FINALLY! I'm Gelli-n!!

What an awesome day!! First though, I have to apologize for the photo quality...the lighting was not so great at my moms dining room table! But hopefully you will get the gist of the fun we had!!

a table full of fun!

My mom, sister & I played with the Gelli Arts Printing Plate ALL day long {available here, at Altered Pages}!!! OMG! You have to get one of these things! It's so much fun & so very cool & versital!

We tried it the Gelli Arts Way, painting layers upon layers with texture in between...

I learned that you need to start with your darkest layer first, DUH!...my green was on the bottom & it barley shows through the other 2 layers!

 for this one, I just blobbed paint {very technical here!} onto the plate & placed my paper over it without brayering! It looked like an inkblot! Then I layered more green & yellow with the brayer onto the plate & then stamped a butterfly in black paint. It didn't quite work out, but kinda cool!

my little village?

mom's spooky house

 These two, my mom & I placed the paint where we wanted it, then stamped a Claudine Hellmuth foam house stamp into the top layer of paint. I like mom's on the bottom - kinda spooky!

pink bunnies & teeth?

 These two, I played with some pinks...didn't quite get the paint spread around on the top one, but still the pattern is fun. What do you see in the picture? I see a long pink bunny!

used a "funny brush" for the weird texture

 Below, is one of Kim's pages...very cool print where she layered light pink over a slightly textured blue & then stamped the image of the girl into the pink - all on a jumbo playing card! It's great to see that a very detailed stamp works in paint too!

Kim's girl card

had to try some poppies!

 Above, I layered black & red & stamped a Stampin' Up Poppy image into it. Below, mom layered & textured & masked some birdies. Then when dry, she added a text stamp {text prints in reverse on the Gelli!} here & there & then outlined the birds! Awesome mix!

Then, we tried another technique I saw on Youtube, where you place a dab of 3 colors on the plate in various places & then brayer it around & texture before placing your paper down. I have to say, this is the one we did the most of...

 Above, my first attempt...mom's below...

 Getting more interesting as I layered 3 colors, used a dot roller & a bird mask...

funky & cool, right?

 Blended the colors a little more on the next & then stamped with a giant butterfly!

Maggie had to play too...

a peel from one of my print

Just look at her awesome colors & placement of that feather stamp! Sometimes I can't believe she's only 6!!!

On this one, I did my 3 colors, then brayered an awesome grafitti stencil from The Crafter's Workshop; layered some bubble wrap over that & finally another circle stencil from Mr. Huey's. Not as much color as I wanted, but still very cool!

This is one of my favorites...I simply brayered a denim blue with white; added a little black to the balloon stamp & plopped it down. It's very dreamy to me!

So, things I learned about the Gelli...

1. It doesn't take a lot of paint, but may take more than you think! Some of my prints were kinda "dry" & others heavy...it's definitely a "Goldielocks Moment," to quote Julie Fei-Fan Balzar!

2. Don't waste your money on heavy, art papers until you are comfortable with your results! We started off with a 140lb mixed media paper, but switched to book pages & 65lb cardstock since we were just experimenting.

3. Stock up on good baby wipes! We went through an entire box today!! Between cleaning the Gelli & the brayer...wow!

4. Keep a tray of wet water near by to throw your stencils & unmounted stamps into until you are ready to clean them! Otherwise the paint dries & it's hard to clean off!

5. Have fun & just let whatever happens, happen!

Remember, there are no mistakes! Just ART!

Bedtime!!