Expressive Mark Making With Gelli Printing and Collage

1. Introduction: [MUSIC] Hi, Froyle here, welcome to my studio I'm so glad you found me. I've been painting and exhibiting for over 25 years. I've been through so many different styles and tried all of the mediums possible, I absolutely love mixed media and collage because possibilities are endless. I have personally found that mileage under the brush is the absolute best teacher. You have to create art to make great art, that's just how it is. I'm glad you found my art class because I can't wait to show you how fabulous you are at creating art. My teaching style is along the lines of creativity coaching. I want to empower you to create the best art you can and allow a sense of freedom and liberty to really express your mark making. I absolutely love mark making on the gel plate; it's one of my most favorite things to do on all the planet. What I love about gelli printing is it so experimental, you never know what you're going to get until you actually pull the print. It's fast, it creates fantastic results with very simple techniques and I love the way you're making beautiful and exquisite mono prints that you can never reproduce again. In this art class I'll be showing you how to create many and numerous ways of mark making on your gelli plate. They're a little unconventional, you won't find all of these tools in the art shop; actually, you might find some of them in your plumbing supplies. [LAUGHTER] Now you're going to have to watch just so you can see what I'm talking about. This class is going to be fun, very experimental, and you're going to learn some incredible tips and techniques for making fabulous marks on your gel plate. We will be using everyday items from around your house, so don't worry about needing special art equipment; you don't. We're going to be incorporating recycled materials. I love using recycled materials because, baby those resources are free. [LAUGHTER] You have to love free resources and if you're like me you get paper packaging that just arrives at your house on an almost daily basis. All those fabulous things that you're buying online comes wrapped in a lot of paper packaging and I'm going to showing you how to use that fabulous free resource to make the most fantastic prints on your gel plate. We will be making so many fabulous prints. They're going to be all over your table, all over your floor, and on every available flat surface. Then we're going to put our favorite prints into an art journal so that we have a concise glossary or a reminder of the fabulous prints you made and how you actually made them. Because I don't know if you're like me but a few months down the track, you're going to forget exactly how you created those prints, so if we put together this fabulous art journal it's going to be able to show you exactly what you did, how you did it, and you're going to remember so that this fabulous lesson will be ingrained part of your art making practice. I'm telling you, this is a fabulous idea, you're going to love this and don't stress because it's not going to be an expensive art journal that you have to rush out and buy. We are going to use recycled, baby. We're going to recycle a junk mail brochure into an absolutely fabulous art journal. You're going to be so surprised at the beautiful artworks you make and then you're going to collect them into a fabulous art journal that you'll be able to keep and look at and refer to and you'll continue art practice. I know, it's fabulous you're going to love this. This class is for anyone wanting to explore the infinite world of gelli printing and collage. The art class will be fun; you may get a little messy, [LAUGHTER] very experimental, perfect for beginners because I will show you step-by-step exactly what to use and how to use it. If you are more experienced at gelli printing, then this class will give you extra inspiration and help you to improve your printmaking techniques, adding more tools to your art making tool belt. I will be showing you exactly what materials to use and how to use them. You don't have to follow me exactly. You can use your own color scheme but if you would like the same results that I'm achieving, I have included a material list in your resources. I'll be showing you exactly the materials I use and how to use them but if you don't want to use the color palette that I'm choosing, you can create your own. At the end of the class you will have had a fabulous time and you will be bursting with a zillion new ideas of how to create marks on your gel plate. You will have found some of your best mark making tools, some from places you may not have even thought of yet and I know you're going to be so happy with the beautiful art that you've created. You will also know how to use those prints and put them together in a beautiful collage. There's just something so deeply satisfying about creating your own art from the core of who you are as a person, the choices that you make, the colors that you choose, your individual marks that you make on the gel plate and the prints that you pull are so personal and beautiful to who you are. We're going to celebrate that and we're going to put it together in a beautiful collection and you're going to be so deeply satisfied with the artwork that you create. You can keep it for yourself. You don't even have to show anybody, but if you do I know you're going to impress those around you with how beautiful your project comes together. I would love to see what you create so don't forget to post a picture in the project section, you can put a photo of your favorite print, one of your favorite mark making tools, or even your completed collage. That would be so fabulous, I would so love to see it. If you find something that makes a mark on the gel plate that I haven't thought about. you need to share that. [LAUGHTER] Make sure you let me know what is your favorite tool. As you're watching these lessons, you're going to find out very quickly what my favorite tool is, because I get a little obsessed and use it over and over. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but you're going to find out. I can't wait to show you my favorite ways of creating marks on the gel plate, [MUSIC] so let's gather our materials and let's make art. 2. Material List: [MUSIC] Let's talk about the material list. Now, you need a gel plate, you definitely need a gel plate. You don't have to use the brand that I'm using. This is the brand that I'm using and I've had this gel plate for six years now and it has worked fine for me. I love it. I love gelli printing, so passionate about it. But if you don't have this brand, don't worry, you just use whatever brand you have. Or if you're starting completely new, there are a few options on the market. This is the gel plate. It's a fabulous invention. I absolutely love it, because it is soft and easy to print on. It pulls the prints incredibly and let me tell you, it's a little addictive. I'm just [LAUGHTER] going to say. Because you'll find out why pull one print when you can pull 20? Yes, it's fabulous. I'm really hoping that you're going to absolutely love this class and gain so much inspiration from it. Now you will need a brayer. This is what you put the paint on, you'll plate with and you roll it with the brayer. You can also use it to roll on the paper to push firm on your plate when taking your print. You can use two, I often do, but [NOISE] you only really need one. Now of course you need some paper. I'm going to be using white tissue paper. I love using white tissue because it pulls the paint off the plate at a level that gets all of the detail up. I use recycled white tissue, the stuff that comes with the numerous packages I buy online; that works perfectly well. I've also used tissue from the [inaudible] store and the art shop, and I really find it all seems to pull the prints up just as evenly. It's up to you if you want to use that. It is fabulous, let me say. Recycled tissue, you need to keep it. Ordinary copy paper off your printer, easy peasy, lemon squeezy. I also have some Chinese rice paper that I bought off wish.com. In this session I am also using some Japanese calligraphy paper. This is what it looks like. You don't have to have these papers. You can use whatever papers you have at your place. But if you want to use these papers, I bought the Japanese calligraphy paper from Amazon and I bought the Chinese rice paper off wish.com. You can source those if you want to. All the details will also be in a material list in your resources section of the class, so you can read it all there or write it all down in case I'm talking too fast or I have an accent. [LAUGHTER] Let's talk about paint. I love using Liquitex basics. I get it here in beautiful New Zealand. It's a five-minute walk to Warehouse Stationery, so it's easy for me. I find it works really well. It's a standard price across the board. It doesn't matter what the pigment is so that makes it far more affordable. I also use this Reeves brand paint because I get it from same place and it is also an affordable paint. These paints work fabulous for gelli printing because you want to use inexpensive paints; otherwise, you're going to stress about how much it's going to cost you in your numerous applications so don't stress. I think during this class, I will probably use a little bit of pale gold and rich gold in Atelier, only because I have them in my studio. I have drawers full of paint and I just pull them out. But you don't have to have these brands. You don't even have to use the same colors. You can use all your own colors and a color palette that works for you. I'm going to use the metallic tones like the golds, the copper, and the bronze, with some of the beautiful warm tones of alizarin crimson, my favorite, some unbleached titanium, and also white, and black. This is the color palette that I'm choosing for this class. I will stick to these colors. I will mix them up. I will integrate them in different variations of tints and tones, and this is just going to work for me. However, if you'd like to use blues and greens or purples or any other color scheme, you go right ahead. [NOISE] Because you want to create beautiful prints that you're happy with; that's the point. So if you've got a different color scheme in mind, you go right ahead with that. Now I am using a couple of the more expensive artist brands. I love the golden iridescent bronze fine. It is my absolute favorite color on the planet. It does so many things that makes me happy. I have to have it in my artist toolkit. This is the full body. I also have it in the fluid and I'm using some of the white fluid and some of the black fluid Golden paints as well. Because I'm doing different mark making on the gel plate with the different paints, the fluid is just a little bit different to using the full body and you'll find that because you're going to be experimenting. I'm also going to be using Liquitex inks. I have black and white in Liquitex inks. I also going to to pull it a little bit of gold mica ink. I bought this recently on Amazon. It is glorious. It is so gold. It's like someone has just liquefied gold bar. It's [LAUGHTER] absolutely beautiful. Of course, again, you don't have to have it, but it is glorious; let me tell you. I'm also going to be using a couple of the spray inks. This is the Dilutions spray ink in white linen and black marble. I'll be using both those spray inks. Now, spray inks for me here in New Zealand are really expensive, and it's a drag; it's such a drag when stuff's [NOISE] expensive. What I like to do is buy these affordable little bottles from the [inaudible] store and then I will fill them with the ink that I have in my studio. These two bottles, I have filled with this ink here. It's a transparent burnt sienna and a transparent raw umber. This is the colors that are in these bottles. I've just put them in here so I can spray them with a mist and an atomizer because the standard fancy paint sprayings are really expensive. That's an idea for you if you've got inks laying around, especially if they're colors you haven't used for awhile and you want to use them up. Find yourself some little affordable bottles at the [inaudible] shop and see how they go. Now sometimes if you use gold pigments in the spray bottles they are heavier at the bottom, you'll need to stir them regularly to get them to come through the atomizer. That's what I've found. This is not what it says on the bottle. This is just a different gold ink that I've put in this empty bottle [NOISE] and it works really well. I love it. You definitely want to experiment with what you have. It is really good for you to use up your art supplies. If you don't have any art supplies, then start with basic colors that you really love and enjoy and get black and white. Always black and white is fabulous with the other color schemes. Now, we're going to use some brushes, some traditional brushes, some not so traditional brushes. You'll need some scissors and some baby wipes; [NOISE] it will get messy, maybe a damp cloth. Now as we go along in the class we will be using other different tools, but you will find them in your household guaranteed. Don't stress about needing specific art tools. If you have a couple of brushes, fantastic. [NOISE] But if you don't, don't even worry about it because we are doing expressive mark making. Whatever ingenious idea you come up with that you can find in your kitchen, your laundry, your garage, let me tell you, you're going to be hunting all over your house to find some awesome tools that you can use to make marks on your gel plate. Now this class is all about experimenting. It's about having fun. It's about you pushing your creative boundaries a little bit further. I really hope you have a lot of fun and you allow yourself to experiment. You do need to be a little courageous, but just a little bit goes a long way. Dig out some of your art supplies. If you need some that you want to buy specifically, make sure you go for inexpensive art supplies, because you really don't need the expensive ones for this art class. [MUSIC] Let's get printing. 