It’s a Gelli Christmas at my house this year!  I am thinking of others when I take time to experiment and play with my Gelli plate.  Aren’t I  generous with my time when it comes to the Gelli plate?

For each of the gift bags below I picked a piece of book text that I Gelli printed.  Next, I  printed out digital images and glued it all together onto gift bags.  Fast. Affordable.  But most of all, fun to give!

I was playing with layer after layer of paint.  Once again, I found freedom in the prints I didn’t love because I was willing to keep experimenting with them.  I find it magical the way the colors change as the next layer of paint is added.  The one used above came together with the last layer and called to my surfing Santa from Finecrafted Designs.

Who would have thought Dina Wakley’s paint lids stencil with the Peek A Boo stencil would go so wonderfully with a snowman from Holliewood Studios?  That’s another reason I love my Gelli plate- I get such unexpected treasures!

This Santa, from  Sherrie JD, was right at home on my big manilla tag.  I had liked where this print was headed until I put the silver on top – or so I thought.  When I had Santa cut out he fit there as if the tag had been waiting for him.  A little Christmas magic like that needs extra sparkle so I added a subtle touch of silver glitter.

Are you buying and making lots of goodies for family and  friends? Would you like to shop for yourself guilt free?  Over at Fall Fearless and Fly there is still time to get in on the latest challenge and win a gift certificate from BlueMoonScrapbooking (where I get most of my stencils as well as other goodies) so you can go buy yourself anything you want!

Grateful to be sharing this with Insprire Me Monday, Mandarin Orange Monday, Show Me What You Got, Creative Every Day and Art Journal Every Day!

Taking big bold steps leads to such joy!  I delighted in the thrill of the risks I took while making this journal page.  Every choice I made had the potential to turn it to yuck or make it better.   It may be only paper and paint but it feels like so much more when it comes to deciding what to add or do to it next.  Bold was good for me today- I smile every time I look at this journal page!

At the end of this post, I have a wonderful announcement about a bold step a friend has taken that is leading to such joy for her and lots of others!

Just randomness with no purpose, no intention, no plan.  As I write this post I keep looking at this and seeing strange people like the purple snowman playing a french horn or the nun with the blue habit with green trim.  Hmm, is this lack of sleep? Nope.  Just my brain on paint…

Crazy sloppy journaling in Sharpie marker.

Isolating out the part I liked the most by covering most of it up with purple paint.  I scratched into the paint so that bits of the background showed through.  I just couldn’t stand it being a solid color.

These are die cut remnants from some new die cuts I got at Blue Moon Scrapbooking.  Love everything about the window dies!!

Stencil Girl just released a line of stencils designed by my friend Jessica Sporn!    Her wonderfully big bold move has sparked such fabulous creativity- her stencils are amazing!

Starting December 6, and continuing once or twice a month through June 2013, Jessica asked me and a bunch of other artists to take her stencils on a “test drive.”  We’ll show you how we used her stencils, and you’re invited to play along too.  I am helping kick it off on December 6th with the Hebrew Calligraphy and Hamsa stencil!   This stencil has so many uses!   Visit Jessica’s blog here for all the details and to grab a button for your blog.

 

Want more creativity? If you have a moment, check out Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Every Day and  Art Every Day Month!