Gelli Printing® with Seed Pods for Let’s Play

How to use seed pods for gelli printing in an art journal- video by Carolyn Dube

Inspiration can come from anywhere, including the everyday. I have walked by the tree below for weeks noticing the abundance of seed pods but it wasn’t until I was hit in the head by one of the branches that I realized how much fun they would be Gelli printing®!

Yes, my muse literally hit me in the head with this month’s theme for the Let’s Play videos. Ordinary things can be fantastic starting points for play.

What is Let’s Play? It’s all about rediscovering the ability to play. Each month I share a specific strategy that helped me recapture the freedom and fun of play. This month’s theme is being inspired by the everyday. You can see more of the Let’s Play series here.

In the video, you’ll see me Gelli printing® directly in my art journal with the layers building up to make a vibrant background!

Watch Gelli Printing with Seed Pods on YouTube.

Giveaway! Leave a comment telling me what everyday things inspire you to get entered in the $50 Dick Blick gift certificate giveaway (more details below). I’d love to see what you’re creating- share it with us all in our Facebook community!

Here’s the art journal page…but it won’t be staying like this for long! I’m going to be finishing up this page in a video next week! Subscribe to my YouTube channel or get signed up for my newsletter to be sure you see it!

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 you are helping me keep this blog and my videos ad free! Thank you- I don’t like ads any more than you do!

InLinkz.com

This month's Let's Play theme is all about being inspired by the everyday

Want to see more Let’s Play videos? You can find all the weekly posts here.

Sharing your play: I, and a whole bunch of others, would love to see what you’re creating! We’re sharing it in the Facebook group called A Colorful Place to Play. Why Facebook? I’ve listened to your feedback about how and where you’d like to share your play instead of the link parties.

Monthly giveaways: Leave comment on any (and all for more chances) of the weekly Let’s Play blog posts to be entered and one winner each month will be chosen by random.org. Want more chances to win a $50 gift certificate to DickBlick.com? Pin any of the images from the page or share about it on Facebook- then come back and leave a comment telling me what you did and you can have more chances to win! Giveaway closes the Sunday, July 31st at 11 pm EST and the winner will announced on the blog the following Monday.

Congrats to Margaret Price, last month’s winner!

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June’s Let’s Play Winner!

Congrats to Margaret Price- the winner of the Let’s Play $50 gift certificate to Dick Blick! Margaret, send me your information (carolyn at acolorfuljourney dot com) and I’ll get you your gift certificate pronto!

What is the theme for next month’s Play? It’s all about being inspired by the everyday! Stop back and see what hit me in the head, literally, for the next video in the Let’s Play series.

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I stenciled all the wrong ways and loved it!

What’s always been the hardest part of creating for me? Starting. Especially when there is a blank page involved. I used to be stopped by thoughts such as, “Will it be good enough?” or “I don’t have a good plan” or “I don’t have the right supplies” or “It won’t be good enough anyway”.

I still have all those thoughts but they don’t stop me anymore. Kurt Vonnegut was right when he said, “To practice art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”

For me, this quote is all about giving myself permission to make something no matter if it is pretty or a hot mess. Perfect isn’t important. What is important is the starting, the doing. So that’s what I do now anytime I hear those thoughts.

In the video, you’ll see how I take that quote to heart. This starts out as one hot mess where I am doing it all the “wrong” ways, and it brought me such joy.

Watch How to deal with the blank page by stenciling all the wrong ways on YouTube.

Color Me Positive Art Journal Challenges

I am honored to be the featured artist this week at Colour Me Positive, a weekly journal challenge. Thank you Lisa! I love all the positivity and creativity happening there!

To get started, I grabbed my Verbage stencil since verbs are all about doing. I stenciled all the “wrong” ways with the Dylusions paints- too much paint, going side to side instead of up and down, stenciling on top of wet paint.

I had a blast doing it! Paint ran under the stencil. Colors smeared together. I can’t even read most of the words. Who cares!

Then I turned it into a giant hot mess with random marks with oil pastels. I could have stopped any time but I didn’t want to – it was just too much fun scribbling away!

In that chaotic background, I saw a garden so I used a couple of masks. The Bold Flower masks (that come with the stencil) and one of the butterfly masks that also come with my Butterfly Journeys stencil to create a garden.

I even managed to temporarily clog the hard to clog fine liners. It wasn’t a problem at all because there is a little metal pin in the cap so that I can unclog it with that. Of course, I could also change how I was holding the fineliner…but that is a crazy thought! If you’re new to fineliners I have a video about them here.

How to stencil all the wrong ways in an art journal and have fun doing it!

What started as a blank page taunting me became a total mess and then turned into a very colorful garden of play! Next time you face that blank page, take Kurt Vonnegut’s advice and just start doing it!

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 you are helping me keep this blog and my videos ad free! Thank you- I don’t like ads any more than you do!