Trust the Mess.

I'm not really sure why, but I am most happy when making a mess! I just love having my hands in the paint ... 

This page started when I was messing around with my Gelli plate and some Deli paper. I played about with a few layers on the Gelli plate using my fingers (not a brayer) and then used gel medium to stick it to a layer of vintage sheet music. And because Deli paper is translucent you can see the sheet music peeking through:

(oops upside down - sorry LOL!)

I wrote 'Trust the Mess' with the 'wrong' end of a paintbrush dipped in calligraphy ink ...

And added a few paper houses and a bit of doodling:

I added it to my junk journal, which is a great place to house my messy experiments:

This is how I create my messy Gelli-Deli backgrounds. I choose my paint colours, and for this page I used Talens Amsterdam Acrylics. *LOVE* these paints and they are brilliant on the Gelli plate:

I spread the first colour with my hands leaving plenty of space:

The first print:

I then left the remains of the first colour, and added a second colour:

And then a third:

So by now it looks like this. Messy isn't it?!

I added another colour and then placed a Dylusions stencil on top. I first pressed the deli paper down to pick up a dot pattern, and then pressed the painty side of the stencil down on the deli paper to get the reverse design:

Then I did the same thing with another colour and one of the new Tim Holtz layering stencils:

And through all of this I managed to get two prints each time, so now I have two messy, grungy Gelli-Deli prints to play with:

It's messy, painty, grungy and fun! Go ahead and try it. Embrace the mess.

By the way, if you're coming along to my painting workshop at Art from the Heart tomorrow, don't bother having a manicure first. Just saying ;-)

Now, before I go, I just wanted to say a massive thank you for your amazing and fantastic support for my new ETSY shop. I was totally overwhelmed by the response ... and I'm pretty much sold out. Need to get busy again ... watch this space .....

And if you haven't signed up for my fabulous 21 Secrets Live give-away, look here for all the deets ... you have until Friday 20th to sign up .......

Byeeeeeee!