Experiments with Gelli Plate Printing

Afternoon Folks,

First, an apology to Julia over at the Stamping Ground and all my fellow WOYWWers for not participating this week. I won't be here for the weekend and, as I am the slowest blog hopper on the planet ... I'm usually still visiting desks as late as Monday in an attempt to catch up ... better that I don't.

However, after watching a Barbara Gray (BG), ClarityStamps, masterclass on Create and Craft TV (recorded last weekend) I finally plucked up the courage to try gelli plate printing and I thought you might like to see the results. Of course, I didn't think, until after I was well into the experiment, to take photographs so what follows isn't a step-by-step documentary but it should give you some idea of the process.

To begin, I collected all the items BG recommended - tubes of acrylic paint, brayer, masks and items for creating pattern and texture, including a few stamps, copy paper, various types of cardstock - smooth, textured, watercolour - cut to measure 6.5" square, plus various smaller pieces to try out too, and, of course, the gelli plate ... mine is the 6" square size.

Just a few of the masks, stamps and other items I used for texture, e.g. the netting that oranges come wrapped in, sequin waste, bubble wrap and even a strip of trellis border punched with an EK Success punch. Note, this photo was taken after I'd covered everything with paint :)

Here you can see how the masks, etc., can be laid on the inked plate to create the patterns. With this one, the sequin waste didn't lie flat so I had to adopt a surprise attack mode, hover with a sheet of copy paper above and quickly but gently press down on it ... this method worked remarkably well :)

After starting slowing with just one colour of paint, I got bold and started to mix it up a bit. This has to be done with a light brayer ... go in heavy handed and mix it too much and you get mud ... the contents of my wastepaper bin is a testament to this! This mix is pretty. The following photos show a selection of results.

Pretty :)

By not cleaning the gelli plate, the results can be quite interesting too. You can see some black has merged with the yellows in one piece and orange in another.

By placing a small rectangle of card on the paint first and then the full 6.5" square on top you get this effect. The blank area is perfect for stamping on and the smaller piece is patterned too so can be used in different projects.

This piece has been decorated with the Butterfly Meadow by Crafter's Workshop ... I think I should have turned it upside down for this colour mix but it is still lovely.

 Stamping works well too, these are a selection from Docrafts and Sheena Douglass.

And it is possible to lift paint from stamps after stamping on the gelli plate ... a spritz of water gave this impression.

Even the build up on copy paper, after pressing on top of the templates/masks, etc., and cleaning the brayer, developed a nice pattern.

And after all that, I now have a pile of patterned card just waiting to be used to make projects ... I just have to think about exactly how.

As I said at the top, I'm away for the weekend ... to Aberdeenshire. It's my son's birthday on Friday so we are going to help celebrate. It's raining up there today so I hope it cheers up and the sun comes out for our visit.

In the meantime, I have some packing to do and I might even find some time to sneak into the craft room and do something with one or two bits of those gelli prints :)

Hope you have all had a lovely day, whether WOYWWing or not, and happy crafting,