Find out about the Gelli Arts® printing plates and discover how easy it is to make amazing monoprints.
By Andrea Mulder-Slater
When the folks at Gelli Arts® sent me one of their printing plates, I was really excited to try it out.
I had seen the plates advertised in magazines and was really impressed with the kinds of prints that could be created. The plate is really flexible. It looks and feels like gelatin, but it is durable and reusable and is super easy to clean.
After watching a few how-to videos (I’ll share some of those at the end of the lesson), I dove in and gave it a shot. Here’s how it went…
What You Need:
- A Gelli Arts® plate
- Water-based printmaking ink (I used Speedball) OR high quality acrylic paint
- A printmaking roller/brayer.
- Paper
- Craft sticks, paintbrushes, stamps, cotton swabs, etc.
- Wax paper
- Paper towel
What You Do:
- Gather your supplies.
- Place a dab of ink (I used two colours – blue and yellow) on the plate.
- Roll the ink out using a brayer.
- Make some marks using a variety of tools (nothing too sharp!). I used a craft stick.
- Lay the paper on the plate and rub lightly with your hand.
- Remove the paper and let dry.
- Clean the plate with warm water.
- Cover your plate with another color (or more). I used black.
- Cut some shapes out of cardboard, paper or – in my case – wax paper. Use these shapes to block out areas on the plate.
- Place paper on the plate, taking care to “register” or make sure the printed area lines up with the plate.
- Rub paper and remove carefully to reveal a really cool monoprint.
- Clean the plate and make more prints!
I LOVE the Gelli Arts® printing plate and am already planning out some greeting card designs. If you want to know what else you can do with these plates, check out the Gelli Arts® website where you’ll find a ton of FAQs. There is also an extremely useful What to Know section – including a downloadable care and instruction sheet – located here.
Also, check out this video to see how easy it is to make monoprints with a Gelli Arts® plate:
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