Pretty Little Pockets Tutorial using Gelli® Prints

I have a little tutorial for you today! Want to make these pretty little pockets? If you're at all like me and have a Gelli®-plate, you have stacks of gorgeous prints, and you need ways to use them! How about some flower toppers for sheer white envelopes? 

I also made a big pile of pockets with recycled kraft-colored envelopes. Any color of envelope would be pretty!

Once you start making these, you just might not want to stop! :)

Yes, see that round blue thing in the photo above? It's the round 6" Gelli®-plate. I love it in all it's stained glory! ;)

You will need:

- sewing machine
- black (or any other color you wish) sewing thread (make sure the bobbin has black thread too. Teehee. I made the mistake and totally forgot about that part with the first pocket I made.)
- white glassine envelopes (the ones I used are 3 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches in size) Found them in the cake decorating section of Michaels.
- acetate/transparency
- ruler
- trimmer
- scissors
- various Gelli®-prints - some of them had defined lines, and others were busier. It doesn't really matter. They end up pretty no matter what type of prints you choose, I think! Do you have no idea what Gelli® prints are?!? Oh my goodness! Do check out my other posts about it, or check out the Gelli®Arts website!  
- Bic white-out pen (The white Signo Uni-ball would work too.)
- irRESISTable Pico Embellishers in Neon Orange and Neon Pink (or puff paint)
- washi tape
- Neocolors2 wax water-soluable crayons
- black Stabilo All pencil
- waterbrush or a plain brush
- Gelatos
- paper doilies (I used a set from the cake decorating supply section at Michaels.)
- glue dots or some other adhesive (a simple glue stick works too) or a stapler
- fine line markers (optional)
- flowers template (optional) Download template HERE

Envelopes:

1. Cut transparency/acetate into a 4 inch square. If you have different sized envelopes, just measure accordingly, leaving a border all around for the stitching.

2. With an envelope opener (or knife or scissors), cut open two edges of the glassine envelope. Open and lay flat.

3. Mark out a 3 1/2 inch square with pencil on the front of the envelope lightly, making sure it's mostly centered. Cut out the opening with scissors.

4. Take the acetate square, and with a small bit of washi tape, secure it to the back of the envelope, covering up the window, making sure you leave enough overlapping all around so that you can sew it to the envelope.

5. With sewing machine, sew around all the edges of the window, as shown in the photos. On some of them, I stitched double rows, and others I did not. Remove the washi tape.

6. Close the envelope up, and sew closed around the two sides and bottom.

Flowers:

1. I have included a template you can download for free if you don't want to freehand the flowers. Click on photo for this safe download. Once downloaded, print it off, then cut out the flowers to use as a template.

Sorry about the blue corner lower left. Not sure how that came to be there. LOL

1. Select a few Gelli®-prints, Choose based on color. Intricate patterns or a simple circle pattern are lovely too. You might want to experiment a little, to see what you like the best.

2. Place the flowers on a Gelli® print, trace around the flowers with the black Stabilo All pencil.

Alternately, if you don't want to use the template, with the black Stabilo All, freehand a circle directly on the prints, then petals all around,

I don't worry too much about evenly sized petals. Just wing it. ;)

3. Wet the lines with a waterbrush or just a normal paint brush. Let dry.

4. With a coordinating NeoColors2 crayon, add some color to the middle and on one edge of each petal.

5. Wet with brush and blend. Let dry. (Partially at least. I'm often too impatient...)

6. Add three different colors of Gelatos to the petals and middle. I used colors Bubble Gum, Passion Fruit and Lavender. For a contrasting look, add a different color to the base of each petal. (Which I've done on other flowers, but not this one.)  Let dry (mostly).

I added the two colors in similar areas, close to the base of each petal, blending outward with more water to eliminate hard lines as best as I could.

7. Add the same lines as the black ones with the white-put pen, messily following the lines of the black pencil. But don't sweat it. You don't want the white lines exactly where the black lines are. Carelessly is key here! LOL

I added small dots in the middle, along with a few larger ones. I find them so cute!

8. With the Pico Embellisher, add dots to the middles and the petals. See photos for placement. Let dry.

9. Cut out each flower with the scissors.

10. Attach to envelope with glue dots or staple to pockets. On some of them, I folded the flower in two, and tucked the back half into the front of the envelope. On others, I added a paper doily behind the flower first.Add some washi tape, and maybe some more of that Pico Embellisher around the window. I doodled with a marker on a few of them.

And there you have it! Now find some goodies to fill the little pocket, and send to an artist friend! Or add it to your next art journaling page! :)

With these flower pockets, I used pink and turquoise sewing thread instead of black.

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna

Happy Mail Fun

Been busy making happy mail for some art journalers that is seriously overdue! Stealing moments to do this. 15 minutes here and there. My kitchen table has barely been recognizable this past week, as it's full of the yummy artsy goodies all over the place. Hubby's working very late most nights this week, so I figured it's a good time to do it. :)

Top left: making 12 sets of numbers from 1 to 31, identical to the ones I use in my DLP project.

An index card prepped with clear gesso gave the paper extra tooth for the paint to grab on to, and wow, loved the results! I used pencil crayons, Neocolor 2 crayons and Inktense pencils, then added smaller details with a black fine-line Sharpie and white with the Uniball Signo white gel pen.

Here, I re-created my 2014 DLP journal cover. That was fun!

Completely deviating from my usual color palette! The last few weeks I have made a huge pile of Gelli-prints. The background of this one is one of them. I really loved how the excess paint created an interesting texture. I added a chevron mask to the plate before I pulled a print. Next I added dimension with a black Stabilo All pencil, and added some stamped flowers using my own hand-carved stamps. Then added more details with a Bic White-out pen, a fountain pen and other fun details, including modeling paste through a stencil, then adding shine with Inka Gold paste. FUN FUN!

This was a really quick doodle, not spending any time thinking through things. I kinda like it! I started with an old print using Dylusions ink sprays through a stencil. I added doodles with fountain pen, a black Stabilo All watercolor pencil and the Bic White-out pen.

Hope will fall like rain. Isn't that great? It's a line from Toby Mac's Speak Life song. It's my favorite inspirational song ever. I included those lines in an illegible way in the background of my watercolor bubbles, seen on the right of above photo. The flower on the left is a hand-carved stamp, with many added doodles on top. Sequins make anything look prettier, right? Oh, and the best for last: the kraft envelope: it's a recycled bag from my friend's scrapbook store. I cut the bag into four, sewed the edges, added deckled edges where it needed it, added washi tape, and glued down my flower. :) 

Just had to share, as it's so fun to do. :)

Happy creating!

Anna