Gelli Plate Monoprint Video Tutorial

As a printmaker, I am always looking for fun and unique techniques to incorporate into my art projects. I generally am accustomed to more traditional printing techniques, however I am always on the lookout for new printing ideas and ways to incorporate printmaking into my mixed media projects. I absolutely love creating monoprints and was excited to find this video.  Creating monoprints with gelli plates is not a new concept, however using stencils and acrylic paint to create one of a kind prints is a new take on an old art form.  Gelli plates have been all the rage lately, so I am glad that I can share this tutorial with all of you so that you too can add printmaking to your artistic arsenal of tricks.

The materials you will need include:
Acrylic paint
Brayer
Gelli plate
Stencils
Paper towels
White paper or cardstock

I cannot wait to add gelli plate printing to my art journal, mixed media art, and cardmaking. I hope you enjoyed this video and are inspired to give printmaking a try.  It is a quick and easy way to create layers in your mixed media projects... especially if you do not have a lot of stamps or stencils.  Leaves, diecuts, lace, or textured fabric can be used instead of stencils to create patterns and textures on the gelli plate.  The monoprinting capabilities are endless!

Thanks for stopping by the Copper Blossom blog tonight. Remember to follow, share, and subscribe. As always, I hope all of you have a great week. ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤

Throwback Thursday - Painting A Time Capsule

Hello again.  I hope everyone is having a great day so far.  Before I share my artwork with you, I thought that I would give everyone an update on my current life situation.  I had no idea that my blog post two days ago was going to garner so much attention.  This whole situation has been far worse than a nightmare, and has not improved since my last post. Today is payday, and just as I suspected, I did not get paid again.  The corporate office in New York was able to change my pay rate and job title last week, but they have done nothing to remedy the amount of money being taken from my paychecks.  The corporate office must also release a written statement to me and the union declaring why I was listed as having a different job, pay rate, and benefits for over a month despite management and HR having knowledge of my job change.  Many employees at my work have changed jobs, scheduled hours, and benefits without any problems.  Why was this particular job change so difficult for them? Why was I harassed about my job choice after returning to work from medical leave when my previous job was given to another employee? Why did an HR person publicly humiliate me and accuse me of unemployment fraud in front of an entire food court of people? In the end, the people who have made my life hardly tolerable at work will see no consequences for their actions.  On the bright side, the union representatives at my work have been vigilantly fighting for me and are trying to get me some form of payment by tomorrow.  My work is also trying to reinstate my insurance for the remainder of the year (probably so they do not have to pay back the majority of the money they took from me).  I have a meeting with management and the union tomorrow, so I will let all of you know the outcome of that meeting.

My boyfriend is still in the hospital.  I got to visit him last night after work for a while, but I am afraid to report that his condition has not improved. The doctor's tried to clean out his GI system yesterday so that they could surgically give him a feeding tube through his abdominal wall into his small intestine.  Unfortunately, his GI tract is not active enough to clear out the waste despite all of the bowl cleansing treatments they had given him yesterday. The doctor's discovered that the bits of food that make it passed his stomach end up collecting in the small intestine where it compacts.  As of now, the doctor's are unsure of how to fix this.  All of his nutrition is currently being given through an IV pic line in his arm.  There is a possibility that he may never be able to eat real food again.

Besides all of the chaos in my life, I am doing well. I am trying to stay focused on the Thanksgiving festivities planned for next week.  My family is celebrating Thanksgiving a little differently this year.  Instead of making a traditional turkey dinner, we are having a lasagna cook off! My brother and I both claim to have the best lasagna, so we decided to have a cook off and let the family decide.  I make a traditional lasagna (based on my grandmother's recipe) with Mediterranean spices and cheeses, focusing the most attention on the sauce.  My brother makes a 3 meat/4 cheese lasagna with a generic spaghetti sauce from a can, but focuses on the treatment of the meat.  I feel like my brother has an unfair advantage since my sister-in-law's entire family hates vegitables ... but my mother (who also uses my grandmother's recipe) will also be there to judge the lasagna.

