Dear Karma by Amanda Southern

 Hi Everyone

I hope today finds you well in these strange times we find ourselves in. For this weeks make I have created a MDF panel and I have blown the dust off my gel press to create the background.

Here's What I Did:

I started by making my background on the gel plate this I did by adding masks to my clean gel press and adding paint through the stencils to add some variations of colour, I used Dina Wakley full bodied acrylic paint for this and just kept adding stencil work around the plate, when doing this leave each layer of paint to dry before adding another. Once all my paint layers were dry I then brayered over the entire plate with one colour that would be my background colour laid on my card and rubbed across the back of the card to help transfer the image created on the gel press to the card and pulled the print. The first pull of the print was quite bold and with this technique it does leave some of the stencilled paint on the gel press so as I wanted a more distress look I added another layer of paint over what was left on the gel press and pulled another print, this was then the print that I used for my background.

This was the first print

and here where I have added it to the MDF panel is the 2nd print much more distressed

at this stage after glueing it to the MDF panel I also brayered some paint around the outside of the panel and added some stamping to add more detail over the panel. You will see in the full piece that I also added further stamping in both black and red. I added some paint flicks using black and white paints and a little washi tape to add further contrast and detail and to also give me some grounding for my images.

Next was to stamp my images out onto thick cardstock, I chose smooth watercolour card for this. The large mushroom cluster which is one of my new current favourite stamps designed by Melina Dahl and an old favourite from Katzelkraft in the monkey. 

All were coloured using coloured pencils and some white detail added to the shroom using a white Posca pen. Once coloured they were added to the panel and finished off with a quote from Art by Marlene sticker book, I cut the quote into pieces and outlined the pieces with a white Sakura gel pen.

Here's What I Used:

That's Crafty! MDF Panel Pack of 3 (4.5" x 9")

Gel Press 8" x 10"  You'll find all sizes of Gel Press HERE

Brayer (I used both a 4" and 2.25")

Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints  (assorted colours)

That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints (Christmas Red, Black & White)

That's Crafty! Melina's Masks - Mandala 7

That's Crafty! Mask - Circle Crazy

That's Crafty! Stencil Clouds & Hearts

That's Crafty! A4 Stencil - Hex Net

That's Crafty! Stamp Set - Shroom Forest

AALL & Create A7 Stamp Set - #366 Roundly

AALL & Create A6 Stamp Set - #443 Scripted Circles

AALL & Create A6 Stamp Set - #404 Visual Ingredients

Katzelkraft Rubber Stamp Set - Les Jungles

AALL & Create Washi Tape #2

Sakura White Gel Pen

Posca White Paint Pen

Art by Marlene Artsy Arabia Sticky Quotes Book

Have a great week and I will be back next Tuesday

Love

Amanda X