June Christmas cards: Forest flora mixed media

Once the summer solstice hit, Mother Nature took her job seriously. It's been horribly humid, and last weekend we had excessive heat warnings. But that gave me the perfect excuse to stay inside and work on my Christmas cards for June. I used the Forest Floor 2 stamp set from Tim Holtz as the starting point for a group of mixed-media cards.

I used a lot of different products for these cards, so I'm including a supply list for my reference. I know I won't remember everything I used, and I hope it helps you, too!

Supplies

Stamps: Forest Floor 2 CMS497 (Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz), Feathers & Frost (Stampin' Up!), Vicki Boutin Art Layers (American Crafts)

Paper: Very Vanilla, Handsome Hunter card stock (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Handsome Hunter, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Baked Brown Sugar, Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up!)

Accessories: Pattern Party Decorative Masks (Stampin' Up!), Fern Green Paper Glaze (Picket Fence Studios), Gilded Shimmer Splash (Brutus Monroe), confetti sequins (unknown), hemp twine (May Arts), foam tape (A Cherry on Top)

To make the front panels, I followed these steps:

1. Stamp two pieces of 8-1/2" x 11" card stock with the main images. I used a different ink color for each image and worked from largest to smallest. Remember to change the orientation of the images and allow some of them to go off the edge of the card stock.

2. Trim the card stock into panels. I cut mine to 4-1/8" x 5-3/8" so there is just a narrow border of the card base around the panel.

3. Check the balance of the main images on each panel and fill in any open space along the edges with more stamped images.

4. Stamp filler images in a light color. I used a stamp with handwritten text and a stamp with a cluster of plus signs.

5. Add splatter. I used gold because I wanted some sparkle.

6. Distress the edges of the panels. I ran the blade of an open scissors along the edges, curled the corners, and added a few little tears on each panel.

7. Use paste/glaze and a stencil to add texture in a few places on each panel. (The top left card in the first photo has a different color Paper Glaze. I tried a cream colored paste first but wasn't crazy about it, so I switched to the green.)

Phew! Once that was done and the paste was dry, I glued each panel to a Handsome Hunter card base. I stamped "Season's Greetings" on 3/4" wide strips of Very Vanilla card stock and distressed the long edges of each strip. I wrapped twine around each strip to the right of the sentiment and tore off the left edge. Using foam tape I attached a sentiment near the bottom of each card and trimmed it even with the right edge of the card.

I tried a few different embellishments and settled on some confetti sequins because they're neutral and subtle but still add a little more sparkle.

These cards were more involved than what I usually do for holiday cards, but I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Thanks for stopping by!

January Christmas cards: Northern lights

We made it out of the deep freeze last week, and I certainly hope we don't get that cold again this winter. But I think the cold inspired me for this month's batch of Christmas cards. I decided to use alcohol inks to create the northern lights on paper. I watched a tutorial by Lunar Sun Creations to help me get started and then I just went for it.

I started by cutting sheets of white Yupo paper into 4-1/2" x 6" panels. I created the panels one at a time, first coating the panel with alcohol ink blending solution, adding the ink in various spots around the panel, tilting the panel until the colors were blended a way I liked, and then setting it aside to dry. I love how each one is unique. 

For my alcohol ink colors I used a few different shades of magenta, blue, and green. Some of the inks I used were alcohol ink pearls (Ranger - Tim Holtz), so they add a pearlescent effect. This isn't the greatest photo, but I think you get the idea.

Also, if you are concerned about mess with the alcohol inks, I would definitely recommend wearing disposable gloves. I didn't because I'm more comfortable working without them, but I had some serious blue and purple fingers. (A couple of my fingernails still have a slight blue tint.) But that didn't bother me, and I work in an elementary school, so it wasn't a big deal. Hand sanitizer does help, since it's alcohol-based, but it won't get off everything.

Once the ink was dry, I used a white Posca paint pen to add splatter for snow or stars. On some of the panels I added larger droplets, and on the others I went with very fine splatter. To create the splatter, hold the uncapped paint pen over your surface. Then firmly tap the barrel of the pen with something hard (another marker, bone folder, non-flexible ruler, etc.). For the larger splatter, first press the nib of the paint pen onto scratch paper to build up the ink at the tip. Then use the same tapping method.

