Passion Flower Gelli Print

I recently made a mixed media print of Passion Flowers, using a Gelli print background.

Here's what I did, step by step.

There is a materials list at the bottom of this post.

First, I brayered Apple Barrel Bright Yellow acrylic craft paint (20513E) onto my 8" x 10" Gelli plate, using a 6" soft brayer. I pulled a print, using white 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock.

While waiting a couple minutes for the yellow paint to dry, I cleaned the Gelli plate with a damp paper towel, blotted it dry, applied two green paints, and mixed them on the plate. The colors were Vinyard Green by Plaid (20755) and Lime Tree by Apple Barrel (21476E).

I placed fabric "silk" leaves on the wet paint, placed a regular sheet of white paper over it and rubbed to remove the background paint.

I repeated this process several times, placing the leaves in different positions. Remember when deciding placement, that you will be flipping the already-printed paper over and the sides will be reversed left to right - a mirror image.

(Note to self and any others who are directionally challenged: when you see that empty spot on the left side of your previous print layer, fill it by putting something on the right.)

This is one of the pulls to remove the green paint in the background. There was one of these for each trio of leaves. I only wanted the paint that was under the leaves, to add to the yellow background with its previously printed leaves.

I used a separate sheet for each of these pulls, but you can use the same one for each pull. I think the leaf edges are crisper when using a clean sheet, but experimenting is fun and can reveal great surprises!

Once I had the background done to my satisfaction, I started making the Passion Flowers. I brayered Purple Pansy by Apple Barrel (21488E) onto my 3" x 5" Gelli plate and used it as a stamp pad for my handmade foam plate stamp.

Rather than stamping directly onto the yellow/leafy background, I stamped onto a sheet of Orchid color printer paper, cut out the flowers by hand, and Collage Pauged (matte) them onto the background. I did this because 1) I did not want to risk spoiling my previous work with a bad stamping; and 2) had I stamped directly some of the green and yellow background would have shown through all the areas that are indented on the stamp.

This is my handmade Passion Flower stamp. I started with a printout, which I glued (light application of glue stick) to a piece of foam plate. I went over the marks with a dull pencil or some similar type object, removed the paper, went over the lines again to deepen them, then cut it out with an exacto knife along the indented edges.

On the back I made a painter's tape "handle" to make it easier to pull off the Gelli plate. It is also helpful for picking up and moving the stamp around the Gelli plate to pick up more paint, and makes it easy to handle and turn over to check that it's everywhere you want it. And for lifting it off the printed surface without paint smears!

These are the artificial leaves I used, the way they were laid out for the first leaf pull. I try to remember to put the vein side down for added texture.

This is the vein side, with paint from the printings. They're a little stiffer than before I got paint on them, but still safe for using again on the Gelli plate. Washing would make the edges fray.

Even when I slipped up and printed a couple with this side up I still got good texture, and it added a little variety.

Here again is the final print. I used Collage Pauge to affix the flowers to the background, first applying some with a narrow foam brush to the background spot where a flower would go, then to the back of the flower, placed it down and smoothed it with the brush, and added more Collage Pauge over it.

After all the flowers were added, I added Collage Pauge to the entire front. It dries pretty quickly, but I was about to pack it up and mail it, so I carefully used a heat gun to make sure it was completely dry.

It had warped a bit from the Collage Pauge, so I placed a sheet of non-stick parchment paper over it, and placed to heavy boxes of deli paper side by side over that. In a few minutes it was flat again. I mailed it with a piece of the parchment paper over it, just to be sure the print did not stick to the envelope it was in.

Supplies used:

• 8" x 10" Gelli Arts plate
• 3" x 5" Gelli Arts plate
• Buy Gelli plates in many sizes online from Gelli Arts, Amazon.com, and some art supply shops (Blick, Utrect, Dharma, etc.)
  [Available in the UK at Clarity Stamp.]
• 6" soft brayer (Speedball) at Amazon
• 4" soft brayer (Speedball) at Amazon
• Georgia-Pacific Premium White Cardstock (110#, 92 Bright) from WalMart
• Orchid Relay Plus paper by Springhill (50820, 20#, 10M weight) - 20 years old! - This link is for their current item, which may not be exactly the same.
• Foam dinner plate for flower stamp
• X-Acto knife
• Acrylic craft paints, described above. I got mine at WalMart.
• "Silk" leaves I've had hanging around too long to remember the source. 
• Dixie Kabnet Dry Wax Paper at Amazon (not used for printing this project, though I do use them for Gelli prints - I used the two boxes of 500 sheets to flatten the final image, after covering it with a piece of non-stick parchment paper.

