Leaves and Flowers-Cut & Printed

When fresh flowers for gel printing are not readily available, there are always the die-cut ones. In making today’s cards I gel printed patterns using die-cut flowers and leaves and a mix of blue, green and white paints.

Both the flowers on the card above and the stem of leaves on the card below are from Tim Holtz ‘vault wildflowers’ die set. The prints are grungy because I built up some layers of outlines on the plate before adding an image transfer text layer to the final print.

To finish the cards I added a cardstock flower or stem of leaves to match the partial prints in the background.

I did both prints on paper not cardstock then attached them to card bases with double sided adhesive. When I am spending a day or half day gel printing I will often do many prints on paper and a handful on cardstock or thicker paper. I never know which ones are going to be the favourites but I do know the session will be full of ‘just a couple more prints’ moments.

You can see when comparing these two cards the impact of adding some white paint to the mix. I used the same blue and green acrylic paints for both panels but the one above was toned down with white brayered onto the gel plate with the green and blue. So while you to print fresh flowers, die-cut yourself some from paper or duralar and see what you can come up with.

Tiles

Posted: April 26, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Collage cards, gel press, Tim Holtz, vault wildflowers | Tags: gel press, gel printing, Penny Black stamps, Tim Holtz | 3 Comments

Do you have more gel prints than you know what to do with? Are some of them not very interesting or only partial prints? I definitely answer yes to both those questions. I keep finding though, that the grungy prints make really nice backgrounds for journal pages and cards.

I have many of my gel prints sorted by colour so I pulled several 6 x 6 prints from the blue folder and used them on a few different cards. I also had green, yellow and gold toned prints on hand to make some multicoloured cards; I’ll share them another day. To create this card I cut the blue gel prints with a rectangle die then arranged them like tiles over a navy background before trimming end to fit.

I added a die-cut flower from the Tim Holtz vault wildflowers set and a little Penny Black sentiment. If you like blue then maybe this multi-print collage will please you as much as it did me! This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Butterfly Journal Page

Posted: April 22, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: gel press, grafix, Handmade book, perspective butterfly die, Tim Holtz | Tags: gel press, gel printing, grafix, Handmade book, Tim Holtz | 6 Comments

It’s been ages since I posted a journal page here. I think some catching up is in order. This double spread is in my handmade 7″x 7″ journal. I did not sit down with an open journal and a plan for this page. After a productive gel printing session I had a butterfly print and a stripe and stencil print made with the same paint colours. To use them on cards I would have had to cut them up and I really didn’t want to.

When gel printing I will often print with the same handful of paint colours for a while before switching them. It makes it easier to keep printing as I have a few paint tubes on hand but more importantly I end up with a stack of prints which co-ordinate with each other because the colours and sometimes patterns are repeated.

I used the Tim Holtz ‘perspective butterfly‘ die to create a reusable duralar mask for gel printing. The circle patterns were made with the Carabelle Studio ‘accumulation de ronds’ stencil. The ‘corduroy’ looking pattern on both the butterfly and the circle page was made with a piece of textured wall paper. I completed this page quite a while ago but didn’t know if it was finished as I hadn’t added any words anywhere. Maybe that will change one day but I love it just the way it is. What you can’t see is the warm gold shimmer from the gold acrylic paint used to pull the prints.

The butterfly print was on paper but the circle and stripe print was on tissue and was fairly fragile. I was able to glue most of it down successfully with gel medium but I don’t mind the ragged edges where it tore. This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox and Scrap’n’Stamp . If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Greenery Collage Cards

Posted: April 3, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Collage cards, Darkroom Door, Dies, Finetec paints, gift card pocket, global postmarks, Leaves, measuring tape, Mixed Media, paris postcard, Penny Black, Tim Holtz, wild flowers #1 | Tags: collage, Darkroom Door stamps, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Mixed Media, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tim Holtz | 6 Comments

Continuing with the collage theme I have three cards featuring greenery from a paper napkin. I know people have been creating with paper napkins for years but I am new to the game. I have a small collection of pretty paper napkins to use on cards, book covers and journal pages. The green ones featured here are large dinner napkins found at Winners, probably in that tempting ‘just before the checkout’ area!

I glued the printed layer of the napkin over book pages to make my main panels and aged the edges with green and brown inks. I created a couple of little vintage postcards with the Paris postcard stamp, a background with the Measuring Tape stamp, sentiments and postmarks all from Darkroom Door.

