I like using Faber-Castell Gelatos because they are so easy to use and quite versatile too, but they aren’t the best at layering, well, they are if you want blended layers. But if you want distinct layers then I would not usually reach for Gelatos. If you find the same than I have a technique […]

What are the dos and don'ts of gel printing? It's all here along with gel printing resources, a downloadable guide and free videos!

Today the girls and I finally sat down to do our monthly ATCs for our Fly Girl ATC Swap Group for the month of March. The theme for this month was “green.” That leaves open a multitude …

Lately I've been obsessed with gelli printing. First I compared the Stampendous and Gelli Arts plates, and then of course I wondered how I could make my own? Out of the recipes I found, the measurements were confusing- ounces to tablespoons. UGH. So I simplified them so that the measurements were

BlogtoberFest 2014 - Day 15 - Gelli Print Blog Hop with a tutorial and a giveaway! Today I'm starting off the Gelli Print Blog Hop with a how I made this tutorial of this Flower Power mixed media painting. Flower Power, Mixed Media on Cardstock, 20cm x30cm, 8" x 12" Supply List - cardstock, gelli prints (you could use scrapbooking papers), paper cutter/scissors, gel medium and acrylic paints. 1. I created some gelli prints using red, orange, yellow and pink acrylic paints and a variety of textures. 2. I cut them into a variety of different sized rectangles and squares and collaged them onto cardstock using gel medium, starting from the middle. Coat the collage in a thin layer of gel medium. 3. When finished I trimmed down the edges. 4. I then used white acrylic paint to outline the flowers. 5. Next, I painted in between the flowers with an opaque colour to blockout the background - I used turquoise and white. 6. Repaint the white lines as they may have turquoise paint on them and this will make them crisper. Here is the second one I made - I tore the gelli prints into strips before gluing them down, I then made a glaze by mixing a little of a transparent paint with a lot of gel medium - a few drops of paint to about a teaspoon of medium, paint over all of your collage. GIVEAWAY!!! Yes!!! I'm going to be giving away the first mixed media Flower Power painting. All you have to do is leave a comment on my blog from today until 3pm Perth time/3am New York time on 23rd October when I will choose and announce the winner. It's as easy as that. Here's the list of all the Gelli Print Blog Hoppers for you to visit over the next week - check out their beautiful artwork and look for some more giveaways: Direct links to the blog posts: Michelle Reynolds - http://shellsinthebush.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/gelli-print-blog-hop-and-giveaway.html Joanna Grant - http://joannabananadesignoriginals.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/gelli-printing-enthusiasts-blog-hop.html Jacques Williamos - http://theelevatorpress.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/the-october-gelli-blog-hop/ Linda Stokes - http://www.lindastokes-textileartist.com/?p=2179 Philippa Montier - http://pipart71.weebly.com/home/marbling-on-the-gelli-plate Lauri Crowe - http://laurijeancrowe.com/2014/10/20/gelli-print-blog-hop-inspiration-card-giveaway/ Gail Schmidt - http://www.shabbycottagestudio.net/2014/10/gelli-print-blog-hop-and-give-aways-for-you.html Tami Howse - http://thisandthatfromtami.blogspot.com/2014/10/gelli-blog-hop-and-stencil-giveaway.html Have fun!! PS Do you love creating gelli prints? Want a place to discuss gelli printing? To show off your work? Share your ideas? Discuss the pros and cons of different paints/paper/plates/tools etc? Get some great ideas on what to do with the thousands of prints you have created? Then I would love you to join me at the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group. This group is open to people who use a Gelli Arts Plate or who make their own gelatin plate.

Hi there! It’s Marsha here today with a fun little watercolor technique! You may be thinking that watercolor isn’t the most suitable paint for Gelli® printing. The viscosity is thin and that causes the paint to bead up on the slick surface of the Gelli® plate. However, with a little experimentation, I was able to

