Second Floor Challenge #8

I really liked the idea of the current Second Floor Challenge run by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Nathalie Kalbach - using three stamps.  I definitely consider myself a stamper and thought I'd add my own twist to the challenge and not use any ink.  Here is my completed journal page in one of my manila file folder journals.  Not an exceptionally pretty page, I must admit, but so much fun in its construction.

I'll share my process:

First off, I'm still highly addicted to using my gelli plate and monoprinting with paint.  So I used the French script stamp from Red Lead after covering the plate with paints.  This was the first time I tried pressing a journal onto the gelli plate.  Not a perfect print, but it is a very cool negative script texture.  I still had paint on the gelli plate, so I made a second impression, and then with the remaining paint on the stamp, I pressed the stamp directly onto the page giving the positive image.

Here's a close-up showing both the positive and negative of the script stamp. (And this is closer to the true color of the manila file folder page - too much sun light on my whole journal page.)

Because I still had paint left on my palette, I used two different sizes of bubble wrap to create monoprints and created a bunch of mop up tags.  Nothing to do with my current page, just further evidence of my gelli plate addiction!  Cool designs, don't you think?

OK, next I wanted to add more blue and to try stamping with Pan Pastels.  Now I've done it using Versa Mark, but that's an ink, so I didn't want to use it.  I found that if I spritzed the stamp with water and tapped it onto the Pan Pastel, it stamped with a neat grainy effect.

Here's the second stamp added - my hand carved chevron zig-zaggy thing.

See the grainy texture?

Definitely spray this with a fixative, because it will rub off.

On to the third stamp, and I chose to create a word using a set of Alphabet stamps and neocolorII watercolor crayons.  It's so easy to color onto the stamp, spritz it with water and stamp.

Here's how the word looks when stamped.

...and here are all three stamps used together:

To complete my page I added journaling along the bottom and up the left then all the way back in the opposite direction trying to weight the design of my composition to the lower left corner as you can see in the very first photo on the top.  The journaling reads: "I love when I try to challenge myself - as long as I'm brave enough to follow whatever tangents may present themselves - it's amazing where your creativity will lead you.  In this case, stamping with absolutely no ink! Whether it's acrylic paint, pan pastels, or watercolor crayons - SO MUCH FUN to just play!"

What have I learned?
1. Gelli plate monoprinting is really cool!  OK, I already knew that ;-)
2. I find that I think more when my supplies are limited, and it's fun to try out the ideas you come up with.
3. I tried to choose neighboring colors on the color wheel: green, blue-green, blue, and violet - also all cool colors. I thought about using a complementary color, a red or an orange, instead of the violet for more of a pop, but I do like how neighboring colors play nicely together.
4. It's OK if your page isn't pretty; this one was a great experiment to see how things worked together and that is absolutely allowed in art journaling.

Supplies:  Liquitex acrylic paint colors: vivid lime green and cobalt teal, Pan Pastel: phthalo blue, NeocolorII crayon colors: violet and periwinkle blue. Stamp credits: Script text: Red Lead, Alpha: Stanyan from Purple Onion Designs.

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Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this long post! Be sure to check out YESTERDAY'S POST for a handmade blank journal GIVEAWAY. The winner will be drawn on Friday September 14th.

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