AlteredPages Artsociates

Love is in the Air, have you felt it?  Sometimes you may have to look a little harder.  For some it is Love for the New Beginnings that can come with a New Year and others it is for family time with the holidays or thoughts going to your beloved with Valentine's Day just around the corner. In doing my annual tidy up of my art room I came across a piece of a Gel Print which I had done last year using punched heart shapes so decided that this would be my starting point for my project today. I had cut out images from the 'To the One I Love' Collage Sheet from Altered Pages with Valentine's Day in mind and looked at my options. I settled on an image that had a declaration of love with it and then picked out a few other coordinating elements, a border edge strip, a flower and some neon pink ink. Supplies Cardstock/Base Gel Press Print Background Collage Image from  the 'The One I Love' Collage Sheet Border Strip Flower Radian...

Creating a little something today with this month's theme of Lace and next month's theme of Love in mind.  It's a bit like how we approach the New Year combining the old with the New. Anyhow the old was also incorporated into this creation by using my previously made Gel Prints where I had used Lace as a Texture Tool . The vintage feel of the Lace Print was a perfect match for the Vintage Valentine's Image from the Victorian Valentine Collage Sheet.  I teamed these items with some Lace and a Wisteria/Orchid Toned Card Base.  Did you know that this shade of Purple is often associated with Romance and Sweet Emotion? So with a simple layering of all the elements I had a completed card in no time at all! And in no time at all we will be in the New Year!  I hope you all have a Great 2018! Danie xx

A great way to use up your Gel Prints is to use them to create coordinating home décor items.   I have used them in the past to cover and dress up wooden boxes and today I am using one from a recent print session I shared with you to dress up some plain photo frames. My frames I had purchased some time ago in a pack of 3 for around $5.00.  I started by removing the back of the frames and the glass insert and gave the frames a light sand with a fine sand paper. These frames fit a 4 x 6 inch or 10 x 15cm photo.  A 8 x 10 inch Gel Press Plate Print will give you enough to cover two frames.  I cut my print into half and again putting this aside proceeded to give the frames a couple of coats of black paint with my priority being to cover the outside edge and inside edge the top side the frame would be covered with the print. I then added a layer of glue to the topside of the frame and stuck this down onto the back of the print I had cut in half....

Hi Everyone it's Danie here and this week I am currently by the beautiful beach at Coffs Harbour co-hosting a art retreat for eight ladies.  We are encouraging everyone to be explorers be it of our location our art techniques or ourselves. Journal Page on one of the Inky Watery Backgrounds I shared a few months back. Beautiful Colors of Sunrise at the Beach The beautiful sea and art is healing in so many ways and this week inspired by our beautiful location and have worked with the Mermaid as our Muse.  We are working in a journal and have been exploring the waves and imagining what mermaids would paint with. Collecting the treasures from the shoreline and flowers and bits and pieces from the nearby landscape we have used some of these as our tools for mark making, as well as creating our art and just like flowers we are encouraging our attendees to bloom with their art. One of the attendees natural brush play on a gel print Usin...

I recently saw a beautiful message on facebook inspired by flowers so thought that would make a perfect addition to my art journal and would be a beautiful message to share as my project this Month here at Altered Pages.  We often get stuck and limit our potential by comparing ourselves to others particularly as artists and this is a gentle reminder not to. I decided I would use one of my flower Gel Prints from last month as my background.  The one I chose was the one where the flowers were least defined.  I started by adding paint around the edges of the page in my journal to match my print.  I saved and printed out the quote from Facebook on my ink jet printer.  I used Electric Pink Radiant Neon Ink to Ink the edges of my printed quote and gel print.  I also punched flowers from flower embossed pink cardstock.  This was the same punched shape I used on my Gel Print.  I used the Ink and a favor...

The Altered Pages Design Team had a great time sharing their Gel Press projects with you... here are links to a few of them from the month!     Robin - Gel Press Spring ATCs     Danie May - Rolling with Gel Press         Lyneen - Stamping with Gel Press     Stephanie - Gel Press on Denim!     Trish - Gel Press Canvas         June - Spring Hues   Trisha - Circles        

I am often inspired by nature and my play this week turned to playing with punched out shapes, hearts, butterflies and flowers and using them for masks on my Gel Press Plate .    I am filling a void as we head towards winter here in Australia.   I miss seeing all the flowers in bloom and lots of butterflies fluttering in the garden.  So I thought I would bring these things to life with paint today with a little love thrown in too. I usually begin with a base layer of paint for these kind of prints.  For my heart play it was pink. From this initial layer I take a full print and ghost print adding any left over paint on the brayer to the plate for my ghost prints.  My second layer is a complimentary or contrasting color applied to the plate and to which I then stick down my punched shapes to take a print.  The mask created by the punched shapes leaves a void and allows the earlier layers to show through.  My ...