Alcohol and gelli

This week on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, Andreja has set us a colour challenge.

 

Last weekend I did an online workshop with Angela, using alcohol inks with the gel plate and stencils. I came away with a huge stash of gorgeous backgrounds, not least because I kept going after she finished, there was just one more stencil to try, one more mop up, one more idea....

Some of them I made with this challenge in mind, using Clarity Christmas aperture stencils.

I've made two of these into cards, the rest are waiting (along with so much else) for another day!

For this one, I dabbed purple twilight and aubergine ink through the stencil onto the gel plate, then pressed bubble wrap into it. Once the ink was dry, I brayered white acrylic paint over the plate and pulled my print. There was yellow ink residue on the plate, which wouldn't clean off, which has given the background a pale golden glow.

I cut the print to size, using a scrap from the side for the gold embossed sentiment. I edged with a gold sharpie, then doodled on the star, tree and border with a gold gel pen. I do like the bubble wrap baubles.

 

 

This card is the "waste" from the technique used above. With IPA on my felt, I swiped the excess ink from the stencil onto a clean piece of card. I then pressed the bubble wrap in - I think it would have had purple ink on to start with (from another print) then I spritzed it with the IPA and pressed, for the subtle impression.

The background of this one was therefore clean white card at the start.

I replaced the stencil and used an embossing pen over the cap area, then embossed in gold. I also embossed a border (after cutting to size).

I placed the "innie" stencil over the bauble, along with a piece of card to protect the loop, then used gold pigment ink to stamp the script in the background. I also sponged this ink round the edge to give the aged, vintage feel.

On the bauble, I stamped the sleigh and heat embossed in white. I added the stars/snow and line with a posca pen, then the larger star, again embossed.

The final touch is a slight drop shadow with light and dark grey polychromo pencils, to give the bauble some depth.

 

 

The paint pull on this gives a grungy feel that the photo doesn't capture. I like the looseness and imperfectness of this image.

This one has taken a grungy feel I didn't anticipate from the starting print. Blending the ink around the egde softened the script print, which I over did a bit, and gave a balance. The sleigh stamp is so pretty and delicate, even when embossed.This was overlooked in my stash for a long time, I'm glad I've "discovered" it now.

To join in and share your ideas for using these colours, head over to the 52CCT blog, where you'll find all the inspiration from my design team colleagues.

The challenge is open for a week, to Friday 16th July.

Have fun!