Once again I used some cute dies from Penny Black to cut tickets, file divider, tag and leaves adding blending around the edges for the vintage look.

The scrap of cheesecloth, the lace and the grosgrain ribbon were all found around here, maybe the ribbon is actually vintage; it looks a bit discoloured from age which meant it co-ordinated well.

The lovely Queen Anne’s lace die is from the Tim Holtz ‘wildflowers #1 set.

I did make my own little postage stamps for the postcards because I’m still in love with faux postage. These ones had to be quite small so I didn’t use a die I just punched tiny holes with a needle to perforate the edges. You can see a bit of splatter here and there with ivory paint and there are touches of gold watercolour paint on the petals of a few flowers too!

This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox and Scrap’n’Stamp . If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Gel Printed Pods

Posted: March 25, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: artsy stems, framed fern, gel press, Lavinia, online class, Penny Black, Tim Holtz | Tags: gel press, gel printing, Lavinia, online class, Penny Black creative dies, Tim Holtz | 3 Comments

It’s been a while since I gel printed but that there is no lack of gel prints to show you. I currently have boxes of prints and and a stash of cards made from prints.

These two cards were made from the same stencil print, one of the examples from my Gel Print Journey online class (which is on sale along with all my online classes until March 29; just use the code LEAPYEAR40 at checkout)

If you are a fan of Lavinia stencils like I am you probably recognise the ‘Pods’ stencil used for this print. I printed on a 6″x 6″ gel plate giving me a print big enough for two cards. It’s hard to see in the photo but some of the paint was metallic so the print has some shimmer and shine on it.

I looked through my botanical dies and gold cardstock in order to fine co-ordinating elements for the cards. On the card above I used the ‘framed fern’ die from Penny Black and on the card below the die featured is from Tim Holtz artsy stems die set.

I hear my gel plate calling to me so hopefully I will soon dedicate a few days to happy printing. If you are looking for a beginner gel printing class or a refresher please check out Gel Print Journey. This post includes affiliate links from Ecstasy Crafts, Foiled Fox and Scrap’n’Stamp . If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Alcohol Ink Gel Print

Posted: June 19, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, artsy stems, gel press, little lowercase letters, My Favorite Things, Tim Holtz | Tags: gel press, gel printing, My Favorite Things, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Tim Holtz | 3 Comments

Last Monday I posted a faux batik look created on the gel plate. Today’s card is not faux alcohol ink; I did create a design on the gel plate with alcohol inks then picked it up with acrylic paint. Alcohol inks dry quite quickly so they are fun to fiddle with on a gel plate.

I can’t remember exactly which inks I used but I imagine there was a blue and yellow alcohol ink involved and perhaps ‘stream’ which is a deep teal colour. I sprinkled them on the gel plate, added some isopropyl alcohol to get the colours moving and then used a homemade stamp to add the flower shapes. In my online gel printing course I have a whole lesson about making and using homemade stamps with acrylic paints. Using them with alcohol inks is also an option as shown on this card. The speckled look over the panel is from adding a spritz of isopropyl alcohol to the plate before letting it dry.

I pulled the print with gold acrylic paint which has given the whole panel a goldish tint and in real life a bit of shine and shimmer. To finish the card I added a die-cut flower and letters in a co-ordinating colour. The letters were cut with MFT ‘little lowercase letters’ which might not be available anymore but I have linked to a similar set.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

New YouTube channel – New Video

Posted: February 11, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, baby blue leaf embossing folder, Branch 9 die, cricut, Dies, grafix, Moda Scrap, my designs, ornate tile embossing folder, Paper Rose, Penny Black, Pink & Main, scripty, silhouette birds, so extra supporting sentiments, Stampin Up, thank you squares, Tim Holtz, Tutorial | Tags: cricut, grafix, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Stampin Up, Tim Holtz | 6 Comments

If you have been visiting this blog for a while you will know I had a youtube channel for many years. In 2022 after ten years of adding videos and gathering a community of 7000 subscribers my channel was deleted. In recent weeks I have started again with a new channel and some videos ‘from the archive’. My new channel is called Heather Telford Art and I would be very happy if you decided to like, subscribe and tell your friends! There is content on there that you may remember from the last few years and starting today there is new content also! The new ‘2 for 1 Alcohol Ink Panels’ is freshly filmed for my new channel and I hope it will be the first of many!