Once the splatter was dry, I trimmed each panel down to a finished size of 4-1/8" x 5-3/8". You could trim them to this size to start with, but I like to have a slightly bigger panel to work with so I can trim off any funny edges later.

Using the Forest Shadow dies (Sizzix - Tim Holtz), I cut the two tree images from black card stock. I glued the longer piece (with shorter trees) along the bottom of the alcohol ink panel and then trimmed off the excess card stock. Using black foam squares (Gina K Designs) I added the larger die-cut trees over the others.

I stamped "peace on earth" from Tiny Words Christmas (Simon Says Stamp) on a strip of white card stock and used foam tape to attach it along the left edge of the panel near the top of the card. I glued three die-cut silver stars around the sentiment for a simple embellishment. (The star die is included in the Forest Shadow dies.)

I matted each panel with a 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" piece of black card stock and glued it to a heavyweight white card base. I didn't take a picture of the inside of the card, but I stamped the sentiment "This season and always." I had some silver stars leftover, so some of the cards also have a few tiny stars inside.

I so love how these cards turned out. I usually don't make 12 cards of one design because I get tired of the repetitive stuff (which I definitely did with all the die-cut trees), but I was having too much fun making the panels. And I'm glad they turned out so well, because I'm going to try hard this year to make sure I really like all my Christmas cards instead of making them just to get them done. That may change as the year goes on, but I'm off to a good start!

Thanks for stopping by!

Handmade advent calendars

I have a friend who has made gifty advent calendars for her family for several years. It always seems like fun, so this year I decided to try making a couple, too. 

To make the base of the calendar, I used 2" x 2" square boxes. I ordered a pack of 50 boxes online, so I was able to make two calendars. I assembled each box (folding it on the scored lines) and used Scor-Tape to adhere groups of four boxes into columns. Then I glued six columns together to make a large "box" of 24 small boxes.

The package of 50 boxes also came with a little tag and a piece of twine for each box. I saved the twine for other projects, but I used the tags to number the boxes. I stamped the numbers 1 through 24 on some of the tags and then backed each one with a colored circle I punched out of red or green card stock.

To make the calendar more stable, I wrapped ribbon all around the outside and glued a piece of card stock to the bottom.

With the calendars assembled, I was on to the fun part of filling them. It was also a bit of a challenge -- the items obviously needed to be small, and I didn't want to go overboard with the cost. I decided to include a little Christmas message -- a silly joke, a quote, or an activity (e.g., make paper snowflakes, go for a drive to look at Christmas lights, etc.) -- for each day. I put a bit of festive paper shreds in each box, added the gift or treat, and put the message on top.

Below are photos of some of the items I included in the calendars.

These are items I made with things already in my craft stash. The flowers are glued on to office-type silver magnetic clips. The circle bookmarks open and have thin magnets inside so they don't fall out of your book. The rectangles at the bottom are pads of little Post-It Notes. I just used scraps of patterned card stock to make covers and some elastic thread and a flower for a closure. The miniature embroidery hoops are so fun. I considered actually stitching something for inside, but I didn't have time for that. Instead I used patterned paper that looks like stitching or quilting and just added a tiny button and bow in the middle. 

These are some of the items I purchased or already had. I also included tea sachets, shower steamers (little discs of aromatherapy powder that dissolve in the shower), a little heart trinket that made a pretty chiming sound, and of course chocolates. For each calendar I did four days that included two chocolates, and they were different brands/flavors each of those days.

Finally, I included a few crafty goodies in one of the calendars. A mini ink pad, sample jars of Paper Glaze, and a little bottle of Shimmer Splash were all the perfect size.

I know both recipients enjoyed opening a box each day to find a fun little surprise. I'm hoping to get the empty calendars back so I can refill them next year.

Whew! I managed to squeeze in one more blog post before the end of the year. Here's wishing you a gentle year of peace and kindness.

Thanks for stopping by!

June Christmas cards: Nordic notecards

In looking back over the Christmas cards I've made so far this year, I haven't done a lot of stamping. There's been patterned paper, die cuts, ephemera, and even some watercolor. Well, for my June Christmas cards I decided to combine a couple of those techniques -- die cuts and watercolor -- to create some clean and simple Nordic-themed notecards.