3. Let's Start With the Background: [MUSIC] I am so excited for this new Skillshare class. I absolutely love mark making on the gelli plate. It's one of my most favorite things to do in all the world. [LAUGHTER] Seriously, I will come in here and I especially at night time, and I will spend hours just making marks, taking prints, and creating backgrounds. It's absolutely fabulous and very freeing. What I'm doing at the moment is just putting the bronze on the gel plate and pulling a background print. Because what we want to do is start with some background colors so that we can add some layers to the papers. You can use one color to pull your backgrounds. You can use two colors or three colors. You can completely blend your colors so it's all a smooth tone, or you can leave abstract shapes in the patterns on your gel print. It's really up to you. What we want to start with first is to create a whole heap of backgrounds so we can then put more layers on. Also, the benefit of starting with backgrounds is that it's fun. It will warm you up, it will warm up the plate. It's the best way to start the process is by creating backgrounds. I absolutely love it. It just gets all the creative juices flowing. You'll have beautiful papers to then work on when we want to create different textures. Now you don't have to use the color palette that I'm using. You can choose for yourself what colors you want to use. But I've shown you in the material list the range of colors that I'll be using. They're very warm tones and lots of metallics because I like things shiny, I like rich, gorgeous, warm tones with shiny metallics. Now I've created a few backgrounds. What we're going to do is systematically go through this process by adding more and more onto the application. Now we've started with simple backgrounds. Print yourself off a few, plain colors, pattern backgrounds just so you've got some to choose from. Then we're going to add different things into our process as we move along. I'm so excited. This is going to be a lot of fun. Highly experimental, it will get messy, just so you know. [LAUGHTER] But what we want to do is create a fabulous experience of making marks on the gel plate, creating papers that you can then use in your collages and mixed media artworks. We're going to put the papers to get up into a fabulous art journal so that you can remember how you made your marks and textures. Then when you want to create some more, you'll be able to refer to it. [MUSIC] Like I said, you want to allow yourself to experiment, and this one is the bronze, copper, and a little bit of unbleached titanium. We've made some backgrounds. They're beautiful, they're sitting in a pile to dry. Let's start experimenting. This is the black marble Dylusions shimmer spray. I know; so fancy. I'm just going to spray that on to the paint that I have there, give it a very slight general roll over with the brayer. Then I'm putting on the Japanese calligraphy paper. You want to try a few different papers to see what kind of response you get and what kind of marks that it makes because they do make different marks. That is the paint on the gel plate with a beautiful spray of the black marble. Now that has created just a little textural element to the background, and I absolutely love it. We're going to create a few more. Now these kinds of backgrounds where you're putting the paint on and spraying or spritzing with a little bit of spray inks is highly experimental and so much fun. What it does is it creates a beautiful soft textural mark in your background. It can make the most amazing creations. Now, I'm just going to spray that one on and leave it because it looks pretty cool. I'm going to put it onto these Chinese rice paper. That again was the copper, the bronze, and the unbleached titanium with a spritz or a spray of the Dylusions black marble. What I love is creating these pages as backgrounds for in the collages. Especially if you then want to put some little marks or symbols or writing or some other element over the top. That is absolutely beautiful. Now, if you find that your print is not as exciting as you'd hoped, you can always add the spray ink to it after you've pulled it from the plate. See how that little bit of texture there just gives it a bit more intrigue and interest. Don't be afraid to try things. Put the paint on the plate, pull the print and spray, then, or spray it before you pull the print. Have a little play with some spray inks. I only have a very small amount of these because in beautiful New Zealand, these American brands can be very expensive. But you know, sometimes you really do just have to buy a few key elements for your art toolkit. You just have to. [LAUGHTER] Now this time I'm going to throw a little bit of the pale gold in with alizarin crimson, and the copper. Yes, I know. I do really like these metallic colors. Now my brayer still has paint on it from the previous print. I really don't mind that because I like the mix of colors. Sometimes these full body paints are a little thick on the plate but that really doesn't bother me either because what we're doing is mark making to create collage papers. Let's not get too stressed out about it. This time I've got white linen of the Dylusions spray inks. Let's spray that on. Give it a little bit of a roll with the brayer and see how that prints. Have a little experiment with your background papers. Put your paint on the plate, spray on some inks, and take the print. You can also pull the print and then spray the inks on. Look at that. I mean, that's just beautiful. [MUSIC] 4. Using What's Right in Front of You: [MUSIC] You've got your acrylic paint on the plate, you're playing with some spray inks, all is beautiful. This is the alizarin crimson, the copper, and the bronze. I know, it's a fave. You spray your ink on, that's glorious, but what about making some marks with the lid of the spray bottle? What does that look like? This is just using the lid of the spray bottle on the plate. Now, that looks fabulous, but not entirely riveting. I've got some fluid paint here, just the Golden brand on my palette. Oh my gosh, hello then. [LAUGHTER] Now we're cooking with gas. [LAUGHTER] That's way better. We have got black fluid paint with the lid of the spray ink on the plate. You see, you just have to try different things. Not every idea will work exactly how you want, but you just have to try again. Look at that. That's just gorgeous. That's where I put the paint. That was with just the lid without the paint. Now you can see which one works better? Hello, the paint obviously [LAUGHTER] has more impact. Now we know using the lid of the spray bottle on the plate looks fabulous with paint. Of course, it doesn't have to be black. It can be any color. We could go crazy with colors. As you can see, there's a buildup of the ghost print there, but I'm going to leave it. I'm just going to add some more of the bronze, the alizarin crimson, and the copper. I'm just going to roll right over those marks because it'll create a beautiful buildup in the ghost print. Those marks will eventually be pulled off on something, and it'll look cool when it does. Let's do that again because that was fun. What about if we use the Golden bronze fine in a fluid with my trusty lid of my spray bottle? Yes. Look at that. Seriously, I'm going to go crazy with this one. [LAUGHTER] [MUSIC] Let's see what we got. Now that is just glorious. Look, it's got the bronze circles that I just put, and it's got the little ghost impression of the black circles from the previous print. I just love it. I could do this all day, but I won't. We will move on to something else. [LAUGHTER] I'm using the same colors again. The crimson, the bronze, and the copper. I'm rolling straight over the ghost print because it's going to build up another layer of texture of that ghost print. I just had a thought, how much different does the ink look to the paint? Really, that's what you have to do. You have to think about how would this look and how would that look and experiment with ideas. This is the Liquitex carbon black ink. I'm just going to put some into this little, beautiful dish I have there. I'm going to use the ink exactly the same way. Look at that. That has a bubble in it and it creates a different mark. Of course, it's a lot more fluid being the ink, and the circles don't come out as perfect and precise like the paint does. What you have to do is decide how you like it best. Do you like it precise, or do you like it more with dots and splashes? Then if you go like this and add more splashes, that's pretty cool. [LAUGHTER] Stop splashing. Let's go with that. Now, this, of course, is going to absorb more because it's an ink, it's not the paint, so I might just let that sit for a second. Look at that. You can see the ink coming through on that. That's just fabulous. Have a try with the spray ink's lid and some ink and see what beautiful marks you can create with that. Let's see how that came out. Interesting. Now, for me personally, that's not as riveting as I had expected. [MUSIC] No. That's where the paper didn't make contact because I didn't push it down because I didn't want to smudge it all, but it's interesting. I think personally, I like the impact of the paint, but then I am a high-impact person. You actually might like more subtlety of the marks and that would suit you better. Now, this ghost print's going to be pretty cool because there is a lot of paint on this plate. Let's see how this pulls up. Maybe if I had rubbed the previous page, it would have connected better. We could always try that again. Let's pull up the ghost print and see how fabulous that is. Look at that. That's got a beautiful shimmer from the bronze and the copper, and then it's got numerous rows of circle shapes from all of those prints we just did. Love it. I always personally love the ghost print best. I just love the mystery of it and the marks that you couldn't have made purposely. I just love the experimentation of it. It's fabulous. Loving this. Same colors again. I thought I might try the white ink. I promise I'll move on. [LAUGHTER] After this, I promise. I've got the white Liquitex ink in this little dish here. I'll have to find a new lid. [LAUGHTER] Here we go. Let's use that one. [MUSIC] Let's see what the white ink does. I'll use the rice paper. Now, if I push it down, see how now I'm smudging it? But it will make better contact with the paper. Oh, yeah, see? That's better. You do have to put a little bit of pressure on the paper, even though the ink will smudge, if you want it to come up better, which I do. That's good to know. Look at that. That's going to make a great ghost print, but we'll just add a little bit more paint. Same colors. It's just really good to use the same colors when you're experimenting because then you're not worried about if they're going to work or not and if the mark was made from the color or the shape, so I just like it. Let's spray some black on there, let's get a bit moody. What if we use the bottom of the bottle? Now I haven't put any paint on with it. I'm just touching it onto the plate with the bottom of the spray bottle I sprayed it on first. I think that could be rather cool. Let's look at that. Let's put it on the calligraphy paper. Got a nice crispy feel, this calligraphy paper. Look at that spray ink coming through the paper. You can see that, and you can see the shapes that the bottom of the bottle has made. These spray inks are a good bang for your buck. [LAUGHTER] Come on, you get the ink, you get the lid shape, and you get the bottom of the bottle. You got great printing tools here, just with a bottle of spray ink. That's pretty nice. I like that. It's got a nice subtlety of the circle marks. That's okay. The black spray on these colors looks fabulous. It just creates another moody texture. That's really beautiful. That's working. You need these for sure. You need to use the lid with paint and with ink. Then you can use the bottom of it as well. These are fabulous mark-making tools. The spray ink in itself is glorious. Even if you'd just get black and white, I've only got black and white, it is really worthwhile getting those because you can just do fabulous things with them. What else are we going to play with? [MUSIC] 5. Making Unique Brush Marks: [MUSIC] What? We're already starting to get messy [LAUGHTER] [inaudible]. Now the next thing that I want to play with is the simple brush. I have this one which is a mont mark 12 and a size 16. What can we do with these on our gel plate to make some beautiful marks? I got my trusty alizarin, maybe I want some rich gold this time, of course I do, and a little bit of bronze. I've got some abstract marks still left up there, which I personally like. Now, if I was to put a mark on the plate just using the brush, this is pretty much like the lid without using pipe. It's okay. It's not bad. It'll create a mark for sure and a texture, but not that subtle. Let's add some black to it and look at that. [MUSIC] Let's create those marks. That's fabulous. Now, what if I just wet the brush there and use the black ink for the last