Gel Press Creative Team Designer - Lea Cioci

Check out this post from a, fellow, Gel Press Creative Team Designer - Lea Cioci!!

  "Spread Your Wings and Fly"

She demonstrates, step by step, how she created this beautiful piece.

https://gelpress.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/spread-your-wings-and-fly/

Gel Press Reusable Printing Plate

PEACE!!

Cyndi

Creative Heart Monday - Colorful Shapes

Happy Monday to all of you Creative Hearts out there!

This weeks piece is very different from what I usually do.  It was inspired by artist, Fred Fowler.  I was introduced to his work by Tracy Verdugo (an artist that I LOVE!)

Tracy has some little ecourses called Mini Mojos.  I took the one on Pattern, Color and Texture.  She created a piece in the course inspired by Fred Fowler.  So, I figured that I would give it a try.

It's, basically, just playing around with little shapes and colors.  It's really a wonderful exercise because it's sort of meditative, which I need.  I have a bad habit of worrying about the end result.  I need to BE IN THE MOMENT!





List of Supplies:

Strathmore Bristol paper
Liquitex Basics - Cadmium Red Medium, Bright Aqua Green, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Orange, and Medium Magenta
Golden Heavy Body Acrylics - Paynes Grey, Teal
Montana Paint Pens - White, Black, Red, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green
Valspar Satin - Toasted Pumpkin (I pick up sample paints in Lowes and Home Depot....I've never used one on a painting before, but I liked this color and it was, actually, a very nice acrylic paint)

Have a great Monday and a wonderful week!

PEACE!!

Cyndi

First Post as a Gel Press Creative Designer!! Coming Soon!

Be on the look out for my first Gel Press Creative Designer video.

Here's a sneak peek........

In the mean time, check out the Gel Press Blog to see some art made by our leader, Kristi Parker!

PEACE!!!!!............Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!

Cyndi

I'm on the Gel Press Creative Team!!

I'm so excited.  I was chosen to be on the Gel Press 2016 Creative Team.  I am so happy to be working with these, very, talented women.

Gel Press Mono-Printing Plates come in a variety of sizes and shapes  They work great!!

I use a lot of gel prints in my artwork.  They are fun to make and you can let your creativity run wild.

Meet the Creative Team!

Ann Strecko Koeman

Bixxy Nash

Cindi Bisson McGee

Cyndi Cesare (Hey, that's me!)

Elena Lishchenko

Kathy Adams

Keri Sallee

Kristi Parker (Design Team Leader)

Lea Cioci

Sandee Setliff

Teresa Abajo

I'm looking forward to working on some great projects!

PEACE!

Cyndi

Creative Heart Monday - Mixed Media Face "Halo"

Happy Creative Heart Monday to all of you 

creative hearts out there!!

This week I started out by using all of the gel print scraps.  I use my gel prints for lots and lots of stuff, and I just can't throw away, even the tiniest scrap.  Does that make me a "gel print hoarder"?  Perhaps.   I made these prints on my Gel Press Mono-Printing Plate.  As I've mentioned before, I usually make copies of the prints that I love, and use the copies in my collage.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the video......I had some issues.  I don't know why, but my products just didn't want to work with me on this project.  On many other faces, I start out with a basecoat of Ceramcoat Paint.  It's sort of like craft paint....tiny bottle,....inexpensive.  It, usually provides a really nice base for the Prismacolor pencils.  On this one, it just gave me a hard time.  The paint was too shiny/slick....the pencils just wouldn't work.  The only thing that I can think of is that I did not gesso the paper first. However, I don't know why that would matter because I still would have been using the pencils over the paint.  Maybe my paint is getting to old.  I will get to the bottom of this and let you know.

Have a wonderful Monday and an, even, greater week!!

Peace!

Cyndi

Gel Printing How-To....Finally

I, finally, decided to do a video showing how I make my prints on the gel plate.  There are a lot of them online. That's how I learned to do it.  I decided, since I use them in so many of my projects, that I should demonstrate how I do it.

Printing on a gel plate is lots of fun (it can be, rather addictive).  Having a good stock of printed papers around makes life easy when you are hit with a spark of creative passion.

Here's my little gel printing, how-to, video.




I used a 6 inch Gel Press plate in the video.  I hope that you enjoyed it.  Here are some other videos and posts showing how I use my prints.  I've also used them to make jewelry.....maybe I will do a video on that someday.

Circles
Gelli Print Boxes
Pair of Houses
DecoArt Winter Challenge
Wooden House
Little Wooden Houses
Line of Houses
Collage Boxes


PEACE!

Cyndi

Creative Heart Monday - "Circles"

Happy Monday to all of you Creative Hearts!

Today, I'm into circles, circles, and more circles.  This is a playful piece with lots of color and a nod to Valentine's Day.......and my 26th anniversary.



List of Supplies"

Liquitex Gesso - White
Liquitex Basics Acrylic Paint - Cerulean Blue Hue, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Medium Magenta, Deep Violet, Black, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow Light, Green Gold,
DecoArt Media Sprays - Magenta, Turquoise
DecoArt Decou-Page
Various stencils - hand-cut and purchased
my Gel Prints cut in circles

Stay tuned - this week I'll be trying out my new, round, printing plate by Gel Press.  I plan to video my printing process

Have a wonderful week.

Peace!!

Cyndi

Mixed Media Textured Heart

I saw someone using poultry grit the other day on a canvas.  So.....I have chickens.....I have poultry grit.....I must do this too.

