I have been busy this week doing my Christmas gift shopping and a whole bunch of nothing besides sitting at the computer and catching up on reading and projects and doing yet MORE shopping–a lot of it for myself!  LOL!  I purchased some videos at Interweave’s Cyber Monday sale and some other classes that I may post about as they open and get going after the first of the year.  As I mentioned previously, I purchased several stencils at the StencilGirl site and also several stencils that I found at good prices on various other sites such as Amazon and Scrapbook.com.  My first shipment of goodies arrived today from Amazon.  There were many books that I will give as gifts mostly to family and a couple of friends:

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I know it is OK to post this here now as I am almost certain that none of the people that these are going to bother to read my blog…  I also received just a few goodies today from Gelli Arts…

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I have been wanting to purchase those little bitty Gelli Plates ever since I saw them introduced a few months back.  I have also been wanting to get at least one of the circular plates and so I got the 4″ and the 6″ as these will probably meet my needs just fine.  You never see them on sale and if they are, it is only about 10-15% off.  When Gelli offered them with free shipping thru Dec. 16th, I figured it was time to buy.

I also received just a few stencils that were on special–or that i couldn’t find discounted anywhere else for less and since I’d already triggered the free shipping with Amazon, they went on the ticket, too!

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I’m not really very good at the Gelli printing but I decided to give the little circle from the “mini” pack a whirl.  I used the daisy stencil and the 6″ dotted circle stencil above to see what I could come up with.  I started with a gessoed background and a little light green/mint green paint.  Then I added the Gelli plate prints.  I also flipped the circular dotted stencil while wet to get a reverse image on the page.  It still looked a little bare so I laid the daisy stencil down like a mask and sprayed some Heidi Swapp color spray on it.  I don’t know if you can tell from the scan but it did help bring a little more interest to the spread.  I don’t know what I’ll add to this but I’m sure I will find something appropriate some day…just like the rest of my backgrounds that I create.

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Initially I tried using the daisy stencil for a mask on the small Gelli plate.  I couldn’t get to work like I wanted but it was coated in green’ish-teal paint and it needed to be used SOMEwhere.  I found another background that I had created this past summer and I turned it over and printed it in the corner.  I looks fabulous there.  Also, I took what was left of the paint on the pallet and used it to add some dots through the center of the same daisy stencil onto the facing page.  I am pleased at how it augmented the background that was already there.

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I wish I was more adept at using stencils/masks and Gelli plates but I will improve as I practice.  I just think it is going to take quite a bit for me to get a handle on them at this rate!  LOL

I am also linking this post to:

  • Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s regular Friday post Art Journal Everyday post which she usually posts regularly every Friday
  • Carolyn Dube’s weekly Tuesday linkup Let’s Play! where all sorts of creative PLAY is encouraged.  🙂
  • Leah Piken Kolidas’ weekly Monday challenge Creative Every Day