Thank You

Once again, a cold Sunday in late April finds me in my craft cave. Earlier this month I posted about making mono prints.  Here, now, is the little project I was working on that made me do that.  I found myself thinking about those little Russian stacking dolls one day not too long ago.  You know the ones, where you open a doll to find another smaller one, which you open to find another smaller one etc.  This Thank You note is just like that, only it's paper!  There will be 45 of them when I get them all done.  Each will be unique in terms of its colors.  I'm thinking of sending them out as New Year's card next year, but I'm not really sure yet.  

Here is the front - with the pretty mono print up front.  Follow the little arrow's direction and flip it over...

Here is the back of it, again, follow the little arrow's direction and pull out the next tag....

Here you see the backside of the first tag, and the front of the second, another pretty mono print.  Flip the second tag over...

...to find another pocket with another tag in it, pull the third tag out....

... Tag #3 is yet another mono print, flip the third tag over for the finale...

Below is the back of all three tags.  The backs are all mass market printed paper pulled from my scrap stash. The End, with the little bunny butt is one of my favorites.  It was produced in the mid-eighties by All Night Media Co. 

Below are the fronts of all three tags.  The fronts are all mono prints I made.  They all have some kind of shine to them, as I used a lot of the Pebeo paint when making them.  The pictures never seem to do them justice, IMHO.  You can be the judge if you get one in the mail someday.  

It all started with the Russian dolls and this challenge I have going on in my head, have had it for years, about using up all this stuff I have accumulated before I die.  Now, don't get all freaked out, because I'm not dying of anything I know of other than old age, so far, knock on wood and all that, but I do think about what the heck is going to happen to all this stuff in my craft cave after I am gone.  If I use it up, and figure out how to stop accumulating more, (a big "if " there) it will be easier for those left behind when I'm gone.  With that in mind, I looked around at all the little hidey holes I have full of scraps of paper.  There are a lot of them.  Every project creates more scraps and if they are bigger than 3 inches, I save them for something else.  I decided to make a dent in them.  This little "Thank You" project is made completely of scraps I have accumulated over the years.  If you read the post about mono printing, you'll know that even that was done with scraps.  

One thing about using up scraps is it's a lot of repetition at the die cutting station.  Scraps are too small to use the Cricut cutting machine to cut 45 of this shape or that shape.  To do that easily with the Cricut, you have to use full sheets of paper, which was not my goal.  I had literally hundreds of 3" x 12" scraps of black paper.  This project used them all up!  But that meant rolling a lot of paper through my Sizzix Big Shot Express, over and over until I had enough of each shape to make 45 of these little thank you notes.  It was fun, actually.  It fed my OCD for quite a while.  And, the Express means the steel rollers operate at the push of a button, I don't have to crank a handle like I did with my original Big Shot, which I wore out a few years back.  All in all, I accomplished my goals.  The scrap piles are GREATLY reduced, for now anyway, I have a fun thank you card to send out, and my OCD is at ease, again, for now anyway.

A thing that just occurred to me as I was previewing this post before publishing...what if I never use up all this stuff?  What if all this stuff is the key to living forever?  If I never use it up, I never die.  Hmmm...spending eternity crafting things out of paper.  I'm good with that.  :o) 

Mono Printing on Monday and, What's New?

I have a lot of white scrap card stock from other projects so the strips you see are just that.  I pulled prints onto the strips of scrap to use them up.  Later they will be die cut into the shapes I need for another little project I started earlier this year.  

These are some full page prints, just to give you an idea of what you get when you print a full page. 

I spent the day in the craft cave today.  It's cold, windy and snowing on April 17, 2023 in Wisconsin.  Made worse by the previous week of weather in the 80's, if you can believe that.  

So, what's new in the craft cave....ah, yes, I bought myself a new laptop a couple weeks ago and have been getting reacquainted with all the fun things I can do again, now that my equipment is not 11 years old.  Woot!