row, how different will the black ink respond on the plate with the brush? That's the question. Let's pull that and have a look. Let's see how that looks. Now you can see the ink is absorbing faster into the paper, and then there's the paint, and then there's just the mark with the brush. Let's see how that looks. There's the marks on the plate with the brush, there's the paint marks, and there's the ink mark. The ink's a little more fuzzy, of course, and it absorbs more into the paper, so it's actually holding stronger. This pain has been sucked up into the background color and that's really interesting. I thought that it would have been stronger than the ink, but there you go. Let's play around with this some more. Now, of course, it does all depend on how much paint you're putting on your plate as well as how the inks and paint marks will respond, so don't get too technical about it, just have some fun. I'm going to throw some of my trusty black marble spray on their. You're only limited by your imagination as to what marks you can put on this beautiful gel plate and pull your print. I've just used the rice paper again because it's pretty much the first pile in front of me. [LAUGHTER] That's easy. There we are. There's the marks from brushing the black paint on, I like the fuzzy edge of them. I think it's quite intriguing. I think we could play around with this a bit more. If I use this brush instead of this brush, it'll make a different mark entirely. Look at that. Of course it's fatter, it's more bristled, and those marks are going to look entirely different to the previous marks. [MUSIC] Look at that, that is just fun. I just love it. It's so endless what you can do with such simple application. Look how fabulous that looks with just brushing it one way and the other. You could cut that out and use it as an element in a collage. Of course, you can always add combinations of these simple techniques. So much fun. I'm just rolling out with bronze the girth paints that are still on there with the marks because I love having those fight shadowy shapes in the backgrounds of my prints. Now I had a thought, why do we have to use actual brushes? [LAUGHTER] Go into the kitchen and pinch your mom's pastry brush. Now you don't want a brush, brush one like a normal brush because that's just a normal brush, you want one like this, which I think is silicon, feels like it. Anyway, go in and pinch that out of the kitchen, and let's paint with that. Oh my gosh, I'm in love already. Look at that. Look at the marks that this brush makes. Oh, I'm using the black in there, the liquid techs black ink. Look at that. Oh, my gosh. Yes, you know, I'm going to go crazy. Flick it. Don't forget to flick it [LAUGHTER]. Now, what would happen if we spread the white on that? [NOISE] I don't know. Let's have a look. Now I know you can get these pastry brushes from the dollar shop or the cheap shop, because I've seen them. We've got here in New Zealand, the chip shop, is called Cracker Jacks. Think I saw them at Cracker Jacks. Look at that. Even that looks awesome. Look at that, look at the marks that it makes. made I'll put a plain color on it because perhaps the ink's getting too absorbed by the metallic plate, although I have no go at that. This time I'm just using the unbleached titanium to see whether or not the ink print spit up when it's not so full of metallic pigment on my plate. That's my theory. [LAUGHTER] It's just a theory. Oh, my gosh, you need one of these. Chip shop, dollar shop, one of those shops, is got to have them. Seriously, look at these marks you can make, and you can flick it, go that way, go that way. You can get some messy writing almost going on with that script feel. That is just fabulous. I think I've found my new favorite brush. I've got the Chinese rice paper. Look at that coming through. Oh, just so fun. Look at that. That is just beautiful. Yes, this is now my new favorite brush. You have to go rush out now and get yourself a silicon [LAUGHTER] pastry brush, couple of a bucks, and experiment with the marks that you can make with it because, oh, my gosh, the potentials are endless, that is glorious. I wonder what the white ink would look like on here. Oh, yeah, that's pretty nice. The white flicks itself and the marks it makes, I absolutely love this pastry brush. It really is quite endless what kind of marks you can create with it, whether you want it completely abstract or you want to look like some Asian script, it works really well. It's definitely worth you getting one and trying it out because it's a lot of fun. It creates beautiful marks which make fabulous backgrounds. There's the white. Look at that. That is just beautiful and subtle. Oh, my gosh, maybe I should pull out my gold ink. [LAUGHTER] One one moment because [LAUGHTER] I'm just going to go pull out my gold ink because oh, my God, I love these marks. I washed up my dish and my pastry brush and I put in some brilliant gold ink, it's cold. I'm going to put a bit of the black spray on there. Did you notice? I just put some black spray on there. Look at that color, that is just glorious. I love the abstract marks. [NOISE] Oh, in heaven. Oh my gosh, look, oops [LAUGHTER] that flicks really well. It flicks really well with this particular ink. I think this ink is a little bit thicker than the Liquitex ink. That's what I'm thinking because it definitely is holding its formal and flicking better. That's really interesting. My paper's got a little over spray, that's okay. Now I'm using the Chinese rice paper. This gold ink is definitely thicker than the Liquitex ink. Let's see what that does. Look at that, that is just beautiful. Come on. You got to admit it. That is gorgeous. Let's see how it looks on black because that gold ink is so dramatic. I know I'm dramatic but jeez, this stuff seems more dramatic. Look at that black. Beautiful baby. I don't know if this will work or not [NOISE] call the fine caller because I haven't tried it before. Yes. [NOISE] Look at that. That's crazy. Oh, just love it. Chinese rice paper. Now everything I'm using will be in your material list. You can choose to source the materials or not, it's totally up to you. But I'm thinking you might need a pastry brush and some amazing gold ink. Just saying. I think the black was a bit too heavy, that's not too bad. What about if we put it on now? Oh, yes, look. Never fear. You can always add to the prints. That is fabulous. Oh, love it. Pull you print. If you print's not as astounding as you'd hoped, then just flick a bit more on it. What do you got to lose? [MUSIC] Nothing. That is glorious. 6. Experimenting with Recycled Materials: Your beautiful backgrounds that we painted earlier should now be all dry and we can put some mark-making on these beautiful papers. What I absolutely loved to use is paper packaging. I mean, it comes free, wrapped around all sorts of fabulous things that I purchase online. You know, it's up for grabs. I mean look at this corrugated card, it came wrapped around something. I think it was art supplies [LAUGHTER] that I bought the other day and it's fabulous. Let's do something with paper packaging because it's an incredibly free resource. I'm using a titanium white golden fluid on the gel plate to have a little play with some mark-making with paper packaging or recycled materials because I love that. Now this fabulous corrugated card makes great marks on the gel plate. Look at that, that's awesome. I'm going to go this way and there, absolutely loving those lines. I'll put that on one of my previously painted backgrounds. I'm going to put that on this bronze background. Look at those marks from the corrugated card, I just love it. Now that's a bit boring because I use straight white though I do love the lines. What you could do [NOISE] is get a baby wipe and even wipe off some of the paint before it dries, you can of course manipulate your prints when they're straight off the plate You don't have to leave them exactly as you see them. You can play with them some more. Look at that fabulous. What happens if you go like that? That's pretty cool too. You just need to allow yourself to play, to experiment and to be inquisitive enough to think, now what would happen if I do this? Then you'll find you'll have the most amazing painted papers. Now that looks much better and what about if we give it some spraying? [NOISE] Whooh, look at that, that looks cool. Adding a little bit more texture there, I like that. Now, what about we use the fabulous bubble wrap. I love bubble wrap, I get so much of it. I might order a few things online. That's perhaps why I get so much. But if you'll notice when your bubble wrap comes, they're all different sizes. This is quite small and then there's this size which is bigger and then there's hello, the mother load, [LAUGHTER] look at that size. Let's take a print of each and see how they look. We'll put that one there. [NOISE] There you go, this is just so much fun look at that, that's pretty cool. We'll put that one there, that looks fabulous. Then we might just print that onto some white tissue so we can see how it prints. Now, white tissue is also a recycled paper packaging product because I use the tissue that comes around all the beautiful things that I purchase. It works really well for jelly print, the prints are fine. It doesn't matter that it's crinkled. Well, it doesn't matter to me that it's crinkled, beautiful, loving it. It just makes other different marks and textures. [NOISE] Keep your white tissue that you get with your packaging and it comes up fabulous for using that on your gel plate and the resources are free, I mean you can't get anymore affordable than free. Now I've just put some of the Alizarin on the plate with a bit of Bronze. We're going to do another print with the other size of the bubble wrap. Now I can actually see Max still on there from the bubble wrap. That's fabulous. Look at this. This is the mother-load of bubble wrap. [LAUGHTER] That is all fat. Look at that. I love it, just look at that, that's fabulous. Let's put it on some white tissue. This should pull up some of that print as well as the other side's bubble wrap that's underneath it. Look at the size of that, I mean, that's just hilarious, loving that stuff. Next time something arrives at your house that you have ordered [NOISE] from online, make sure you have [NOISE] a little look at what the packaging is that wrapped around it. If it's paper packaging, [NOISE] you definitely need to keep it. I use the brown paper from a roll-off sheets and they always get printed on and stenciled on and I use them in my collage. White tissue is your best friend. You definitely want to keep the white tissue. You can use it on the gel pipe, you can use it to paint and put ink on. Look at that, that's fun. The bubble wrap have a look and see what size it is because all the different sizes make different marks, love it. [NOISE] Look at those textures that just looks fabulous. Now with the paper packaging, [NOISE] have you ever have something arrive at your house wrapped in this? [NOISE] This is weird paper packaging. Look at that, that's pretty cool. That comes wrapped around different things that you buy online. Let's have a look and see what kind of mark that makes. Should we pull it apart? Should we just push it on? I mean really, you just got to try these things. Paper packaging people you need to have a look at it. Look at that. This time I forgot the calligraphy paper. Let's see how good that prints. Look at that. Now, if you were to put that paper packaging over a background color, that background color will come through those marks so let's try that. It's always really good to try something first on white paper [NOISE] because then you can see [NOISE] how it's going to look [NOISE] and you can work out what's going to be best to put it on top of [NOISE]. I've got the alizarin, the copper, and the unbleached titanium on my plate. I'm going to put that fabulous packaging on there again because that was fun. I think what I did was as I pushed it, I separated it to create that movement of spice. That's pretty cool, look at that almost looks like fabric. Now I'm going to put it over this dark background and hopefully, this could look really interesting. Now remember, we're experimenting, we're trying ideas, we're just pushing the limits of what marks we can put on our gel plate and what prints they type, we're not trying to make perfect prints so allow yourself to experiment. Try different ideas and if they don't work, don't stress out because you can just add another layer on top. Wow, look at that. Now that's really interesting, I liked that pattern. That's made some really interesting marks and because I pushed it open as I put it on the background colors coming through. That's pretty cool, you got to try that one. What other easy household item can we use for mark-making. [NOISE] How about the trustee toilet roll? I mean, come on, you know, you want to [LAUGHTER]. Look at that beautiful color trust your toilet roll. I'm telling you there's an abundance of these things [LAUGHTER], they seem to be endless so what can we do? Of course, we can go back to what we were doing before and putting the circles on the plate, that always works. Look at that just beautiful. Spray, a bit of moody black on there, always looks good. Now this is standard copy paper. Of course, you can easily create beautiful circle shapes with the glorious toilet roll. Now, see how fabulous that looks with a little bit of the black spray. It just makes it moody and it gives it a bit more texture. That's pretty exciting. I like the way the paint here is bled