Gloria J Zucaro's "Gelli's & Card #4"

The last Gelli project with Carolyn Dube's Gelli Plate Party is using stamps to make patterns or provide resists.  What fun this was to do!  I actually did some stamping, some stenciling  and some really wet splashy looks.  Below the Gelli Plate prints is another Thank You card.

Below is Jessica Sporns Starry Night stencil from Stencil Girl

A little sketch for my latest "Thank You" card to my friends in Texas who sent me a beautiful fresh wreath covered with pine-cones and berries and a big satin bow.  I still have it hanging on my front gate at the entrance to my courtyard of my townhouse.

Gloria J Zucaro's "In Honor of "

This post will be linked to Carolyn Dube's Gelli Plate Party and to The Daily Paintworks challenge of the week called "the Something New Challenge".  My theme is called "In Honor Of" because it is about my two grandsons who were both diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the last two years. 

I used several of my newly made Gelli Plate papers(see former blog posts) to make a journal page.  However, this page is not actually in a journal, it is on an oil oil painting on canvas board.  For the Daily Paintworks Challenge I decided to combine many of the mediums I have just started using in the last month, with mediums I have been using through the last year and earlier.  First I gesso over an old(bad!) oil painting.  I then applied some of the papers recently made with the gelli plate as well as a paper from an old shorthand  textbook given to me by Beth at bethbynumarist, and a paper off an Italian cookie.

The oil painting on the left with a puddle of gesso.  The painting on the right covered with the first layer of papers. 

Next I used a stencil from Stencil Girl of Church Windows and heavy Gel medium mixed with Silks Acrylic Glaze applied with a palette knife.  I sprinkled a course gold glitter on while wet.  I wasn't totally pleased with that, so used Copic marker to darken some of the shape of the window frames.  I added wrapping paper trees to symbolize long life, the boys ages when they were diagnosed(3 and 19) a tangled heart surrounding a four-leaf clover to symbolize my older grandsons stay in Ireland for a semester of college, a red cardinal to symbolize my younger grandsons love of Angry Birds, a picture of a child and lost innocence of the hard-knocks in this life, and a badge that tells the birth month of my youngest grandson.

Left is the windows, glitter, and paper cut outs.  Right is a close up of the clover, tangle and a piece of fabric under it.  Below a close up of the "Angry Bird" symbol, the child and trees.

Gloria J Zucaro's "All in a Days Work"

For My Gelli Plate Papers, Scroll to middle of this post

Yesterday I got quite a bit of artwork done.  I copaled a painting which will be in an exhibit the end of the month in the Robert T. Wright Gallery in Grayslake, Illinois.  Copal is a preliminary finish you put on an oil painting before it it has dried enough to put a final varnish on.  You rub it on in circles with a lint free cloth, making sure all areas are covered but don't have puddles.

Then I put the first coat of paint on a frame for that painting.  It is a floater frame, so all the front surface of the painting will show, and not be covered by 1/4 edge being covered all around by a traditional frame.  I am considering put a pewter dry brush over the black.  What do you think of that?  
I stuck the painting in the frame so you could see how a floater frame looks.

Next I worked on my Gelli Plate with two colors of paint at once for Carolyn Dubes' Gelli Plate Paint Party.  I really like the way they look with a mix of different Silks Acrylic Glaze paints by Luminarte. I didn't have anymore plain white paper, so used some pale yellow cardstock.

Last night I spent several hours beading my second set of fabric cards for my January ATC meeting. I beaded around the bird shapes and then glued them to the lattice background.  I also finished up my first set of ATCs which had glitter and pearl accent on the fronts and Martha Stewart Iridescent Tinsel Glitter around my name plate on the backs.  I will put a clear glitter glue around the edge of the applied birds sections, I think, and fill in some of the blank background between the lattice fabric strips with paint.

Martha Stewart

Gloria J Zucaro's "Summer, Winter, Summer, Winter?"

This evening I used a couple of my Gelli Plate painted pages to make a journal page about how my feelings change with the weather.  Maybe because I am a Gemini?  In the hot of Summer, I am wishing for cooler weather, and in the 20 degree weather I am thinking of moving from Illinois to Arizona! "Be happy whatever the weather!" I tell myself,  "Are you never satisfied!"  So on my journal page I joined the cold and hot, just like a water faucet and made some WARM!  I show the two sections of pages cut out and another blue page that is similar to my top half.  What was interesting to me is that if you look at the small section of leftover blue piece you will see the darker blue area that was cut off.  I saw in the paint a figure in a hooded jacket with arm extended, and then other figures in front of that one.  I used a blue pencil to outline what I saw in the paint to make my Winter figures.  This is my Paint Party Friday entry as well as my Gelli Print Party 3rd Entry with Carolyn Dube.

Top left is the paper used to make the bottom half, bottom left is where my Winter figures emerged.  The right side paper is an example of some predominantly blue pages I made last night.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Gelli Backs"

Tonight a quick post showing the backs of the pages that I made last night.  I often sprayed water on the Gelli plate to get more paint loose.  So some of the papers got soaked and tore.  But that is not a problem because they can be used as parts added to embellish a different journal page.

Gloria J Zucaro's "First Day Of Gelli"

Today is the first day of Carolyn Dube's Gelli Plate celebration.  I really had fun today.  In fact I didn't realize how much time was passing and finally went to a room with a clock to find it was 12:45 AM!  I think I started painting around 7:30.  Anyway, I did 10 papers, but some I painted/stenciled(with Jessica Sporn's stencils) on both sides.  With one of my journal pages I used the gelli layers to make my Fall Fearless & Fly page #7.  The hostess for that link is Marcia Beckett.  The prompts for the 7th Fall Fearless & Fly page are  

"Headline Prompt:  Future Imperfect: What is different about your life now than what you once expected it to be?  How is the way it turned out perfect or imperfect.  If your future turns out differently than you imagined in the first prompt, could it still be perfect?

Color Prompt: Yellow
Quote Prompt: "Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present."  Friedrich Nietsche"

I thought I would always be married and when I was a young mother I envisioned myself as a grandmother sitting on my front porch in a rocking chair passing out homemade cookies to all the children as they were on their way home from school!  LOL!  Sorry, no rocking chair, no homemade cookies most days, and no front porch!  I think you have to go with the flow of life and accept and embrace the surprises that become your opportunities.  PS.-when I was very young I thought it would be so much fun to travel like a hobo in a boxcar across the country!  ME, the person who has never even desired to go camping in a tent!

Gelli result using Jessica's Star Stencil

Using a stencil with several border designs

A combination of Jessica's stencils and some of my leftover Cricut papers.