Anyway, today for throwback Thursday I thought I would share an acrylic painting I made for my niece.  This painting was a gift for her 14th Birthday three summers ago.  I thought it would be fun to paint her something that included everything she loved at the time.  She absolutely loves this painting and claims it is one of her most prized possessions. As she gets older she will be able to look back at this painting and remember the things she liked growing up.  It is like a personal time capsule. The canvas this is painted on measures 36"x48".  The painting is eclectic and fun, full of butterflies, skulls, flowers, hearts, stars, spiders, and peace signs. I am not able to show the entire painting to you because her name, birthday, and other private information is painted all over the canvas. I did take a couple pictures of my favorite blue skull and the queen banner next to it.

I love how this painting turned out.  I love the idea behind it so much that I will be painting a time capsule for my nephew's 13th Birthday this summer.  I hope this inspires you to get children involved in art and to give them gifts from the heart. Thank you so much for stopping by.  Please remember to follow or subscribe to the blog if you enjoy my posts.  I appreciate all the comments and shares on social media.  Have a great afternoon everyone.  ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤

Throw Back Thursday - Koi Paintings

Hello again.  I hope everyone is having a great week so far.  I am still shocked that it is November already.  I saw a facebook post last night that said there are only 50 days until Christmas.  HOLY COW!  With me just getting back on my feet after a long medical leave, the word Christmas scares me. I am creative though, and will be working on some great handmade gifts this holiday season.... if I can find the time. I have been feeling a bit burned out lately from work and am having a harder than usual time feeling inspired. I hope I can get my mojo back quickly because I have a lot of gifts to create in not a lot of time.

I have also been feeling down in the dumps lately.  I have been back to work for nearly a month now and still have not gotten paid. Because I had so many problems with my short term disability insurance while on medical leave, I was unable to keep up on my medical insurance payments.  I had been off work for five and a half months which was already financially difficult.  Then I was cut off from my short term disability in September leaving me without an income.  I returned to work in October but knew I would not see my first couple paychecks due to being behind on my medical insurance payments.  Here it is November, and I still have no income.  I can honestly say that I am sick of having no money to pay my rent or bills because of medical insurance costs.  I remain hopeful that I will get a partial paycheck next week so I can start getting caught up on my bills, but I will not hold my breath.  Also due to my lack of finances, my Etsy shop will be suspended starting tomorrow.  I will get the shop back up as soon as I have the money to do so, but even a couple dollars is hard for me to come by right now. 

Despite all the hardships I am facing emotionally and financially, I am a little excited for the holidays. Hope is a powerful thing and I will try to keep my spirits up the best that I can. Sharing my art with all of you is one of the few joys in my life that keeps me going. Since it is Thursday, I thought I would share a couple koi paintings I gave to my sister-in-law for Christmas in 2012.  These paintings were created using acrylic paint on stretched canvas.  I absolutely love drawing tattoo flash, and was inspired to create these paintings when my sister-in-law fell in love with a koi fish tattoo I had drawn.  These painting now hang in my brother's house.

As always, thank you for stopping by the blog!  I greatly appreciate all of the social media shares and comments I receive from all of you.  If you enjoy my blog, please follow or subscribe via e-mail.  Thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your day! ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤

Life-Long Dreams Of A Wildlife Painter

To be honest, I did not have a topic or piece of art to share with you today.  I am still working on the finishing touches of my Tattered Halloween digital scrapbook kit, and am also working on a few other projects I plan to share with everyone throughout the week.  I was thinking that mybe I should start vlogging soon... perhaps this weekend?  I do have specific projects lined up to vlog about, but need to set up a specific art area.  Blogging in bed works... but vlogging in bed would be weird.  (My bed tends to be where all the art creating magic happens in my house... oddly).  Today was just an aimless day and I ended up not really doing anything.  I was going to dye my hair... that didn't happen.  Then I thought I would finish some digital projects... that didn't happen either.  Instead, all I could think about was starting a couple knitting projects.  I literally spent the entire day looking at knitting patterns.  Why knitting?  Your guess is as good as mine.

