An Elephant never forgets….

An Elephant never forgets….

Hi there!
Thanks for popping in.
Needed an hour of play to unwind this evening,
work a few things out in my head…
something has got right under my skin,
so out with our elephant stencil and the Gel plate.
Wasn’t sure where to go, but just wanted to play,
with no fear of going wrong, 
no worries about getting it just so for this ‘ere blog.
Pure distraction therapy.
So climb aboard for an arty ride.
There are several stops along the way;
you can get off where you like.
Me? I’m staying on till the end.
Spread a little pink ink over the 6” x 6” Gel Press plate 
with a brayer.
The gel plate should be mounted on our Megamount.
You will see why in a min.

Place the stencil on the card
 and then squish the gel plate down on it
See?
Pink Elephant!
Don’t get off yet!
There’s loads more to do!!!

Now add a little grey over the elephant stencil, 
which is still on the Gel plate.

Lift the stencil off the Gel plate.
Get another piece of card and flip the gel plate 
to make another print.

Grey elephant.

So now we have two backgrounds….

I will go with the grey one.
Outline the elephant with a fine line pen.

Replace the stencil and sponge a little of the 
Moon Crater Artistry ink into the areas,
to create shade.

While the stencil is still in place, lay the lace over the top of the stencil,
add a little grey to the Gel plate,
and then squish the grey ink through the lace.

Texture in the elephant.

Lift the stencil and press the Gel plate onto the artwork
There will be some grey lacework still on the plate,
 so let’s use it to tone down the pink.

That worked.
Want to get off?

Add shade with a matching pencil.

Trim the edge back and darken the sides with a vignette of the same grey colour.
This Moon Crater is delightful; it has a grey teal colour.

Will that do? Naaaah.
Let’s funk it up a bit.
Oi!! I said FUNK!!!!
Bit of Zentangle,
bit of a doodle.
I’m no expert, but I do love to doodle and fill, don’t you?
 There is a new member in the Design team, Anne Ruffles.
Wait till you see her Zentangle work.
U N B E L I E V A B L E.

Bit iffy, but that’ll do.
I shall have to have a lesson with Anne!!

In for a penny in for a pound!!
I know we should have stopped about half an hour ago, 
but this is the way to learn!
Now I know to practice on scrap first.
I could have used the other pink elephant !

I think a little shading will help, to make it pop.
And a few stamped shapes in the background… 

The shading helps…

That will really have to do,
because dinner is ready.
Mounted on one of our Northern Lights background papers,
that doesn’t look half bad. 

Now what was it I was so fed up about?
Can’t remember…

so it can’t be worth remembering.
Because an elephant never forgets – the important things.
Love & hugs
Barb
xxx

71 thoughts on “An Elephant never forgets….

  1. Cannot put into words, the wonder I felt when seeing this art-work. I'll try – absolutely mind blowingly wonderful.
    Having a rough time at the minute – 30 rough sleepers and their detris in our car park. Intimidating and frightening. I could go on but – Nothing being done about it. Well I am off to do a Barbara and get out my gel plate and then maybe I will be able to sleep tonight.Thank you for such an inspiring blog and have ordered some wonderful papers.
    Love Anne (Reading)

  2. Wow, I was on till the end! I love this elephant and the stag too great for doodling through as the holes are not too big or small. Would love some more animals like these…you know when you're not too busy 😱. Xx

  3. Just beautiful glad it's helped what ever it was it's not worth remembering lovely lady enjoy your evening and tomorrow is another day . A goodnight sleep and hopefully the sun will shine sending hugs xx

    1. Morning Donna,
      Knee is improving ( I think) thank you. Very miserable here at the moment. Soon be half term for you so you can have lots of plays then! Love and hugs Alison xx

  4. Amazing Barbara, love it. Thank you for sharing. I would stay on to the end. Spookily, I was making art in my head this afternoon, using that same stencil, and the words – never forget, but I filled with a couple of stamps. Nothing like as good as yours. Zentangle, never did manage to 'get' that. Love what you have done with it, but I seem to be missing the bit that would let me make some myself. Maybe too abstract for my Asperger brain. Now if it were to see patterns in things…

    So glad getting arty sorted out in your head. Hope it wasn't what I wondered might do that to you, because that most definitely is not worth a moment of your thoughts/time. Hope you enjoy your tea. I had tasty soup, despite this being the time of year when veggie boxes are very limited in their offerings.

