Happy Earth Day Creatives!
In honor of Earth Day 2016, my friends and I at Gel Press are hosting a blog hop!
Hop along with all of us and you could win an amazing Gel Press Prize!
We will be giving away a prize again for the comments on the Gel Press Blog. Comment on what your favorite project was and why. We will accept comments from April 20 – April 24. The winner will be announced April 25th on our FB Page and on Gel Press Junkies FB page! Good Luck!
Earth Day History
The first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970. It was the brain-child of a US Senator from Wisconsin named Gaylord Nelson. After seeing the devastation of the oil spills in Santa Barbara, California in 1969 and inspired by the anti-war movement of the time, Senator Nelson wanted to come up with a time of environmental education and raise awareness regarding the future of our planet. With the help of 85 collueges and supporters, 20 million people participated in the first Earth Day 46 years ago.
In 1990, Earth Day became a global event, with 141 countries and 200 million people participating.
Conservative Creating
It can be hard for creatives to think about conserving resources. We are creatives…we tend to live in the now and don’t think beyond our latest project.
For my project, I wanted to take a moment and look around at what I already owned and see what I could make without using anything new.
Here’s what I came up with:
Recognize my background paper?
It’s a page from a magazine!
Rather that reaching for a new piece of paper, I leafed through (no pun intended…OK…maybe a little!) some old Better Homes and Gardens magazines and pulled out some great pictures of flowers and plants.
Ingredients
For this project, you will need:
Titanium White
Diarylide Yellow
Primary Yellow
The Crafter’s Workshop “Blazonry” Stencil
Inktense Block-Apple Green
Liquitex Neon Acrylic Paint Marker-Neon Green
Stabilio All-Black
Brayer
Texture Mat (I used a Silicone Potholder!)
Magazine Pages
What to do…
(1) Using your Gel Press 8×10 Plate, add a few drops of your Deco Art Fluid Acrylics in Titanium White. Brayer into a thin layer.
(2) Once you have a thin layer, lay your “Blazonry” stencil over your plate.
(3) Lay your magazine sheet over your stencil (flower side down) and burnish the back of the page with your hand. Look how fun the back looks!!
Peel back your paper…
(4) Once your base layer is dry, use your Deco Art Fluid Acrylics to add some highlights. I used Primary Yellow first and then add a hint of Diarylide Yellow. I LOVE how they look like flower petals.
(5) Now it’s time to add your bubbles! Grab your Gel Press 4 inch Plate and apply a thin layer of your Titanium White Fluid Acrylic.
Find something to make an overall texture on your plate. This silicone pot holder in one of my FAVORITES! {I think that counts in the spirit of Earth Day: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, right?}
Gently lift your texture plate up….
Flip your paper over to “stamp” your texture on to your page.
Repeat these steps to add as many bubbles as you want.
(6) Once your bubbles are dry, use your Stabilio All (or another water-soluble pencil) to outline your bubbles. Use wet paintbrush to activate your pencil. Doing this will give your gel pressed images depth and allow them to POP off the page.
To add even more POP, use a contrasting color of Inktense Block to add a “highlight” to your bubble. Since my background was warm colors, I chose the cool color of Green Apple for my highlights.
To add even more depth, I used my Liquitex Paint Marker in Neon Green to add a small swipe on top of my Apple Green Inktense mark.
(7) To finish it off, I added the great quote from former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson:
Here is a close-up of the background. Such yummy texture from my Gel Press Plate!
Final Thoughts
Earth Day this year falls on the same day as it’s original founding…April 22nd.
I hope this hop today inspires you to think creatively and conservatively in your future artistic endeavors.
Until next time
XOXO,
Keri
Omg, I too take items that should be in the kitchen to use in my prints, LOL. Really like that touch of green with the paint pen too!
I love the idea of using those kitchen pot holders and I also love the green ship with the paint pen.
YES! the potholder is the best! WALMART!
Totally cool project! Love the fun design!
Thanks LOVE!!
Love it!!
Thank you!!
Great visual tutorial…fun ideas! Love using common household items for texture imprints!
YES!! That potholder is my favorite!
Love that printed on a magazine paper!
Thank you Sandee!!
love your recycled magazine page turned art journal page.. great colors and instructions!!
Thank you so much! Let me know if you make a magazine art journal…I would love to see it!!
Love the colors! Great tutorial and thanks for the history lesson too!
You are so welcome! I love history and it didn’t make sense to promote something I knew nothing about, right? 🙂
I like this idea, very informative. Thanks for sharing!
Just delightful!! Lvoe this!
Wow!! What a creative idea using magazine papers for printing. Gorgeous result, Keri!
I wondered what to do with that pot holder. I don’t like using it in the kitchen
YES! I don’t like it in the kitchen either! LOL
Great idea printing on the pages!
Upcycle! Reuse! This is so cool! And, beautiful!!
Enjoyed your tutorial. One of the other tutorials I’ve watched tells us not to print on shiny papers as they can damage gelli plate. Have you had any problems using the shiny magazine pages. It sure would be nice to use them, but I’ve always hesitated because of the warning.
I haven’t had any problems…let me ask the manufacturer of my plates for you! It would be good to know so I don’t mess them up! LOL
HI Elaine! I did some research and chatted with the the manufacturer of my Gel Press Plates. She said that you are correct that shiny papers can damage gel plates. However, something like a magazine that is a “satin” finish is just fine! 🙂 I hope this opens up your Gel Press world!!
so pretty!
I seriously love the potholder! Funny thing to say in an art tutorial.. Lol , but I will be keep my eye out for one.. Thank you:)
Thanks regarding furnishing many of these well put together info.
Great way of reusing and recycling !