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Issue 19 - August 18th 2014
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When I wrote this week's tutorial last year, the Gelli plate was fairly new and I was being asked about it a lot. Nowadays there is a wealth of information on the Internet about them and inspiration all over Pinterest.
If you don't have a Gelli plate, you can experiment with glass or polyester, but it is the 'give' in the Gelli plate that really makes it transfer paint so well and allow such great results without the need for a printing press.
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 - Gelli Arts printing plate (I used the 8x10 inch size, also available in 6x6 inches)
- Selection of stencils and masks
- Selection of stamps
- Brayer
- Acrylic paint (cheap craft paint, not artist quality)
- Wipes and kitchen towel (lots)
- Surfaces to print on, eg paper, card, tissue, ribbon, tags, fabric, etc
It can get messy so you might want to use barrier cream on your hands or wear gloves. Protect the surface you are working on and the place you will put prints to dry. Use the cheapest paint you have. The first time I used my Gelli plate I was disappointed as every paper I tried stuck to the surface and some even ripped. I was using Golden Fluid Acrylics and once I switched to cheap craft paints I got much better results. |
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Experiment with different types of paper. Before you start, gather a good stack of paper and make sure you have plenty of space to put your prints to dry. If you find a certain paper is sticking, try giving it a light spritz of water before you print.
Keep a brayer just for paint and don't use the same one you would use with inkpads. Paint requires more vigorous cleaning which can make the rubber surface less receptive to ink.
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The Gelli plate comes sandwiched between two sheets of clear plastic - put these somewhere safe while working as you will want to put the plate back onto them when you are finished.
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 You can apply paint to the plate with a number of tools, but you need to avoid scratching the surface, so a brayer is ideal for smoothing out the paint.
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Apply small blobs of paint to the surface - if in doubt go for less rather than more. You can always add more, but it gets very slick and difficult to brayer if there is too much paint.
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Roll the brayer over the paint to spread it around. Keep lifting the brayer as you work and move around the plate to get an even coverage.
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 If you don't have enough paint, or you want to introduce another colour, you can add a little more and blend it in with the brayer.
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I keep a shallow container on my desk with a little bit of water in and between paint applications, I park the brayer in it. I also have a pad of kitchen towel where I dab the brayer dry before rolling more paint.
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Place a stencil onto your Gelli plate. If you have stencils that are smaller than your plate, you can use several, but don't overlap them.
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 Place your paper over the top and hold in place with one hand while patting down and burnishing with the other. Your stencil will only allow paint to make contact through the holes so stencils with very thin or tiny holes may not give a great print.
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Remove the stencil and you are left with a plate with some of the paint removed.
If you have the space, place the stencil paint side up and place card over it to take a print off the stencil. You need to do this straight away as the paint dries very quickly on the stencils.
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 Here is the print taken from the plate after the stencil has been removed. Depending on the thickness of your paint, you may be able to print a second, 'ghost' image at this stage, particularly if you print onto damp paper. |
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 There is no need to clean the plate between colours and in fact I would encourage you not to as it can lead to interesting results. Paint sticks to paint, so you will often find patches and flecks of previous layers coming through.
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|  Masks can be used as well as stencils. This picture shows the plate after a print has been taken and the masks removed. This would be great to overprint onto a previous background.
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Masks and stencils are not the only tools you can use with the Gelli plate. You can make patterns with anything that won't scratch the surface.
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Here I've used a silicone tipped 'shaper' tool (available from art shops) to draw patterns straight into the paint.
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 I have cut some notches into a foam brush to create pattern and I also have a tile adhesive and grout spreader that works well. |
 Here's a print created with the tile adhesive spreader. Look around and see what you can find to make pattern - bubble wrap and sequin waste are always good. |
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 You can also use your stamps to lift off paint. Press the stamp onto the Gelli plate then stamp the paint onto another project. I keep a stack of tags handy to stamp onto.
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Acrylic paint will dry on rubber or clear stamps, so do clean them up straight away, or keep some unmounted stamps for this purpose and put into a tray of water while you work.
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You can use oil based media on the Gelli plate, but cleaning everything up is a lot simpler, kinder to your hands and less smelly if you stick with waterbased media such as acrylic paint.
As I mentioned, I have a shallow tray to park my brayer in and this does cut down on the paint build up which can make cleaning the brayer a messy job.
Learn from my experience and don't clean a very painty brayer under a high pressure running tap - unless you want Jackson Pollock inspired decor! Immerse in water and rub with a soft cloth until all the paint has gone.
Don't put wood or cling mounted stamps into water for any length of time - rest them on wet kitchen towel while you work and they should clean up fine with wipes and a Magic Carpet stamp cleaner.
The Gelli plate itself can be cleaned by spritzing with water and wiping with a soft cloth. I do run the plate under a tap to make sure there are no bits of dried paint or fluff, then I place it onto a piece of clean paper to blot the water before placing it back between its protective plastic and storing it in the original clamshell packaging.
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Here's a batch of six simple thank you cards made from just the Gelli print above and some coredinations embossed card. The tiny thank you stamp is from Eastern Landscapes.   The print above was taken with the stencils and masks in place and the one below was the second print after the stencils and masks were removed. Stencils used include: Cell Theory, Quatrefoil and Summer Flower. 
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Here's a batch of Christmas cards made with gelli prints that feature stamps and stencils.  This first one shows a background made by stamping the Big Bold Background Floral Damask stamp onto a gelli plate covered in purple paint. This removed some of the paint from the gelli plate and a piece of paper previously printed in an aqua colour was laid onto the plate. Where the stamp has removed the purple paint, the aqua colour shows through.
 The second was a fairly plain print which I have stamped over with a stamp from Harlequin Fragments using Archival Deep Purple ink.  This background was created with a patchy gelli print on watercolour paper and the Microbial stencil from Crafter's Workshop. The paper was extremely wet before printing, resulting in the colours blending and feathering to give a soft cloudy result.
All the stamped images are from Snowy Scenes, created with Versamark ink and PanPastels (See Monday Mojo issue 2 for this PanPastel technique). |
Materials used in this project are available online at
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 I originally ran this series in 2013 and this time round, I am using my own tutorials to inspire me to create a new piece of artwork to share with you each week. I love to create and I am also passionate about inspiring and enabling others to create too. I hope that this email gets your mojo working and you feel motivated to get into your crafty space and have a go.  PS - if your creation features Chocolate Baroque stamps, then why not share on our Facebook Group or our wonderful private forum. In both places you will find a wonderful community of like minded Chocolate Baroque fans.
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