Gel Printing Resist

A while back I decided to get my hands messy with the world of mono printing with a Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate.  A while back I showed you this project using the gel printing plate with paint and a stencil (a pretty traditional way to use it).  Today, I have a technique that's a bit different. Today I have a step by step tutorial showing you how to doe a gel printing resist with a Gelli Arts plate, gel medium, a stencil, and Tim Hotlz Distress Stains.  Here's what a finished gel printing resist paper looks like:

and here's what it looks like made into a card:

To try out this technique you'll need:
Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate
Faber Castell Gel Medium
A stencil (I used ones from Studio Calico)
Distress Stains (I used Barn Door, Peacock Feathers, and Squeezed Lemonade)

You may also want:
Mini Mister
Brayer
Non Stick Craft Mat

Start by covering your gel printing plate in gel medium. Don't be afraid to be generous and put quite a bit on there. The more gel medium you put on, the more contrast you'll get with your resist.

Next, put your stencil on your gel plate.  Some stencils will cover the gel plate completely, some won't. In this example my gel plate is 6 x 6, while my stencil is only about 4 1/2 x 6.  This is no big deal, since I will be trimming down my final piece of paper anyways. 

Take a piece of paper (I cut mine to 6 x 6, the same size as the gel plate), place the side you want the gel medium to go on directly down onto the stencil covered gel plate.  Push down firmly with your hands, or run a brayer over it to transfer the gel medium from the plate onto your paper.
I used a dictionary/newsprint style patterned paper, but you can try out any plain card stock or patterned paper that you would like, as long as they are light enough in color to let some stain show through later. 
You'll need to let the gel medium dry completely before moving on to the next step.  I usually clean my stencil and gel plate while waiting. You can use baby wipes and/or hand sanitizer wipes to clean your gel plate. Let your gel plate dry, and then just store it back in the container it came in.

When your paper is printed and dry, it's not going to look like much, since the gel medium is basically clear. Now is where we add some color.  Take a few colors of distress stains, and cover your paper with them. You can put them on in a striped pattern,

or you can place it in splotches all over the place. Get creative, and try some different things out to see what you like best. The best thing about using the distress stains is that you can apply the stain directly from the bottle right onto the paper. Just swipe it right on using the foam applicator tip.

There's just one more step left before you can use your creation.  Grab a mini mister and spray your paper with water.  This will make your stains mix and blend.  It will also make the resist areas pop more on your paper.
Now you can trim down your paper and make a card or 2.

The card above shows a card I made using the paper I gel printed with the triangle mask.

I decided to play up the stripes of color, so I divided them even further with washi tape.

This second card uses a circle mask, and is a bit softer over all.

I love the big areas of white (resisted) space I got with the circle mask.

I have another card using this technique and a tutorial video over on A Walk Down Memory Lane's blog today. Just click here to head over to it. And remember, you can find links to most of my videos by clicking on the video tab on the top of the blog just under my Taylor Stamped banner.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gelli Printed Valentine Decor

I don't do a lot of mixed media paper crafting, but Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate really intrigued me.  There seemed to be so many possibilities!  I got an idea in my brain for a gelli printed Valentine decor frame using the gelli plate and Pebbles Yours Truly.  Today, I want to share my finished product and the process I took to get there.  So here's my first foray into mono printing.

Here's a close up of the mono printed area.

I started by gathering any supplies I thought I would need. I ended up only using. the stencil on the right (Heidi Swapp Confetti). Another tool that I didn't use this time are the BrushStix you can see on the bottom right.  You can use them to draw your own design in the paint on the Gelli plate instead of using a stencil.  They are soft tipped, so they won't hurt your Gelli plate. 

I learned quickly that almost any acrylic paint works well except for Tim Holtz Distress paint.  The same qualities that make it react with water, make it bead up instead of rolling out nicely on the plate. As you can see in the photo below, it would probably make a cool background, but it was not the traditional mono printing technique I was looking for. 

So I switched to regular Ranger Adirondack paint.  You put a little paint on the on the Gelli plate and use a brayer or foam brush to spread it out. 

I placed the stencil on top of the paint covered plate, put a piece of paper on top of the stencil and pressed down over the whole paper to transfer the paint to the paper.  I turned the paper 180 degrees and pressed again (there was more than enough paint to do this twice without adding more paint to the plate). 

 After I did this layer, I wiped everything off with a baby wipe (water or gel hand sanitizer works too according to the people at Gelli Arts), and repeated the process with 2 more colors of paint.  The finished product is what you see below.

 I'm super happy with the finished product, and even tried out some different techniques and made some cards with the mono printing process (which I'll save to show you another time).  It was a very messy process, but lots of fun.  The final product really feels like my style even though I used a technique that's outside of what I'd usually consider my style.
Have you ever done any mono printing? I'd love to hear about it (or even see a picture!).