May Photo a Day

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Heat Tool

At the beginning of April I purchased the most amazing tool ever. It was sold as a tool that burns wood 'Pyrography Wood burning Tool Pyromaster Dual Heat' I bought it from Antex.  It came with 18 different tips. It has other uses apart from making marks on wood. Some of the tips can be used for cutting and bonding synthetic fabric; this is really useful as it stops the fabric from fraying as the heat melts and bonds the fibres together. I have used it to etch photographs, this is really effective and gives the photography a completely new look. I am also going to try printing with an etched photograph as I feel the etching is deep enough to leave a mark on the gelli-plate. Watch this space...

But my all time favourite thing I can do with the heat tool is cut stencils!!! I use acetate/transparency film to make my stencils. I would normally use a craft knife to cut the design out but after a short while it would hurt my finger, using this heat heat tool it makes it so much easier and I can't believe how much quicker it is too. I am so pleased with it. I am sure I will find other uses for it!

Cut Print Stamp

Here are the latest cards that I have made. These three have all been made using my monoprints and cut-out flowers. I really like the colours I have used for these cards. I particularly like the one on the right-hand side, I like the way the red works with the teal. To make these I cut the larger flowers out by hand, I have made my own flower stencil that I draw around on the back of the monoprint, then I cut the flowers out using a scalpel. The smaller flowers are created using a paper punch.

Cut Print Stamp

This is a birthday card that I made.


As I am addicted to using my Gelli printing plate I have a massive pile of monoprints waiting to be cut up to be used for cards and other art and crafting projects. I love using my monoprints in my card making as it makes the cards even more original and special. I printed the background using my Gelli plate. The paper picks up all the marks and textures that are on the Gelli plate, it can be quite surprising the amount of detail that can be achieved. I cut-out the circles from red paper using my circle cutter, the red paper matched the red in the print and complimented the teal flowers. I used a stencil as a guide to cut-out the larger flowers from a monoprint and the smaller flowers were created using a little flower punch, punched out from textured paper.

My art and the cards I make have become so much more colourful since using the Gelli plate, I have become braver with colour combination. I really loved how this card all fitted together. I hope you enjoy this weeks offering.