AlteredPages Artsociates

Continuing to play with Bright Colors and my love for randomness and inky mess, I grabbed out my Circle Gel Press Plate and the three primary colors of Paint - Red, Blue and Yellow. I applied the paint in sections onto my plate and proceeded to randomly and not fully lay my pre-cut ATC Cards onto the plate, I then picked them up and picked up more paint in different areas, until most of the paint was removed from the plate. I then took some gold paint and a bottle cap and pressing the cap into the paint then applied some circles of gold to the plate which I then once more randomly pressed my ATC Cards into. Next I took the 6 x 6 Heart and Arrow Stencil by the Crafter's Workshop and with black paint and a stencil brush added the stencil design randomly across my ATC's. I had some let over butterflies and bird collage images from previous projects so I decided to use these and then played around with placement. A bit fun and funky! And I sti...

Red the color of love and power has been our focus this month here at Altered Pages so I took a symbol of love this week to create a little birthday card. The symbol I refer to is the Red Rose - I received some from my hubby for Valentines Day and as they started to droop took the petals off the stems to dry them out to use for making Rose Water but then whilst thinking about my project here today I decided to use a couple of the dried out petals to create a little texture for a print on the Gel Printing Plate . I started my print with a simple layer of Mustard Distress Oxide Ink.  I placed a punched out circle down on this paint layer to create a space for my desired sentiment. Then I added a layer of Red Paint to the plate for the second layer of color on my print and covered this with the rose petals to create some texture which also would allow the underneath color layer to show through. Lifting the Rose Petals I put in place the punched out circle to ...

It is said that.... In our waking state, colors stimulate emotions.  Similarly, colors also stimulate emotions in dreams. Scientific REM studies have proven that we tend to dream in colors but we do not always recall them. The meaning of colors in dreams is not just indicative of the dreamers’ emotional states but also one’s personality traits. Our focus is on RED so here is a bit of history. The Meanings of Red. Red is the color of extremes. It's the color of passionate love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Our prehistoric ancestors saw red as the color of fire and blood – energy and primal life forces.    Red is also a magical and religious color. It symbolized super-human heroism to the Greeks and is the color of the Christian crucifixion. Red was almost as rare and as expensive as purple in ancient days – a fact that may explain its magic and power. Paradoxically, today’s intense red dyes come from crushed insects (the lac beetle and t...

Did you know that Lace makes a great texture tool to use with your Gel Press Plate.  Whether you use Lace Ribbon, Paper Lace Tape or Doilies you can create a unique background/print with great textural interest. Pressing the lace items into the paint layer that has been applied to the Gelli Plate soaks up/sticks to the paint so when you remove the lace the paint lifts from the Gel Plate leaving the pattern of the lace behind.  You then get a textured print on your chosen paper used to take the print. I love random play and experimentation to see what interest I can create on my prints.  I also work with layering the various designs and different colors over each other.  Today the heat was a factor so the ability to take ghost prints was limited due to the paint drying rather quickly on the plate.  When working with items that are smaller than the plate and you wish to imprint the texture or pattern to get I always work with a piece of thinner p...

Sometimes things just speak to us. The Crafters Workshop Aspen Trees Stencil (art by Victoria Case) spoke to me. Being Fall it felt right, but you know me.  I did not follow my initial plan.  I had printed a Halloween collage and felt it would be a great one with children walking in the woods.     Then as I mixed colors I got a deep dark European forest feeling. As I worked I found that a tryptych was my goal. Same stencil, different colors and techniques.                             My 6x6 gel press plate was the perfect tool, along with my daubers.   They make the paint glide on! Working with negative space can be tricky, I went through several attempts and tossed the papers,  because I was not getting the results I wanted.   ( I used an 8.5 x 11 smooth white cardstock) I layered the mixed colors using both the Gel Press plate with the stenci...

I love tags. I decided to take my tags and try my hand at morphing them into a tag box.  I love that all the great goodies I have can take regular manilla tags and make them into an amazing project. I hope that you like my video and can't wait to see your feedback. I also hope that you will try out the Tag Challenge! SEE the video below, BUT WAIT...share your tag art on our FACEBOOK PAGE to win our giveaways! Supplies Tags Aleene’s Tacky Glue  (on hand) Prima Ginger Magic Gel Press Gelatos   DixieBelle Chalk Paints MicaColor Watercolors acrylic paints Brayer Stencils Palette Knife Pan Pastels Dyeable  Seam Binding Assorted Cardstock Scotch Cover-up Sheet (on Hand) Masking Tape Sharpie markers Air Brush and a lcohol for seam binding

Hi everyone it's Danie here today.  I think earlier I mentioned that Spring had arrived here in Australia well at least where I am, because a few days later in some parts it snowed and was some of the best falls of the season.  It's a noisy time here with lots of birds flocking in to feast on the not quite ripe mulberries in our neighbours yard.  It's also a time I find myself wanting to be more active, and when it comes to active with art there is nothing like a good play with the Gel Plates as I love creating my own papers for my projects. I grabbed out the paint (3 primary colors and black and white) and the Harlequin 6 x 6 stencil . I don't like to clean in between paint layers and prints, as it adds to the unique randomness of the print which I love, and I don't stress too much most of the time about lining up each layer as I often cut the prints down to use.  I love the colors on plate, brayer and stencils all blending and creating new colo...