Gelli Plate and lino printing....

Last week I went into the craft den without planning what I was going to do but just to play!  I wanted to see where my mood took me and it took me to my Gelli Plate....

I used my stencils and acrylic paint with my Gelli plate.  I wrote a post introducing the Gelli plate last year and you can see the technique I use here.

My recent heat embossing post inspired me to incorporate this technique using a butterfly stamp and clear embossing powder.  I stamped the butterflies and heat embossed them on to the card before using the Gelli plate, this meant the embossed images act as a resist and show through.

I was now getting giddy with excitement and couldn't stop myself from adding pearlescent texture paste over the top through a spotty stencil.  At first I realised I had got carried away but this image does show off the colour of the copper, metallic acrylic paint I used.

Although I think I like it now.

My next attempt worked better.

I embossed the flowers with clear embossing powder again and used different stencils.  This time I also spritzed the paint on the Gelli plate with water which gave it a watercolour effect.

Once I had done a few prints I started to look around the craft den for inspiration and the Lino starter kit from the Handmade Fair was looking at me, perfect!

As I was so keen to get cutting, I cheated a little and stamped the image of the butterfly instead of drawing it. The butterfly was part of a set I also bought from the Handmade Fair so it was a good excuse to also use my new stamps.  

I mainly used the stamp to help me with the outline and used the different nibs to cut my own design on the wings.

The background is a print from the Gelli Plate.

What do you think? 

The gelli plate is fun and simple to use and you see results immediately. There are lots of different techniques and materials I could try with my gelli plate and I can't wait to give them a go.