≡ Menu

It slices, it dices…well not really, but the Gel Press plate did just about everything for this art journal page! It masked, it stamped, it added the title and of course, made the background.

Watch Stamping, stenciling and masking all on a gel plate on YouTube.

Using a gel print from my stack of papers for the background, I wanted to mask off a hill.  By simply ripping paper, I had the mask but I wanted it positioned somewhere specifically on the print.  That is when the gel plate showed how helpful it can be!

Once I had the paint for the hill on there, it was a breeze to ink up the hand carved owl stamp.

The intention was for this little owl to be standing straight up but instead he has a bit of tilt. OOPS! Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly!

So why didn’t I just paint the hill on the paper? Because it would just be a solid piece of black then.  By using the gel plate, I had little bits of the color underneath artfully peeking out.

To stencil the title for this art journal page, I didn’t want to just stencil it straight on with black paint.  I could have, but that just wouldn’t look like it belonged, so I used the plate to add the title.  I flipped the Uplifting Words stencil over, since words go on backwards to be legible on the print, and applied the paint with a cosmetic sponge.

That little owl needed just one last touch…scribble journaling in the wings and a bit of color in the eyes.  The white Pitt Pen followed by a touch of blue with a brush tipped Pitt Pen.

Remember the stamping OOPS?  Well, that turned out to be a gift because that little bit of leaning gave him so much more personality than if he’d just been standing perfectly straight.  Imperfections add character. Go be magic little one!

{ 7 comments }

I was avoiding an inevitable grown up task, thanks to leftover paint.  My must do project for a deadline was finished but I just had to use up the last remnants of the paint.

Since I really didn’t want the play to stop, I used a small brush.  It had to take me longer to use it up if I used a small brush.  The scrap that I grabbed had been made with lots of juicy spray inks and my Are We There Yet stencil.

As you’ve probably guessed, no matter how long I painted, that task was still waiting for me.  The computer elves were still waiting for me to deal with the computer issue but at least I was in a better frame of mind thanks to the rainbow.

{ 1 comment }
Using deli paper in an art journal tutorial by Carolyn Dube

How can you use deli paper in your art journaling?  One of the ways is layering it on top of a pattern so that the pattern peeks out!

Watch Using deli paper in art journal on YouTube.

Here’s the pattern created using the Pebbles Layer Me stencil. New to layering stencils?  See the video of how I easily built the pebbles pattern.

A Layered Stencil Pattern and Using deli paper in an art journal tutorial by Carolyn Dube

A benefit of gel printing with deli paper is the paper is translucent so what is underneath peeks out in places.  With a bit of gel medium, I adhered the entire piece of deli paper over the entire page but the Pebbles pattern is still visible.

Using deli paper in an art journal tutorial by Carolyn Dube

More color was smeared around, after all,  I can’t leave any white space.  At first, the color wasn’t exactly what I intended (O.O.P.S.), but thanks to a baby wipe, it became even better than what I intended.

Using deli paper in an art journal tutorial by Carolyn Dube

In case you’re not fluent in Latin, mergo means dig, engulf, or sink. I only know it because it written on the back.  A Latin flashcard captured the meaning for this page since the pattern was sunken into the page thanks to the deli paper layer.

I took Latin for 3 years in high school and detested every minute of it. And never ever voluntarily used flashcards for it.  But if we’re talking layers of color and play then I love those little flashcards.

If you’d like to play with little flashcards like this without having to hunt down vintage ones, there is a modern set that is about the same size and are cheaper than the vintage ones. You can find them here.

Using deli paper in an art journal tutorial by Carolyn Dube

Using a giant colorful pencil keeps things loose and playful as I added some scribble journaling.

Using deli paper in an art journal tutorial by Carolyn Dube

Is this finished?  How do I know with confidence that it is?  I have a few questions I ask myself to decide if a page is finished that I share in the workshop, Art Journaling FUNdamentals.

Using deli paper in an art journal tutorial by Carolyn Dube
Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming!


{ 3 comments }