods my mind was automatically searching for cool natural textures - and I realized when 
I got home from these walks, I was completely relaxed and full of creative ideas! 
It was a wonderfully meditative exercise.

For today's blog hop, I'm going to relive my wonderful walks in the woods by making a pillow 
with the help of my 12" x 14" Gel Press ® plate and bring Nature inside my home!

Supplies you will need: 

•REAL leaves
•brayer
•acrylic inks (in Fall colors)
•2 oz. spray bottle
•acrylic paint (I used green and copper)
•piece of white cotton bigger than 12" x 14" (I used an old white pillowcase)
•iridescent bronze fluid paint
•fine tip applicator
•scissors
•sewing machine
•piece of material (bigger than 12" x 14") for back of pillow
•polyfil

I sprayed yellow, orange, green and red acrylic ink right onto Gel Press ® plate. I prefer spraying onto the plate because it allows me more control....if I see an area I don't like, I can wipe it off.



Here is what the white piece of pillowcase looks as it soaks up the the acrylic inks.



I repeated the process a second time to fill in the white gaps and add more color.

  

Here is the pillowcase - dried - after second application.

  

I used a brayer to spread green and a little copper acrylic paint on the 12" x 14" Gel Press ® plate. Then I placed the real leaves (using them as masks) onto my plate, leaving space for a poem. 



This is what the pillowcase (front of pillow) looks like after pressing onto above plate and dried.



I found a piece of material that went with my gel printed fabric and cut both of them to 12" x 14". The pillow will be smaller as I used up a 1/2" on all sides for a seam allowance.



I placed both fabrics face to face, pinned and machine-sewed on all sides, leaving some room for stuffing. I stuffed with polyfil and machine-sewed it closed. I put Iridescent Bronze Fluid Acrylics in a fine tip applicator and wrote the poem onto the pillow.

 Now I have a memento of my walk in the woods.


Hope you enjoyed this technique! Before you try it out, go check out more cool, creative ideas on our Blog Hop!!


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Thanks for participating in our HOP!

Kitti Scibelli
Gel Press® Creative Design Team 

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Ocean Inspired Mosaic Frame made with a Gel Press ® Print

Ocean inspired mosaic frame

I love making mosaics, but it can be time consuming, messy, and occasionally painful! :)

I'm sure you've heard of paper mosaics.  I’m going to show you how to make a gorgeous paper mosaic made from a Gel Press ® print.

Here's the print I made by painting (with a paintbrush) right onto my 8" x 10" Gel Press ® plate.
I used my favorite colors of acrylic paint...

Paper mosaic

Then I cut my print up into squares and rectangles, glued them down on the frame and added Diamond Glaze to each piece. It's amazing how much they look like glass tiles!!

Click on any of the pics to go to my Gel Press ® blog post for all the details!!! :)

Gel press print becomes mosaic