Gel Print Mini Journal

Hello blogger friends,

Have you joined the Gelli Plate printing craze yet? If you haven't, now's a good time to start. This trend has grown so much in popularity and it's understandable why. It's highly addictive and it makes it easy to create beautiful journal pages!

Supplies

Brayer

Decoupage or gel medium

Distress stain

Gel printing plate

Paper (music sheet, book text or patterned)

Stamp

Stencil

Wet wipes

In this tutorial I'll show you how to create a resist using decoupage medium, a stencil and your gel printing plate. I'll also show you how to get a second print from the negative pattern.

Step One: Remove the plastic cover from the plate and set the plate on a protected surface such as a craft mat. Pour a small amount of decoupage medium on the gel plate. There should be enough to cover the entire surface of the plate.

Step Two: Spread the decoupage medium all over the plate with a brayer.

Step Three: Set a stencil over the plate.

Step Four: Stamp into the decoupage medium. Using a variety of stamps in different areas with add interest to your print.

Step Five: Cover your plate and stencil with a piece of paper and gently rub your hand over the surface. Remove the paper.

Step Six: Quickly remove the stencil and lay another paper down on the plate. Gently rub the surface with your hand and remove the paper. This will give you the negative print.

Step Seven: Clean your plate, stencil, stamp and brayer with a wet wipe.

Step Eight: Apply distress stain to both dry prints and watch a pattern emerge.

Step Nine: Wipe excess ink away with a wet wipe. This will remove any ink that's sitting on the decoupage medium.

While you have all the supplies out, it's a good time to make multiple prints trying different stencils and stamps. You can create various art journal backgrounds that will be ready to work with at a later time. 

I hope you will pull out your gelli plates and try this at home. Let me know how it goes in the comments!