Gelatin Printing Bug

Hubby picked these up for me while out thrifting and estate sale hopping.  The black shelf will go in my art building when I finally get it here.  The weird metal box makes a really cool photo prop, and I can use it to hold magnets too!

So the other day I happened across a video called Glycerin 101 for Crafters! by The Frugal Crafter.  It's a really useful video that give crafters a list of uses for glycerin.  In the video she mentioned a permanent gelatin plate made with glycerin, so I just went completely nuts!  You can watch the video here.  Sunday night I went out and bought some glycerin and Knox gelatin and some new paints, and made one right away.  By Monday I was printing and having a blast.  Here's my plate.  I had to tear it up and remelt it once already because my marks were too hard and scratched the surface.  But it can easily be remolded.  It's on aluminum foil because I ran out of wax paper.

I used a spray bottle of glycerin water to increase the working time with my craft paints, and I just rolled out backgrounds.  I do not have good stencils to use right now, so I just used a couple of old ones with a brush for the second layer, and finger painted a bit too.  I had a blast, and ended up printing 20 of these sheets.  

It wasn't as expensive as a Gelli plate (I still plan on purchasing one soon), but it was not exactly cheap.  The two bottles of glycerine cost me $8, the about $2 for the gelatin.  You would need some sugar and water too if you wanted to make your own.  If you get bit by the bug, this is a good alternative if you are on a tight budget.  If your budget is even tighter, check out my free page here and download a free PDF of five of my prints.  Use it in your art and for submissions, just don't resale the file.  Any questions just contact me (ispywithmycraftyeyes@live.com).

 I cut the paper into 2" x 11" strips with my paper cutter and used the to wrap around my boxes for my jewelry pieces.  Then I used my PhotoEZ screen to print out my logo on them.

I love how these turned out!  Check out my Printing, Stamps, and Stencils Pinterest Board to see more lovely examples of gelatin prints and monoprint art.

Sunday Sketch - Watercolor Flower Doodle

Here are some flower doodle I did in pencil in my notebook.  I had the background already painted with Dr. PH Martin's Hydrus watercolors with a bit of Ninji Pearlescent Watercolors on top.  I used my go to pencil for doodling, a Staedtler Mard technico with HB lead, and added details with a Sakura white gen pen.  

Here 's the doodle in my notebook, it looks really cute peeking out from behind my Sacred Road card from church.  

BTW, the bottom says "Brandon Butler is awesome!"  I was demonstrating to Brandon (the hubs) how I would use colorful the paper to take notes and doodle. 

On My Table - Messy Painting with Kids and Silks

My daughter has been asking for a couple of days to paint, and yesterday was our first opportunity so I broke out all the kids' paints and let them at it.  They had a great time, Lula ended up with half of her paint on her shirt and skirt, and Grayson had his hands and arms covered.  Nothing a quick bubble bath couldn't fix though.  That's why we use washable and watercolor paints!  Aren't they so cute!?!?!?!

March the first was my birthday, and my sweet darling sis-in-law got me a card to Hobby Lobby.  This was the first "me money" I have had in a while that didn't end up going to bills, so I had a blast with it.  I wanted to get some Vintaj metal patinas to go on my metal clay jewelry, but the only ones they had in stock that I liked were in really rough shape.  I ended up with a single black one that I really like (and might review on my other blog), then I wandered around until I stumbled across some sale items in the scrapbooking section.  They had some Twinkling H2Os and  Silks Acrylic Glaze marked down, and I just had to grab them up.  I ended up with the Summer Fun Set of the H2Os, and the Mardi Gras and Tropical sets of Silks.

I have been dying to use them, so I broke them out yesterday for a project I plan to submit as an article.  Here's a sneak peek.  

I really like the Silks a lot, they are vibrant, shimmering, and thin.  Perfect for a solid or mixed wash for a background.  I plan on doodling on these little circles in black and white ink.  I used all three colors from the Mardi Gras pack, and the pink Plumeria from the Tropical pack.

This is definitely a purchase I would make again.  I can't wait to experiment a bit more with these.  Have you been playing around with any new supplies?