Welcome, Friendly Friends to the third installment of the BS Sessions! What are the BS Sessions? Well Samantha knows how to work a marker like nobody's business and Becca loves to get messy with mixed media. We both wanted to learn the other person's crafty secrets so we're going to ask one another a question on the last Thursday of the month. Becca will provide you with some amazing Mixed Media techniques and Samantha will show you some tips and tricks about coloring! We'll both provide our followers with a little tutorial, because if we have these questions - our followers might too! _______________________ Which brings me to this month's question, asked by Sammy: How do you use gelatos? What are some different things you can do with them? Gelatos! I love them! Next to Distress Inks, they're probably my very favorite crafty supply because there is SO much you can do with them. Things to know about Gelatos: >They have the consistency of soft crayons >You don't have to be gentle with them. Definitely scribble away! >They are reactive with water Some of the things I'm going to show you have been published on my blog before, but I thought it would be helpful to compile a whole list of them right here. _______________________ Making Backgrounds with Gelatos If you're looking for quick and easy way to make a background that's also super stunning, look no further. One thing I would HIGHLY suggest when using this technique is to paint the cardstock with a thin layer of gesso first. Gesso seals the tiny holes of the cardstock, so the gelatos will blend together more easily, rather than being absorbed right away. Background on the left is made without gesso - background on the right is with gesso. As you can see - background two is much better. I scribbled on some gelatos and blended them together with my fingers. I wanted it to look distressed, so I wiped away a little bit of the background with a baby wipe. To see how this background got turned into a card - check out this blog post. _______________________ Making Drips With Gelatos As I said earlier, gelatos are reactive with water, which means you can do some really cool techniques! One of my favorites is making drips. For this technique, it's almost essential to base your cardstock with gesso, or the drips will not go as far and will not blend well. To achieve this effect, scribble gelatos across the top (in this case I used three shades of purple and a gold). Next, use a mini mister to spritz the gelatos strip with water and hold it vertically so that the water can drip down the paper. Add more or less water based on the effect you want to achieve. To see the card I made with this panel, check out this blog post. _______________________ Watercoloring with Gelatos You can use gelatos exactly like you use watercolors in a couple of different ways. You can either draw directly onto an image and then paint over it with a watery paintbrush or waterbrush pen to blend: Or, for more precise watercoloring, you can scribble some gelatos onto a clear acrylic block (or any surface) and then mix the colors with a little water and pick up with a paintbrush. _______________________ Using Gelatos to Color Texture Paste, Gel Medium, or Gesso Gelato shavings can be used as a coloring agent by mixing with any wet or liquid product. Shave some of the gelato stick into the texture paste (or gesso, gel medium, etc) and mix thoroughly. Obviously, the more of the stick you use, the deeper the color tone will be. I only used a little bit of the dark blue, so I wound up with a lovely pale blue in the end. __________________________________ These are just of the few ways to use gelatos! There are so many possibilities! You can use them to color almost anything in a quick but stunning way! If you'd like to see all of the projects I've made with gelatos, you can check out my gelatos project library. _______________________ Now - if you're interested in improving your coloring skills, make sure you head on over to Sammy's blog because she's answered my question: What the heck does a blender pen do? Do I need one?

Grab your Gelatos and learn how to easily create gorgeous notecards and designs with stencils and just four easy steps.

Sounds like a new recipe doesn’t it? Well, there is a recipe involved but you won’t want to eat it. But it can become addictive. On some of the comments on the Documented Life Project Facebook page, I was noticing … Continue reading →

Grab your Gelatos and learn how to easily create gorgeous notecards and designs with stencils and just four easy steps.

The sphere of people learning about and using Gelli® printing plates keeps increasing—and more and more people of all ages and levels of art experience are discovering the joy of mono printing. I'd like to welcome those new to the Gelli® plate printing process — and thank those of you who have been following this blog

This year I’ve made a number of gelli print books and I’ve got quite a few questions about how to make gelli/gelatin prints. My focus on this blog is showing you how to make books and I think other people do a much better job of showing you how to print with a gelli plate than […]

The ultimate guide to gel printing and the basics of gel printing you need to know - what materials you need and how to make gel prints

Can you use fabric on the Gelli Plate? Absolutely! For this month's Colorful Gelli Print Party video, I'm sharing how I print on fabric with acrylic paints.

I have repeatedly professed my love for monoprinting with a gelli plate. I realized with my post the other day, some of you may not know what this is, or have never used one before. So I thought …

Grab your Gelatos and learn how to easily create gorgeous notecards and designs with stencils and just four easy steps.

Hi there! It’s Marsha here today with a fun little watercolor technique! You may be thinking that watercolor isn’t the most suitable paint for Gelli® printing. The viscosity is thin and that causes

4 easy steps mixed media tutorial using a Gelli Arts plate and masks for creating fun backgrounds

Since I bought my Gelli Plate I don't think I've used any designer paper. Which is crazy but I REALLY love making my own paper and the fact that it all matches my paints is a terrific bonus. I took some shots of my process and thought I'd share them. If you have any questions just leave me a comment and I'll be happy to answer them. Materials: Gelli Plate, paint, stamps, stencils, brayer, paper and I use Golden GAC-100 or acrylic gel glazing medium to help my paint stay 'open' longer. Otherwise they can sometimes dry out a bit while I'm messing around. Don't forget to have your art journal nearby. I always clean my brayer, stamps and stencils into my AJ and it creates a great jumping off point for interesting backgrounds. Pull your print: Add white paint + GAC-100 and roll it out. Don't clean the plate, you want the pink and teal. Lay stencils over paint Choose a 'failed' gelli print. Or, if you don't have any fails - good for you! - use book paper, scrapbook paper, whatever. Place it face down on top and run your brayer overtop left is stencils, right is print. A lot prettier don't ya think? Peel off the stencils (blot them in your AJ!) and find another 'failed' print Ta Da! I'm thinking wings! Or flower petals. Or scales. Love, love, love all the pretty colors. This is why I said don't clean off the Gelli Plate. Now let's do this a little faster Add some warm colored paint and a squirt of Acrylic glazing medium (it's the thin white stuff in the picture). You can see I didn't clean the plate. Left is Ghost print, Right is First Print. Yeah, I missed pushing down in that top corner. No big deal. Now roll on some yellow and blue and stamp into it Lay down some stencils/punchinella Clean stamps, brayer and stencils off on your AJ So remember that pink and orange one we made a minute ago? Let's play with it a little more. Roll on some violet and add a figure cut from a magazine or catalog Stamp into it a little. I'm using a circle cut from a pair or flip flops lay your print right over top and press firmly Getting cooler! I have a ton more to share. Hope you enjoyed seeing this peek into my process.

