Good Morning Creatives!!
Keri Sallee here with a new project for Faithful Sunday!
Today, I wanted to show you a technique that allows you to do two bible journaling projects from one print on your Faith Impressions by Keri Salle for Gel Press plates!
Waste NOT!
If you are like me, I am always looking for a way to extend my products so they last longer, without having to sacrifice my art to do it.
That’s why I have been playing around trying to figure new ways to use my Gel Press plates more efficiently.
New Start
Before I dig into the “meat” of today’s project, I wanted to share with you an easy little secret I starting doing to prep my margins SUPER fast.
By simply braying your clear gesso on to your Faith Impressions border plate, you can then easily line up and apply your clear gesso to have your margin prepped in a snap.
Simply peel your Gel Plate off and VOILA…done. (You will notice that my “clear” gesso background is actually pink. I had some pink alcohol ink leftover on my brayer and it tinted my clear gesso. I decide I liked the pink background so I kept it!!)
Project #1!
Project number 1 is all about using your Faith Impressions plate almost a “pallet.”
QUICK NOTE: This technique works best if you if you have used your border plate to apply your gesso and then start this technique using the wet leftover gesso on your plate.
Start by adding alcohol inks to your wet clear gessoed plate.
Why keep it wet? Number 1: It allows your alcohol inks to naturally disburse and mingle together so that you don’t need to brayer them. Number 2: The wet gesso extends the drying time of your alcohol inks (which dry notoriously fast!) so that you have more time to “play.”
Working while your alcohol inks are still wet, grab the foam stamp of your choice and “stamp” into your wet ink, making sure to cover the whole stamp.
QUICK TIP: If you are a “margins only” Bible Journaler like me, use a scrap of paper with a straight edge to keep your stamp from crossing over onto your words.
You can see that using your boarder plate to DIY your alcohol ink pad, you get a beautiful mix of colors without having to work too hard for it!
To finish it up, I added a “sun” using acrylic paint on the Faith Impressions scalloped circle plate and some words.
Here is the finished project #1 again:
Can you see the “secret” journaling?! I added some special words to the border, but disguised them as doodles! You can read the words “remember,” “no fear,” and not alone.”
A few close-ups!
Project #2
When I was done with the above page, I still had TONS of alcohol inks on my plate that I wanted to still use.
You can see the imprint from my cactus has left some great texture.
To “lift” my leftover dried alcohol ink, I simply brayed a layer of a light brown acrylic paint over my inks. Doing this gives my alcohol ink something to “stick” to instead of my plate.
Apply your Faith Impressions plate as normal. Once I flipped it over onto my Bible Margin, I allowed it to sit there for a few minutes. Since this was the first time I have tried this technique, I wanted to make sure I got a good transfer.
Removing leaves you, not only a beautiful background, but the bottom layer of clear gesso adds a touch of texture to you page.
To finish up, I added some letter stickers and journaling.
Ready for my close-ups!
Final Thoughts
Wanna know a secret?
Totally messed up on my first project and had throw a “hail mary” to fix it.
Here’s what I did….
(insert that little face palm emoji) Why don’t pencils come with spellcheck!?
Pencil does not erase very well on this type of clear gesso so when I saw what I had done, I thought “oh no…am I going to have redo all this!?” And entered freakout mode.
After I calmed down, I realized there was an easy solution.
I used my scalloped circle from my Faith Impressions kit with some yellow acrylic paint to mimic a sun and it covered the mess-up perfectly! (and a cactus needs a lot of sun right?!?!
Then…I had to stop and laugh at myself.
Here I am journaling about not being fearful and I freak out over something as small as a misspelled word. (facepalm emoji again!)
Mistakes happen.
We live in an imperfect world and things will never be perfect.
So we have to make a choice…live in fear of making mistakes or fearful of the consequences OR…we can make the choice to feel the fear, but don’t live there.
Feel it. Then find a way to move forward through it.
Move forward…even if it’s a struggle.
Until next time,
XOXO,
Keri Sallee