1. First, I set up my Cricut and cut a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to cut for the longest time.  My old laptop crapped out with the latest upgrade (well, let's be honest, the upgrade from about 3 years ago) to Design Space so cutting was limited to what I owned on cartridges (which is PLENTY, and why I didn't really miss cutting from their online collection).  
2. Next I spent some time streaming videos from some of my favorite artists.  Patty Tolley Parrish in particular, since this post is supposed to be about mono printing.  She has TONS of videos and she live streams all the time.  A wonderful mixed media artist who loves to play and let us watch. 
3. Next I reset the theme for my inbox and FINALLY cleaned all the crap out if it.  I've been pretty good at keeping it clean, too.  Hopefully I did not just jinx myself here.  Anyway....I digress.

A long time ago I discovered Gelli Arts and their Gelli printing plates.  Different sized plates that are best described as 1/2 thick slabs of clear Jello.  I don't know how to describe it other than that.  I have 4 or 5 different sizes of them.  The process is simple, and quick.  Dab on and brayer out colors of acrylic paint or ink (although ink is expensive) that make you happy, then before it dries you can draw in it, use a stencil, your fingers, sponges, blocks, bottle caps, anything you want to put in the paint to make it interesting, do it.  But, do it before it dries.  Lay your paper on top of the design, press down gently but firmly and let it set for a while.  Then pull up your print.  Boom!  

It's called mono printing because you can only get one print. Every other one will be different from the last.  The only time I actually pulled prints was to cover the cookie book from 2015, Flour and Butter and Sugar, Oh my! was the theme that year.  If you have one of those, pull it out and check out the cover paper.  I printed it all myself and no two are alike.  You can see a post about it using the blog contents roll on the right as well.  

Gelli printing is addictive.  Once you get going, its hard to stop.  Back in 2015 I printed so many sheets that I am just today using up the last of them. (Yes, that's 8 years ago, folks) I'm in the middle of a little "Thank You" project that used up all the mono prints I had in my stash.  I'm not done with the thing yet so I needed to print some more.  

Here are some tips, if you decide to lean into this 'habit':

• First - wear old clothes.  An apron is not good enough.  I wear a cook's coat and an apron.  I wear my cook's coat all the time in the craft cave.  Its the perfect thing to keep me clean.  
• Give yourself a lot of space. Once the prints start rolling off, they get tossed aside to dry pretty quickly because the paint on the Gelli plate is always trying to dry.  
• Keep several sheets of paper next to your Gelli plate so you can roll off the excess paint from your brayer.  Sometimes what you create from cleaning your brayer is pretty interesting.  So if you like what you see, toss it in with the prints that are drying and keep going.  
• Get yourself some shiny paints!  Pebeo makes some wonderful colors with mica in it so they really shine.
• Black and white get used a LOT.  
• Never clean your Gelli plate after you pull a print.  Just lay down the next colors and keep going.  The little bits of paint from the previous prints really make the next ones even more interesting.  
• Stencils are a great way to add shapes and pops of black or sparkle to a print that may have started out too dark.  
• Print over prints you already pulled.  Layering prints and colors makes them do wonderful things.  
• Printing with those shiny inks on black paper is going to make you happy.  Get yourself some black bond paper.  Astrobrights makes the perfect one.  
• Print using cheap paper.  Deli Paper is great.  Yes, those things they wrap your sandwiches in.  Perfect stuff to print on.  Glassine paper is nice too and pulling a print with Glassine will usually clean every bit of paint off your Gelli plate.  
• Don't worry if the paint dries.  Sometimes you want it to.  If it dries on your plate, brayer on another layer of paint.  Pick something that will make a nice background.  Solid black or white is always a good choice.  Put down your piece of paper and let it dry on the plate.  When you pull it, it will take everything off the plate.  
• Lastly, but most important - Have fun!  And, my advice is to NOT do this one with the kids.  Wait till they are 11 or 12.  Acrylic paint is permanent when it dries on your clothes.