More Gelly Pen Experiments...multi colors!

I have had a very busy day - we are getting ready to take our younger son back to college and tonight we went to a family dinner so we could see lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents before he leaves. I also taught a class on Full Page Designs and I am getting a few new files and articles ready to send to Custom Crops.

If you haven't checked out the Mystery Challenge projects yet be sure to visit the Custom Crops site to see them. Here is a LINK to the explanation about the Challenge and there are links to each Designer at the bottom of the page. There is an amazing variety in the projects and the choices each designer made to use all of the items we were sent. This direct LINK will take you straight to my project. I'd love it if you would write a review of my project on the site. This is the first time Custom Crops has done this type of challenge and they are looking for feedback

I had been thinking about more projects I could do with the gelly pens and I also had "hide selected contour" on my mind. Provo Craft asked people to send in some Design Studio files so they could test them on the new Gypsy device and I sent a group including some where I used "hide selected contour" because we have been told that the Gypsy software does not have this feature so I was curious to see if they would be "cuttable" using the Gypsy. I'll let you know if I hear anything about the results.

It occurred to me that, by using "hide selected contour" I could use the gelly pens to create multicolor designs. I found a simple design from Accent Essentials to test my theory. I made a file with separate pages for red, green and blue pens - and it worked just fine!



Here you can see the blue circles as they are added to the green design.




The red circles are filling in in this photo. There were few spots where the pens skipped a tiny bit (gelly pens just do this sometimes) so I drew each page twice to insure that all of the colors were complete.



The last step was to cut the design out using the shadow feature on the cartridge.

Here is a more detailed explanation of the file:



I chose this element on the Accent Essentials cartridge for my "trial run" on this technique.



Here is the element as it appears when you add it to the mat - I made my sample four inches but I will try doing some smaller versions soon.



On the first page of the file - the RED page - I hid everything but the circles you can see in this screen shot.



For the second page - the BLUE page - I hid the items that I would draw in red as well as others that I was saving for...



the third page - the GREEN page where I hid all of the red and blue circles leaving these to draw in green ink.



Finally, I put the shadow of the element on the fourth page - the CUT page - and my file was ready to test. I changed the pen color and "cut" each page in turn - then I put in the blade housing and actually cut the final circle.



I really like this efffect and I have all sorts of ideas for various combinations of colors and cuts to create many new designs.



If you want to try this, you will need the gelly pens and the holder. These are from Scrappy-Go-Lucky - here is a LINK to the US site of this Australian company. These are made in the US and shipped directly from the manufacturer in Utah to US customers so they arrive quickly. The precision holder is finely crafted and the pens work with a magnet system which makes it so simple to use. There are no moving parts in the holder that might need to be replaced and it is easy to slide in the pen - it "clicks" as it connects with the magnet in the holder. Then you just insert the holder in place of the usual blade housing. The holder places the pens at just the right height every time.

I like the holder and the pens so much that I have agreed to be on the design team for Scrappy-Go-Lucky and I will be creating a few projects each month that will be featuring the use of these pens on Cricut designs. I have a new blinkie in the side column which will take you to the Scrappy-Go-Lucky US site.

If you want to take a look at the file and try it out you can download it here.

Multi Color Circles Medallion