There are quite a few photos in this post because, well, this is a 2 for 1 technique and I created three panels which of course became six panels and one was cut in half so there are seven cards to show you in this blog post! Grab a cup of tea. I have added a linked supply list at the very bottom of this long post.

As well as a new youtube channel I am also a new Cricut owner. The stencil used on the card below was designed by me and cut on my Cricut. It is available as a cutting file from Echidna Studios etsy store.

Most of the 2 for 1 smooshed panels I left as a full card fronts adding only a sentiment or some die-cutting. As the panel below reminded me of the ocean, the PB wavy scallop border seemed a nice touch.

The panel below is a half panel from the first one I showed on the video. I love the patterns from the isopropyl alcohol ink spray even though they don’t stay distinct. Even when die-cutting the word from the panel I couldn’t leave it off so I popped it up. Not so funny story: I guess I haven’t popped up a die cut word in a while because I flicked those little shapes inside the letters into the garbage when I poked the word from the die. So yes, I had to hunt through my garbage to complete the card.

I don’t know why I hadn’t tried it before but seeing how well Grafix craft plastic responds when put in an embossing folder has been a revelation! I thought it might crack but it doesn’t so you can have the subtle impression of your embossing folder on a panel or the bold inked pattern as I’ve done on the card below. Sentiments in circles might be a little fad I go with for a while too; they look cute!

You can see the soft look of embossed script on the panel below, especially in the close up. This detailed embossing folder is from Stampin’ Up and is called ‘scripty’. I don’t think it is available anymore but you might something similar.

For this final card I cut six little birds from the panel and played with layouts for quite a while. I ended up just using two which means I have four birds in hand for another project. (pun definitely intended)

The intricate half circle cut out behind the birds is also one of my new cricut cutting files but more about that in another post. If you got this far, you’re a champion. Thank you for supporting me here on my blog and I would love to see you over on youtube as well.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

The Wheels are Always Turning

Posted: August 25, 2022 | Author: Heather | Filed under: 6"x 6" journal, Art Journal, Ciao Bella, clockwork stencil, mechanical dies | Tags: Art Journal, Ciao Bella, Mixed Media, Tim Holtz | 3 Comments

Not a leaf, tree or flower in sight on this journal page but it was made my me, just in case you are wondering. The day I created this page I claimed to have come over all Tim Holtzish; you can probably see the connection.

I began with a few strips of Ciao Bella rice paper glued to the left and right edges of the the journal pages. Over the rice paper I added texture paste through the Tim Holtz ‘clockwork’ stencil then filled the rest of the background with brown and black distress inks and sprays.

I cut a stack of gears from black and olive cardstock then arranged them both flat and stacked across the pages. The stars of this double page spread for me were the Finnabair metallic waxes. I applied them over the gear die-cuts and the stencilled clockfaces creating metallic edges and highlights. Adding old silver wax over black cardstock transforms it immediately.

To complete the page I cut a couple of labels from black cardstock and rubbed wax on the edges. I used some little typewriter letters stamps to stamp, ‘the wheels are always turning’. When it comes to art journal pages and creating in general, my wheels are indeed always turning. Hope you have a creative day!

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp and Ecstasy Crafts)

Blue flowers on red gel print

Posted: March 2, 2022 | Author: Heather | Filed under: gel press, harmonious, Penny Black, Tim Holtz, wild flowers #1 | Tags: gel press, gel printing, Penny Black stamps, Tim Holtz, To | 3 Comments

Here is another of my gel prints from last week. When I sit down to write my process for you I get a little confused as to the order I did things. With gel printing you need to do the top layer of the final print first on the plate then layer the background over the top. I don’t list the paints I use for my prints because I end up with many paints over my work surface during a printing session of several different brands. If you are wondering about paints for gel printing, use any acrylics you have and see what you like best.

I imagine I brayered blue paint on the plate first, then pressed the fiddly flower die cuts into the paint, took a print to remove all but the outlines of blue then brayered the orange and red over that. I added texture to the red layer and took the final print, I think. The grid print you see was made by pressing a textured piece of cardstock into the paint on the gel plate. I guess I need to video my process for myself as well as to share with you!

The blue prints were not as distinct as I had hoped; I’ll keep working on that. I do like the shadow flowers though and when I found an outline flower die from Penny Black I stacked two blue layers and added it over the shadows. I like its grunginess, bold colours, shadow flowers and grid texture. And those two odd white dots were made as old paint peeled off the plate. Gel printing is full of delightful surprises.