I used the Funky Nordic dies by Tim Holtz (Sizzix) to create these cards. I started by die-cutting all the pieces a few times from watercolor paper. Tip 1: Since most of the images include multiple pieces, and some are very small, I used lids from old yogurt tubs to keep the pieces separated by image. Once I had everything cut out, I started painting them. I wanted the pieces to be bold, so I applied the paint pretty heavily. (I think that tactic came back to bite me because I kept finding red smears on my card bases, as if the color was rubbing off the die cuts. That was frustrating, but I managed to work around or cover up most of them.) Tip 2: For the tiniest pieces, like the little circles on the red flowers, I attached the pieces to a piece of low-tack tape before painting them to hold them in place.

Once all the pieces were painted and glued together, I began grouping them together for different layouts. (I did do an online search for inspiration with the layouts. I often find that helpful the first time I use a new product.) I used Very Vanilla notecards and envelopes from Stampin' Up! for the card bases, and I added a little gold splatter to the upper part of each card front.

I chose a sentiment for each layout from the Tiny Words Christmas stamp set (Simon Says Stamp) and stamped the greeting before gluing on any pieces. Then I added on the die cuts, either using liquid glue or Dimensionals. I added a hemp twine bow to a couple of the designs, but I didn't use any other embellishments because I thought the cards looked good as is.

After making these cards I ended up with a handful of die cuts that I didn't use because they didn't seem very Christmas-y the way I painted them. So I used those on a birthday card, which I'll share tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Fun with foil, part 2

In my last post I explained how I used Transfer Gel Duo and Deco Foil sheets to make a variety of foiled backgrounds for cards. Today I'm sharing the second batch of cards I made with my foiled backgrounds.

I think a few rainbows are basically required when making foiled backgrounds. :) For the first card (left), I used rainbow foil and black card stock. I also used holographic card stock for the die-cut sentiment, and I added a matching sequin with each color in the foil. So much shine and sparkle! For the second card, I used a cloud stencil and iridescent foil to make a cloudy sky. (I discovered that this stencil was the hardest one for me to use with the gel because of the large open areas of the clouds. It was easier for me to get even gel coverage with stencils that had small designs.) I added a die-cut rainbow, a sentiment strip, and a few clear sequins to compete the card.

These two backgrounds -- little flowers and river rocks -- called for a nature theme. On the first card I added black die-cut butterflies with vellum behind them. I also placed pearls at the center of several of the gold flowers. For the second card I added a die-cut dragonfly and "happy birthday" sentiment. 

For the last two cards I wanted to use an ocean theme, and I ended up with two bottle-in-the-sea cards. For the first card I made a shaker, which I don't do very often. Since the bottle outline was thin, I didn't want to use foam to create the shaker; instead, I die-cut a whole bunch of the bottles (maybe eight, I can't remember for sure) and glued them together in a stack. I glued the stack to the card base and added some sequins, a few wooden seashells, and a little "note" inside. Then I added the window sheet and stamped bottle outline to the top. I added a piece of die-cut cork sheet for the cork in the bottle. It's not really a mailable card, but it's a fun one.

For the second card I used rainbow foil with a stencil that had a scale pattern. It reminded me of a mermaid, so I used this cute mermaid-in-a-bottle image. (I think this is the only foiled card I made with a stamped image; I prefer to use die-cut shapes instead.) I used a coupe of strips for the sentiments and finished the card with several clear droplets to mimic the look of water.

I'm looking forward to making more foiled cards -- I have a lot more stencils to try out! Thanks for stopping by!

Fun with foil, part 1

The last couple of weekends I've been having fun playing with Transfer Gel Duo and Deco Foil sheets from Therm O Web. I don't have any heat-based products for laminating (and I don't really want to buy any right now), so I was intrigued by the possibility of using the Transfer Gel Duo with my die-cutting machine to make foiled backgrounds.

I made 12 backgrounds (and turned them into 12 cards) over two foiling sessions. I'll share half of them today and half of them in my next post.