also, it just makes the marks a little bit more different and there are bigger circle then the lid of the ink bottle. [MUSIC] Now I've got the golden fluid white here. [MUSIC] There is the golden white fluid on top of the black ghost print and that's really interesting. The trustee toilet roll is absolutely fabulous mark-making tool makes great circles and they're bigger than the other lid of the spray bottle, you don't have to rush to the shops to buy these tools. [MUSIC] 7. Part 2: Using Recycled Materials: [MUSIC] If you go and hunt round your house and find some rubber bands we can also turn our fabulous toilet roll into another mark making tool using rubber bands. I mean, simplicity at its finest, here people; I'm telling you. [LAUGHTER] You don't have to spend a lot of money to find fabulous mark making tools for your gel plate. I'm just putting the rubber bands on like this, moving them around so that they have got different patterns and lines, maybe they crossover in some areas. That could be interesting too, like that. Let's see how this prints. Might be great, it might not. [LAUGHTER] But you've got to at least give it a go, right? Maybe we'll put one more there; maybe one more there. Let's see what this does. Right-O. I've got black fluid paint here on my roll off sheet and I'm just going to roll it in it and then roll it on my plate, look at that. That's fantastic, I love it. Don't worry if it's smudgy, it's supposed to be smudgy because you're making marks. I'm going to use this background, which is predominantly the bronze and the copper. Clearly it had some spray ink on it because you can see it on the back of the paper and let's see what marks that puts on the paper. That's just fun. That is. Look at that; that's just fantastic. [LAUGHTER] Such a simple tool. It's a toilet roll with some rubber bands. I know it's a little messy, but that'll be okay. You can always wash your hands later. Now we've got all this black paint on there. We could wait for it to dry and then put a color on it and pull the print but, seeing as I am not a patient person, I'm not so good for waiting for things to dry. I'm just going to throw some bronze paint on there and then I'm going to pull the print. See how that looks; it looks almost like an animal print, don't you think? Well, I'm thinking. Put on some white tissue, pull that up, then I'll want to do that toilet roll again, [LAUGHTER] because that's fun, that just fun. You can pretty much put rubber bands onto anything and do that. But I like the rolling action of the toilet roll. There you go pull the ghost print up. Look at that, definitely looks a little bit animal print like, I'm thinking. There's still stuff on the plate. I've grabbed my other toilet roll that I've already played with and I put some white, roll over the top, and look at that. I really don't mind the blobbiness of it, I think it makes cool marks. Now, of course you don't have to use the toilet roll. You can use baking paper or you cling wrap runs out and you've got one of those tubes. But there's so many things that we use that end up with some tube at the end, cardboard tube. You can cut those up and use those, and they also will be different sizes so that everything makes a different mark. The amount of rubber bands on your tube, the size of the tube that you're using, the amount of paint that you put on. Everything makes a different mark and it's really worth experimenting with. There we go, that's on that background. This is what I'm meaning, this tube. That was the end of the roll of something I used and I've put these ones on and that will take a different print than this one. You need to experiment with different sizes, different amounts of rubber bands, and it's just a lot of fun. I think I'm just going to put copper right over the top. Maybe a little bit of the umber, just to change the tone a little. That's what so fabulous about the sprays. Then, how about I use this one, I roll it in both the black and the white. [LAUGHTER] Will that even work? I don't know. What about if I put some more spray on it? We'll put some more spray on it, to see if we can get that working because that's fun. Look at that. [LAUGHTER] That's fabulous, look at that black and white at once, everything at once. There is a piece of rice paper to put it on. That's just fun. Give this a try, have a look around your house, the ends of the roll of something or your toilet roll. Find some rubber bands and experiment and see what marks you can make and which ones you like. There we go. Look at that, it's got the black and the white and what I like about rolling it, is that it creates this continual line and the lines are quite free, and I like the marks that it makes here with the blobby bits of the paint. I just think that looks really cool. What I love about paper packaging, I get a lot of this brown paper. I don't know about you, but [LAUGHTER] I tend to order a few things online, and it comes stuffed full, big box, stuffed full with brown paper. Tiny little thing like you go figure, I don't know what's going on with that. Anyway, I have tons of it. I use it for my roll-off sheet, for gelli printing and I use it to print on, I will use it for collage, I'll use it for everything. But what I like about it is that you're going to freely create with paper packaging and experiment, whereas you won't with good paper, water color paper, calligraphy paper, your expensive textured papers, or rice papers; you won't experiment with them because you'll be precious about it. If you grab yourself a few bundles of the packaging, brown paper, when it comes into your house, you're going to be more likely to experiment and have fun with your gel plate creating marks on this free resource, free, hello. Can't get any cheaper than that. Now, I personally absolutely love using stencils. I have quite a few hundred of them. I get them from everywhere and everybody. Love commercial stencils. But if you were to just cut some shapes out of this hello, free paper packaging, it pretty much does the same thing, magic. I'm cutting squares this time because you might be getting sick of circles. [LAUGHTER] Now, I've got this piece here and I'm just pretty much randomly cutting almost square shapes. They're not square, but they're almost, shapes out of this piece of paper packaging because then we're going to use it for a stencil. We're going to paint on it, we are going to paint all over it and the awesome thing is, you can keep the paper and then use it in a collage once it's heavily laden with beautiful colors of paint; there's no reason why you can't do that. It's a win win. I'm cutting some shapes out of this, some almost square, probably more rectangle shapes. I'm just folding the paper that way and I'm just cutting shapes out of it. I mean, it's pretty basic, people. I know. My techniques are incredibly technical, not; pretty basic, but the beauty is you're going to experiment, you're going to allow yourself to just have fun and really that's the goal. Beautiful square-ish shapes out of the paper packaging and let's slap some paint on it and see what we can create. There's my stencil. Look at that and look, I know that it's not going to last. It doesn't have to. It's just fun for a few prints; there it is. That looks great. There's so many ways you can do that and you can put it down first, roll the paint on, pull it off, take the print. You can now paint on first, put the stencil on and take the print. There are just endless ways to create beautiful marks with amazing stencil type shapes from your paper packaging. Yes, I'm moody, very moody, start with black. Let's go black and a bit of copper. We'll start with that. Now, of course it is paper packaging, so your stencils are not going to stand up to too much paint application. But it's okay, it's only an experiment to play with shapes, and to see what you can create. That's on the plate. There's my stencil shape. I'm going to use this copper background. Keep pulling out your piles of backgrounds that you've already printed. Look at that, that's just fun. Now you've got some gorgeous black rectangle shapes on there. Now of course, if that's not too thrilling, it's a little stiff, of course I've got to add sprays to it because that makes it a little bit more fun. Oh, yes look at that one. That's those two again, same spray bottles. That's just fun. I love that. We have this on the plate. If we pull off the stencil, if we pull it off a little bit careful, we can probably use it again, maybe not; it's coming off all right. Then we've got that fabulous ghost print. Now, I'm going to put that onto this background because that will just leave some black marks on it; that could be really cool. You can use that piece again if you haven't saturated it too much in paint. But if you have, what does it matter? I got tons of that paper packaging under the table in my studio and it just continuously arrives. I don't why it's just continuous; it's like endless. Let's take the ghost print and look at that. That's just fun. That's got some different shapes. You, of course, you can cut a whole heap of different shapes out of that beautiful paper packaging and use that to create marks on your gel plate. [MUSIC] 8. Making More Stencils: [MUSIC] Well, I thought I'd just cut another one and try that again because that was pretty fun. [NOISE] Even the ghost print looked pretty cool. I'm going to put it on this background. I like this background, is already had the spray on it, so these shapes and max will look fabulous. There we go. Look at that. Look how fun that prints. Now, this time I put the gold ink into an old spray bottle. That's pretty nice. I like that. Yay for gold ink. What would happen if I pulled that just like that again. Get more of that paint off the plate. That could be really interesting. This is why you need a heap of background so that you can just create more shapes on your prints. Loving it. Look at that. That's just using a piece of brown paper packaging with cut a few shapes. I mean, halo. That's gorgeous. [NOISE] What about if we cut some shapes an easier way even using a hole punch. That'll be cool. I'm folding the paper packaging, and then I'm punching some holes with a hole punch, literally a basic hole punch. Then let's see what that looks like. That pretty much looks like one of those old school computer readouts. [LAUGHTER] Back in the day. I'm going to punch them to the end there. [NOISE] That is so cool. Now what can we do with that? [NOISE] Let's see if we can print through those tiny little holes. This time, I'm going to put some white on the plate. Now it's still got some paint there from the ghost sprint. That's okay. Let's put some beautiful fresh white. Look at that. On the plate we'll put down a fabulous hole punched piece of paper like that. I'm using this dark background, so clearly you'll see if it works, and see if anything's going to come through these tiny little holes. [NOISE] Look at that. [LAUGHTER] That's just fun that is. I like it. It's all just ways of making marks on your gel plate for printing. You could use this in collage now. That's fabulous and painted. You could actually use that and it would look really cool. I might just do that again because that was fun. There we go. I've got another hole punched paste on paper packaging. I'm going to put it this way on there, and I'm going to push it down with this background. [NOISE] Look at that. [LAUGHTER] That's fun. I love it. That just makes me smile. That's fabulous. Now, I'm going to keep these pieces of paper. This particular paper packaging is a bit stronger than the first paper packaging I was using, so that's able to be kept now and used in collage, or you can use it again for that beautiful dot stencil. I'm going to put this ghost print on this background. [NOISE] Wow. Look how interesting that looks. I just love it. It's getting these textural layers and it's just looking fabulous. I punched a few rows of holes on this piece with one of these fun little things, and I reckon that would make a really cool print. That way or that way, doesn't matter. Let's go with some of this unbleached titanium. [NOISE] We'll put some of this on the plane, and see how this one prints. The holes are just a bit bigger. That is pretty fun. I'm going to put that on the space here. I'm just going to put it on a section on this side, and print some of those holes. That's pretty fun. [NOISE] You don't have to print the whole page. You can just print sections of your page. Look at that. That's awesome. Possibilities are endless. This one would then make great paper in a collage. We have another beautiful print. [NOISE] Look at that. It all just keeps adding onto your print to make multiple textured layers. While I'm thinking about it, I'm just going to add some of that black scribble max with the beautiful pastry brush, because I think it'll look just awesome. Look at that. Then what about if we spray just a little bit of gold on it? Oh my gosh. Love it. Same with this one. Just look fabulous. That's fabulous. [NOISE] Gorgeous. That is some pretty beautiful mark making that I would definitely use in collage. What about this one? I've just pulled out of my box and I made my box. This is my box of mark making tools. Look at all my [LAUGHTER] That's funny. The corrugated card, some fabric, some sponges, lots of lids. I love lids. I just throw things in this box when I find them that I think is going to make a good mark like this thing. I don't even know what it is. It's the bottom of something, but it makes a cool mark. I'll show you. All rubber bands and bits and pieces and things that I think will make a