Gelli Plate Fun!

Hello friends!  Christmas is just around the corner, and luckily I have finished making and addressing my holiday cards, so all I have left to do is mail them.  Today's post is two pictures of a print that I pulled from my Gelli Plate. I hope you enjoy viewing it.

This print was made using three colors of acrylic paint on my Gelli Plate. I then positioned the Bloom plastic stencil from Color Box on top of the plate, and pressed a sheet of white card stock down on it.  This is what they call the first pull.  For the second print from this same plate, I removed the stencil and then pressed another sheet of white card down on top of the plate and pressed on it again.

This is what they call a second pull.  Most artists like the second pull better than the first, probably because it has more color and texture to it.  It really depends on the stencil used and the color saturation on the Gelli Plate.

On my first print above, I didn't get a clear print in the center of the design. So I used a small flourish swirl stamp to stamp a design in the center. You can see on the second pull where the center came out complete.  The pressure you use when pressing the paper on top of the stencil and plate depends on how much paint or ink is pulled up by the paper.  That's what makes this technique so much fun, you never know what to expect when you pull up a print.  Some you like, and some you don't!

I happened to like both of these, and have made cards from both of them. Stay tuned to see the completed cards in a day or two. Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Week filled with happiness and blessings for you and your families.

Mindy

Merry Christmas

Hello friends! I have been playing with my Gelli Plate that I purchased recently. I have been learning how to apply the paint and inks, how much pressure to apply to the paper when pulling prints, and ways to use the prints on cards and projects once they are done. Here is a card I printed and pulled recently.

This was the first pull of a design I did on my 3"X 5" gelli plate.  I laid down 3 shades of pink and red paint on the gelli plate.  I then laid the 6" Bloom plastic stencil from Color Box on top of the plate.

I scored my 5.5" X 8.5" piece of white card stock at the center (4.25") then laid the card down on the stencil so that the floral design would be on the front right corner.  I then applied light pressure to the card so that it would pick up the paint through the flower stencil.  That is what you call the "first pull."

While the print dried I die cut the words Merry Christmas using the Holiday Compliments die from Die-versions, and glued it to the card front with white craft glue.

I also have two cards that will show "first and second pull" on one plate, that I will share on Sunday.  

Please come back for a visit then.  See you soon.

Mindy

Create in Color

Hello Everyone!  Happy Thanksgiving Week!  I decided to start off the week with a playful little card full of color and creativeness.  I have been playing with acrylic paints and Distress Inks on my Gelli Plate, trying out the transfer tape technique.  

The basis of this technique is that you put down color on your plate, letting it dry between layers.  The layers are built from the background toward you, because what you see is what you end up with.

When all of the layers are dry and you are pleased with how it looks, you adhere your packing tape to the top burnishing it down to the paint layer.  You then lift the tape,  the paint sticks to the tacky side and that is what you create with on your cards, canvases, and art journals.

When your paint layers are dry on your Gelli plate you can also stamp on top with Archival Ink  (permanent) and rubber stamps.  If you look closely at my tape strip, you can see where I stamped a musical stamp, and a Hero Arts Flower before applying and lifting the packing tape.  It is so much fun, yet time consuming, when you have to let all the layers dry before proceeding to the next step.

I also stamped a Frida stamp from Paper Wings Productions and colored her with Pitt Pen markers from Faber-Castell.  After fussy cutting around the image, I spattered some Distressed Ink on the card to give it a little dimension behind where I was placing the stamped image. I finished off the card with a sentiment strip created with lettering from the Everyday Compliments die from Die-versions.

Of course, the artist, Frida Kahlo was known for her bright colors she used in her artwork, so it was only fitting to use her image on my card with the bright colors transferred with my packing tape. There are several videos on YouTube that describe the Transfer Tape technique using the Gelli Plate.

If you have several hours to waste, (ha ha!) check them out, and have a great day!

Mindy