Letting go go Perfection and a Little Gelli Printing

Okay, so for years I have been that "perfect" scrapper.  You know the one... 90 degree angles, balanced embellishments, matchy matchy papers and core elements.  I loved how some of the pages in the galleries looked all mish mash and messy but I could never allow myself to add that feather embellishment from the package on my page because "What did a feather have to do with my page?"  Oh the anxiety...!  Then came all of the sprays and inks and water color painting... I thought I did good with the distressing on the edges (what was that soooo 2002?) Oh the insanity!  How could you just willy nilly spray and add drops on to a perfectly designed page that took you HOURS to complete?  What if you messed up or the drops got on your favorite picture or you hated it... NO THANK YOU!

....And then I met this group of girls who I do a stash swap with, and over the last few months we have chatted and traded ideas and encouragement.  Lately a few of us have pondered whether or not to change the name of our little clique from "ScrapHappy Stash Swap" to "Enablers Anonymous."  The reason I joined the group was to get rid of exactly this stuff I had and wasn't using.  Then it happened YouTube videos, Spreecasts, and the constant *blip* of my Facebook chat that told stories of amazing discoveries and opened up questions like "Does any one have deli paper I could trade ____ for?"  Wait...  "WHAT is this deli paper and WHY do I NEED it RIGHT NOW?"  (See "Enablers Anonymous" for sure!) That is the moment I jumped in and won't ever look back.

There used to be something so freeing about cutting up beautiful pattern paper, that you never want to admit you spent more than your kids' allowance on, just to turn around and glue it all back together to result in this perfectly planned page or card that was a work of art.  Then this new version of messy came and the word art took on a whole new meaning and a whole new level of fun.

Finally after weeks of chatting about it I dove in last night for my FIRST messy experiment... it went like this:
-Step one:  Procrastinate and look on FB, IG, watch TV.... too scary.
-Step two:  Take a deep breath and get out the supplies.

-Step three:  The kids see you and look interested so you show them the YouTube video.  They ooh and ah, so you know you are on the right path!
-Step four: DO IT!
Not even one whole swoop in my son decided he had to replicate the YouTube video and pushed me out of the way... how can I say no that bonding time?   Other than the fact he is stealing my new toy!
   

Proud Mommy moment ahead.  As soon as the boy got done with his 6 step project, he decided that it was a good night note for his sister who was at a sleepover a few houses down... so we walked at 920pm to deliver the first ever made Gelli print!  (I know the pic isn't great but it is something I wanted to remember...) 

So once I got back the Gelli Plate and had my turn on it....I WAS IN HEAVEN!!  Colors, and messes, and papers everywhere.  You really can't go wrong here!  It is just one creation after another with paint all over, but so worth it.  

Although there are no rules to this here are some things I learned: 

-Sometimes it is hard to know what you are going to create but try to keep your darker colors early on in the process.  It all ends up weirdly "sandwiched" and you can see all the layers but the darker colors cover up some beautiful work.

-Acrylic paint is awesome!  It comes off of everything BUT the paper!  We had it all over the table, our hands, the brayer had it caked on it, and all we needed was some warm water and baby wipes. 

-The video shows some cool circles cut out of plastic and I couldn't for the life of me couldn't find my transparency sheets so I just cut from the plastic packaging of the stencils and it worked great!!! We did this for leaf shapes, and squares, and letters! 

-You can use anything to add texture and create shadows and texture to your images... paper towels, tissue paper, bubble wrap, cloth. 

-The paint dries on the brayer and after several layers it wasn't a smooth application on the Gelli Plate so I did have to stop and clean that off before I could go on. 

-I personally LOVE the shimmery look that the videos show and they are transparent enough that you can see all the cool layers under as you add more and more.  BUT they are NOT good for words or letters, use a darker or more solid paint for that. 

-I used the brayer to get a good solid impression.   I did just like the video and added the paper then brayered over it all. 

-The glitter paints do not work for patterns. 

-Some of the best results are the ones you weren't even creating!

Here are just a few of last night's projects: 

The top left are 4x6 cards and next to that 3x4 cards

The bottom with the pink is our "smoosh sheet" 

 Another of our "smoosh sheets" I will use for something!!

An up close view of the shimmer from on of the 3x4 cards.  This was also a card I just kept adding all the negatives to from the plate after I was done with that stencil. 

Now get out your paints and Gelli Plate and own your mess!  What is your experience?  Any favorite recipes?