gelli printing....paper stacking

i played in the studio with my gelli plate this week. painting, layering, printing, stacking.....

 what i have discovered is that i really like to print on patterned paper. do you have scrapbook paper that you no longer use?.....(come on....i know you do! i have a ton!!) so, get it out and print onto that.

see this light green paper with the swirls in this corner? i liked it when i bought it; still like it, but, am probably not going to use it. so i gelli printed onto it! and now i really love it because it is painted, and, i can still see the pattern. now i will cut it up to put into something else. you can see i will print onto almost anything....scrapbook paper, newspaper, deli paper, and below....patterned envelopes.

Roben-Marie was the one who turned me onto looking through the junk mail for cool patterned envelopes. like i needed one more paper thing to collect....but, i do love them! i also printed into my art journal to use as backgrounds for other drawings and what have you....check these out below.

 while printing in my art journal, i was working on multiple pages and discovered that if i used plastic 3-ring dividers that i could put those between the pages and keep working and printing. they work great and the pages won't stick together.

once you start printing you can end up with a stack of papers....i have been cutting mine up and using some of them to put in other art, like my bird below....

see my arrows? both of those paper strips are gelli printed patterned paper that i cut up to use with this painting. i also did a little sewing add texture and interest. i then, used ink to paint in the sewing and washi tape to distinguish the head.