I haven't posted for a while, and can't give you any good reason for that. Day to day life gets in the way sometimes. Odd jobs and irritating tasks need doing, and sometimes have to take precedent over taking pictures and wittering away on Blogger.
Well, we managed to miss the worst of Storm Babet in this part of Yorkshire. The rain fell continuously for an entire day, and I discovered there was a tiny gap at the top of the sliding glass doors leading to the conservatory, and through that tiny gap rain dripped down for hours! I can't complain though, can I? I mean, all I needed to do was deal with several sheets of soggy newspaper and a few damp cloths. Nothing compared to the poor people whose houses have flooded. I can't imagine how awful that'd be.
Today's foggy. It's nearly lunchtime and it's not fully lifted. I've been indoors this morning, happily splashing acrylic paint around and producing yet more prints using my Gelli Arts plate. The photo above is from a couple of pages in an upcycled board book. I've got half a dozen babies board books in various stages of completion. Is it any wonder my front room regularly looks like a bombsite? Or that I never get to sit and eat my meals at the dining table?
I treated myself the other day - damn you, Amazon! stop tempting me with your clever marketing - anyway, I bought a couple of punches. One is for cutting 2 inch circles and the other's for cutting corners, quite literally.
I've already been putting them to good use. I incorporated circles into this upcycled board book, marking the different pages to make them easy to turn to.
I particularly like this bird.
I also used circle cut-outs on this handmade book, part of my October Make a Book challenge (which I reckon is going to carry on during November too).
It's a concertina book, very simple to construct. I'd got a few pages of painted paper left over from another project, so made those into a strip, joining them with circles of paper stuck on.
Upcycled cardboard was used for the covers.
Here's another photo of the painted pages.
I also used several tags made of thin cardstock to make another book. Similar colours were used throughout to give this tag book a cohesive look.
I only meant to punch a single hole in them, but made a mistake so ended up with three instead, which worked out well in the end.
I made a not-very-professional-looking video, flicking through the pages, and stuck it on Instagram. It's really tricky to flick through a book with one hand while attempting to hold a phone steady with the other. While I was finishing off printing these tags I played around with another surface to print on too. Interfacing. Yup, the stuff you iron on to your flimsy fabric in order to strengthen it. According to a nifty video on Gelli Arts YouTube channel, you can print on interfacing, then stick it into your art journal. It adds interest to your page, but also strength to the paper, especially if you're also stitching on the page, whether by hand or machine sewing.
I'll wait for the interfacing to fully dry before having a go at ironing it onto paper or fabric. What else did I print on this morning? Well, this made an appearance.
I'd bought this Filofax from a charity shop for 99 pence. What, I wondered, would the pages look like covered in acrylic? Would the flimsy paper stand up to layers of paint? Yup, they did.
I'm going to stencil and stamp them further, but I was quite pleased with how these once-pristine white pages turned out so far.
Righty-ho! There are only two more things I have to relate. Strange but true. Firstly, egg cartons make really great patterns in paint! A random fact, but ...
Who needs fancy shop-bought stencils when you can delve into the recycling bin? Oh, and plastic sink mats make pretty patterns on the gell plate too.
A plastic non-slip mat measuring 40cm x 30cm, I cut it into pieces and it's great for adding texture to prints. Cost about £1.50 from one of those Poundworld/Home Bargains type shops.
Love that geometric design.
Okay, that's all for today. Bye!
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