good mark I throw into here, and then when I'm creating jelly prints and I want to find something that's going to make a cool texture or make a mark, I hunt through my box. I just pulled out. This is a makeup sponge of course, and they work fabulous. I just thought I'd put some different shapes on this particular print. That's the one I just pulled with the round, punched a hole circles, and that's okay. Look at that. Just trying a different idea, something else, some other way to make a mark. What about this weird thing? I didn't know what it was from. It was a bottom of something clearly. But you've got to have a look. Look at that, in your house and around and all the things you have and see what it is that you've got lying about that could make a fabulous mark on a jelly print, and you can either put it on the plate or you can put it directly on the print like this. Yes, I still love lid of my spray bottle best. But that's pretty cool. I don't know what it is, but you can find bits and pieces like that around your home, put them in a box and pull them out when you want to print something. If I do this a little spritz with some gold. I put the gold ink in an old bottle and it's working fabulous. Love it. Have a play, have an experiment. Make sure you put yourself together a box of tricks like this. Rummage around your house and find bits and pieces that are going to leave a fabulous texture or that are going to make a mark for your gel printing and you will absolutely love it. [MUSIC] 9. My Secret Circle Shape: I'm going to show you one of my absolute favorite ways to create fabulous circle shapes with printing on your template. This is the magical little circle template right here. Do you want to know what my secret is? [LAUGHTER] They are Fix-A-Loo seating washers. Yes, I am serious. We are using washers that you put in the cistern of your toilet to create shapes on the gel plate. I know, you just don't want to tell anybody what you're using, and everything will be okay. That's what they are. You get them in the plumbing section of your hardware, and seriously, you need these. You get a whole 10 in this pack. It's pretty cheap, very inexpensive. They are made of thin rubber. They're fabulous. They last the test of time. Look at these ones. Clearly, they're being printed on quite a few times. There's so much you can do with these fabulous magical little circle shapes. I'm going to show you a few different ideas. Now, what we're going to do first is put some paint on our gel plate. Yes, I'm using my beautiful Alizarin crimson with a little bit of copper because I like the bling. Yes, that's a bit too much paint that I've just squeezed out, but it's getting to the bottom of the tube and it either doesn't come out or it comes out too much. Not to worry. I paint on the plate and now, we put our fabulous little circle shapes on. Doesn't really matter where you put them. I'm going to line them up like this because I like to then use them in my collage in different ways. Now, I'm going to use ordinary copy paper straight off the printer. As you can see, I'm going around the shapes and in the middle of them because it becomes a mask on this piece of paper, where you put the circle shapes does not get the paint, and it will be left with that shape on the print. If you can go around the shapes and in the middle of the shapes, you're going to get a clearer print of the fantastic little circles. That's going to be fabulous. There's my fabulous circle shapes. Now, I'm going to put this aside and I'm going to show you something else that we can do with this blank space later. Now, if we take off these fabulous shapes and pull that ghost print, there's still quite a lot of paint on there. That will pick up all of those beautiful round little circles. Look at that, they look fabulous. Absolutely love this circle template. You just have to not tell anyone what that's actually for and then you won't be worried. Now, if we leave the rest of the pipe on the plate like that, it's going to come through in the next print I take, and I really like that. It has a fabulous look to it. Now, I might just deepen this color a little because I want to use it on this background here. We'll just deepen the color. That's got the Alizarin, the copper, and a little bit of black. If we put our fabulous circle shapes on. This time, when I pull the print, I'm going to use one that I already have a background color on. Then the fabulous circle shapes will be the color that's already on the paper. You do have to make sure you go around them, pushing the paper against them so that you can get a nice clear shape. Because they are thin little rubbers, they hold up really well with the paint. Let's see how that looks. See? Look at that. Absolutely fabulous. Now, if we go ahead and take another print, and pull more of that paint off from the plate, we'll just be left with the beautiful circle shapes for the ghost print. They can make absolutely fabulous elements in our collage. You can cut them out and use them in collage and they just look wonderful. This is the second print and we're picking up the rest of the paint that's on the plate. That's created that. But really, I just wanted to pick up all that paint and we can do something else with these once this is dry. Now, when we take our shapes off, which are absolutely beautifully saturated in paint underneath, we will get a very clear ghost impression of those circle shapes. Sometimes, this is actually my favorite print. Look at that. Isn't that absolutely fabulous? It becomes separate little circles that you can then put onto another layer in your collage. I'm loving it. I'm using a golden iridescent bronze fine. I love this color, it's one of my absolute favorite colors. [MUSIC] I'm going to put this one on this background because I think it'll be fabulous. Some of these backgrounds are actually prints that didn't come out as great as I'd hoped. I put them in a pile and I just use them again then when I'm printing something else. Don't get discouraged if you print the first time, don't work. Just put them in a pile ready to be used for a second or even third layer, and then they make incredible prints. You just have to allow yourself to have fun, to play, and to experiment and see what you can create. There we go. There's that beautiful colors come through and it's got the bronze around them, and they look fabulous. [MUSIC] The ghost print is still picking up some images of previous printing, and that is so much fun. What I like to do once I've pulled them off the plate, sometimes, I like to give them a bit of a spray with some spray ink, just to create more texture on them. It's pretty fun. Look at that, that's pretty cool. [LAUGHTER] Sometimes, it's a bit of an oops, but sometimes, you'd create the most amazing effects. I'm going to use this for the background of the shapes. I think that could look quite interesting. [MUSIC] Let's see how that looks. That's pretty fun. Depending on what background you start with, it will leave that in the circle shapes. You can also see some of the white alphabet, it was an alphabet stencil, and you can see them behind that in the background. Plus it comes through in the circle shapes. If you've got prints that you've taken that you're not happy with, you like the colors but the design didn't work for whatever, you could try this idea because some of that previous print will come through in the circle shapes, and it could look absolutely fascinating. Let's face it, you got nothing to lose. If you use prints you're not happy with anyway and it doesn't work, who cares? It doesn't matter, does it? Because you aren't happy with it, anyway. But you might find incredible, amazing prints that you wouldn't have tried otherwise. I'm hoping this ghost print will pull up a few of those different circle patterns that are now on the plate with my trusty white tissue. That's good. Look at that. Don't you find that fascinating? I find that so fascinating. That's like a perfect outline print. I just love it. [LAUGHTER] You can't reproduce these things in a fit if you tired. You can't do it again the second time. It's a monoprint, it's one print and I absolutely love that. I could use that section there in a collage, on a page. You see why I'm obsessed with circles and they keep popping up in my artwork? Because I do a session of prints like this and make a whole heap and then continuously using them. I just love it. [MUSIC] 10. More Circle Shape Ideas: We could get a little more dramatic and make the prints a little darker. Yes, I do love me a bit of drama. [LAUGHTER] Depending on what background paper you're putting your circles on, there will be so incredibly unique difference. It's quite amazing. Once you start experimenting, I'm telling you, you'll be as obsessed as I am, truly you will. So I'm trying my circles on. I'm going to try this very dramatic background. This has got a layer of stencil. It had a background color and then a layer of stencil. It's very patterned. That pattern should be now in a circle shape, which could look very cool. Don't stress out if it doesn't or something doesn't work, just try another idea. Just keep moving, allow yourself to create because that's the beauty of Jelly printing. Such an incredible freedom of creativity and experimentation. Dramatic, love me some drama. Look at those beautiful stunning. I would probably rip them out and use them as elements in collage like separate elements. I think that'd be really cool. We could even throw some silver spray across that and give it a bit of a shimmer, that'd be really nice too, which I would do with my bottle wasn't empty. [LAUGHTER] Now we've got all this drama of the black on there. Let's see how that prints. What I love about using the white tissue is that you can add it to your collage. You can add an element or layer on top because it goes quite transparent so you can still see different elements and different techniques underneath. The beauty of collage is multiple layers. This just gives you a lovely pile of papers that you can use when you're doing your collage. I just love having that. Look at that. That is just fun. That is just fun. Look at that. That's the bronze with a bit of black liquitex mars black and the golden, bronze iridescent. That's all those two colors to make our beautiful circle shapes. Love it. I know what I'm going to do with this. What about we stamp some of the, yeah, let's do that. I'll get a bit of black. I really don't mind using my job plane as a pallet. [MUSIC] I'm thinking that this could look quite stunning in black on this space we just pulled. Yes. How good does that look? That looks fabulous. I'm going to do a few more of those. Cover my lovely print with these black circle shapes. Then I'll have those to use. Look at that. Fabulous. I just love it. As you can see I'm not too precious about it. I tend to get paint everywhere, I get into a bit of a creative frenzy. I love that. I Love when it's not perfectly printed. I love the patchy texture of it. I just think that looks absolutely fabulous. This space will probably get used in something. Look at that. Flipping beautiful, they are fabulous. Now you know the secret of how to make these fabulous circles that you're gonna see in my art journal and my collages. You're going to say, yeah, I know how she does it, but you're not going to want to tell anyone [LAUGHTER]. Excellent watches for the toilet system, now are you? No don't tell anybody that [LAUGHTER]. I love this print that I just took just before, but it's a little dull. I'm thinking I'm going to put my circles back on, because you can continuously mess with these prints. Whoops, I could go [LAUGHTER] and I'm going to spray some of the dilutions [LAUGHTER]. Spray ink on it. I wonder if I sprayed a heap it would hold tight. A good impression, I don't know. I got nothing to lose. I wasn't that fast on this print anyway. It was just an attempt for it. As you can see I have just sprayed it with the dilution spray because I wanted to see what it was going to look like. Now if I pull them off, will it bleed in that shape. It's pretty cool, I like that. That's way more interesting. It might continue to bleed into the circle shape. See as it dries, it's going to move, but I'm okay with that because I don't need perfect circles. Yeah, that's cool. That's a good idea. If your prints are boring, put them down, put the circles back on them and give them a spray. Nothing to lose. Maybe if you let them dry, they would stay in their proper shapes. But I'm all about trying these ideas and experimenting. I really don't mind. If they break their banks and bleed over, that's okay. That looks pretty cool. This was the very first print I took, it's nice and dry. Now this was just normal standard copy paper, I put the paint down, I put the circle shapes on, and I took a print which creates this mask shape from the circles. Well, I know that's boring, but what we can do, so I've got one of these water brushes, and it's just got water inside, which is pretty cool at Doll shop. Hello, really cheap from the Doll shop. Now, I'm going to just put some water on this shape. If you don't have one of these water brushes, don't stress out. Just get a normal watercolor paint brush and dip it in water. It's not rocket science. I've just got this fancy paints one because it was a couple of bucks at the Doll shop, which I might tend to frequent quite often. [LAUGHTER]. Looking for amazing new things to create marks on the gel play. Now I've put some water on that shape. Now I'm going to drop in some ink into and it should. It won't always hold its form. I've noticed