Here is your totally ultimate guide to gelli plate printing, including everything you need to get started, ideas for gelli printing, and gelli print inspiration for days.

So you know how you just stumble upon things sometimes? Well, that is sort of what happen to me today. I finally got the chance to play with my new Gelli Plate and I had a great time. Well, everyone seems to use regular acrylic paint on theirs (well I've seen some use sprays too) but I started thinking... hmmm... what if I tried Tim's new distress paint with it?? (this could be a lightbulb moment LOL) Since these are paint dabbers, I went ahead and shook them up and unscrewed the top and just poured a little here and there on my Gelli Plate. I used Barn Door, Chipped Saphire and Mustard Seed (the only few that I have haha!) Sorry the picture is a little dark, I was rushing. So this is the really cool part. I started to spread it with my brayer and it magically just moves on its own. It's so neat and makes this really cool effect, all on it's own. You really need to work fast and press paper or something into it at this point if you want how it looks in the first picture here... The second picture here is what it looks like after a few seconds of sitting on the plate. HOW COOL!! I really like how it just moves on it's own. So then, I pressed a piece of white card stock onto the plate and brayered it into the paint. Here is what it looked like... I really am loving the background that I got. I had some leftover paint, which didn't seem like much. I pressed a tag into the plate to soak up the rest of the leftover paint and this is what the tag looked like. WOW, look at how much color was still left here. I love this too. Both backgrounds came out really neat looking. I can add stenciling or whatever on top to make a layered look. So, you know me right? I had to do something for the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show - The theme this week is "Ever After".. you are to do something Fairy Tale inspired. I decided to use the first background I made and make a card. I used my digi stamp from the The Octopode Factory and colored her with Tim's distress markers. I also used a cut out heart from Tim's movers and shapers Valentine set to cut out the heart. I used a stencil and some Black Soot distress ink to make the brick wall in the upper corner. One reason I really love the distress paint, well really my favorite part about this paint is that when it's dry it is permanent. So when I wrote over it with the white gel pen, my white stayed white and didn't bleed into the paint color under it. I used my white gel pen to color around each of the bricks so they would stand out. Lastly, I wrote the words "Some Day My Prince Will Come" from Cinderella :) Look at how beautiful those paints are and how they just pop off my background here. I cannot say enough about them. If I weren't on a budget I would get many, many more. haha!! Eventually, right? Since I'm using them on my gelli plate I need them in larger bottles.... (ehhemm hint, hint Tim lol) Note: I have no idea why my font keeps getting larger and then smaller, sorry about that.

How funny is this? I was playing with my Gelli plate, after a long time away from it, and doing the packing tape thing. I tried sticker paper (too dull) and while I had the Mac shut down (still p…

Here is my week 7 piece for The Documented Life . The challenge for this week is… February 8, 2014 Challenge (Week Seven) - Draw ...

Greetings Gelli Arts® creators! Jo Lawson here with my favorite gel printing technique, with a new twist. As you might know, one of my favorite ways to use the gel plate is with magazines to create image transfers. Now, I have figured out a way to use my own photos! Here is my creative process......

Do you artsy types out there ever have one of those moments when you knock your own socks off? When you make something for someone else and you like it so much you don’t want to give it to the inte…

Hi there and welcome to the Gelli Arts® blog!It’s Birgit here today and I want to share with you a fun and easy way to create textures to use on the gel printing plate using moldable foam. You can f

Change can be a good thing when it comes to the creative process. So instead of using a brayer to apply paint to the Gelli® plate, let's change it up and use a palette knife and various scrapers! Watch this video demonstrating monoprinting with this fun and expressive method for painting the plate. Applying paint

…to use Gelato Markers. If you missed the gratitude journaling workshop this week at Main Street Stamp and Stationary, here’s an overview from the Gelato technique part of the evening. I first discovered Gelatos when Lori at By the Well…

I spent a few hours over the past few days playing with the Gelli Arts Printing Plate and now I know why it is indeed one of the most valuable art tools on the market today. I was completely and t…

Sounds like a new recipe doesn’t it? Well, there is a recipe involved but you won’t want to eat it. But it can become addictive. On some of the comments on the Documented Life Project Facebook page, I was noticing … Continue reading →

Hi everyone! Miae here to share with you a layout! I thought it would be nice to show some of the many ways I use Faber Castell® Design Memory Craft products to make or alter elements on my page. It can be the little details of a scrap page that...

What makes gel printing so much fun? Is it the magical way the layers build up? Is it the excitement of seeing what patterns stuff from around the house can make? Is it that no two prints are exactly alike? Yes to all of those and so many many more reasons! I’ve put together a free […]