Gel Plate 101
This is a long post. Hope you stay with me.
What is a gel plate I hear you ask - unless you have used these previously you may wonder what they are. Straight from the web is this description "gel printing plates look and feel like gelatin, but are durable, reusuable and store at room temperature. They are easy to clean and always ready for printing."
I recently went to a gel plate workshop, held at Time to Create in Modanville (near Lismore NSW). The tutor was Birgit Koopsen from The Netherlands. Whilst I had a great time playing with my gel plate, inks, stamps, Pan Pastels and more, I realized that I needed to get a better grip on the basics.
So that is what I did today. How come today? Last week, this week and for the next two weeks I am leading ladies to make cards in Mt Colah, NSW. Dianne, my friend, said are you going to show the ladies how you used your gel plate? So that is how I decided to play today and you never know I may end up getting the ladies (sorry, no men in the class) to play. Here is what I came up with:
But first, let me show you some of the simple requirements for gel plate mono-printing. Gel plate, I used a 9" x 11" Ranger gel plate, white photocopy paper behind the gel plate ensures that you have a good idea of where your paint is going, a brayer for spreading paint, baby oil to clean up your plate (some people do clean up after each use - it is a person choice and finally paper towel or baby wipe.
For my cards, I used Dylusions paint Dirty Martini and the stamps are from Resort Collection. All products (except baby oil and paper towel) are available from Kaszazz. Yes, I am a consultant for them. This would be the simplest of techniques, using one colour, and getting images from each pressing - from dark to light. You never know what you are going to get with each pressing - that is the wonder.
Here are the cards close up:
I also played around with 2 colours, stencils, sprays and I will share these again shortly. But here they are after printing.
Thank you for staying with me. Margaret.
What is a gel plate I hear you ask - unless you have used these previously you may wonder what they are. Straight from the web is this description "gel printing plates look and feel like gelatin, but are durable, reusuable and store at room temperature. They are easy to clean and always ready for printing."
I recently went to a gel plate workshop, held at Time to Create in Modanville (near Lismore NSW). The tutor was Birgit Koopsen from The Netherlands. Whilst I had a great time playing with my gel plate, inks, stamps, Pan Pastels and more, I realized that I needed to get a better grip on the basics.
So that is what I did today. How come today? Last week, this week and for the next two weeks I am leading ladies to make cards in Mt Colah, NSW. Dianne, my friend, said are you going to show the ladies how you used your gel plate? So that is how I decided to play today and you never know I may end up getting the ladies (sorry, no men in the class) to play. Here is what I came up with:
Here are the cards close up:
Thank you for staying with me. Margaret.
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