Gelli printing and Bible Art Journaling - by Sarah Anderson

Gelli plates have been popular in the art journaling community for a long while now.  They are described by the manufacturers as

"Our Gel Printing Plate looks and feels like gelatin, but is durable, reusable and stores at room temperature. It's easy to clean and always ready for printing. Monoprinting on a Gelli plate is simple and fun. The gratification is immediate, and the prints are too cool!"  

http://www.gelliarts.com/

 And when they say fun, it really is!!  A playtime session with a gelli plate, building up a stash of colourful papers, is a great way to de-stress.

They are fabulous to use with deli paper (which I mentioned in my last blog post) so I thought I'd do a step by step for you.

Place a couple of small (5p piece size) blobs of acrylic paint on your gelli plate.  It is always easier to add more if you need it than try and take it off when there is too much.  Spread this over the whole of your gelli plate with a brayer (this is a 10 x 8 plate but there are all different sizes).

Place a stencil over the wet paint..

..then place your deli paper over the top and rub.

The first print you get will look like this (above),

and your gelli plate will look like this (above).

Lift off the stencil and get another piece of deli paper to lay on top of the gelli plate,

which results in this print (above).  It can also nicely pull old bits of paint from your stencil, adding extra delight to your print.

Next, brayer a different colour paint onto the gelli plate, and add some different stencils,

then take one of the first prints and print over the top.

You don't have to keep to one colour on the gelli plate but can put two side by side

and continue to build up the layers

resulting in some gorgeous coloured papers.  You can make prints on a variety of papers, I just love to use deli paper in my bible.  And there are many 'how to' videos out there, especially on the gelliarts blog, if this is something you'd like to look into more.  This is a mere snippet of an idea.

Where to shop:
I buy my stencils from That's Crafty, mostly buying Crafters Workshop stencils with the occasional Stencil Girl and Artist Cellar, and from craft/stamp shows.  The stencil featured in this post is 'Deconstructed Floral Bouquet Stencil' by Traci Bautista for Stencil Girl.  I purchased mine from That's Crafty but they don't have it on their website at the moment.  Stencils are also available from Crafty Charlie, Art from the Heart, The Artistic Stamper and Clarity Stamps.  That's Crafty, The Artistic Stamper, Clarity Stamps and Lavinia Stamps all stock gelli plates, of which there are a variety of sizes and shapes.  These are just the shops I am familiar with, there will be others.  I do not receive any money or benefit from recommending them.