Reflections on 2013

Well, 2013 is all but over so let's have a look back at the year.

My One Little Word for the year was Believe:

- The highlight of my art year was having five paintings exhibited at a gallery and selling one of them!

- I hosted BlogtoberFest 2013 and managed to blog every day along with a hundred or so others!!!

 - The lowlight of the year when it came to my art was when I lost belief in myself in May when I had a booth/stall at a vineyard and a young lady said "this art (she was referring to my layered paintings) is so easy to make"......I know I shouldn't be so sensitive but there's a lot more to this than I'm saying...

 - the highlight of my year was travelling through Europe on a motorbike with my husband for three months!!!

- my favourite art tool in 2013 was hands down no contest and if you can't guess then this must be your first time reading my blog.....my gelli plate - I love it so much I made a facebook group so I had a community with which to share with - The Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group.

- Whilst travelling I doodled and coloured in and zentangled and mandalaed too:

Well, I had a great year and I hope yours was great too!

Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group

Do you love creating gelli prints?  Want a place to discuss gelli printing?  To show off your work?  Share your ideas? Discuss the pros and cons of different paints/paper/plates/tools etc?  Get some great ideas on what to do with the thousands of prints you have created?

Then I would love you to join me at the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group.

This group is open to people who use a Gelli Arts Plate or who make their own gelatin plate.

My gelli plate is my favourite tool I bought this year - I love it!  Each print is unique and therefore each person makes a different print to any other person. Creating prints is so addictive - what if I just use this tool/stencil/mask, I wonder what would happen?

Here are some of my prints from this year:

And some of the tools/masks/stencils I used:

And some of my creations:

If you have any questions about the group then please message me shellsinthebush(at)gmail(dot)com

Hope to see you there!!!!!  woohooo!!!!!

Gelli Print Inspiration Tags

A couple of weeks ago I was inspired by Kiala Givehand and Sarah Ahearn Bellemare to create my own inspiration tags using gelli prints.  The tags can be used when you have a block when creating especially in your art journal.

I created 59 tags and got my ideas from Sarah's book - Painted Pages - we did something similiar at Squam, from Kiala's Mixed Media Inspiration Deck™ and from what I like to do such as stamping with a cork or  zentangle doodling and from what supplies I had.

I typed out my list and then printed it off, cut them out and glued them on with gel medium and then sprayed the tags with varnish so they don't stick together (hopefully).

Kiala sells her decks at a very good price, $15, but I decided to make mine as I live in Australia and didn't want to deal with shipping ($14 international and $3.50 in the USA), I wanted to use my gelli print tags and I thought it would be a challenge and fun.

If you make your own then let me know, send me a link, I'd love to check them out.  Have Fun.

ETA:
Do you love creating gelli prints?  Want a place to discuss gelli printing?  To show off your work?  Share your ideas? Discuss the pros and cons of different paints/paper/plates/tools etc?  Get some great ideas on what to do with the thousands of prints you have created?

Then I would love you to join me at the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group. This group is open to people who use a Gelli Arts Plate or who make their own gelatin plate.

Shells' Sunday Snippets

Shells' Sunday Snippets - (started by {tinniegirl}) - My week in photos... No need for words. Let the pictures tell your story.