    Love Brenda xx

    1. Hello Brenda good to hear you are doing art in your head. We are new to the veggie box scheme, we had chard in our box this week, not one I've come across before, it's interesting working out what to do with it isn't it. Sending hugs to you and Daisy xxx

    2. It's even more interesting when you get something you've never seen before so haven't a clue what it's called to google it!!!! But now that rarely happens to me fortunately as the box I get I get to choose each week what I want. And if there's a strange substitute my lovely veggie man tells me what it is, I think he realises I'm not adventurous so unlikely to know. I love my veggie boxes. Aye, art in my head is a good start until/in-between I can try for real xx

  5. Hi Barbara
    Pink elephants! It's a bit early in the evening for them 😀! Love this, I must have a go as I bought this stencil after seeing Maria use it last year. The zentangle is great over the top, I need to practise this too. Hope you can relax this evening and your worry doesn't return
    Love Diane xxx

  6. Oh, I love this! Will definitely be giving it a go. I've already made two cards for our daughter with this stencil (she loves elephants) but neither was as pretty as this. Once again, thank you for the inspiration, Barbara xx
    PS I hope the distraction therapy worked 🙂

  7. Great art – love elephants and this is just fab! Wish I could get into my craft room to play as in desperate need of some crafting therapy but until the major complete house clearout is done I daren't take a few hours off or I'd never start again – lol! At least some progress is being made – destashed another cupboard today!!!

  8. This is absolutely gorgeous!
    The only thing I would have made different is not cutting it down as I do love the irregular edges from the prints, it looks more arty.
    Elephants are my favourite animals and I collect them. This stencil has been used on several pictures and always looks great.

  9. Love it. Almost worth having the need to unwind? Good art can come out of negative as well as positive thoughts. To create what appears to be a well thought out masterpiece "on the hoof" amazes me. I'm not worthy… x

  10. Thanks Barbara! Now I've got the tune from Nellie the Elephant in my mind and it just won't go away. The artwork is fabulous though. I'm glad you kept going and didn't stop half way because I was able to learn even more from you as you carried on to the end. I hope it helped you unwind as you completed it and that you were able to bury the gremlin that had been annoying you. Art really is the best therapy isn't it? So I'll leave you now and off I'll go with a trumpety trump, trump, trump, trump! xx

  11. Very arty Barbara. I would have definitely stayed on until the end. I still have a mental block using the gelli plate. I have everything I need to do this so hopefully with the step by step I will be able to achieve something similar. Hope it took your mind off what is bothering you and you can have fresh start tomorrow.xx

  12. Love your artwork today gorgeous, glad its taken away your worries. Would love to try this, but got lost reading it, will read again tomorrow. Too much Billy Fury tonight I expect. Went to the Playhouse Theatre in Weston Super Mare for a tribute to Billy concert, it was brilliant. He was my idol in the 60's and 70's. Only booked it this morning, needed cheering up and cheered up I was singing along to all the songs. Terrible voice now good job no one could hear me. You'd never guess we sat in our seats, Pete looked round and in the same numbered seats behind us were friends of ours who'd been given their tickets by her daughter as a birthday gift. Coincidence or what? A lovely surprise for us all.xxx

  13. Beautiful artwork, and love the zentangle use. Re the stuff that gets under the skin – I love the idea "will this matter in the light of eternity?" Works for me anyway xx

  14. I love that doodling Barbara and the colours on the elephant and that bit of lace stencilling has worked a treat, and a lovely background too. Glad that this has taken your stress and concerns away. Hope you enjoyed your dinner. x

  15. Morning Barb,
    I love this and stayed till the end! I agree with Jane that this would look lovely framed up in you little personal gallery. Glad to hear that your head cleared after completing this and hope that today is better. Love and hugs Alison xx

    1. Morning bloggy friends,
      Well my parchment sympathy card turned out well after resting overnight. I finished off the white work yesterday morning and was impressed at how white it was. I mounted it on one of the Nirthern Lights papers and it really worked well. Had to go to the funeral yesterday ( it was a neighbour of my parents) and the lovely church warden gave my a chair at the back next to a radiator because I couldn't bend my knee enough to sit comfortably in the pews. I thought that was really kind of her. Well I hope that today is good for you all, love and hugs Alison xxxx

  16. Morning Barbara beautiful artwork I love this stencil and glad it cleared your head from whatever was bothering you, a wee bit crafty time does the same for me takes me out of the real world just for a while.
    When you've time can you do something beautiful to with the pink elephant print would be great.
    Take care..Love Dot.xx

  17. A wonderful piece of artwork. I love it!! Beautiful stencil, gorgeous in every way. If only I could accomplish as much as you do in an hour!
    Tonbridge Sue

  18. Morning Barbara, this is stunning I think this a must have .lots of ideas with this one your take on this is wonderful.
    Caught up with Maria s shows lots of tips as always, it does help even if you have seen Maria do thing's before as it always jogs the old grey cells.
    Love the cats and dogs.
    Lynn xx

Leave a Reply to Theresa Pace Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *