Summer Dreams

Isn't my husband talented? Video + Music

Busy Busy Run Run

Hectic days - a few days in Bruges with my parents, back to school fever, and doggy madness! No time to paint or blog! Hopefully I will be more Zen next week!

Labels

I needed to do a reverse side for my butterfly labels. As I am one of these people who can't bear to let good paint go to waste, I used the reverse as cleanup paper for my brayer. Once I got a rich dark colour, it was the perfect background for poetic musings. Oops, I just realised I wrote "Butterfies"! Ah well, I'll have to apply a thick layer of acrylics and start again!

I Heart You

My favourite print with these little heart stencils...

My Favourite Beaches

My favourite beaches around the world. I've printed this over an earlier Gelli print which included a pattern made from a laptop keyboard template.

A few of my favourite things

I did a few prints on the theme of what I love, using the same heart stencils. 

This one, with a couple of offset layers, has a dreamy feeling about it.

Painting and Drawing

I managed to spend half an hour playing with my Gelli Plate yesterday, in between visits to the dog park! Timber is doing very well - he's a very sociable dog, he will play with all dogs in the park, big and small, old and young - so it's always fun to bring him to the local dog park. Now that the school holidays are nearly over, it is busier, so he's had plenty of opportunity to play and socialise. In the summer, there were days when we were the only ones there, and it was a little bit sad to see him all by himself in there. Well, we were there too, but we're too boring for a six-months-old puppy!

So, I had a very productive half hour. I decided to cut heart-shaped stencils out of scrap paper, and I'm very happy with the results - Gelli printing makes me happy! Isn't that wonderful!! Whenever the folks at Gelli Arts are having a tough day, they should remind themselves that they make people happy. What more can you ask for in terms of job satisfaction?

I used a flower stencil from my Dealz pack (€1.49!!) over my background (cadmium red + cadmium yellow), then placed the hearts over phthalo blue acrylics on my Gelli plate. Phthalo is quite transparent, so the flowers show through nicely. The paper is Gelli Card Pack from ClarityStamp, super white and super smooth.

A white gel pen to write around the hearts and we're all done! I must get myself a better white gel pen - this one is from Lidl I think, and it's not quite as bright as I'd like.

There are endless possibilities on this theme- all the things and people that I love

Butterfly labels

Adirondack inks with Dealz stencils

Heart to Heart

I used to love that TV series - so glamorous!

This little print is only a first draft - I was rushing because the acrylic paint I use dries very quickly, as they do. I'll get myself a few jars of OPEN acrylics some day and then I'll have no excuse!

Gelli Jewel Box

I find all sorts of fascinating bits and pieces through Pinterest, like these instructions on how to make a little box out of a painted card page.

 It looked really simple, so I decided to try it out with one of my Gelli prints. It was so easy! Now I have to find something to put in the box - would be ideal for jewelry, or a little message, ...

Evely Cusask, little black dress, 8 August

This is the perfect little black dress, I think. Lovely sleeve, nice camisole detailing at the top. I really like it. I wonder where Evelyn bought it?

No painting this weekend

I've been feeling tired this weekend - an ear-throat-nose thing. Nothing too serious, but no energy for anything, apart from a few doggy walks - Timber has to be entertained. He's a bit bored because he's not allowed to run - he had his little operation, and is wearing a collar to stop him from pulling his stitches. So, it's regular short walks, and plenty of training sessions - Sit-Down-Up, Stay, Go to Bed - he's a quick learner, as long as you have a treat in your hand!

Yellow in the face

Couldn't resist a Picasa special effect!

Blue in the Face

Not sure if I need more paint or less paint to avoid that dark effect near the pulled areas?

Evelyn Cusack, sunshine yellow dress, 2 August

Evelyn is matching the sunshine in the sky with her happy happy dress!

Face

I had half an hour before dinner - I put it to good use - This time, I mixed the paint on the palette so it was uniform before I applied it to my Gelli Plate. Then, sharp, decisive strokes with a credit card.

Voilà -

Very happy with this one.

Faces

Still experimenting with my Gelli Plate. I saw a lovely drawn face over acrylic paint on the Gelli-sphere recently and it reminded me of the faces I drew with Paper a few months ago.

So I had to try it - not very successful, but I certainly will be exploring this technique further. These guys are a bit too sinister for my liking. My aim would be for a more serene look. One of my problems is that I'm using standard acrylic paint, which dries quickly. I might invest in two or three tubs of open acrylics. In the meantime, I'm going to try one more with smooth paint!

Nénuphars 3

And a bit more Picasa post-production!

Nénuphars 2

With two colours this time

Timber - 6 months

And he's growing fast.

Nénuphars

I haven't had the time to go back to my watercolour interpretation on the theme of water lilies, but I did get to play with my water-themed set of stencils from Artistcellar,  with my Adirondack Color Wash inks. The one in the bottom right is a Picasa reverse colour effect.

Cat labels

Lovely double-sided print on labels - these will be so lovely for birthday presents!