and I am always a little heavy handed. I don't mind if they're not perfect circle shapes and it's really fun. It's quite therapeutic to watch the ink bleed. Like I said, it won't hold its banks entirely, it will bleed out. But I don't mind when it does because it creates really interesting shape and texture. Then what I like to do is put the paint on the circle shape and then use it as a stamp and stamp over it as well, because that looks just fabulous. Of course the more water you put on, the more it will bleed, the more ink you put on, the more it will spread. If you put too much on, it'll run all over your paper, but that's all right anyway, don't worry about it. This is a no stress way to create art. Just Beautiful. When this is dry, I'm going to add a stamp of the bronze over the top and I'll show you it looks fabulous. I'll let that dry and then we'll add a stamp to it. It's now dry enough [LAUGHTER]. Maybe not entirely, to add a stamp on. So I'm just going to put some paint onto one of these beautiful circle shapes and use it like a stem to take a print. I don't mind if it's not perfect, I'm quite happy for it to be textured and I always love to see what we get. See, just beautiful. It's just another way of creating textures and shapes to add in collage. Of course you can use any colors that you fancy. I am just playing with these because that's what I feel like today. Beautiful, love it. There is so many possibilities using these fabulous circle shapes. It really is quite endless. You just need to try things, experiment and see what you come up with. I liked the bronze here on top of the black, I think that looks fabulous. I like that it's all kind of patchy and textured. It's not perfect, it's not absolute, and I'm loving that. 11. Adding Another Layer: [MUSIC] All right, have a look around at your print all over the floor. [LAUGHTER] Oh, is that just me? I print myself into a frenzy and I leave a few stepping stones to get out of my room, but other than that, they are pretty much every way. Have a look at them now and see which ones could do with another layer. I'm loving these ones, but they're a little boring, so I cut another shape out of my fabulous paper packaging. This particular one is stronger than the other one that I was using, so have a look at that. When you're packaging comes, there's different types of the brown paper that comes in that packaging. You need all of it because it's fabulous and you can use it for so many things. If you have to order a single paint to get all of the packaging, then you just have to do it. [LAUGHTER] I'm going to put another layer on some of my prints, this has got a bit of gold spry lift on it, not to worry, I love gold spray. I'm going to use some of them. I also might put this on a couple of them because I'm loving these circles and I might spray them with ink and see how that looks. You want to just have a little ply and put another layer on the prints that you think are a little boring, all that could do with just some more texture. I think I'll just put some titanium white on the ply and use my fabulous brown paper stencil and put some more shapes on a couple of these prints. There we go. Look at that. That's pretty cool. Hello, there's a little bit of modern art right there, I'm loving him. See how one extra layer can just give it so much more interest. It has that push and pull now of the layers on top and behind, and that's working really well, and so simple. Just grab another piece of brown packaging, cut some different shapes, take another print. Oh my gosh, it's endless what you could do. I could even turn it round perhaps. Let's try that and have the lines going that way. There's an idea. Let's see what that looks like. It's just a matter of playing, experimenting, allowing yourself to have fun, and trying different ideas. It's endless what shapes you can cut out of the brown paper packaging and how long. The resource is free. Let's say what this did. Look at that, it picked up the gold that was already on the ply from previous printing and it's created a really interesting pattern, liking that. This particular paper packaging, like I said, is a lot stronger than the other one. It peels off a lot easier, and I can probably use it again. It's also quite cool. Now, look at all the paint that's on that. That's pretty nice. You could actually put that into a collage, different sections of it, and that would look really good too. There's a little bit of ghost print on there, which will finally come through on one of the print's sample, and that'll just give it some interesting background texture. Now, I'm going to use my fabulous hole punch circles. I might just put them on one side here and put one side of this print on. Look at that, that looks fabulous, it just adds far more interest to the print. There must already on there and I could use that section in a collage or I could use that section. It just gives me more options and makes the print more usable. What will I put this onto? That's pretty cool. Think I'll use this background. This was the one that had the corrugated card on it, I liked those lines. I'm just going to add all of that wet paint onto this print, give it another layer, give it some more interest. That's pretty cool. That printed out great. Now, this hole punch circle one looks pretty cool. I wonder how it would stand out with spraying it? We have to try these things. I'll just give it a bit of black spray and see how well it works as a stencil when you spray it. Look at that, that's pretty cool. I think it's fun, that's for show. [NOISE] Of course we're wrong not to add a little bit of gold. [LAUGHTER] See [inaudible] tell my prints end up so multi-layered. I love the overs-pray line here, I love the hole punch circles, that's gone a bit smudgy, but it doesn't matter. It's all texture and its own mark-making and it will all look fabulous. Now, you can also use all of that spray paint that's on there, you don't want to waste anything. I put that on another piece of paper or put that over one of your prints and use up all that beautiful paint. It can either start another paper or it can be added to one of your prints. Look at that, that looks fabulous, I love that. Hello, prepare your packaging. Nothing gets wasted, everything can be recycled and reused and turned into something else to make fabulous art. That's a great pattern, I like that. I like the way it's got that look to it, it looks mysterious. I can definitely add some more layers onto this paper. Now, this is my transparent burnt sienna that I've put in this bottle. How easy is that? That is fabulous. Little bit of bling baby bling. Got to love me some bling. Look at that. I have started now another print that could just be used in separate pieces into collage or else I could just create something else on top of it. Fabulous background layers, that works really well. Now, it's the sign when you're using all of the fabulous recycled packaging options, like the corrugated card, you can use it to put marks on the gel ply, of course, because we did that already, which I love. Love these marks. You can also use that side that you've now put all of that fabulous paint on and print it straight on one of your prints, especially if it just needs a little bit of something else or a second layer or a highlight, you can use it as a stamp onto your print. See, look how fabulous that looks. Their circles came up so cool, I'm pretty keen to do them again. I'm going to put that there. What about my tiny ones? I like these too. Put those there. I'm going to put that on. This one had the mega mother load of bubble wrap. I've never seen bubble wrap so big as that piece. I don't know what I bought that needed to be wrapped so full-on, but it's fun to print with. I'm putting this other layer now with white through my punch holes and just see how that looks. Love it, I already know I love it. Look at that. That is so fun. Have a look at your prints and see if they need a little something. This was the brush marks. I love the brush marks, I'm playing with all different directions of the brush marks, but I'm thinking maybe, oh baby, I love this. [LAUGHTER] Hello, that's fabulous. I think I'll just leave it right there. Thanks for coming. Hope that looks fabulous, I just love it. A few splashes with some white ink, and the dollar store pastry brush, which is now my new favorite mark-making tool. Look at that. Yes, I know. This one's not even dry yet, I just did this one. [LAUGHTER] Hello, look at that. I love it, I just love it. I love it, messy. Look at that, that's a fabulous print now. I'm loving this one, but I'm not going to flick it with the pastry brush, I promise. I've gone back to my makeup sponge and I'm putting little square shapes in-between the L-squared shapes. Now, it already had some of the makeup sponge shapes that were a little blobby and a little dark, so let's go back in with some beautiful white ones. If your workspace is completely in a mess, you have over-sprayed ink and pipe every way, then you are doing this class right, Just be reassured. If your floor is covered in prints and pipers and you have to tiptoe at to get out of your room, that's okay too because just know that's where I am right now. All right, I think that the prints are fabulous. Go through all the ones that you've printed, have a look, if you don't like something, put it in a pile to do another layer on, and the ones that you love put in another pile because now we're going to move on to the next section, and we're going to put them together in collages in an art journal. You're going to love this. It's so easy, so much fun, and you'll be amazed at how beautiful your prints are going to look. Layer out all your prints, go over a second layer or third layer or even fourth on the ones that need a little bit more texture or a brighter color or a different shape, and then put your pile together of all the ones you love that you're going to use in the collage to make your art journal. 12. Preparing Your Art Journal: [MUSIC] Now you should have a beautiful collection of your fabulous prints from your expressive mark making. Do they cover all your floor? Are they all over your table? Do they sit on every flat available surface? [LAUGHTER] Then that's fantastic because that's how it should be. What are we going to do now with all of these beautiful prints? I'm so glad you asked. I'm thinking, wouldn't it be great to put them into like a glossary or a catalog or something where you can refer back to in a few months' time to remind you of the fabulous mark-making tools that you used. You might have found different color combinations that you like, or you might have discovered your new most favorite tool, which I did. I am loving, love, love, loving the pastry brush, oh, my God, yes. Also loving this, punching the holes in the paper packaging. I really love that one and of course, I already had the lid of my spray bottle as a personal favorite. I love the brush marks of just a normal brush. But look at the bottom of the ink bottle. That turned out really amazing too. I'm thinking let's put a little snippet of these prints together into an art journal so we can look back in a few months' time and go, "Yeah, that's right. I loved how that did that. Let me do that again." Because I don't know about you, but I find it really easy to forget down the track, things that right now I absolutely love. We're going to put an art journal together. Now, before you have a little hissy fit and get all stressed out because you either don't know what an art journal is or you don't have one, we're going to do it the recycled way. I love recycling. An art journal is just a book that you can put your artwork in. You can even write on it as a journal if you like to, hence the journal part. You could actually write notes about what size marks you liked or what color schemes worked well for you. It really is totally endless. Now if you already have an art journal that you want to use, well done. No worries at all. You go right ahead and pull out your favorite art journal that you already might have. But if you don't have one, don't panic; I'm going to show you one of my favorite ways to create this glossary where you can have something to look back on to be reminded of how fabulous your marks are. We are going to recycle junk mail brochure. Yes, we are. Now, this is one that I picked up from the hair dressers. Hello, free. That's why I love [LAUGHTER] recycled; free resource. It's a lovely square shape. I like the square shape, and the paper is okay. It's not like real thick quality like my proper mixed media art journal, but that's not what we need. The pages are not too bad, not too great, not too bad. It's in-between. You don't want to use a supermarket's brochure because those pages are way too thin. You want to find something that you can use and recycle that has half decent paper that you can use. Also something that you like the shape of. I really like this square shape, but also I had this from the post office, you know, prices on sending postage. That makes a really good journal, recycled brochure because the pages are quite thick. It's not bad, the long thin one. You could put it this way or you could put it that way. You could fold up like this. Why I'd like to use these brochures is because it's already made into a booklet, easy peasy, lemon squeezy. We just stick our newly made beautiful print onto each page and hello, we have an art journal already. There you go. It's fantastic way of making something easy and without any stress, which I'm totally into. Did I mention free resources? [LAUGHTER] This one