I saw this cool idea on Pinterest and ran down the tutorial. Fun! I start the paper with watercolor and dye sprays and do the doodling while watching rugby or cycle racing (while it isn't football season). Here are my first two papers.
The pad underneath this is the paper I used, Canson XL. It's lightweight and should make a good background paper.
Some experiments with Gelli printing using stencils on fabrics this time. I used unprimed canvas pieces and bleached and unbleached muslin. I left the fabrics dry; I might try wet for a different look next time. This wasn't really any messier than using paper, surprisingly. I kept the paint layers fairly thin. I started out mixing the paints with fabric medium 1:1, but I decided that because I won't be washing the pieces, there wasn't any reason for it. I think the stencils with the most open spaces worked best.
Finished! I think. At least I'm far enough along that I can hold it in my hands and leaf through the pages. I may string some beads on the spine cords if I can find some beads I like. There are 14 signatures and the cover is acrylic-painted anaglypta wallpaper. I wanted to make a true softcover book with just the wallpaper but decided that I'd need a little more strength so I used pieces of a cereal box. I got the idea for the spine from a YouTube video–don't remember whose–when I was looking for tape binding tutorials.
Some of the prints can stand as is and some are dying for embellishment. I imagine this as an art journal with only some pages used for journaling. I used LOTS of commercial stencils and masks and some of my own made with commercial hand-cuts and die-cuts. These are mainly Gelli plate and gelatin prints but some are spray-paint stencil prints I made last weekend. I may do some more of these if our weekend is as nice as its supposed to be.
The month of April was a blur. I managed to get some art wedged in, but I didn't get my final composition lesson finished before the class closed. There was always that chance, given the timing of Jim's surgery. We're nearly back to what passes for normal around here, so I celebrated by making more Gelli prints over the weekend. I also did some spray painting with stencils with the Liquitex spray paints, as the weather was nice enough to work outside. These are low odor paints, but not low odor enough for me to use down in the studio, especially when I already have a cold. 
I do have a plan for all these prints, at least the first hundred or so. All the prints I made this weekend were on the backs of other prints. I'm going to make some journals out of them as soon as I figure out how I want to bind them. I should probably practice my Coptic stitch, but I have a piece of anaglypta wallpaper that I painted that I want to use for the cover and I want to use it pretty much as is. I have another idea that might work. Now if I can just get a chance to try it.
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