If you don't have poultry grit in your art supply arsenel, that's alright.  Just build a chicken coop in your backyard.....purchase 3 or 4 chickens.....wait 6 months and you will need poultry grit to add to their chicken feed.

OR

go to a seed and feed store and buy a bag.  (actually, you could, probably use very small aquarium gravel)

This is a very quick project,  Waiting for the molding paste to dry takes the most time.

I covered a 5" X 5" canvas with Golden Molding Paste, using a pallet knife.

Then, painted the piece with various pinks and purples.  Added stenciling with Donna Downey Mini Numbers stencil.

Here comes the Poultry Grit......

I applied molding paste in the shape of a heart, sprinkled on the grit, making sure to cover all of the molding paste.  Let it sit for a few minutes, then tap gently to remove excess grit.

I let the grit and molding paste harden overnight, then painted it black.

Then, sponged on red and magenta paint, so that the black was still visible.  I added black charcoal pencil around the edges.  Then sprayed with a fixitive to seal in the charcoal pencil.

I will spray the entire piece with a glossy sealer.  I haven't done that yet.

So, that's it.....my chicken grit heart!  I plan to use this chicken grit on a larger project.  I'm envisioning all of the possibilities.

Maybe next time I'll try mealworms......just kidding.

Peace!

Cyndi

Creative Heart Monday - Gelli Print Box

Happy Monday to all of you Creative Hearts!

Today, I'm creating a little box, using prints that I, previously, made on my gelli plate.

List of Supplies

Box or whatever you would like to cover.  Something with smooth sides works best
Paper - I made my own prints on the gelli plate, but  you could use scrapbook paper, book pages, sheet music, wrapping paper, etc.
Decou-Page by Americana
Black Pigma Micon Pen
Black Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen
Marvy Calligraphy Pen
Black Sharpie Pen
Minwax Water-Based Polycrylic - Clear Gloss

This is an easy project with endless possibilities.  Here are a few other pieces that I've made.

Have a wonderful week!

Peace!

Cyndi

Doin' Deco Video

I became a member of the DecoArt Blogger Outreach program.  I'll be creating some projects using DecoArt supplies and making some videos.  Because I like to name everything, I'll be calling my DecoArt videos and posts - Doin' Deco.......catchy....don't you think?  I'll have to work on a cute logo.

This is my first Doin' Deco video.





List of Supplies:

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Raw Umber and Paynes Grey
Americana Paints (also by DecoArt) - Bleached Sand, Warm White, Raw Umber, Alizarin Crimson, Citron Green
DecoArt Media Misters - Purple, Turquoise, and Primary Magenta
White Gesso
Decou-Page (also DecoArt)
DecoArt AmericanaDecor stencil - #201504
Black Charcoal Pencil
Miscellaneous book pages and scrapbook paper (I found the starfish online)
Various stamps
Ranger Archival Ink.

You can find all of the DecoArt Supplies here.

Peace!!

Cyndi

Valentine Gelli Print Art

Valentine's Day is also my anniversary.....26 years!

So, in honor of such a very, very long time, I did a little gelli art.

I started with 2, pre-gessoed, panel canvases (5" X 7").  Using Tim Holtz Distress Stain in the dabber bottles, I started the background.

Then added a little stenciling and markmaking, with black and white gesso, and Americana - Turquoise

Grabbed some collage papers from a Shawn Petite collage pak.

Cut some hearts and strips from my gelli prints and adhered with Liquitex Matte Medium.

Added some little pink hearts, outlined with white Gellyroll pen, then outlined everything with a black charcoal pencil

and, Voila....his and hers Valentine/Anniversary art!

Peace!

Cyndi

Creative Heart Monday "Mixed Media....Audrey?"

Happy Monday Everyone!!

Today, I've created another face.....a turned face.  I've been working on my 3/4 faces.  This one is more like a 7/8 face (maybe not....fractions have never been my strong suit).

I started with a colorful background.  Just playing around with various stencils, mark-making tools and colors. Then I used a stencil that I bought online from Gary Reef, a very talented artist.  He sent it to me online and I cut it out myself on a plastic file folder.  I've used this stencil many times with various mediums.  I'm pretty sure that it's Audrey Hepburn....but I just used the general shape and painted my own face with acrylic paint and Prismacolor pencils.  If you are interested in wonderful "face painting info", check out Jane Davenport.  She does the most beautiful faces.  I purchased one of her DVD's a few years ago and it was wonderful.  All of a sudden, I could paint a face!  Now that I'm thinking about it, I think the first encounter with her art was a $1.99 video that I downloaded from Interweave, where she did a face over a decorative napkin.  (and yes, I did one too, see bottom)

For all of you, gelli plate, enthusiasts out there, this could have been created using a gelli print for the background.  I've done that before.  Actually, I mean't to do it this time.....then forgot.

List of Supplies:

Strathmore Bristol Paper

Golden Fluid Acrylics - Turqoise (Phyalo), Quinacridone Magenta, Carbon Black

Americana Paint - Citron Green, Carousel Pink

Liquitex - Cadmium Orange Hue

Liquitex White Gesso

Prismacolor Pencils - various colors

Pigma Micron Black Pen

White Gellyroll Pen

Montana Paint Pen - White

Black Charcoal Pencil

Various Stencils for background

Catalyst Scraper for markmaking

My "napkin" face from a few years ago. I still have this piece and I have always referred to it as "Butthead".  It does look like she has a butt on her head, doesn't it??

Have a wonderful Monday!!

Peace!

Cyndi