To use the Transfer Gel Duo, you use a palette knife to spread it over a stencil onto card stock (as you would with glitter gel, paste, etc.). Then you let the gel dry. The package says to wait one hour or until the gel is clear. I ended up letting my first batch sit overnight because that's just how it worked out, but the second batch I waited about four hours. The thickness of the gel and the pattern on the stencil will affect drying time (e.g., a stencil with large areas filled in with gel may take longer to dry than a pattern with narrow lines or a small-scale pattern).

Once the gel is dry, lay a foil sheet on top of the card stock (foil side up). Then you can either set the foil with heat or pressure. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't use any heat, so I can't speak to that process. To use pressure, I first placed the card stock and foil in a piece of folded printer paper. Then I placed it on my Big Shot platform, using the sandwich for wafer-thin dies. I also added a very thin embossing pad to make sure there was enough pressure. Then I ran everything through the Big Shot machine. When that's done, carefully peel the sheet to reveal the foiled design. Ta da!

Once the panels were foiled, I turned them all into cards by mounting them on card bases and adding die cuts, stamped sentiments, and embellishments. My favorite of the this first group are the first two cards, with the tea cups. The rainbow panels were the first two I made, and you can see little goof-ups -- like the bottom line on the left card got all wonky because my palette knife slipped under the stencil so there was too much gel. I decided to leave it because it's a bit of a wonky pattern anyway.

I didn't get into the specifics for these cards, so if you have any questions, just leave a comment and I'll respond as soon as I can. And stay tuned for the second batch of foiled cards later this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Masculine nature-inspired cards

When I need to make masculine cards, I often turn to my nature-themed stamps. I know not all guys are interested in nature and animals -- and plenty of women are -- but the images and colors often seem to lend themselves to masculine cards. So here are four nature-inspired cards made with two Stampin' Up! sets: Rooted in Nature and Nature's Beauty.

I had a fun surprise when I sat down to make these cards: I opened up the stamp case and found almost all of these pieces already stamped and die cut, ready to go! (Even the Crumb Cake card base on the left was already stamped.) I just added the birthday banner on the left-hand card and the card base, frame, and brown background for the right-hand card.

I love all the different tree elements in this stamp set, but I'll admit that I have a hard time combining them in a way I like. (That probably explains why all the pieces were in the stamp case -- I got frustrated and put everything away.) For these cards I just played around and layered pieces, trying to keep everything balanced. And all-in-all I think they turned out pretty well.

When I used the Nature's Beauty stamp set, I wanted to combine the images with a birch tree embossing folder. For the fox card, I embossed a piece of blue card stock and then lightly rubbed my Soft Suede ink pad over the card stock so the raised trees caught the ink. I stamped the fox using Soft Suede ink and I wanted to add some color without actually coloring. So I used copper metallic watercolor and quickly painted it over the fox. (I wasn't particularly careful, but I did try to limit the water I used so it didn't cause the Soft Suede ink to bleed.) Then I used the paint brush to splatter some copper ink on the embossed background piece.

When the paint was dry, I adhered the background to a Soft Suede card base. I die cut the fox with a stitched circle die and lightly sponged Soft Suede ink around the edges of the circle and the edges of a birthday sentiment strip. I adhered those two pieces to the card with foam tape and finished the card with a few metallic dots.

For the deer card, I wanted the trees to be white, so I applied white ink directly to the side of the embossing folder with the tress raised up. Then I placed a piece of Soft Suede card stock inside the embossing folder and ran it through my Big Shot. Because I applied the ink to the raised part of the folder, that meant the trees were pressed into the piece of card stock.

For the focal image on this card, I stamped the deer and a few of the grass images on a piece of white card stock. I stamped a birthday sentiment on a strip of white card stock and sponged ink around the edges of both pieces. To add a little more texture, I stapled a small piece of burlap trim to the upper left corner of the focal layer. I added both pieces to the card base using foam tape.

I made most of these cards into birthday cards, but they would be good for many different occasions -- just change or omit the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rainbow vibes

During a card-making session a few weeks ago, I decided to use some die-cut rainbow pieces that were sitting on my desk (left over from some of the calendars I made as Christmas gifts). Here is the finished card:

I wanted a layer of patterned paper for the background, but I didn't have anything that matched the same colors I used for the rainbow. So I made my own! In my stash I found a paper that was just white with black circles. I cut a piece of that paper and then used coordinating markers to color in some of the circles. (And since the circles look hand-drawn, I wasn't careful when I colored and went for a scribbly look.) I often forget about adding ink to patterned paper, but it's a great way to get exactly the color(s) you want.

