Inky Leaf Botanical Print

 

Welcome

I love using things from my garden to create with.

This one was done using a fern leaf growing in my backyard.

So here's what I did to create my card.

• This print was done using my Gel Plate and Distress Oxide inks.  So I went out into the garden and picked this leafy fern, then got out my Gel Plate, brayer and some Distress Oxide inks.
• I pressed some Blueprint Sketch DOX ink directly onto my plate along the side, then pressed some Rustic Wilderness on the other side, leaving a bit of space between the colours.  I used my brayer to blend the colours together.
• I laid the leaf onto my plate, then rubbed my white cardstock over the print.  I partially lifted my paper that was on the print, carefully removed the fern and pressed my paper back down on the plate.  By doing the printing this way, you get such details from whatever you are using. The trick for getting this look is to NOT remove your paper from the plate all the way before removing the leaf.
• I placed the print into my Misti and stamped the large sentiment and clear heat embossed it.
• I splattered with my black Posca pen, then glued it onto a white card base.

Thanks so very much for coming by and taking a look.

Supplies

Stamp- Scripted Bold Sentiments (Pinkfresh Studio)

Inks- Distress Oxides (TH); Versafine Clair

Paper- heavy white (Scribes Nook- Waterloo, Ont.)

Accessories and Tools- Gel Plate, Brayer, Posca pen, fern from garden, 

Misti (My Sweet Petunia), clear eb powder (Lawn Fawn)

Beautiful Botanicals

Hello and Welcome

I so appreciate that you have dropped in to see what I have been up to.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am taking an online class from Vicki Boutin, learning techniques for some fun creating Gel Plate prints.

This is another print I pulled during the class using some leaves from my backyard.

So here's what I did to create my card. 

• I took out a piece of white cardstock, my Gel Plate, brayer and some Liquitex Basics acrylic paint.
• I squeezed some green paint onto my plate and brayered it all out, covering the whole surface.

<< Helpful Tip:  One of the struggles with Gel Printing seems to be the amount of paint used.  You don't need a lot of paint, I brayer off the excess paint onto a piece of cardstock I keep nearby to remove some of the paint. >>

• After the whole surface was covered with paint, I gently laid the leaf onto the plate.
• I took my piece of white cardstock and rubbed it all over the plate.  
• At this point, I lifted the cardstock from the corner, being sure not to pull it off all the way and removed the leaf.  I laid the cardstock back down and rubbed again to get the leaf impression.  I just love the impression I was able to get with all the leaf details.

Here is the print I pulled.

• I set the print aside to dry completely before moving on to the next steps of making it into a card.
• Now I was ready to cut the pulled print down into a card front panel.  I wanted to try and figure out how to get the best part of the print to cut. To best do this, I pulled out my Marvelous Masks Rectangles.  They were the perfect solution to finding the best look.
• Using the rectangle mask, I was able to move it around over my print and find the best spot that I wanted to cut out.  I added a few little pencil marks in the corner of my mask to show me where to cut and I was able to make the perfect card front panel using this technique.  The nice thing about these masks is that they also come in different sizes so you can change the size of you card panel if you are cutting if from a larger print.
• Next, I splattered with my white Posca pen then placed the panel into my Misti.
• I stamped the sentiment from Impression Obsession with some Versafine Clair Nocture and then clear heat embossed it.  
• I glued the finished panel onto a piece of white cardstock, then foam taped it onto my white card panel.

Here are the masks I used:

Marvelous Masks Rectangle

Discount Code for A Colorful Life Designs

*Just use the code KarenFan10 to get a discount on stencils and masks.

(affiliate)

Thanks so much for coming by and taking a look.

Adding my card to these challenges:

Little Red Wagon- JUST BECAUSE

Try it on Tuesday- KEEP IT SIMPLE

Use Your Stuff- INSPIRED BY REAL LIFE

Supplies

Stamps- Gentle Hugs (IO)

Inks- Versafine Clair

Paper- heavy white (Scribes Nook- Waterloo, Ont.)

Accessories and Tools- Marvelous Masks Rectangle (ACLD); white Posca pen; Gel Plate;

Speedball brayer; green Basics acrylic paint; clear eb powder; heat tool

Life Lessons

 Hello and Welcome

I'm grateful to have a long weekend with time to play.

I have been taking a Gel Plate Printing class from Vicki Boutin. 

Although I have used the Gel Plate for many years now, it's good to refresh my memory and better yet, learn some new tricks and ideas for using it.  It's been a great class so far, 8 lessons in all and great time spent with her wonderful community.  

BTW, all her lessons are recorded so you can sign up for the classes at anytime.  She is doing them live on Monday and Thursday nights for a few more weeks.

No, I am not affiliated with saying this...just thought you may want to try them out.

This was one of the prints I did last week when we were experimenting with our Gel Plate, water and a stencil.  I love this fun stencil called Round Fragments from A Colorful Life Designs.

So here's what I did to create my card.

• I cut a white piece of cardstock to use as my front panel.  I got out my Gel Plate and brayer and some Basics Acrylic paint.  
• I squeezed a small amount of paint onto the plate, then brayered it all over, covering the whole surface of the plate.
• Next, to add some texture and interest, I added some water to help break up the paint.  It gives such a fun and interesting texture to the background.
• I placed the Round Fragments stencil over the plate and pressed it down carefully, trying not to get my finger marks onto the plate.  (At this point, I rubbed a piece of cardstock over the plate to lift off the paint....this is not the print I used for this card but will be kept for future use.) 
• I removed the stencil, then rubbed a piece of cardstock over the plate to create this pattern.