would work really well. It's quite thick. You can either have it portrait or landscape size, really doesn't matter. I also have an Art Trail one of the same size. The pages on this one are actually thinner and glossy, which is fine too. That's not a problem. You'll find these all over the place. In fact, if you go to your information center where you live, it'll have a lot of visitor guides and booklets as well. Now if you get one like this that's folded in half, just know that it's almost impossible to get that fold out because I've done one [LAUGHTER] and I didn't like it because I put the whole page on there and it wouldn't unfold. Just know that if you're going to get one that's this kind that's already folded, it will stay folded, which is okay, if you want to put like one piece per section that could be cool too. That would work out all right. Just pay attention to the brochure you're using as far as the size and the shape just to make sure you like it really. I mean, this would work perfectly fine. I would have to put the pieces in-between here because I didn't like it when folded but it's not bad thing to do. Art Trail magazines, fabulous. This is a great size. I'm liking that. That'd be like a half sheet of our print. That would work really well too. Have a little look around, have a hunt round your house, see what you might have around. You can source your hairdressing salon where you go to get your hair cut. Fabulous. The post office, the Information Center, any Art Trails that you've been to and you've kept the brochures of, they recycle really well. These are great brochures to use. Don't use the supermarket brochures or anything where the papers are just too thin because it won't hold up under the weight of gluing the prints into it. In this way, we get to recycle something, we get to make ourselves a fabulous art journal, keepsake of our wonderful mark-making sessions, and it's a free resource; so, winner, winner; chicken dinner. Let's see what you can find and I know it's going to be fabulous. Once you have decided what you're going to use for your fabulous journal, I would suggest putting gesso on the pages. gesso is just a medium that we can use as like an undercoat or that protects the pages, or that creates a better surface for painting on. But I like to use it for this particular project because it just makes the pages white for a start. Also, it makes them a little firmer so that they're not so thin and flimsy. Now you don't have to do this because we are collaging our pages anyway. [NOISE] We are sticking our beautiful prints on your pages. Some of the other pages might be transparent if you've used tissue, so you might want your background to be white. It's completely up to you. You can put the gesso on to make your pages a little stronger or don't put it on if you don't want to. Now, remember again, a stick. Unfortunately, we do have to wait for the pages to dry in-between. It shouldn't take too long. Just make sure you put a really thin coat on, and if your gesso is too thick, you can always water it down. I'm using the Liquitex basics. It's pretty good. It's not too thick, and it's going on fine. I'm going to continue and go through my art journal with the gesso. The gesso really doesn't take very long to dry, especially if you're just doing a thin coat. Being the impatient person that I am, I just put a piece of baking paper under the pages [NOISE] so they don't stick while they're drying. Because I don't want to have to wait. [LAUGHTER] Just don't stress yourself about getting it perfect because this is just exercise for you to put your beautiful print somewhere that you can remember what you created and which marks you like the best. It's your own personal glossary. You don't have to show anyone. It doesn't have to be on display, so don't stress yourself into having to make it perfect. That's why we're using a recycled brochure so you don't get too fussy about it all. Look at that, beautiful. Remember, it only has to be a thin coat, [NOISE] just so you can strengthen your pages and you can not back the color of what's already printed on there. My fabulous junk mail brochure, which is going to be a beautiful art journal, has now been gessoed. Now, don't worry if yours is crinkled, if your pages crinkle or if they sag or if they look a bit sorry for themselves. Remember, it's a junk mail brochure, so don't get too fussy or stressy over it. You're going to be covering all of the pages anyway. As you can see, the gesso is not thick on these pages, and really that's what you want because you don't want to saturate your pages too much. Remember it's a junk mail brochure. It will only handle a certain amount of weight. Now I'm very happy with this. It's really cool. It doesn't worry me that the pages are crinkled or if it tears because it is what it is. You have to keep it in perspective. You can put pages across the join here that will strengthen the middle spine. There are different ways of handling the application, so your junk mail brochure doesn't get too beat up in the process, but try not to stress over it too much. The whole exercise is somewhere for you to put your beautiful prints that you can refer to and say, "Oh, that's right. I liked that one. How did I make those marks or the color scheme or the textures?" It's just a reminder for you of how you did the beautiful mark making so that you can remember a few months down the track and look back and go, "Yeah, that's right. I liked that idea." Don't get too stressed out about it. If it tears or if the pages sag, or if it's wrinkly, because it's just another tool for your art tool belt that you can look at back and go, "Yes." That's going to be a fabulous way to put all your prints in like a glossary. [inaudible] Let's move forward. What are we going to do now? [MUSIC] 13. Collage Art Journal: [MUSIC] Now how are you going to decide which prints to put in your art journal? We're going to call it an art journal. I know it's a recycled junk mail brochure, but we're calling it an art journal because that's what it's going to be. How are you going to decide what you're going to put in? Well, for me, I'm going to choose my favorite prints. I'm going to make it absolutely fabulous because I love to make beautiful art. This is one of my favorites, I'm either going to use all of it to stick on the whole page, or tare a section of it and use some of it and then put something else on the page. Decisions. Are you going to choose by the brackets of how you made them? This was a background paper. This was one using the lid of the ink bottle. You could put them into your art journal, clustered into the pages of how you made them, or will you go with the colors and the shapes and the textures? I'll probably use the color, shapes, and textures to decide which ones I want. At the moment, this one sits rather beautiful next to this one. I'm liking that. I think that looks fabulous. I could possibly even throw in some of these gorgeous marks of the brush, love the brush, onto the edge of that one, that would look cool, or some of this one with my fabulous favorite pastry brush. I think what I'm going to do is definitely look at the colors, which ones sit next to each other the best, and the prints that I like with the marks such as this one, I love this one. This was just the corrugated cardboard paper packaging. Look how perfect those lines printed like. I just love that. I'll be using probably sections of pages like this. Because then I'm going to look at that down the track and go, oh, my gosh, I need to do that again. That's the point of what we're making here. We're making something that you can look at down the track in a few months time and go, oh, I'm going to do that again. That was a great print. I forgot about that particular technique or that mark making tool. Look at this one. This one is just the bottom print of the ink bottle. Hello, who even knew the bottom of the ink bottle would take such a fabulous print? It looks like the cycles of the moon. I'm looking at that guy, yeah, I got to do that again. That was cool. That's the purpose of this beautiful art journal that we're putting together to remind you how awesome the marks are, the colors that you like, and things to remember as when you are in your art-making practice, you can go, oh, my gosh, that's right, I love that. It really doesn't matter how you put it together just as long as you're happy with it. That's why also why we're recycling the brochure because don't get too stressed there and fussy about it being perfect. It's not about being perfect. This is about you just having a tool to be able to remember the marks you made, the colors you did, and be able to continue to create like that, and work these marks into your normal arts practice. Now, I'm going to use matte gel medium because I always use matte gel medium. I like the brush application, it works for me, it makes me happy. You don't have to use this. The problem with matte gel medium is it's very wet, so your pages will get very wet and because they are very thin pages, you will need to let them dry and they might tear. They might come apart in the seam because it is a much wetter medium, just so you know. Also if your pages are wet and you want to keep going, you can put the baking paper. Here's a piece of baking paper that I used to put the [inaudible] on the page. You can easily slip the baking paper in-between your pages to keep them from sticking together if they are wet and you want to keep working. You could also use PVA glue or you could use a glue stick. Now the glue stick is going to be the driest method of application. It probably won't saturate your pages and make them all wet and crinkly. Think about that if you want to use the glue stick. It really doesn't matter, just as long as you're happy with what you're working on. I'm going to start with these two pages and then we'll say **** we go along. Oh, look at that color. See that's just the background page. What you can do is put parts of your prints on the page. You can also come back and add more shapes and marks from your prints onto your page. Don't stress about if you put something down, it has to stay like that, no, hello, it doesn't. You can come back and add to it later. You can put more of your prints onto each page. Remember, this is about you and it's for you. You're the one that decides exactly how it's going to look. You cannot get this wrong. Just so you know. [LAUGHTER] Have fun. Enjoy the beautiful prints that you've made. I would so love to see what you do. Just remember the place where you start is not where you finish. Don't be afraid to start. Just put some prints onto your pages and if you don't like them, you can change them as you go along. You can add multiple layers on them. You can add different shapes and colors. You really got nothing to lose, especially if you're using a recycled brochure, hello. Now I'm going over the edge with my papers and I will trim that off once it's dried, it's just easier that way because I'm not so brilliant at making sure I cut to the right length. [LAUGHTER] Just works for me. I am going to put, I print right over the fold here just to give it a bit more strength. Remembering it is only a recycled brochure, so it's not going to have huge amounts of strength. Anything that you can do that increases that strength in your brochure is a really good idea. I'm going to put some of the ones that I really like, first of all, onto the first page. I might come back later and add some more shapes on top of them, I don't know. But you just got to get going. Get some of your beautiful prints onto the page. Get moving along the side here, you're going to adhere them. Are you going to use PVA, going to use a glue stick or matte medium, what are you going to use to stick it on? Get a nice pile of your favorite prints and just start. Just know that it will get beat up and bent out of shape, your brochure. It will probably not look like it's neat little self once you're finished. But that's okay. That's what we're after. Gives it all a [MUSIC] little bit of character. It'll be fine. Look at that, what a beautiful start. Keep going and fill up your beautiful art journal/recycled brochure. Let's see how fabulous you can make it. Now if you find that your pages are too thin and they're not handling the prints, you can go through your brochure at the beginning and glue pages together. I have another one of these hairdressing, beautiful brushes from the salon [LAUGHTER] course I do because you've got to bring them home when you go. I have glued these pages together in the beginning, so that made them a lot stiffer and a lot stronger. Remember that if you want to do that with your brochure, if the pages ain't handling, your going the prints on, glue them, flew every second page together. You'll have less pages to use, but they will be stronger. That's just another option. Keep going, keep adding a beautiful print to your gorgeous brochure and let's see it completed. 