Welcome! Today I'm playing with a Gel Plate! I've been having lots of fun and messy time in my craft room over the past month and thought I'd share some of what I've learned (so far) with you!
I started this one using a 6 x 4 3/4" panel of white cardstock. I like to use a panel slightly larger than the cardbase I'm going to make so I can decide my favorite area to cut out. Plus with extras it's fun to use for die cuts! I picked out a few colors of acrylic paint and got out all of my supplies to have ready. Acrylic paint dries quickly so I've found sometimes it dries while I'm searching around for that cool background stamp I just know I have!
Aside from your plate, you'll want to have handy the paints you want to use, a few pieces of cardstock cut to the size you want, a roller/brayer, any stamps, stencils, or other items (packing bubbles are a popular choice) for your shapes and textures. Also, good idea to turn your overhead fan off as it will just dry up your paint faster. I dropped some of the paint onto the gel plate and then used the brayer to spread and mix the colors over the entire plate.
Just placed the panel over the top of the painted surface and applied pressure over the entire back of the panel and then peeled it off. I decided to start with a "solid" background of paint since I wanted an underwater scene. Don't you love that Lumiere paint?? I got that as a gift from a friend and I'm pretty certain I need to pick up some more beautiful shimmery colors!
I covered the plate with another shade of blue and don't know about you, but I have tons of leftover circles in my stash and decided to use some of them to create circles for my underwater scene. I used different sizes and laid them randomly over the paint so that those areas would not transfer to my panel. The already covered panel was laid over the circles and firm pressure applied.
Eep! I love it! After pulling off the paper, you can see where the areas covered by circles show the beautiful shimmery layer below... and I love that the paint transfers at different opacities creating some really beautiful effects.
I did this same step a couple times for an almost bokeh type effect each time randomly placing the circles in different patterns and using various shades of blues and greens.
Finally, I moved the plate to the side and used it as a palette by adding drops, rolling it out to then use the roller to add paint to my seaweed and minnow and bubble stamps and stamp them directly onto the background. And don't worry, I didn't waste the paint left on the plate. Before I finished I transferred it onto another piece of cardstock to save for later! Extras and any panels that don't turn out as you had hoped are great to set aside and use later either as they are... adding additional images and texture and shapes, or to die cut from
I used one of the extras to cut that cool bubble shape out and I love the look it gives... more dimension, more circles and even more underwatery looking. I also heat embossed my sentiment onto the same panel.
I used one of my extra panels to die cut those cool rings and the piece I embossed my sentiment onto which I think adds tons more dimension and under watery feel.
And of course the plan all along was to add these adorable baby hippos from the Hippo Hooray stamp set. I had fun coloring them in along with their little friends from the set and then adhered them to the background with various thicknesses of foam tape.
That's me for today! I hope you enjoyed your visit! And for some extra Gel Plate inspiration, you can check out Lynnea's latest video on our YouTube Channel here because she's been playing as well! You can find her video here and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already!