Celeste In The Midst of Snow Flurries

Celeste in the Midst of Snow FlurriesI created this background using Tracey's gel press system.  This will be my first attempt at a photo tutorial.  Quite frankly, Tracey's Youtube tutorials on this technique are excellent.  I try to copy her as much as I can, with maybe one or two small twists.

First of all, I do not own any brushos, but I find that Ken Oliver's colorburst crystals work just as well.  Here are some of the colors I have:  Lemon Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Orange, Crimson Red, Merlot, Sepia, Lime Green, Spring Green, Teal, Terre Verte, Blue, Violet, Orchid, and Indigo.

After mixing a small amount (less than the size of a green pea) of these crystals and lots of water, I'm ready to begin:

You can use any smooth cardstock, but I find multifarious cards to be the best for these backgrounds.  X-Press it blending cards come close. It has a better price point but is not as thick.  For this example I used the multifarious card.

I selected Wilted Violet distress oxide as my base layer and brayered it onto a 5 x 7 gel press:

I mixed some pearl mica powder with water in a little sprayer and sprayed onto the middle of the gel press.

Using a fan brush, I flicked some yellow ochre onto the center of the gel press.

Next I flicked some crimson red and teal going outward towards the edges and 2 corners.

I sprinkled some violet on the other 2 corners.

Finally I sprinkled some Indigo around all the edges.

Now it's time to place the multifarious card on top of the gel press and see what kind of print we get.   A word of caution:  do not wait too long to pull the paper from the gel press, you won't get any movement because it'll be too dried.  I counted to 5 while smoothing over the cardstock over the gel press and pulled it right after counting to 5.   And you can pull from top to bottome, left to right, or one corner to the opposite corner.  Experiment!!   

And this is what I got.

After it's dried, I cut it to size and it's ready to be stamped on.

I decided to stamp Celeste in the middle and have different snow flakes with different colors and generational stampings all around this beautiful fairy.  I heat embossed some snowflakes with white, pink, and sparkly snow embossing powders.  I darkened the edges with blue bell and Fantasia Verssaclair inks and this project is done!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have fun creating your unique gel press background!!