These are just some of the positive and negative prints I pulled in the class.

You can see the one I'm using in the top left hand corner.

• Next, I got out some scraps of white cardstock to cut the sentiment from Frantic Stampers.  I cut it out 3 times and glued them together.  The sentiment really looked flat against the stenciled print, so I decided to jazz it up a bit.  
• TIP: <<< I covered another scrap piece of white cardstock with some clear packing tape.  I die cut the sentiment again from that.....it gave a nice shine and added stability to the die cut sentiment.  I glued that onto the stack of 3 I had done before >>>
• I glued the stenciled panel onto another piece of white cardstock, then pop it up onto a heavy white card base with some foam tape.
• I glued the sentiment and the hearts over the painted panel.

Here is the stencil I used for my card:

Round Fragments

Discount Code for A Colorful Life Designs

*Just use the code KarenFan10 to get a discount on stencils and masks.

(affiliate)

Thanks so much for coming by and taking a look.

Adding my card to these challenges:

Simon Says Wed.- ANYTHING GOES

Challenge Up Your Life- CIRCLES

Supplies

Stamps- none

Inks- none

Paper- heavy white (Scribes Nook- Waterloo, Ont.)

Accessories and Tools- Geli Arts Plate; Speedball brayer; Basics Acrylic Paint; stencil- ACLD;

die- Frantic Stampers; clear packing tape; Spellbinder Platinum die cutting machine

All Natural

Welcome

Meet today's card.

As I had mentioned, I have been making some sympathy cards to have on hand.  As it turns out, I now need a few and they are not fun to make at the time.  

This was a very simple one to create using a leaf found in my backyard.

This type of printing is called 'Cyanotype'.  I just love the results you can get.

(for more cards like this, go HERE and HERE)

So here's what I did to create my card.

• I began with a piece of white cardstock.  I got out my Gel Plate and my Distress Oxide inks.
• I pressed some Rustic Wilderness and Evergreen Bough DOX onto my Gel Plate and blended with my brayer. I like to leave a bit of space between them as not to contaminate the pads with the other colour.
• I placed the leaves from my garden onto the plate and then rubbed a piece of paper over the top of it.  I lifted the paper partially from the plate, then lifted the leaves off and rubbed the paper down again.  **Normally when lifting a print, you would take the whole piece of paper off the Gel Plate after rubbing it down and you would be left with a white out area where the leaf was.  Using this method of printing gives you the whole image printed onto your paper.....hope that makes sense!!**
• I let the print dry and then using my finger, I rubbed some white acrylic paint along the edges to add a bit of a distressed look.
• I set that aside and worked on the panel you can see behind the print.  I didn't have any cardstock to mount the print onto; all my green cardstock pieces didn't work as they were the wrong shades of green, so I decided to make my own.  I did that by using the same colours mentioned above.  I added ink with a blending brush and then splattered with lots of water to lift the colour and add interest.  

• I placed the leaf print into my Misti and stamped the sentiment with some Versafine Clair ink. 
• I splattered the print with my black and white Posca pens to add some detail.
• I glued the print onto the inked panel and then onto a heavy white card base.

Thanks so much for coming by and taking a look.

Adding my card to these challenges:

Simon Says Wed.- ANYTHING GOES

ModSquad- SYMPATHY

A Bit More Time to Craft- ANYTHING GOES

Stamps

Stamps- Scripted Bold Sentiments (Pinkfresh Studios)

Inks- Distress Oxides (mentioned above); Versafine Clair Noir

Paper- heavy white (Scribes Nook-Waterloo, Ontario)

Accessories and Tools- Gel Plate; brayer; leaf from garden; TE Blending Brushes; black and white Posca pens

Words to Live By- The Flower Challenge

Welcome

This month we are creating Monochrome flower cards at 

The Flower Challenge

This month we would like to see a 'Monochrome' look on your cards.This means either 'black and white' or varying tones of one colour. We are allowing a white card base & touches of white also, so you could have a white card base with say shades of purple stamped flowers or dies on as an example.

This month we welcome 

Guest Designer this month is  Nonni from  Nonnishandmadecards

So onto my card details.

I began by creating a background using my Gelli Plate and the Tribal Blanket stencil.  I rolled some dark blue paint onto my plate with a brayer, laid the stencil over that and pulled the print.

I set that aside to dry completely.

Next, I die cut the hollyhocks using a die from Impression Obsession.  I left the flowers in white so it would pop against the dark colour of my background.  I stamped the sentiment using my Misti, cut it into a flag shape and pop dotted it to the side of my card front.

I mounted the finished panel onto a piece of dark blue cardstock, then onto a white card base.

Thanks so much for coming by to take a look.

Discount Code for A Colorful Life Designs

*Just use the code KarenFan10 to get a discount on stencils and masks.*

Adding my card to these challenges:

Simply Create Too- USE FLOWERS

Creative Artiste- MIXED MEDIA

CAS on Fridays- USE A DIE

Supplies
Stamps- The Best (SU)
Inks- Versafine Clair
Paper- heavy white (Scribes Nook)
Accessories and Tools- Gelli Plate; Tribal Blanket (A Colorful Life Designs); brayer;
acrylic paint (Dollar Store); Hollyhock die (Impression Obsession)