I admire all artists and their passion towards a specific genre of art.... but I seem to love doing it all.  I don't just create art in one genre or express interest in one hobby.  I am a printmaker, a wildlife artist, a graphic designer, a mixed media artist, a quilter, a hair dresser, a knitter, a scientist, a baker, a sculptor, a spiritualist, a papercrafter, a gardener, and a dreamer all wrapped into one person.  Heck, I'm still considering becoming a tattoo artist or archaeologist one day.  Am I the only person who has no specific direction in life or feels lost 90% of the time?  Perhaps my desire to knit stems from the fact that I have been spending so much time in front of my computer lately?  Maybe this newfound desire is a message from my subconscious signally my body to become grounded again?  Whatever the reason may be, I think I will be shopping for yarn tomorrow.

As I pondered about what I had just written above, it dawned on me that I haven't shared any of my wildlife paintings on this blog.  I am a wildlife painter (among other things) after all.  I have been drawing and painting photo-realistic animals and plants since I was 6 years old.  That year I had a major tendon surgery on my clubfoot and spent an entire summer drawing and coloring in a leg cast.  (Ironically... that is how I spent this entire summer).  My whole artistic existence would not be a part of this reality if it weren't for me being born crippled.  I still have a deep love of painting wildlife, but find that it is the most time consuming of all my artistic pursuits.   I have put my paints away, but I know I will bring them back out one day when the urge hits.

This acrylic painting "Parrot Love" took me 5 years to finish. I definitely had a love hate relationship with parts of this painting, but in the end, it is definitely one of the best paintings I have ever done.  I finished painting it last fall and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. I initially put this painting up for sale in my Etsy Shop, but my Mom begged me to give this painting to her.  She loved it and couldn't believe I wanted to sell it so fast.  I had mixed feelings about selling it anyway, so I gave this painting to my Mom for Christmas.  It worked out well because I now have the opportunity to enter this painting into the Birds In Art show at Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum of Wausau.  It has been a lifelong dream of mine to have art exhibited at that show.  Thousands of artists from around the world enter their bird related artwork into the competition.  The museum hand selects roughly 100 pieces to be exhibited.  The art selected for the show ends up traveling around the world.  The winning artist of the competition receives the title "Master Wildlife Artist" and has their art published in periodicals and magazines nationally.  Due to my surgery, I was unable to enter "Parrot Love" for consideration last spring.  I do plan on entering next year though.

Click the link below if you are interesting in learning about this years Birds In Art show.  I believe the exhibit just opened to the public a couple days ago.    2015 Birds In Art Video

I hope you enjoyed this blog post.  Please feel free to follow this blog via google+ or email so you never have to miss another post or announcement.  Remember to check out my Etsy shop and facebook page!  Have a great night.  ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤

Gel Medium Image Transfer

It's late here in Wisconsin but I thought I would share a how to video from The Frugal Crafter.  She has an excellent assortment of how to videos and product demos so you know which products will work best for your art needs.  I absolutely love her videos, and definitely wanted to share this one she recently posted.

Image transfer using gel medium is a great technique and can be applied to nearly all types of projects.  I've seen this technique done with photos to create beautiful coasters or canvas art.  This technique is also a great way to create shabby chic or grunge art. The project possibilities are endless.  This technique does work best on flat porous surfaces like gesso coated cardstock or chipboard, but can be used on wood, canvas, fabric, plastic, or stone tiles with a little finesse.  I also want to mention that you can substitute mod podge for gloss gel medium.... they both do the same thing and create the same results.  I have found that white school glue will transfer an image, but the image does not transfer as cleanly.

The only supplies you really need to create an image transfer is a photocopied image on plain printer paper, gloss gel medium/mod podge, sealant, and the surface you plan to transfer the image on.  If you do not have acrylic gloss gel medium or mod podge, Wal-Mart sells both for around $4.00.  You can also skip the sealant and use mod podge or acrylic gel medium to protect the transferred image.  I do recommend a spray sealant if you are using this technique on coasters or projects that will have some wear and tear.

I hope the video inspires you to try this image transfer technique.  If there are any other art projects or techniques you would like to see on my blog, please feel free to comment below.  Also make sure to follow this blog and like our facebook page. Thanks for stopping by!  ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