We're Not Playing Games Here

What do you do when things don't work out the way you planned? 

You play tiddlywinks!

Just kidding!

Here's the real story.  

I've been making stencils on my sister's Cricut.  I have found that copier transparencies work pretty well but are prone to tearing at weak spots.  So, I was trying out different materials. I had a piece of thicker plastic for which I had high hopes.  I set it all up, using a fairly intricate tree pattern. Fingers crossed, I pushed the go button and watched the cutting arm maneuver back and forth, up and down.  About 5-10 minutes later it was done.

Fail.

What I had at the end was a piece of plastic with a lovely design of groves which didn't go all the way through.  

Of course, if I had tried it out on a sample piece first, adjusting the settings, It might have worked.  

Oh well.

I set it aside and went back to using the transparencies. 

This one left me with a whole pile of little plastic dots which I just couldn't throw away.

 

I tossed a handful on a 12" gel plate, covered it all with pink and yellow paint, and pulled a print.

It's amazing the texture you can get from smooth plastic.

I loved it, but of course, one thing leads to another.  Especially in gel printing.  I thought some larger circles could be fun.  And then I saw that failed stencil laying there.  

I cut that loser into a bunch of circles!

Here you can see the etched lines.  I had a hunch they might show up in the prints.

And boy, did they ever!  So cool!

And the playing of "tiddlywinks" ensued.

A big advantage to putting the stencils down before the paint is not having to hurry; you can think and rearrange to your heart's content without fear of drying paint.

The one down side to this is having to remove all the circles at the end but I think it might be worth it.

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