Home Made Memories: Jumpin on the Gelli Bandwagon

I admit it, I'm a technique junky! I've always got to try the latest thing. I was reluctant to join in the Gelli Plate craze, however, because of the cost of the plate. I wasn't sure I'd actually like it, or be able to make cool prints with it and didn't want to spend precious craft $$ on something I wasn't sure of. Enter my splitcoast friends who told me about a way to make my own gelatin plate.Check out Linda Germain's blog I even had some gelatin that I bought at an Amish country store that sells things in bulk. Here are my first two cards and some pictures of printing in process.

The main image panel was blue acrylic inks that I rolled my Rough Texture wheel over. After this print had dried, I added another layer with a ghost print from a purple stencilled print. The two strips are from packing tape that I used to pull the dried paint off some bubble wrap that I'd used on the plate. I also picked up some text from the newspaper I'd laid down on my work surface (the first time was an accident, but I grew to like the look so I started doing it on purpose).

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Rough Texture Wheel

Paper: Concord Crush, Baja Breeze, Marina Mist, White, Tissue Paper

Ink: Versamark, Concord Crush, Acrylic Paints

Accessories: Bubble Wrap, Plaid Stencil, Gelatin Plate, Chevron ef, Clear ep, Birds and Blooms Die, Silver brad, Wisteria Reinker, Rhinestones, Burlap, Sponge

Techniques: Gelatin Plate Printing, Tissue Paper Flower, Sponging, Dry Embossing

Today's ways to use it challenge was to add doodling to a card. I remembered this print with hearts and decided to turn it into an anniversary card. I doodled onto my main panel first with the teal pen, but it didn't show up well enough so I took a Sharpie pen and went around again. I also doodled around my card base-this is a 5x7" card.

Stamps: none

Paper: White, Black

Ink: Acrylic Paints, Marker, Sharpie Pen

Accessories: Heart punches, Ribbon, Brad

Techniques: Gelatin Plate Printing, Brad Bow, Doodling

Here is the pile of prints I made the first day I played with the gelatin. You can see the smaller plate I made in a Tupperware in the right lower corner. I ended up melting all my pieces back together and re-setting it.

These were my favorite prints of the day: bubble wrap, mesh tape and my unmounted stitches wheel played a part in these!

I read another technique where you let your paint dry on the Gelli plate then remove it with packing tape or cool laminate paper. Since I was using a gelatin plate instead of the Gelli, I modified the technique by pulling the dried paint off the stencils, etc that I used in the printmaking. Here's what the packing tape looks like after I've placed it down over my large circles and pulled off the dried paint this was my oops moment with the newsprint ;).