Gel Plate Monoprinting

Ran across a video here on how to make a permanent gel plate for monoprinting and decided to give it a whirl. It wasn't all that cheap to make, smelled a bit funky, foamed like a son of a gun and had to be skimmed repeatedly to get rid of all the foam but it did work.  I still have it in a container at room temperature and it hasn't grown anything but it is a pain to clean and I think a silicone glue gun mat will work just as well.

So there I was with several sheets of cardstock printed in some not so great colors but went ahead and used them anyway. I had a print that was made by brayering red, orange and ochre paint on the plate and then stamping into the paint with a damp marble design stamp. I cut it down and made a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inch card with it.

The second print started out yellow and blue but I overworked it and ended up with green. A little embossing paste, a stencil from The Crafters Workshop and Salty Ocean Distress ink on a 3 1/4 by 4 1/2 inch ticket die cut made it work.

The next print was red and orange paint that was combed with a rubber thingy for doing wood graining. I used black Archival Ink and a stamp I lovingly refer to as "The 3 Broads" from my ancient stash. No idea who made the stamp. It's really old and just bare rubber.

Flowers were die cut from the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Garland decorative strip. Papers used were: a book page randomly stamped with Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink; book page sponged with Salty Ocean and ironed with paraffin wax; book page sponged with Peeled Paint Distress Ink; a piece of needlepoint canvas sponged with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and a second piece sponged with Salty Ocean.

A strip of black cardstock punched with a Martha Stewart border punch, decorative brads from StampinUp and a bow made from hemp cord complete the embellishments. The final touch was the word "Friendship" stamped in black Archival ink with alphabet stamps from Hero Arts.

Til next time...