Today's Art Day

Today is our art group day. Here are some of my friend LaVon's embellished gelli prints. They are fantastic! Both os the top two are printed with the same stencil by The Crafter's Workshop. They are just colorized differently using watercolors, Prismacolor and Tombow markers, and Caron d'Arche water soluble wax crayons. Aren't they stunning? And the bottom design...that one is amazing! LaVon used a rubber stamp to apply the butterfly images and flower stamps and then colorized them using the same markers and crayons. She did also use a black fine point pigma pen for the butterfly outlines.    

Silhouette Cutting of Stencils

Today I went over to a friend's house and cut stencils for use with gelli prints. I love gelli prints. Have you noticed?

Gellis, Gellis, Gellis

Here are some of the gelli prints that have been created by me and my friends here at gelli parties.

Gelli Prints in Progress

Here are photos of three of my gelli prints from the party in progress. This is how they came directly off of the plates. We used stencils from The Crafters Workshop on the large left and again on the bottom right but we did a very fine imprint and then used a toothbrush splatter technique over the surface for the bottom design.

The snowflake design was cut from a Silhouette stencil cutter by my friend. Isn't it wonderful?

Now they are all ready to be embellished...another of my favorites. HHHmmmm...water soluble crayons, watercolor paints, markers? What shall I choose? Check back and see how these are shaping up. You know they'll be spectacular!!

We're Having a Gelli Party!!

We're having a gelli printing party. Hooray!  Ten of us creative souls got together to make gelli prints today. Can you see the fun we're having? Good friends, goos food, good prints. What could make for a better day?

We used both homemade and manufactured gelli plates, but I must say that as a group, we had better luck with the gelli arts manufactured plates. In fact, I have a friend who sells them and she brought some over in case the gals wanted one for their very own, and SHE SOLD OUT! That's how popular these gelli arts plates are.

What fun we had. Now I have to post photos of the works...and then of the embellished works and then...it goes on and on.

Embellishment time is anytime...

I just had a few stolen minutes to begin the embellishment process on this gelli print from yesterday. I love Tombow markers, just love them, as the color moves around with water and the underneath acrylic paint acts as a resist. This print began with a flower stencil from The Crafter's Workshop and was then enhanced with markers. It's only just begun...

It will definitely be another small quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (www.alzquilts.org) in their effort to collect monies for Alzheimer's research. It's a special cause for me and I support it faithfully. When finished, this will be a beauty for them and I'll send it off proudly.

Gellis Again

My friend, Marty, came over today and we worked on gelli printing again. Here she is working away...

More Alzheimer's Gelli Quilts

Here are my two latest ALZ quilts to be donated. Both are made from Gelli prints. The yellows and green grid was made with yellow and green inexpensive acrylic craft paints found in your local craft store. After applying the paint, I pressed needlepoint canvas down into the gel surface very carefully so as not to accidentally injure the gel but with enough pressure to create an indentation. It was further enhances by yellow quilting stitches using Masterpiece Thread on the surface and Bottom Line thread in the bobbin. Both threads are made by Superior Threads.

The gridwork began with a diamond stencil from The Crafter's Workshop pressed into the acrylic paint on the gelli plate. That pattern was further enhanced by a quilted grid on the surface using a lime green thread. I added jumbo rickrack for added enhancement.

Thanksgiving Gellis

As a family, when we gather together for Thanksgiving, we have begun a tradition of doing artsy projects together in the evening. This year was no exception. My little gals, all four of them, had heard me talk about  gelli printing and how much I enjoy the process. Of course they wanted to try it when we all got together. I packed my gelli plate and flew off to Indianapolis for a fun-filled weekend.

Here is a photo of one of the babes in action. See the right arm go? She's making a peace sign.

Such fun!

AAQI Quilts Sell at Houston

Alzheimer's Art Quilts Initiative sold a record $75,000 worth of quilts last week in Houston at the International Quilt Festival. 1597 quilts were sold, including three of my donations. I am a proud member of the $1,000 Promise group of quilters who have pledged to donate $1,000 in donations for their quilts. This $75,000 raised represents the largest amount of money ever raised at one time, and it exceeds last year's total by $13,000. This, of course, means more monies for Alzheimer's research. For more information on how you can bid on a quilt or donate, go to www.alzquilts.org .

Here are my latest quilts sold at Houston.