Opposites Attract – Marsha Valk

CS Opposites Attract logo

It is another Tuesday and therefore time for my Creative Squad to show you a fun project. The theme for March is Opposites Attract and the team will use my new Bird Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set. Just as opposite colors on a color wheel highlight one another, or yin and yang fit together so comfortably, sometimes the best is brought out when we celebrate extreme differences!

We’re very excited to share with you the very colorful, layered mono prints by Marsha Valk.  Take a look at her nifty interpretation of our theme!

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Marsha March Headshot

 

My thoughts on the theme ‘Opposites Attract’ were positive vs. negative and opposite colours on the colour wheel. And that immediately made me think… monoprints!
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I started with sketching different placements on a scrap of paper so I could figure out how many masks and stencils I would need of the bird shape. Turned out I needed one stencil and three masks. I made them by stamping the solid foam bird shape onto transparencies and scraps of paper and then cutting them out.
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I decided to use my 6 x 6 inch Gelli Plate so I could have a nice white border around my monoprinted images. I started with the yellow/purple print: added black acrylic paint to the Gelli Plate, put my handmade bird stencil on top, masked off part of the stencil with a handmade bird shape mask and then pulled the print and cleaned the plate.
I added yellow paint to the plate, positioned my bird stencil on the print with repositionable adhesive, pulled another print and cleaned the plate.
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When the print was dry I masked off three birds on the paper using repositionable adhesive. Then I added purple paint to the Gelli Plate, created a pattern on top using the stencil and masks that come with the Bird Foam Stamp and pulled a print on a scrap piece of paper. Then I removed the stencil and masks and pulled a ghost print with my original paper.
Once I had removed all masks and any adhesive residue that was left on my print, I stamped the foam stamp bird with yellow paint on top of the negative (white) bird shape and the cling rubber bird with black ink on top of the yellow bird shape.
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The second print was created in a similar way, but this time my black ghost print background didn’t work out as I wished. So I ended up adding another green colour and I stenciled the plant shapes over it with white paint.
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The last print on blue paper was a ghost print that I pulled to clean the Gelli Plate and that I stamped over with the foam stamp bird.
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Monoprinting like this is always a puzzle and rest assured that I had a few misprints too. I will keep those around for other projects! Whilst choosing my paint colours, I discovered that I hardly ever go for opposites on the colour wheel. It was fun to try this with a limited colour palette, out of my comfort zone!
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I love how Marsha showed how to use all three stamp surfaces together, by creating a reverse print of the solid foam stamp, and using the patterned side of it to stamp on top.  The layering and colors are super intriguing.
Besides the supplies listed below, Marsha also used black and blue cardstock to create these prints:
SuppliesCJS



Maybe you will even play along -we would love to see how you interpret the theme – email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share what you did at the beginning of next month!

See you next Tuesday for the another project with the theme ‘Opposites Attact’.

Comments (6)

  • A Year of Favorites from 2016

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    […] Creative Squad joined our team for a week of mixed media fun! You can see from this peek at Marsha Valk’s project during the hop that it was full of vibrant […]

    Reply

  • Karen Petitt

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    Please come teach me how to use a Gelli plate like that! Your projects are stunning. And the more I see of these new stamps the more I want them. Many thanks for the blog hop, the fabulous inspiration and for sharing your art with us Karen x

    Reply

  • gwenlafleur

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    Love how these turned out! Such cool compositions… and I really love your interpretation of the theme!

    Reply

  • Joi@RR

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    So unique and fun Marsha. What great colors. It’s so amazing to see how Nat’s birds look so different in so many settings. HAPPY ST. PATRICK’s DAY!!! j.

    Reply

  • Michelle LaPoint Rydell

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    Beautiful work with the theme Marsha! I love your opposite colors, and how you layered the birds!

    Reply

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