I rounded two opposite corners of the patterned paper -- to mimic the curve of the rainbow -- and adhered it to a black card base. Using little strips of foam tape I attached the rainbow pieces and a black sentiment strip to the card. I finished it off with a few small clear droplets glued over some of the un-colored circles on the paper.

I've been busy making birthday cards lately to replenish my stash, so I'll be sharing those in my next several posts. Thanks for stopping by!

Inspired valentines

After making all my valentines for Meals on Wheels, sometimes it's hard to decide what I want to create for my own valentines. But this year I knew exactly what I wanted to do:

I was inspired by an artist named Andrea Nelson. Her website and shop is A Dream or a Day Art, and her Instagram account is @andreanelsonart. On Instagram, she shares all kinds of ideas for fun, non-intimidating, and often kid-friendly art projects. This bold heart-themed idea jumped out at me a few weeks ago.

For this project, I used three empty toilet paper tubes cut in half to make six short tubes. Then I bent each short tube into a heart shape. I chose six colors of acrylic paint and put some of each color onto a flat surface (e.g., paper plate, piece of cardboard, etc.). Using one tube for each color, I dipped the heart-shaped end into the paint and then pressed it onto a piece of heavy black card stock sized for a card front. I overlapped the hearts and didn't worry if the paint dripped onto the paper -- I even added some extra paint splatter when I was done with the hearts.

Halfway through I decided to adjust my color pallet. The dark green and magenta were difficult to see against the black, so I switched to light pink and light blue. I used the same paint tubes; since the previous paint left on the tubes was dry, the colors didn't mix.

Once the panels were dry, I adhered each one to a light colored card base, and using foam tape I added a valentine-themed sentiment strip near the bottom of the card. The final touch was three little gems.

I hope your Valentine's Day is filled with love and friendship. Thanks for stopping by!

January Christmas cards: Upcycled tissue paper

I know we're three weeks into January, but happy new year! I hope 2023 is treating you well so far. For my first post of the new year I'm going to share my January Christmas cards.

I actually made these cards in December, a few days after last Christmas. I had received a Christmas gift packaged with pretty red and green color block tissue paper, and I knew I wanted to use it for Christmas cards. So I put it to use right away!

I started the cards by making the background panels. I determined what size I wanted to make the panels and then cut eight pieces of vanilla card stock to that size and eight pieces of tissue paper slightly larger. I crumpled each piece of tissue paper into a tight ball and then carefully opened them up. I lightly coated one piece of vanilla card stock with glue, placed a piece of tissue paper over it, and gently pressed it down to adhere it to the card stock. (I was careful not to smooth out the wrinkles so it created a nice texture.) I wrapped the edges around to the back and secured them with double-sided tape and then used the same process to complete the rest of the panels.

For the card bases I used dark red card stock splattered with gold paint. Using foam tape, I adhered the panels to the card bases. I wanted a focal image that didn't cover too much of the tissue paper, so I die cut two sprigs for each card: one gold and one green. I also die cut the word "merry" in gold for each card. I glued those pieces to the panels and added a red twine bow and three enamel dots in either gold or red.

These cards have a more "traditional" feel than the Christmas cards I usually make, but I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I'll definitely keep this technique in mind for any pretty tissue paper I get in the future. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn wreath

The second card in my series of challenge entries is for Art Impressions' Dynamic Duo challenge, where the requirement was to create something using at least two stamp or die sets. I used four watercolor sets to create a pretty autumn wreath.

Supplies:
Stamps: 4701 - Clay Pot, 4052 - Flower Set, 4868 - Watercolor Flower Set 2, 4607 - Flowering Mailbox (Art Impressions)
Paper: Watercolor paper (Strathmore); Soft Suede, Crumb Cake card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Soft Suede, Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze (Stampin' Up!); Metallic Accents paint (Art Philosophy)
Accessories: Hello die (Lawn Fawn), Brushed Metallic Adhesive Backed Dots (Stampin' Up!), hemp twine (May Arts Ribbon), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter)

I haven't done any watercolor stamping in quite awhile, and I've gotten a little rusty. When I sat down to work on this card, I originally tried to create a whole little scene. That turned out to be too overwhelming (and too much pressure since I was trying to work quickly), so I switched gears and decided to try a stamped wreath instead.

I started by using a pencil to lightly trace a circle on a piece of watercolor paper. I inked the branch image with brown ink and stamped it three times, overlapping each branch with the one before, before re-inking the stamp. This helps create depth and color variation. I repeated the process until I had worked my way all around the circle. Using a barely damp paint brush, I lightly tapped/dabbed the branches so the color spread a little and created a watercolor look.

I gave the branches a little time to dry and then moved on to the rust-colored flowers. (Or leaves. It is an autumn wreath, so they could be leaves, too.) I inked up the image and then stamped two or three times in a little cluster, re-inked the stamp and stamped another cluster, repeating until I was happy with the color distribution. Again, I used a slightly damp brush to dab at the images and spread the color. I let it dry a bit, then repeated with the green leaves and finished with the yellow flowers.

For a little sparkle I splattered the panel with some gold paint and added three gold enamel dots. I glued a twine bow on the wreath and added a die-cut sentiment at the bottom of the card. I layered the panel on a mat of Soft Suede card stock and then adhered it to a Crumb Cake card base.

I really love the way this card turned out (even though I still wish my watercolor stamping was a little better) and I may have to try some other seasonal wreaths.

Thanks for stopping by!

June Christmas cards: Winter shaker

I had my June Christmas cards made and this post started two weeks ago. Now here I am finally getting them posted on the last day of the month. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! Without further ado, here are my Christmas cards for this month:

I don't make many shaker cards because they can get a little fussy and time consuming. But these were pretty easy because I used a pack of self-adhesive shaker pouches and pre-cut card stock frames. The hardest part was deciding what to stamp on the white panel behind the shaker!

I used the Winter Wishes stamp set (Stampin' Up!) and stamped the images using Real Red, Soft Suede, Pool Party, Crumb Cake and Shaded Spruce inks on panels of white card stock. I made eight cards total, and at first I was just going to stamp two full sheets of white card stock and then cut them into panels. But it was hard to plan what would actually be visible in the shaker that way. So instead I cut the white card stock first and then stamped the images. I also stamped the shaker frames with the Wood Plank Background (Taylored Expressions) in Pool Party and added the sentiment Warm Wishes in Soft Suede along the bottom edge.

To create the shaker portion for each card I first set a shake pouch on a stamped white panel (without removing the adhesive backing) to find the right placement, and then I lightly traced around the pouch with a pencil. (When I think of a pouch, I picture some kind of bag or envelope. These are more like shallow plastic dishes with a lip that has adhesive on it. But they're called pouches on the packaging, so that's what I'll use.) I placed a little pile of the fillers in the center of the area I traced. I used several fillers: a sequin mix with silver circles and white snowflakes, little clay snowflakes, Buffalo Snow (those little iridescent pieces that fly everywhere), and glass glitter. Then I removed the adhesive backing on the shaker pouch and adhered it to the white card stock, lining it up with the traced pencil line. I adhered a frame around the pouch and glued the whole piece to a Soft Suede card base.

I wanted one simple embellishment outside of the shaker pouches, so I added a red-and-white twine bow in the upper left corner of each frame.

I was excited to finish these because I used up the package of shaker pouches as well as the frames. Yay! I'm really trying to use up some of the consumable items I have, like embellishments and papers, because I have soo many of them. Sometimes it's hard because I'm tempted to save something for the "perfect" project. But I try to remind myself that the more stuff I use up, the more room I have for new goodies. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

2022 desk calendars

Happy new year! I'm getting in just under the wire to post the desk calendars I made before the new year. This year I made two different styles: gel press prints and die cuts on patterned card stock. I didn't keep track of any supplies (I kept changing my mind and was in a time crunch at the end), so I just have the pictures. If you want to know the product or company name for anything, leave me a comment and I'll do my best to figure it out.

I'll start with the gel press print calendars. I made four of these, and each one is unique, so I'm going to share all four.

I've tried gel press printing before, but only a couple times, and I wasn't crazy about the results so I hadn't used my gel press in quite a while. I've been following a few gel press creators on Instagram, and when Taylored Expressions came out with a gel press printing kit a few months ago, I decided to go for it. (The kit comes with a gel press and tin to store it, paper, paint, a brayer, and a little bottle of hand sanitizer to clean the gel press.)

After my kit arrived, I set aside a couple of afternoons to just make prints. Before starting I gathered everything I needed. I pulled out a bunch of my stencils and found some additional texture tools -- bubble wrap, sponges, mesh bags, the plastic discs from inside rolls of tape, basically anything that could make an interesting shape or texture. I also set up a little cleaning station made up of a plastic bin half filled with warm soapy water and a couple of towels laid out. After I used a stencil I tossed it in the water, and once there were several stencils in the bin I rubbed off any remaining paint and set them on the towels to dry. I changed the water in the bin when it got too dirty.

Over the course of my two gel printing sessions, I went through all of the paper that came in the kit as well as the extra pack I purchased separately! I found it was a lot easier to create the more I did. I definitely didn't love every print -- there were a few where I just went one step too far -- but overall I was really pleased with how they came out. One of my biggest challenges was having enough space on my table to lay out the pages to dry. :)

Quick side note: When I purchased the kit, I also got a link to a special YouTube video created by Lydia Fiedler that walked through the items in the kit and had lots of tips and tricks. If you haven't checked out Lydia's creations before, I highly recommend it. She is an amazing artist and has so many ideas and videos on her blog and YouTube channel. (I took a class with Lydia at a stamping event a couple of years ago, and it was so much fun.)

The gel press printing kit comes with five large tubes of paint -- I don't remember all the official color names, but there is a pink, yellow, blue, white, and pearlescent -- and all of these calendar pages were made with only those colors. That's kind of mind boggling to me, but it goes to show you that you don't need a ton of supplies to have fun and create.

Once I had used up all my paper, I had the difficult task of deciding which pages to use for the calendars. I changed my mind and rearranged pages so many times! I tried to avoid including more than one page within a calendar that used the same stencil. I also wanted a variety of color combinations, and I tried to pick seasonal images or colors for each month. (I set aside all the gel prints I didn't use for calendar pages, and I might try cutting them up for card backgrounds or use them for die cuts.)

I cut a 4" x 6" mat of black card stock for each calendar page and then trimmed the gel prints to slightly smaller than that so the mat created a narrow black frame. You might notice that for two of the calendars I also matted the monthly calendar pieces with black card stock. I did that for two of the calendars and then decided it looked fine without that layer. (I was also getting tired of cutting black card stock.)

One of the challenges for me with these calendars is that I didn't do any kind of focal image. I thought about adding sentiments or some kind of embellishment, but eventually I decided that I wanted to prints to stand by themselves, so I left them as is. And I'm really glad with that decision!

 

For the last five calendars I needed to make, I wanted to go with something quick and easy. (Ha! That never seems to work out for me.) I started with a pack of 12" x 12" printed card stock and went from there. Here are the finished pages:

 

(Sorry the colors are a little washed out in this photo. As it turns out, I hadn't taken any pictures of these calendars before I gifted them. Oops. Luckily I had given this calendar to my sister, so I was able to snap a quick photo of her pages.)

My first step was to choose twelve pages from the card stock pack and cut them into 4" x 6" pieces for the calendar page backgrounds. The pages themselves are definitely on the simpler side, but again, I kept changing my mind about the order of the pages and the die cuts I wanted to use, so it seemed like it took forever to make them. But looking at them now, I think they turned out pretty well.

I did add a few sparkling clear sequins to each page, although it's hard to see them in the photo. And a few of the pages are printed with glitter, so they have a little extra shine. My favorite pages are probably June and September because I really like the multi-color backgrounds.

Well, that's it for 2021! All in all, I can't say I'm sorry to see the year end; it's definitely been another tough one. Here's hoping for a more peaceful, less stressful 2022. Whatever the year holds for you, I wish you love, joy, and strength. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to "see" you again!