Dog Days of Summer Pocket Letter

Photos of dogs (had to include chihuahuas of course!), patterned papers, washi tape, and some fun summer stickers to top things off!

Lepidoptera Lollapalooza Pocket Letter

For my background I used a sheet from the Mariposa paper stack.  I printed out 3 butterflies and used Stickles to add some glitz and added them to the outside of the page so that I could bend the wings and add a touch of 3-D effect.

Postage Stamp Pocket Letter

I chose stamps portraying different clothing styles from Indonesia.  I thought it was fascinating to see the different styles all together and was so tickled that I found 9 different stamps from the same country, it worked out great.  I used patterned papers and lots and lots of washi tape, including some glitter washi.

Chicken Pocket Letter

Vintage images of chickens, patterned paper, and washi tape.

Collograph 3 - Geometric

 I used my big shot and embossing folders to emboss a bunch of cardstock.

I used my embossed papers along with peeled corrugated cardboard and  texturized wallpaper to create this design used geometric shape.

I decided to try printing this on a paper that I had already mounted another sheet of paper on.  This created more opportunity for color, another geometric element, and the ease of using only one color of ink.

6x6 Gelli Prints

I love how these 6x6 prints turned out and thought it would be a neat project for my younger students - I was thinking of something collaborative like a quilt design.

Hand Carved Stamp 2

Trying to think of ways to incorporate this into student projects and I came up with this ATC sized stamp idea.  I decided to try a jar of buttons since that would give me lots of options for changing colors with each print.

I just used Crayola watercolor markers to print these ATC's.

I probably wouldn't make students do 9 variations, perhaps just 3?

Collograph Print 2 - Organic

It was suggested that we gather many things that we could experiment printing with - so I decided to combine cardboard, wallpaper, cardstock, ribbon, rick rack, and silk flowers for my organic collograph.

It came out a lot better than I thought it would and it changed my thought on what I could use for collograph prints - I was stuck in the cardboard, string, foam frame of mind, so this was a good thing to push me out of my comfort zone.

Collogaph Prints 1 - Cityscape

 We were asked to create some collographs and I decided to use cardstock since it is readily available and not so costly to use with elementary students. 

Hand Carved Stamp - Printmaking Class

We were asked to create a hand carved stamp and then come up with a finished project.  I had seen some examples of  the 1/4 square done and thought it might be a good project that I could translate over to my junior high printmaking class.

Here is my first attempt, using one color and getting the rotation down.

 Here I decided tow try 2 colors in an alternating pattern.

 Next I tried doing random blocks of color, no pattern.

 Random blocks of color on patterned scrapbook paper.

 Two color pattern on scrapbook paper.

Conclusion -  I like the white paper best for using multiple ink colors.  If I were to use scrapbook papers with my students I would probably have then use black ink or a highly contrasting color depending on the paper they chose.

Gelli Printing with the new mini gelli plates

 They came out with 6 new mini shapes and I bought the all.  They suggested that you use them on an acrylic stamp block  and that worked really well.

I used distress ink pads and texture rubbing plates.  I applied the ink directly to the gelli plate then pressed the texture rubbing plate into it and then tried stamping into a sketch book.

Gelli Printing VII

Styrofoam printing plates cut into shapes and then drawn on with a pen to create texture.  Pulled the mask on the onion bag print.

Removed the styrofoam masks and pulled  a new print, then . . . 

 . . . used new colors and a texture comb to layer over the top of that.

Gelli Printing VI

 I have this gorgeous fan stencil that I picked up at Goodwill that was made for stenciling on walls for home decor, it is one of my favorite stencils, I have two sizes.

I did the onion beg, the added a layer of foam stamps . . .

 . . .  then used the fan stencil on top of all that.  Sometimes it is really had to stop layering.