New tools

I was reading Laura's blog last week and saw she had decorated a journal cover with circles of corrugated cardboard.  It not only looked cool, but it got me thinking...would this work as a stamp?  or a rubbing plate?  or both?

So I made one and tried it out.

I cut different size circles out of different types of corrugated cardboard and glued them to a 6x8 piece of heavy cardboard.  I covered it with a few coats of matte medium to seal it before I started using it with paint.

Here's how it looks as a rubbing plate (copy paper placed on top and rubbed with a black crayola)

 Here's what it looks like as a stamp (rolled paint onto stamp with a brayer, pressed it onto copy paper):

So far so good.

I decided to try it on the gelli plate.

I rolled on a thick layer of paint with the brayer, pressed the stamp in the paint, lifted it off and pulled the first print:

There was enough paint left on the plate to pull another print, which I liked even better:

  

Then I pressed the still wet stamp onto the now clean gelli plate and pulled a print of that:

(I like the way the original red paint on the stamp came through on this print)

 I decided to try layering a few of these techniques and I was really pleased with the results. 

 

I now have a whole new way to paint papers for backgrounds and collage fodder.  Many thanks to Laura for the inspiration! 

But that's not my only new tool of the week.

Every day for the last three days I've walked past the same piece of trash on the side of the road.  This morning I could resist it no longer.  Even though I was more than a mile from home, I picked it up and carried it on the rest of my walk.

 I suspect it was part of a large plastic egg carton, but now it's my new favorite printing tool for the gelli plate.

Here's a simple print after the bottom of the tray was pressed in wet paint:

For this one I pressed both the top and bottom of the crate into the paint:

I then layered the ghost print from the orange paint on top of my first green print:

For this one, there was still orange paint on the bottom of the tray when I pushed it into the blue paint.  Happy accident!

I made a bunch of different prints and then cut some up for a quick postcard:

Fun, Fun, Fun.

I'm so glad I finally stopped and picked this up.

What's you're favorite unconventional art tool?