Gel Printed Dragonfly Page

Hello friends! It is Monday again and I hope you had a great weekend. I had fun crafting and walking this weekend.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

This week we have a Play with Paint theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. Fun! Any paint will do: acrylic, watercolor, and so on. Don't miss the project by our July guest Rox aka Red Dirt Crafter.

It has been a very long time since I did gel printing so I decided to play with acrylic paint and made a whole lot of gel printed backgrounds. I had fun and created lots of papers for future projects. It is hard to stop! I used three of the printed papers for this art journal page, done in my Dylusions Small Creative Journal.

I used Gelli Arts 5x7 Gel Printing Plate and Ranger's Inkssentials Brayer.

Before printing, I embossed watercolor paper with various Simon Says Stamp Embossing Folders, since that is one of my favorite techniques of adding texture and patterns while gel printing. I forgot to include some of the papers here.

Brayer acrylic paint on the plate, and press the embossed papers into the paint. Repeat with different colors and combine different folders. I used a couple of stencils too namely: Simon Says Stamp Mix and Match Circles and Dot Petal Pattern. 

These are just some of the papers, I made a lot more. 

I had a hard time picking which papers to use and ended up with these two and later an additional paper. Embossing folders used here were Simon Says Stamp Stitching Sampler, Swirled Ridges, Butterfly Burst, Bubble Rings and Everlasting Flowers.

I stamped the dragonfly from Stamper's Anonymous Classics #1 on another gel printed paper, where you can for example see the Simon Says Stamp Star Lattice folder in the background. A small dragonfly from Simon Says Stamp Loving Thoughts was also stamped on the paper.

The title was die cut from the paper with the butterflies and the rings, using Sizzix Tim Holtz Alphanumeric Bulletin letters. I also die cut them from Simon Says Stamp Holographic cardstock. As you can see, the wrong die set ended up in this photo: Tim Holtz Sizzix Picture Show, which was used to die cut the film strip.

The background was stamped with sentiments from Stamper's Anonymous Classics #5 and Tim Holtz Simple Sayings, as well as with my favorite alphabet stamp from Tim Holtz School Desk.

I die cut the film strip from Simon Says Stamp Acetate and colored with alcohol ink: Teakwood and Pitch Black. Paper Hugs comes from Simon Says Stamp Love Letter.

One of my favorite sentiments.

The Bulletin Letters are large and with a thin outline, which gives them so many possible uses. You can also use the outline on its own. 

I stamped small words and numbers from Simon Says Stamp Big Botanicals and Tim Holtz Correspondence in the openings of the film strip. The sequins are Simon Says Stamp Cream Puffs.

I added a little Stickles Star Dust to the dragonflies.

Join us this week in our Play with Paint challenge! You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Read Layout

Hi crafters! I hope your weekend was good and with some crafty time. 

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

This week we have a Back to School theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I hope you will join us and don't miss the project by our July guest designer Rox aka Red Dirt Crafter.

Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products by a specific designer / company and this week it is 49 and Market. You can find all their stunning paper products here. You don't have to use 49 and Market products to join, but it is fun if you do.

I made a scrapbooking layout this week, using an old school photo. I had fun playing around with pretty papers and ephemera and used 49 and Market: Faded Memory Lane Ephemera, Faded Memory Lane Chipboard, Faded Memory Lane Laser Wild Flowers and Travel Diaries Laser Cut Elements. All I added was a die cut title, buttons and lots of stitching.

I started by arranging various papers from 49 and Market Faded Memory Lane Ephemera on Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy Blue cardstock. The edges were distressed and inked. I stitched them to the background with my sewing machine, using a mix of straight and zig-zag stitching. The ephemera kit has 118 pieces, both larger and smaller, and lots of great sentiments.

I also used Faded Memory Lane Chipboard, such as this sentiment. The edges were sanded and some of them were inked.

The butterfly comes from Faded Memories Laser Cut Wild Flowers, fold up the wings.

More chipboard pieces. The vintage buttons were stitched to the background with DMC floss.

This faded coneflower print is so pretty! 

For the learning and reading theme, I for example added this pile of books and a globe from Travel Diaries Laser Cut elements. The edges were sanded. I also stitched two charms to the background. A key because reading opens doors and a plant, to fit with the floral theme. Isn't 'paper dreams' the perfect sentiments. Already from a very young age, I loved paper products.

I added Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam Tape behind one end of the banner, to give it dimension. Foam tape was also placed under the stack of books. The butterfly comes from Faded Memory Lane Laser Wild Flowers.

The title was die cut with Tim Holtz Alphanumeric Stretch Upper from Blue Palette Paper 8x8 in. I also added a map, folded, inked and shaped with foam tape, an open book and more chipboard elements, all from Faded Memory Lane. 

Fold the book ephemera and shape. Add foam tape behind the covers and glue only along the spine.

I always liked ruler elements. 

Join us this week in our Back to School challenge! You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Cosmos Art Journal

Hi crafters! It is the last day of June and I have a summery art journal page to share today. You can of course make a card instead.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Cosmos flowers are so pretty and come in many colors. Here I wanted them to shine on the page and added a fairly simple background. I worked on a double-page in my Stamperia Mixed Media Journal 4x8.5 and colored with watercolors. The flower stamps are from Paper Artsy Cosmos Edition by Alison Bomber. 

Stamp the flowers from Paper Artsy Cosmos Edition with Jet Black Archival Ink.

Paint with watercolors, dropping in new colors or darker shades before the first layer is dry. I used Daniel Smith watercolor paint.

Paint the stems with Green Apatite Genuine. 

White emboss the alphabet stamp from Paper Artsy Crocus Edition in a few places.

Paint the background with soft pastel shades and used Green Apatite Genuine for the grass.

Stamp Summertime with Simon Says Stamp Chill Vibes set, a sentiment from Paper Artsy Cosmos Edition and words from Crocus Edition. Splatter a little paint and add marks with a black pen and highlights with a white gel pen.

I particularly like how the watercolor paint has created a dark outline around some of the embossed letters. I also used a few Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers. For another example with the 'summertime', check out my Forget-me-not card.

I let the yellow paint from the center spread into the petals. 

Joyful was stamped with Distress Oxide Ink.

I sometimes like to repeat words by stamping them more than once.

Splatters add movement and texture.

This sentiment from Cosmos Edition is so pretty.

It almost looks like these two flowers are talking to each other,

I stamped the grass with Simon Says Stamp Crackle Background and added leaves from A Little Artsy. Time to unwind comes from Simon Says Stamp Chill Vibes.

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.