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Earth Day Blog 2016 with Gel Press

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!

Gel Press Blog

Kristi

                                    Keri <—– You are here!

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:

Gel Press_Earth Day_Full Project

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.

Gel Press_Earth Day_Magazine

Ingredients

For this project, you will need:

Gel Press 8×10 Plate 

Gel Press 8x10

Gel Press 4 inch Plate

Gel Press 4 inch round

Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylic

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.

Gel Press_Earth Day_8x10 Plate

(2) Once you have a thin layer, lay your “Blazonry” stencil over your plate.

Gel Press_Earth Day_Balzer Blazonry Stencil

(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!!

Gel Press_Earth Day_Magazine and TCW Stencil

Peel back your paper…

Gel Press_Earth Day_Blazonry Stencil_Deco Art Fluid Acrylic

(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.

Gel Press_Earth Day_Deco Art Fluid Acrylic

(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.

Gel Press_Earth Day_4 inch Round Plate

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?}

Gel Press_Earth Day_Gel Plate Texture

Gently lift your texture plate up….

Gel Press_Earth Day_Hexagon Texture Plate

Flip your paper over to “stamp” your texture on to your page.

Gel Press_Earth Day_Texture on Magazine

Repeat these steps to add as many bubbles as you want.

Gel Press_Earth Day_Midway Point

(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.

Gel Press_Earth Day_Circle Depth_Stabilio

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.

Gel Press_Earth Day_Inktense Block Accent

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.

Gel Press_Earth Day_Liquitex Marker Highlight

(7) To finish it off, I added the great quote from former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson:

Gel Press_Earth Day_Title Closeup

Here is a close-up of the background. Such yummy texture from my Gel Press Plate!

Gel Press_Earth Day_Background Closeup

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

Keri-Sallee

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29 Comments

  1. 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!

  2. I love the idea of using those kitchen pot holders and I also love the green ship with the paint pen.

    1. admin says:

      YES! the potholder is the best! WALMART!

  3. Kristi Van Doren says:

    Totally cool project! Love the fun design!

    1. admin says:

      Thanks LOVE!!

    1. admin says:

      Thank you!!

  4. Great visual tutorial…fun ideas! Love using common household items for texture imprints!

    1. admin says:

      YES!! That potholder is my favorite!

  5. Love that printed on a magazine paper!

    1. admin says:

      Thank you Sandee!!

  6. love your recycled magazine page turned art journal page.. great colors and instructions!!

    1. admin says:

      Thank you so much! Let me know if you make a magazine art journal…I would love to see it!!

  7. Love the colors! Great tutorial and thanks for the history lesson too!

    1. admin says:

      You are so welcome! I love history and it didn’t make sense to promote something I knew nothing about, right? 🙂

  8. Donna Budzynski says:

    I like this idea, very informative. Thanks for sharing!

  9. Just delightful!! Lvoe this!

  10. Wow!! What a creative idea using magazine papers for printing. Gorgeous result, Keri!

  11. Lynn says:

    I wondered what to do with that pot holder. I don’t like using it in the kitchen

    1. admin says:

      YES! I don’t like it in the kitchen either! LOL

  12. Great idea printing on the pages!

  13. Carolyn says:

    Upcycle! Reuse! This is so cool! And, beautiful!!

  14. Elaine says:

    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.

    1. admin says:

      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

    2. admin says:

      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!!

  15. jane w says:

    so pretty!

  16. Sandra D says:

    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:)

  17. Thanks regarding furnishing many of these well put together info.

  18. Lieve says:

    Great way of reusing and recycling !

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