Gelli Plate - My New Art Toy



I've been reading about gelatin printing in blog land and the amazing monoprints you can make for backgrounds.  Trust me, this thing is addictive!  Check out the website for a video how-to.  There is also a Facebook page full of ideas and uploads of cool prints.

This is the printing plate:

Basic printing is pretty simple - load on some acrylic paint:

Then use a brayer to spread the paint over the gel plate.  I used too much paint on a few and not enough on others - seems like the trick it to get enough paint to create texture without so much that it flows over the textured pattern.

Now the fun - press items into the paint to create some texture.  I pressed on a piece of sequin waste, the inside of a Starbucks coffee sleeve, a stencil letter and a foam flower stamp.

Now just lay paper (I used white card stock) on the Gelli plate and rub very gently to make sure the paint.   Lesson learned - the stencil letter left lots of white space....

Another try with yellow and blue paint.  I used a wood-grain tool to make the semi-circular design.

And here's the print:

 

Clean-up is easy - I wiped the plate with baby wipes (carefully so you don't make scratches/dings in the plate.  It is pretty sturdy, but since it is gel, it would get scratched).  I still had some paint left on, probably because I used too much on some, so I washed it off gently with some mild dish soap and patted dry with paper towels.  The plate stores in its case.

Not sure you can make a mistake with this - even some that had bloopers have sections that will make interesting cards, ATCs, and backgrounds.  I want to try fabric printing, using other things to make texture - bubble wrap, buttons, stamps- and overstamping  the print, adding embellishments, text, images - stay tuned!