'Tis the Season for Giving!

Hello out there in blogland! Looooong time since my last blog post, but I've been busy on YouTube, Ustream and my Inky Obsessions FaceBook page. Lots going on besides my usual schedule and a BIG announcement coming. Did I say...

BIG???

As with most BIG announcements, you have to wait until just the right time. We are almost there, just not quite, but please do stay tuned and trust me, as soon as I can spill the beans, you'll hear it shouted from the rooftops! BIG!!!

In the meantime, and in the spirit of giving, what's say we have a little giveaway? Cheri at iStencils has very generously agreed to offer two $50 iStencil Gift Certificates to my subscribers! If you follow iStencils on FaceBook you already know they've been running a 20% discount storewide. I'll plan to do a Ustream video and invite Cheri to join. I'll demo a bunch of my favorites of their 2,600+ designs -- YES -- 2,600+ designs. I'll advise the date and time of the Ustream very soon. For those of you who cannot stream, I'll be uploading the recording to YouTube as soon as the Ustream concludes. I'll randomly pick two lucky subscribers for the $50 gift certificates. Those I choose from will be subbies on YouTube and Ustream and follow my art FaceBook page Inky Obsessions. I feel that its the least I can do to pick from those of you who faithfully follow me everywhere. So if you're not yet following me everywhere, sign up soon so you don't lose your chance to win! 

Here are a few pics of some of my recent projects.

This is a mixed media painted collage that I was working on during my latest Ustream. The video is available on Ustream and YouTube now. I added some final layer marks after the stream shut down. I like this one.

I was trying to channel Jane Davies while I was doing this one. She has such a free, loose, easy style that I thought it would be easier to replicate some of her techniques into my own projects. Don't let her ease fool you. She's just really, really good! 

This one is a work in progress, but I really like the bright colors so far. Who knows how it will end up. 

This is a canvas a friend asked me to make for her. She gave me an idea of the colors she wanted and free reign to take it any direction. Here's where I landed. She loves it. I used a couple Dyan Revealey tips with some Donna Downey thrown in with my hand and marks.

  

Stay tuned for the announcement of the Ustream for my iStencils $50 gift certificate giveaway! The best way to stay up to date with everything I'm doing is to follow me on my FaceBook art page, Inky Obsessions. That's the quickest and easiest way for me to reach the majority of people and I post everything I do on that page first. Hope you'll join me there too! 

Enjoy the holiday season and I hope you all feel the warm spirit of giving all year! 

Happy Arting, 

Patti 

My Name is Patti, and I'm an Addict! I admit I have a problem!

I am officially addicted to my Gelli Plates! Yes, I said plate's', plural! I now have all three of those babies - thank you Santa! I don't know if its how fast you can produce such great prints or if its the suspense wondering what the next pull will reveal. But its something very addicting for sure. My hubby keeps asking, Babe, what are you going to do with all those papers? (God love him, he just doesn't get it!) Ummmm, I'm going to look at them! Hello!!! I did get myself a Cinch Binder Tool with my gift certificate he got me at The Queen's Ink, so some of my prints will live to become a page in a book. Some are so cool I hate to punch holes in them. I'm thinking a 10' x 10' frame with a gynormous collage of all my favs??? That should go over big! Hon, we need to rent a forklift to get my collage upstairs!!! 

In doing all these prints, I'm learning a thing or two about the gelli plate and the results you can get from pulls done a particular way. Being the open and giving person that I am (makes me sound nice, doesn't it?), I decided to try my hand at making a YouTube video. So don't you know that halfway thru what I was doing, my iPhone stops filming - apparently I have a storage issue - but I decided to upload that puppy anyway since it did tape the segment showing what I set out to convey. You can (and really REALLY should, hint hint!) check out my YouTube premier here. I watch tons of YouTube videos and I think I've watched every Gelli Plate out there, and I can honestly say that I've never seen one with someone doing this 'clean up' technique the way I do it. Now I'm not near cocky enough to think that I am the only person in the Gelli Plate kingdom that does this, but I am saying I have yet to see a video about it. These next prints are earlier examples of the results I got when I used the same technique I demo in the video. And I still don't know what to call it - Double Dip Whammy Clean-Up Pull? (Perhaps not!) 

I LOVE how this one came out! You can see the shadows in the green metallic of the remnants that were lifted from the dirty plate. This is one of my favs! Definitely going in the 10' x 10' collage! 

 You can see on this one that only what was the positive part of the stencil is showing the shadows I picked up. This process is covered in the video. 

 I'm not wild about this one, but its not finished yet either. This was just a clean up thru a circle stencil using Golden Interference Violet on black card stock. 

Another print using the positive remains of the stencil. 

So back to the regular ole basic printing, not the Double Dippy Clean Up Whammy prints - hey - that does sort of just roll off the tongue, doesn't it??? Be prepared to keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and...

 I am crazy about this 3D stencil. I've used it a lot as you will see, but its really cool!

 If you look really, really close, you'll see that crackle pattern under the black stencil print.

 This is a close up of a pull of the 3D stencil. Looks like an octopus tentacle -- I have to be very careful when I say that word aloud! 

 This one was used as the banner on the Dyan Reaveley Society closed group page on FaceBook! 

 See what I mean about this 3D stencil? Love it! 

And the aftermath: 

That's all for now folks! And if your hand is killing you from all this scrolling, I can recommend a great Carpal Tunnel doc! 

Oh, and guess what I'm doing tonight??? My friend Jodi is coming over for a playdate -- wait for it -- on the Gelli Plate!!! Yay!!! 

Oh, did I mention you should really, REALLY take a look at my video??? Just sayin'! Since its my first take, I'd welcome your input and feedback. 

Thanks again for taking your precious time to stop by and see what I've been up to lately. 

Take care, 

Patti