because i have SO MUCH free time, lol...

...thus i've decided to take part in birgit koopsen's "30 days of gel printing" challenge! ok, seriously: i don't really have time for this at the moment and doubt i will complete every single day. but... BK has such amazing ideas and as soon as you see them you kind of HAVE TO try them. and i've already learned a couple of slam dunk new techniques, such as this awesome "packing tape lift" from last night:

day 6: tape

even if you're not into gel printing, i highly recommend watching this 5 minute birgit koopsen video of the process because it's completely hypnotic! and i'm not just saying that because i'm too lazy to describe the technique in detail, although that is also true! :) to sum it up briefly: you compose sparingly on the plate, using paint, stamps, stencils, etc... let everything DRY... and then use a strip of clear packing tape to lift the design off the plate. absolutely brilliant and quite easy to do! i predict you will be seeing this again. a lot.

(i highly recommend birgit's videos generally, for that matter. there's no voice over, no extraneous detail, you just watch her demonstrate and any crucial facts you need to know show up as text on the screen.)

day 1: colors of your flag

i couldn't quite resist making stripes with my small brayer and using nested star dies to make my own cardstock masks.

day 2: mask

possibly my all time favorite stencil is michelle ward's nyc skyline stencil and masks set which is exclusive to the ink pad. you can tell how much i love it by how grubby all the parts of it are, because that is not a second print off to the left, that is the stencil and masks!!!

day 3: lace

i used real lace, you can see it at the bottom there! for best results i used a fair amount of paint on the plate, laid the lace down, and carefully pressed the paper into all the nooks and crannies to get the detail. i found thin deli paper to be best for this, since i could actually see that the was paint transfering before i lifted the paper.

day 4: water soluble crayons

this is something i need a lot more practice with. you have to dip the crayons in water to get them to make distinct marks. and it's quite easy to be too wet or too dry. i'm happy with my finished print, tho i confess that after the main design was dry, i outlined the various shapes and marks with a dry scribble stick to show the detail better. i think in future i'd use a contrasting color, as well!

day 5: no brayer

i used a plastic palette knife to spread and blend a few shades of paint, then lifted that gorgeous design via michelle ward's hex pattern stencil.

this may well be the only week in september that i do ALL the prompts, but even if i stopped right now, i'd feel like i learned more than enough to make it well worth my time! ♥