Gelli Arts� Printing with "Glaze Paints"

Hello there and welcome to the Gelli� Arts blog!

Birgit here with a new video and step-by-step.

Today I am going to show you how to create your own �glaze paints� and how to use them on the Gelli� plate.

These paints are very translucent, yet very vibrant, which gives you the possibility to create multi layered prints in beautiful bright colors. I really love how I can see all the previous layers shine through the layers on top!

To create these �glaze paints� you need a matte gel medium, Brushos (but another brand watercolor powders/ink stains like Color Burst will probably give the same effect), water, spoons, a cup to mix and empty paint tubes or little pots.

For 20ml tubes take 2 full coffee spoons of matte gel medium, add half a teaspoon of Brusho and about 2-4ml water.

It�s better to have a little bit too much water than not enough as the powders change the consistency of the gel medium and it might get too thick after you added it to the tubes and you won�t be able to use them anymore. I had that happen with a few of my colors.

Mix well. The gel medium has to be very smooth and the powder has to be dissolved completely.

Fill the tubes or pots with the paints and mark them with the name of the color.

Take some sheets of cheap printer paper and cut some easy and simple but fun stencils, like circles, triangles and diamonds.

Use a brayer to apply a thin layer of paint to the Gelli� plate. It will look very transparent and you might think there is not enough paint on there but you will be surprised by the brightness of the colors. 

Lay a stencil on top of the paint and pull your first print.

Then apply a new color to the plate, lay a stencil on top and pull a second print on top of the first print. Continue this way with different stencils and colors until you have multiple overlapping layers of colors and shapes.

Dry your print and the used stencils well with a heat gun, then use a repositionable adhesive to apply a stencil in the right position to the print.

Apply paint to the plate and use texture tools, like Art Printing plates to remove paint and create texture. Place the print with the stencil adhered to it on top of the paint and pull the print.

If you feel you need more layers after that you can just continue adding colors and shapes until you are satisfied.

When you are done, don�t throw away your painty stencils! They are perfect collage material.

In the next pictures you can see how I used pieces of the colorful stencils and applied them on top of my print.

And here are some samples where you can see how I used the prints as backgrounds in my art journal. The paints are 95% permanent when dry. Some colors may react a little bit when adding water or paint with a brush. But I found that I could perfectly work on them and did things like doodling, painting, stamping and coloring.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Happy printing!!

Birgit


List of Materials
5x7 Gelli� Plate
Roller
Matte Gel Medium
Brusho (watercolor powders)
Water
Spoons
Cup to mix
Empty paint tubes or little pots
Crimpers
Copy paper
Scissors
Stencils
Stamps for textures