Gelli Madness

When I first began seeing comments, pictures and youtube videos about Gelli Plates, I was pretty sure I didn't need one. But then I watched a few more youtube vidoes and began thinking, hmmmmmm it does look fun.......  Part of my hold back was wondering what to do with all those papers when I was done, but the more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea. Just think, I could design paper with colors and designs specific to ANY project I was working on. No more looking for specific papers that don't exist or had never been made, I can make my own!!
Ok so that was the deciding factor to me getting a gelli plate, and I have to say, it is fun, I do love it, and I have already used it to make prints for a few specific projects!!

 For those of you who didn't run out and get a gelli plate to play with after seeing this awesome post on them by Kristy, I thought I would give you a quick run down on a few of the ways you can use the gelli plate to make prints. And show you how to use them in different aspects of your crafting  :)

                For this first print I used the new Tim Holtz distress paints, a brayer, a 12x12 stencil (this one is from TCW called- scallop flowers), and some white cardstock.

     First I dribbled some paint onto my Gelli plate and used my brayer to smooth it out.

 The I lay the stencil over it

 And pressed my cardstock on top

 Here is my first print- which I used to make a scrapbook page, you can check that out down at Paper Pals.

 Then I took the stencil, which was cover in paint, and pressed it into my art journal, print #2 for me :)

 The I took another piece of cardstock and pressed it onto the Gelli plate, giving me print #3. Which was used to make 2 cards, one of which you can see at Paper Pals, the other I mailed off to someone as a Thank you note.

   Here I followed the same process, but used some acrylic paint and roller stamps.

   Look at it!!!!  So awesome and squishy!!!  My kids love to poke at it, see it even serves as summer entertainment for the children, win-win I tell you :)  Seriously though I have let me kiddos make some prints with it and they had a blast.

 Here are some ATC's I made using one of my prints

 And here is the ALMOST finished page in my art journal from print #2 

      I have experimented using several of different paints on this, and have found that they all work great. I have used liquid acrylics, reg. acrylics, Tim Holtz distress  paint, Lumiere paints and even gel medium to get a cool resist on my pattern paper.
       As far as what you need to make the patterns you can use stencils- big and small, stamps- all kinds, found objects- like the lid from your distress paints ;) and even just the tip of a paint brush or your finger.
    To clean it (although after your #3 print is pulled there isn't much paint left on the plate) you can wipe it down with baby wipes, spritz with water and wipe it off with a paper towel, or give it the full day-spa treatment with a warm soapy bath in your sink. Or you can just leave it as is, as the left over paint is usually on the edges and wont mess up future prints. Being a little OCD I always clean mine up when I'm  done.
      If you have any questions about Gelli plate printing you can leave me a comment and I will try to answer it for you. I am really glad that I got one, I can see it as being one of the things I use constantly in my crafting. I hope you all have had a great start to you summer!!!

              Paper  Pals has Gelli Plates to purchase as well as several types of paint, stamps and an amazing selection of stencils.

Julie Nutting Paper Doll Stamps are AWESOME

I am in love with these stamps!

They are so stinkin cute, and there are so many ways to use them here are a couple links of how to use them that you really need to check out.

 http://pinterest.com/pin/65654107040605037/

 http://pinterest.com/pin/65654107040603148/

    They have been uber popular since their release this year.   I couldn't wait to put them to use in my Art Journal, in fact I went to bed thinking about them and when I woke up I actually had an idea for the perfect page! My only problem was that the picture in my head was pastelly,( hmmm not sure if that's a word but I'm gonna use it) and I wasn't sure if I could get my dylusions sprays to be pastelly . But I decided to give it a try, here it goes I will walk you through the steps I used to create this page-

Here are my "ingredients" and as usual I had a few more pop up along the way that missed the line up picture.

 

 

First I used these dylusion sprays and to cover my page

 

Blotted that dry and ghosted over it with the flower frenzy stencil by TCW. 

I added some green to the bottom using a lime green gelato stick, then rubbed that in with a wet wipe.  

 I stamped my Paper Doll on using archival black in. Then with the same ink and a dylusion stamp set I added a bit of a border.

Stamped using the Hero Art white chalk ink and dylusions background love stamp. 

Because I wanted a close match to fill in my leaves here I used some acrylic glazing liquid mixed with the fresh lime spray I had used before to mix up the perfect paint/glaze for my leaves.

Then added a title,  excuse my very sad hand writing please, and the color on this last pic, not sure what was going on there.

 

So I like this a lot, but not quite the colors I was going for, so I tried out some sprays that Paper Pals is now carrying called Radiant Rain Shimmering Mist.

I am in LOVE- these were exactly what I was looking for!!!   .For this page I followed the same process, except I used the Mixed Media Border Stamp that goes with the Paper Doll Stamps for my border. Added a layer of stenciled spray, and used the TCW Mini Brick stencil.   

I printed out my page quote and stuck in on using gel medium. 

Added some shading with my handy dandy pitt pen.  And here we are :)

The Radiant Rain mist colors I used were- Pink Grapefruit, Spanish Moss, Bashful Blue, and Sunburst.

Lg TCW stencil scallop flowers for the ghosting and I believe the swirly garden stencil for texture.