zaubernuss - witchhazel

cardmaking #5

christmas is way behind us but i still wanted to show you the christmas (and other) cards i made to sell at a little market back in december. i just didn't find the time and focus to do so until now...

the non-christmas cards first: i made these by weaving strips of various paper scraps together to create one decorative panel. i gave each strip a little distress treatment first, arranged the papers according to colours and i used lots of foam adhesive on the woven panels.

now the christmas cards: i made two different styles. one batch of square ones, just like the woven cards, with different christmas themed focal points, also made using mostly scraps. (i have a lot of paper scraps - they just pile up when you do lots of paper crafting, don't they?)

all of these cards have a lot of dimension to them: the berries on the holly were made with pearl pen or flat back gems, the baubles have shimmer and glaze over the top to give the illusion of glass, i used real thread to "hang" the baubles and "wrap" the presents under the trees. the trees have shimmer on them as well and there is lots of foam adhesive again.

by the way, this is the inside of the square cards:

the spiral panel turns, as indicated by the arrow in the top left corner and the message is supposed to be written and read while turning.

the other style of christmas cards i made were slider cards. one set is more on the funky side with hand inked paper and holly branches. the other set is more artsy with design paper and a little collaging using book paper and sheet music. the shaped panels to the left and right of the card base pull out to reveal space for the message and they fit into a standard size business envelope.

a few close ups:

here is the more artsy set:

a few more close ups:

i was very happy that these cards went very well and that i had such a selection to choose from. there was something for everyone...

now i will have to make some for spring and summer and birthdays and mother's day for the next market (which is at the end of april if i remember correctly).

 

i hope you're all well and happy!
big hug and lots of love! xxx

 

 

oh, and i just found this funny card in my files:

i made this googly eye card on a whim and we used it as a short-notice birthday card for one of T's friends...

gelli printing #2

my new paints arrived today and i just had to try them on the gelli plate right away. i got distress paints in the three primary colours and i had a good search through the web to find out which ones would be the most primary of the 60 shades available. in the end i chose "mustard seed" which is a vibrant yellow, "candied apple" which is a true, bright red and "salty ocean" which is simply blue - not sky blue, not light blue, not marine, not navy, neither leaning towars teal nor purple - just blue. they are perfect to mix all sorts of other colours with. and i got "picket fence" which is white and useful to have in general and for some techniques involving the printing plate.

welcome to my messy space! haha! here you can see a work in progress as i "clean" the plate with a strip of cash register paper. i had used that strip to mop up some spray ink in my dylusions journal already (i hope to remember to show that some time) and thought that a little more texture never hurts... inspired by that i thought i'd just run with the whole register paper thing and use it for printing.

i love how these turned out! i will probably use them for cards... i got two strips from one plate full of paint. i cut my shape stencils from scrap printer paper - they worked a treat. i learned quite a bit about the order in which to use which kind of stencil or mask, about how much of the distress paint to apply with the dabber tops (it looks like it's much more than with a flip/squeeze top bottle or out of a tube but it's not) and i had a lot of fun with it. i can't wait to re-watch some of the technique videos and try more things...

here are a few pictures of what my mop-up strips look like. i'll keep adding to them - they make a great art "journal". just a great surface to work on as long as you don't soak the paper, as it's quite thin but it takes the smooth, fluid paints beautifully without warping or wrinkling.

i hope you're all happy and healthy and enjoy whatever you're busy with!

big hug and lots of love! xxx

 

 

as with my last gelli printing post - this post has NOT been sponsored by any of the manufacturing companies linked to throughout this post.

brother sun and sister moon

i looked through some of my files yesterday. the project files where i keep all of the photos i take of the books, journals and other things i make. i was trying to find some inspiration from my older projects and i realised that i never shared my most favourite book to date on the blog...

it was a custom order and i put a lot of work, thought and love into it. it was hard letting it go...

this is the back of the cover. the elastic holding it closed slides off completely to be out of the way when the journal is being used.

it is a leporello book (which you can read all about here) and i carried the sun and moon/stars - day and night theme through the entire book, alternating the theme for each of the four signatures.

i absolutely adore the colours combined with the touch of grunge. i used lots of papers that i hand-decorated with inks, various stamps and stencils as well as vellum, patterned papers and ephemera from my stash.