More info and tutorials:
Gelli Arts' YouTube Channel
Gelli Arts' Blog
Barbara Gray / Clarity Stamp YouTube Videos
Carla Sonheim's Self Study Class

Gelli Prints and Ideas

Setup with 3x5" Gelli plate.

I've been having lots of fun with my Gelli Arts printing plates. I have 3 sizes: 3x5, 4" round, and 8x10. Mostly I use the 3x5 plate, because I'm still fairly new to this, it's convenient (and cheap) to use 4x6 blank index cards, and, of course, it uses less paint. I have a Speedball 6" soft brayer for my 8x10 plate, but I use a 2 1/4" hard brayer I've had hanging around, unused, for years, on my smaller plates.

One of the things I'm enjoying about this new-for-me artform is that I am incorporating so many items I've been holding onto: numerous bottles of craft paint, rubber stamps, odd bits that are great for removing shapes of paint from the plate. Even the first index cards I used was an unopened purchase from a thrift store a couple or three years ago. It's like all these things have just been waiting for the right time to shine!

My seldom-used Sizzix Big Shot, a gift from my daughter, was brought into play for making die-cut masks. (Some of smaller dies I'd purchased had never even been opened!) Used Tyvek postal envelopes, which I'd accumulated for bead-making for my Etsy shop, were cut up to make masks. Tyvek is great because it is easy to cut, durable, and very thin. I've found a couple of references to cutting Tyvek on a Cricut, so I'll soon be trying that out too. (I recently purchased my first Cricut machine, a Cricut Explorer, especially for cutting my own stencils.) I've even made some masks with the hot glue gun and bag of glue (now gone) that I got several years ago and used maybe twice.

So, back to the Gelli plate and how much fun I'm having with it. I'll start with some more "overlap" items. Previously I mentioned using materials I'd had sitting about for use in other crafts. Now, I've happily discovered how useful the larger 8x10" Gelli prints are as backgrounds for my Etsy photos! Here are some images I shot recently:

The colors and style of this background work well with these sari silk earrings I made.

This orange and metallic gold Gelli print really compliments the new style of my popular Lucky 13 necklace.

This pair of earrings isn't in my Etsy shop yet, but don't they look gorgeous on my swirly stenciled Gelli print? (Leafy Swirl Stencil 9 x 11 inch stencil purchased at Claritystamp.)

Just a few of the many, many prints I've made on my 3x5" Gelli plate (It's addictive!):

One of my very first Gelli prints.

A collage of heart prints, which used a Sizzix die-cut heart as mask.

Made using real plant parts!

Beauty Berry leaf used as mask and texture by printing with leaf in place, then carefully pulling up all but top of index card (left side in this photo) to remove leaf from plate and pressing index card down again, so it is still in the same place.

Here are some stencils I designed. Click each thumbnail to access the full-size PNG image, then right click it > View Image, then right click again > Save Image.)* On my monitor, the first clicked image looks black with a dark gray background. When I click View Image the background becomes white. Neither one is the actual background color, which is transparent. (The black part is the part that will be cut out - at least that's how my Cricut works.)

*For personal use, and may be used in your commercial** artistic works (credit/link appreciated but not required). **I do not own the fonts, so cannot grant commercial use for these. They are named; check rights usage if including in commercial works. None of my stencils may be sold as-is, digitally or physically, or shared by others as online files. (And please, if you do link, link to this page, not to the images themselves!)

Sybil Green font alphabet for 3x5" stencil (PNG file)

Stencil std font alphabet for 3x5" stencil (PNG file)

Montez font alphabet for 3x5" stencil (PNG file)

8x11" circle grid for stencil (PNG file)

Diamond grid for 8.5x11" stencil

 (PNG file)

8x10" Fancy Diamond grid for stencil (PNG file)

8" round diamond circle (PNG file)

Well, that's all for this post. Come back again soon to see what's new. (And thanks for reading all the way to the end!)

-Randi


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