14. Part 2: Collage Art Journal: [MUSIC] Just remember you can put four pages on them and then come back and add little pieces and other elements to it as well. You don't have to complete all of your page at once, you can go through your brochure adding all the backgrounds in, and then come back and add some more little pieces and some extra shapes, just to create it how it suits you best. Remember there's no wrong way. [MUSIC] As your brochure does fill up with pages and become fatter, it will knock it out of shape but you don't worry about things like that because it's got all of your beautiful original artworks in it and that's all that matters. You can also use a credit card or a plastic card to flatten your pages down, if you find that easier. Any hard part that I have is waiting for it to dry. [LAUGHTER] [MUSIC] I was getting a little out of sorts so I went and put my beautiful journal in the Sun for half an hour, so it could dry out a bit because it is a beautiful day here in New Zealand, and then I gave the sides a little trim just so I could see where I was at, see how the pages we're drawing up, and I think it's coming together okay. Look at this. This is just beautiful. That's a bit of bronze and copper on this background I'd say and then this is the hilarious, hello, toilet roll with rubber bands rolled across the page. I mean you've just got to love the simplicity. I trimmed off the edges and had a look and I think we're cooking with gas, traveling along okay. Although if you find that your brochure does have too many pages or if the pages are too thin, you can glue them together like I suggested. I actually was almost tempted to do that, [LAUGHTER] because when I trimmed them off and had a look, there's quite a few more pages left to do, so I was thinking, shall I just glue them together and it'll make them stronger and there'd be less to have to complete. But no, I decided I love all my prints and I would love to see them in this fabulous brochure so I decided just to keep on keeping on. I trimmed the edge and that really helped me to be able to see them better, and now I'm back at it. This piece of paper is a lot stiffer because it's just a regular copy paper. I think I want that up the other way. Off we come. [LAUGHTER] The copy paper is a little stiffer than the rice paper, so that's good for my pages because it makes them a little stronger. But because I'm using the matte medium, it also makes the pages a lot more wet and soft and it can tend to also be a little too soft in the join, but that's okay, I know that that's possible. I'm just going to take it easy. Look at that. That's beautiful. I'm loving this beautiful print. That was just one of my backgrounds when I first started. I love leaving the abstract marks on the gel plate. I think it's just so interesting, that's just a painting in itself. Just fabulous. I'm just loving having this whole collection of prints together in one place, so much fun. Look at that, just beautiful. [MUSIC] Now look at this piece. This piece is what I used to print with on one of the other designs. It's the paper packaging, brown paper, and I painted it, rolled over it, black and it looks flipping amazing. Hello, so what you print with, with the brown paper packaging, you can actually put in your collage because it looks fabulous. It looks so good. I love paper packaging. That looks fabulous. [MUSIC] 15. Finishing the Artwork: [MUSIC] How are you going with your beautiful art journal? I have mine all stuck in, and ready to go. Man, there's a lot of pages in this brochure. [LAUGHTER] I almost was tempted to glue some together, because I'm like, man this is never going to end. But the beauty of it is, it uses up a lot of your prints, which you might have quite a few. I have hundreds now, all over my floor, and everywhere, so it is a great project for using up those fabulous prints. Also, it's some way concise to put them so you can look at, and go, oh yes, I remember how I did that, and I want to do it again. I want to show you how I put these beautiful circle shapes on here. You saw how I printed them with my secret circle shape template. [LAUGHTER] I've got them on the front, and I've got one on the back. I just love it, I love them, they're fabulous. Element for collage, they work really well. If you've printed them onto tissue, like with this one, just on white tissue, this one's got a multiple prints from the ghost prints, it's fabulous. This one's got some beautiful black, and bronze ones. If you've got any of these circle shapes printed onto tissue, I want to show you how to rip them out in an easy way, so that you can use them as elements. This is my [inaudible] fabulous water brush pen. Seriously, I got this from The Dolar Shop or Cheap Shop, really cheap. Don't remember how much. It's got water in it, and if you go around your beautiful circle shape with the water, and then you tear it, it tears really easy, and it means that you can pull out the shape of the print without wrecking it, which is always fabulous because trust me, it's really easy to destroy something that you actually wanted. l might have done it a few times. Look at that, absolutely fabulous. Little bit of water and a very cheap water brush pen, and there you go. I love it. It's so simple, it's so easy. Then that can now adhere onto any of your journal pages, and it looks absolutely fabulous. If I went round any of these, I could do it the same. If you wanted to leave it in that cluster of shapes, you could do that too, which I have also done, and it looks absolutely fabulous. It really is a quick, and easy way of being able to tear out the beautiful circle shapes. You can get right up close to the lines, and you can still have that lovely organic torn edge, which I think looks particularly good. [NOISE] It comes away really easy from the background. Then you can put it into your beautiful collages, and they look just fabulous, [NOISE] just like that. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, that's a great way of being able to tear up your fabulous circle shapes. [NOISE] I'm really happy with how my fabulous art journal has come up. That's my beautiful brush marks with the pastry brush, and this is the brown paper packaging that I put hole punch marks in, and printed with. I love it. Of course the lid of my spray bottles, and my glorious circles. To me each page is a fabulous way to display the mark making that I really love. Now, my pages are a little crinkled, and have lines in them because, hello, you have to remember where you came from. This was a junk mail brush up from the hairdressing salon, so the papers are going to crinkle because they're not great quality. But it is a fabulous, keeps a reminder art journal to show me the marks, and the colors that I particularly enjoyed. I love the brush making, I love the cost of spray bottle includes, and this is just a beautiful background that I started with. Here's some more of the pastry brush. That's the rolling of the toilet rolls, and this is more of brush marks, some splintering of ink, and this was where I punched out the hole in the brown paper packaging, and it turned out fabulous to glue into collage. More of those beautiful lid marks. I pretty well love those. You'll be able to see which ones I'm obsessed with the most. The pastry brush, the brushing, and also this was where I sprayed the piece of paper that I've punched the holes out of. It's just absolutely glorious. That's the hole punch page of the brown paper packaging. Who knew it would come out as beautiful as that? More of my glorious lid. Yes, I know, it's one of my favorites. [NOISE] There it is again. [LAUGHTER] This is the corrugated card. I love that mark, and there's my circles, and I've shown you how to tear them out, really easy to put them in. They look fabulous. Look at these, beautiful background colors. I'm pretty happy with how all these prints turned out, and I love that I have them now in my glorious art journal that was, hello, free resources. Yes, that's the beauty of recycling. The junk mail brochure is free. That's the pastry brush, loving it, beautiful background colors, and again, that hole punch brown paper, corrugated card. Hello, that is a toilet roll, rolled with the rubber bands. We're talking basic. Not very much money to create these glorious prints. l'm loving that. That's the corrugated card. Again, you're seeing all of the same ways that I've used the mark-making. That's the makeup sponge, and that's the brown paper with a hole punch. Doesn't it look fabulous? Come on, it does, I know it does. Circle shapes, and then brush marks, the pastry brush, it goes on, and on with glorious textures, and colors. [LAUGHTER] Absolutely love it. I had so much fun making this, and putting it together. Toilet roll marks, hole punch, lid of the spray bottle, the pastry brush, and it's just beautiful, it's all worked really, really well. That's the piece of brown paper that I punched the holes out with. Used it, took prints from it, and then stuck it in my collage, and it's working really well. That was that real brown paper packaging stuff. That's so bizarre. You need to keep your eye out for your paper packaging, check all your parcels when they come because baby, it's a goldmine [LAUGHTER] of possibilities for Gelli printing. More circles, fabulous pastry brush, more of my beautiful rolls, with the rubber bands, and I'm loving it. That was the stencil that I cut out of the brown packaging, brush marks, hole punch, and that's the bottom of the ink bottle. Come on now, pretty simple tools. You can do this, I know you can, and I would so love to see yours. I really hope you put something in the project section, either your favorite prints or your finished journal, or even some of your mark making tools. Come on, you got to share your secrets with me now. If you've found something that's made fabulous marks for your printing techniques, you need to share them. There is the corrugated card, the bottom of the ink bottle, hole punch. That is toilet rolls. Hello, [LAUGHTER] come on, you can't get more affordable printmaking tool than toilet rolls. Fabulous, I absolutely love it. That is the spray leftover piece of the hole punch paper packaging, put it on a piece of paper, splashed on some ink with the pastry brush, and doesn't it look so good. There's the roll there. It's absolutely fabulous. I'm so happy with how my glorious art journal has come out, because now, I can look at this, and say, I remember when I created this print, and that print, and I really love it, and then you can create some more. This is just the beginning of such endless possibilities for your mark making experimentation. You can take what you've learned in this fabulous art class, and you can build on them, and develop them. Everywhere you look now, you'll see possibilities for creating textures on your Gelli plate, which is absolutely fabulous. I really hope that you've enjoyed this class. I've really enjoyed making this with you, and for you. I really would love to see what you have created, what prints you've made, what particular items that you've enjoyed creating the marks with. Make sure you post something in the project section, and show me because that would be so good, I would so I love that, and all the best with your creative adventures. Find some more incredible tools for mark making, experiment some more, use some different color schemes, and just have [MUSIC] fun because baby, it's all about creating great art. [MUSIC]. 16. Thank You & Farewell: [MUSIC] Thank you for joining me on this adventure. I truly absolutely love mark-making on the gel plate. Isn't it such glorious fun? [LAUGHTER] You're never going to know what you are going to get until you pull that print. I hope this class has inspired you, empowered you on to create great art giving you courage and shown you that you can do this, you can make amazing art. You just need to trust yourself, to have courage and allow yourself to experiment. You never quite know what's going to come out. I truly hope you've enjoyed this class, you've been inspired, you've learned new skills, but you've had a lot of fun because great art comes out of great fun truly. It doesn't all have to be serious. It can be about enjoying yourself and allowing yourself to create freely in a place that's not restricted by preconceived ideas. That's when your originality really comes to the forefront. Like Picasso said, every child is born an artist, but it's how to remain an artist once you're an adult, that's the problem. [LAUGHTER] I truly hope you've enjoyed this class. I hope you enjoyed the creative adventure of watching my process and that you've worked along with me. I would love to see what you've created, so don't forget to post a picture in the project section showing me something that you absolutely love, one of your favorite prints or one of your fabulous tool making items, or even your completed collage, I would love to see it. If you found something that made an incredible mark on your gel plate, don't forget to share it [LAUGHTER]. I would love to know what things you have found from around your house that creates fabulous mark-making techniques. If you would like to know more about who I am, you can find more info on my website froyleart.com and don't forget to check out my other skill share classes. You're going to know just how obsessed I am with gelli printing, I absolutely love it. I also have some classes on acrylic painting and other mix media techniques, and I would so love for you to join me. You can also join me in my private Facebook group, Creative Adventures Making Art, where we can chat and you can show me some of your art works and you can see what crazy adventures that we're having. It's a fabulous group, it's very friendly and there's a lot of beautiful inspiration amongst encouraging people. Recently I started a regular weekly episode of Sunday in the Studio on YouTube. If you'd like to see more of my antics in the studio, have a look there and join me. The episodes air air a Sunday morning New Zealand time. Once again, thank you for joining me. I truly hope you've enjoyed this art class and I hope to see you again in the studio in one of my other classes. All the best with your creative adventures. [MUSIC]