Good Morning Creatives!
If you’ve been following along with our Faithful Sunday, you know that usually, they are showing off my FABULOUS Faith Impressions line for Gel Press.
Today, I wanted to show you a little something different: Petite Plates. This collection “Sweet Nature” is one of my newest faves for Bible Journaling.
With the release of 3 different styles of the Illustrating Bibles from Dayspring, the wider margins are really opening up the possibilities for using ALL of your Gel Press plates in your Bible journaling.
Ingredients
- “Sweet Nature” Petite Plates
- Alcohol Ink
- Silver Acrylic Paint
- Gel Press Brayer
- Texture Plate
- Marabou Graphix Fineliner in Black
- Watercolors (or watered-down acrylic)
Beautiful Butterflies!
Alcohol ink on my Gel Press plates is one of my all-time favorite techniques! The fast-drying alcohol inks allow for super crisp textures while keeping the vibrant colors of the inks.
To start, gather your supplies, choosing a variety of alcohol ink colors.
Next, find a surface to apply the butterfly wing plate from the ” Sweet Nature” set. An acrylic block is perfect for this!
Dot your alcohol inks on your plate and using the “tapping” technique, move your alcohol ink across your plate.
TIP: Using colors from the same color family adds depth and decreases the potential for making “mud” if you over-mix it.
Now it’s time to add texture! Once your ink is dry, press your texture plate onto your gel plate. This texture plate from Carabelle Studios is one of my favorite because of all the different shapes make for endless possibilities.
Now simply flip your block over and “stamp” your butterfly wing into your Bible.
To create the other half of your butterfly, simply flip your wing over on your acrylic block and repeat these same steps!
Completing your background is time to play! Use different colors and textures to make a bevy of beautiful butterflies!
Finishing Touches
My finishing touches were simple: add a halo of yellow watercolor around my butterflies to make them POP, accent my “halo” with a black Marabou Graphic Liner pen and add my title.
Here are a few close-ups!
Closing Thoughts
You might notice a little something out of whack in my finished project.
Here it is again…
Do you see those green and pink splashes of color at the top? Those purple smudges here and there?
Those were not there when I walked away from the project.
I came home from work ready to take my final pictures and found that my 9-year-old daughter had been “creating” in my studio (which she does often!) and I found that she was “creating” on top of my finished project. (insert face palm emoji times 5!!)
I wanted to be mad at her (ok…I totally was at first), but then I remembered that she is still learning. She is still figuring things out.
It’s my job, as her mom, to be her shelter. Just like the scripture says that God hides us in the shadow of His wings, it’s my job to hide her under mine.
Would I rather this project be the way I left it? The perfectionist in me says “YES!” But…I wouldn’t have the memory of finding her often being creative in the same place that I create. I wouldn’t have a reminder of what my job as a mom is. I wouldn’t have a little piece of her forever enshrined in my journaling Bible.
It’s easy to focus on the negative, but…what if we focused rather on what that negative thing has to teach us? It’s much easier to not get stuck in the realm of negativity if we know that we are going to be stronger, wiser and a better person after the fact.
Until next time...
xoxo,
Keri
