ICAD 2019 Week 8 by Miekie Part 1

We have reached the penultimate week of the ICAD 2019 challenge and the end is in sight. The Index Card A Day challenge has been rather taxaing and there were times when I had been strained to fit it into the normal routine of my life, but I am glad that I have persisted. I once again use the Gelli Plate to prepare the backgrounds for Week 8's cards. The inspiration for this week was Mandalas and Circles.

I start the challenge on these index cards.

I will be using my Gelli Plate for the surface preparations.

I start by squirting some Iris acrylic paint onto the Gelli Plate and then spritzing it with water to thin it.

I brayer it onto the plate and then drop some silver Bianjo acrylic paint onto the plate.

I brayer this onto the plate.

I decide to use these running figures from my cake decorating tools to create the image for day 50. The theme for this day is 'escape.'

I lay the figures on the wet paint.

I lift the figures away and press the index card onto the plate.

I pull this print away from the gelli plate.

I then hand over to a friend who was visiting nad had been watching what I was doing with mounting curiosity. She opted to use the Fluorescent colours from Iris.

The transparent colours almost disappeared when she brayered them and she added more opaque colours.

The colours still faded and she added some Titanium White.

She brayered only very slightly.

She also liked the figures I had been using and wished to use this set of cake decorating supplies.

She placed the figures on the gelli plate.

She favoured the hearts that came with this set.

The hearts were added to the plate.

This is what it looked like when she pulled the figures away.

She pressed the card onto the gelli plate.

Sadly, the print did not come out very successfully. We put it aside.

She used the same colours as before, but in greater amounts.

The same stencils were used.

The same index card was placed on the plate.

The image was still very feint.

I advised her to put a clean card on the plate and to take a second print of the same image.

This time the image was much clearer. This card would work beautifully for day 52, with the theme of friendship.

I started the next card with silver acrylic paint from Zellen's acrylic range, Zelcryl.

As the theme for day 51 was numbers, I wrote some numbers in the wet paint with a ball tool.

We decided to use the 'flopped' card from the previous attempt.

I pressed the card onto the plate.

I pulled this print away from the plate.

My friend decided to give it another go and opted for two shades of blue, one by Iris, and one by Amsterdam.

After brayering the paint feintly, she used the ball tool to draw concentric circles in the wet paint.

The theme for day 56 was spin and this would work well for the theme.

She brayered a card onto the plate.

Then came the task of lifting the card away. Finally I could take a photo of how this is done, as normally my hands are occupied when I do this myself.

This is the print she pulled away from the plate.

I then used a warm colour from Bianjo and spritzed it with water to thin it.

It was brayered onto the plate.

I found some more tools in my cake decorating stash to use. The theme for day 53 was note to self, and these tags seemed just the thing for this theme.

I placed the images on the wet paint.

The tags were also placed on the wet paint.

I brayered an index card onto the images.

I lifted a feint image away, but this was enough for a descent background.

My friend then decided to use the 'spilled' paint that we had scooped onto a piece of paper to start the next print with.

She simply brayered an index card onto this paint.

She pulled a slightly messy card away with this print.

I then suggested we use Payne's Grey by Dala.

I brayered this onto the plate.

I followed this with Daler Rowney Silver.

I brayered this.

I then found this embossing folder in my cake decorating stash. This would work nicely for the theme of day 55, which was pendulum, as the old grandfather clocks used to have pendulums.

I pressed the image onto the wet paint.

Pulling the embossing folder away, the image that was left on the plate looked like this.

I brayered a card onto the plate.

This is the print I pulled away from the plate.

My friend then decided to add some purple and gold to the plate.

I suggested we spritz the paint with water.

She brayered the paint onto the plate.

She decided to use the card from before.

She brayered the 'messy' card from earlier onto the plate.

We only managed to make the card appear even messier.

I then covered the plate in Titanium White and spritzed it with water.

I then added gold.

I would try this print on the card.

I placed the image on the plate.

I brayered a card onto the plate.

The image was much too feint, but I could work with the background. I would use this card for day 54, with the theme of shadow.

The completed set of prepared backgrounds.

In the following blog I will show how I turned these backgrounds into these cards.

You can watch a compilation video of the above steps on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/sY_vZruD4Rs

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
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