Today’s prompt is to create a repeating or all over design.

My original idea was to have this be the background of the page, but two things happened: I decided that the design was so busy I needed to cover part of it if it was actually going to be a background and I liked it enough that I didn’t want to cover any of it.   A conundrum for sure and one I waffled about, till I decided to embellish what I had and leave it as an all over design, hoping inspiration might strike with an idea of what else it could become.

The implementation left a bit to be desired in as much as what I saw in my mind’s eye isn’t what I ended up with, but it’s finished.  I don’t hate it, but am not in love with it either.  That inspiration I was hoping would surface never quite did.

I’ve been messing with the Gel Press Petites and knew I could make an interesting all over design with them, so out came the Set A, which includes a circle, square, and triangle.  I also pulled out some of the Flora & Fronds 6″ x 9″ Stencil/Mask Combos.  At the end of October I was away demoing at a trade show and had a couple of hours one afternoon where it wasn’t busy so I could play aimlessly.  I discovered that combing and repeating the Petites shapes made for interesting patterning and that was the jumping off point for today’s page.

Using a ruler, I drew two lines at the halfway point of the page, one in each direction.  Where they crossed is the approximate center of the page and where I wanted to begin my design.

See how the point of the triangle is on the point where the lines cross?  That was where I knew I needed to place the plate once I had it inked and ready to go.  I have the triangle Gel Press Petite Plate mounted on a 4″ x 4″ Acrylic Stamp Mount, which allows me to use it like a stamp.

On the plate: Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise and Funky Fuchsia Paint, just a dab of each.  The triangle is only 3″ long on any side, so anything more than a dab is gonna make a mess.  As usual, I’m using a Speedball Soft Rubber Brayer.

Once the paint has been brayered into a thin layer, it’s time to apply a mask.  This is from the 6″ x 9″ Flora & Fronds #12 Combo and, along with #11, are my favorites.

See how there is less paint around the mask now?  It’s because I used a piece of scratch paper, laid it over the mask, and gently pressed it into the paint which causes it to lift onto the paper.  The area right around the mask tends to hold onto the paint, and of course what’s under the mask remains too, all of which makes for an interesting look once you print.

What I missed photographing, but that you can see here if you look closely, is the step of applying plastic canvas to the plate, BEFORE the mask is removed, but AFTER the paint is lifted as in the step above.  That presses the grid pattern into the paint, creating additional texture.  Once you do that, remove the plastic canvas and the mask, and print!

Pretty cool, huh?

Now it’s time to arrange them into a pattern…

In the case of this page, I’m going for a hexagon.

Six equilateral triangles, arranged like this, creates a hexagon.

Since I wanted the background to repeat, I needed to fill in the rest of the space.  The hexagon is still there in the middle, with the addition of some other triangles on the side.

Ah, background complete.  I like it.

This is where things went awry.  I really liked what I had but was not sure where to go next, so I took a stab at outlining the triangle with a black marker.  Hmmmn.  I’m not thrilled, so decided to add more to see if it would get better.  (it didn’t)

Out came the white marker and I fell back on dots, which are one of my go-to design elements, though this time I’m kind of wishing I’d gone elsewhere.  It’s ok, but I’m definitely not in love with it, though I’ll finish the page so it’s all the same.

Finished.  I could still scrape white gesso over areas to calm it down, then add some images, but at this point will probably just leave it alone.  On the plus side, I really like the colors!