the first signature has the day/sun theme:

the second signature has the night/moon and stars theme:

in the center of the leporello base there are a starry vellum notepad holder, a sunflower pocket and a few tags flapping about:

on the other side of the center of the leporello base there are two spreads with pockets, one is day themed and one is night themed:

the third signature has the day/sun theme again:

and the last signature is another night/moon and stars one:

i tried my best to find appropriate images that are kind of opposites and would go with the whole day and night theme: butterfly - moth, sun - moon and stars, script - sheet music, bird - owl, vellum with a starry pattern - vellum with sunflowers, ...

in the back of the leporello there is as mini folio that holds file tabs in different sizes punched out of left over papers:

the filetabs can be used anywhere, in this book or elsewhere, because they all have double sided tape on the back for instant use.

i don't know who received this journal and i don't know how it is being used, if at all. it's one of the coolest pieces of art i've made so far and i really hope it brings joy to whoever's lucky enough to get to use it...

 

i hope you are all well and happy! lots of love! xxx

gelli printing #1

i got a gelli plate for christmas! from my wonderful husband - oh, how i love him! (i generally love him a lot but sometimes a little more... haha!)

if you don't know what a gelli plate is and what it does just pop over to their website and youtube channel - you'll see. it's awesome! it's a piece of special plastic you can print with and you don't need any kind of printing press. you just need paints and paper and a few simple, basic tools (most of which you are likely to have at home) to make patterns with.

i played with it twice already and i'm slowly developing a feeling for what works and what doesn't and how i like to work with it. i've watched tons of videos (basically everything i could find on youtube) and i thought all that was left to do was actually doing it - which it was! don't get me wrong - it really is very easy and you can hardly do anything wrong.

it's just that knowing what to do and how to do it in theory does not replace the learning how to do it. even though i've watched lots of people put paint on the plate and spread it out and layer stencils and pull prints, feeling it with your own hands is totally different, of course. i had to get a feeling for how much paint to use, how fast it dries on the plate, what type of stencil or foam stamp i like and which ones work for me, etc...

i have much more to learn and try and i'm very much looking forward to it! one thing i have to do before that is go and get some more and better acrylic paints (as that is what the plate is supposed to be used with - although you'll find that lots of artists use other stuff as well if you watch some videos).

i've used what i have at home for now - cheap acrylics for all sorts of crafts (with or without children). no one ever says that you're only supposed to use high-quality-brand-name-paints and in one video the lady said she actually prefers the cheaper ones to the more expensive ones. but i really didn't like how my paints feel on the paper (and they are not the newest ones any more and some got a little lumpy which is not so good). trying out different things to see what works for you and what doesn't is good, isn't it? (and it's certainly not just an excuse to buy new craft supplies...)

different types of paint apparently do different things: the more fluid ones behave differently than the heavier ones. some are more translucent while others are opaque, some dry quickly and some stay open a little bit longer which means you can do different techniques with each of them.

i'd like to find a type of paint that's not too expensive, smooth and with not too much texture, that dries reasonably fast but not as soon as i'm done spreading it on the plate and that comes in the right colours. not too much to ask, is it? haha!
i'm fairly new to acrylics so i don't want to build up a huge collection of different ones that would not really be used other than on the gelli plate. i usually prefer to work with inks and dyes on paper so i will have to choose carefully...

anyway, enough boring bla-bla - i want to show you the papers i've made so far. they are not hugely great (because they were my first ones) and not as colourful as i would have liked (because of my limited paint supply - i had to toss the purple one as it was) and i don't know exactly what i will do with them yet...

...but i'm still rather pleased with them and i can't wait to continue learning and playing!

i used printer paper (two separate prints on one sheet):

...and parchment paper (two separate sheets shown in one picture). also, i put a white sheet of paper under the parchment paper so the colours show better:

i apologize for the light - i did my best but the lighting at my desk is not the greatest in general and i took the pictures when it was dark already... they came out well enough considering, red and orange seem to be not so photogenic anyway.

i'm very much looking forward to seeing how this will go on and i hope to remember to keep you posted. =)

i'd like to add that this is not a sponsored post - i just wanted to tell you that i was excited. but i think that's obvious - haha!

 

lots of love and hugs to you all! enjoy your time and i hope you're not too annoyed with january!

happy new year!