My New Toy: The Gel Printing Plate

Hi Everyone!

This past weekend I indulged in a 4-day craft-athon. It was all brought about because I was participating in a great swap on Instagram called #punchandstampswap. The creative gal who suggested the swap also suggested that the punches come from gel printed paper. Well, even though I had a 3" mini gel plate from the December Art Bento Box, I hadn't used it. Since the mini plate was a little too small for this project, I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up a 5x5" plate. I also went to GFS and picked up a box of delicatessen paper (aka deli paper) that I've been hearing so much about.

I spent the better half of a day figuring out the timing with the paint, stencil/stamp and pull dance. It just didn't seem like I was moving fast enough, but through that I learned, probably a 101 lesson, that if you put a fresh coat of paint on top of dry paint, and then pull the print, both coats come off together *light bulb*. So after many, many hours, and many many sheet of cardstock, copy paper, and deli paper, I finally pulled something that made it all worthwhile.

This was done on black cardstock with burgandy and gold paint on the first layer, and baby pink and white on the second layer. A number stamp was used on the first layer, and pieces of paper were used to create the voids in the second layer that revealed the first layer. A total winner in my book.

And then later I pulled this, and was officially hooked. The numbers is a stencil I cut with the Silhouette Cameo, and the design comes from their design store. I'll be honest, I can't remember exactly how I got this, but I know I did it in two layers. I believe, for the second layer, I laid the stencil down on top of the paint, pulled a little paint with the deli paper, and then pulled with the paper holding the first layer. Either way, I love it. *^_^*

The next day I decided I needed more stencils, so I headed back to the Silhouette Design Store. The Cameo cut through the Grafix and Simply Stencil stencil paper beautifully, and both performed like champs during my craft-athon.

By the end of day-2 I had made around 20 different prints (on 5x5" paper), and from those I got about 90 punches. Just enough to send to out for the IG swap. 

After I got the punches out of the way, I still had to make tags for two IG swap friends. I got so caught up in making those two, I decided to make a third one. The tags were highly influenced by the swap theme: For all of the the tags, the background is deli paper I used to roll off paint from the gel plate; The first and second tag have stamped images that I cut out and colored with Distress Ink; and the third tag has circle paper punches (one was stamped and the other stamped and embossed). Also, for the first time, I got to play with the Tim Holtz dies. I love the dimension they add to the tags. They were worth every penny.

Theme: Found Poetry

Theme: Found Poetry

I think I almost went blind cutting the butterflies out. >_<

All of this is a prime example of why I love being on Instagram. I've been able to find a lot inspirational creative souls. It's the best. 

Well, that's it for now, but I can guarantee you'll be seeing more gel printing from me in the near future. Until next time!

~Jackie

2016 Valentine's Day Card #3

Hello, hello, hello!

I'm back again with card #3. And the star of this episode is, once again, the burst heart design I purchased from Silhouette Design Store. Except this time I decided to make it into a rubber stamp. So, here we go!

Here are a few shots of the stamp carving process. I printed the design on plain copy paper using an inkjet printer. Because it's an abstract design I didn't have to worry about flipping the image. I used an iron to transfer the image onto the rubber. (putting wax paper between the iron and the copy paper)

Once the image was transferred enough for me to see it on the rubber, I began carving.

***BONUS*** Here's another (less expensive, less time consuming) way you can make a stamp. All you need is: craft foam, a pen, a piece of cardboard, and ink. Draw your design on the foam with a pen, and keep tracing over it, pressing firmly. Once you've made a deep impression in the foam, adhere the foam to a piece of cardboard (slightly bigger than the foam), and you're ready to stamp. This is a picture of a stamp my son made. He says it's his signature. ^_^

Carving the design took a few hours, but it was totally worth it. I couldn't have been happier with the final product.

Now on to the card. I decided to take it back to the beeper/pager days. When you said, "I love you" by sending the numbers "143". (Am I showing my age with this one? (0_0) LOL) Anyway, I created a mask, slightly bigger than the heart, to cover the area I planned on stamping the heart in. Then I put the numbers 1,4,3 and a mini heart on an acrylic block, and stamped across the entire piece of cardstock. I used 2nd generation stamping on most of the paper, including a few 1st gen. stamps for a little depth.

When I finished stamping, I removed the mask, brushed the surface of the cardstock with the powder tool, and stamped the heart using a clear embossing ink pad and clear ultra high embossing power. The clear embossing powder is going to serve as a resist to the ink I will apply in the next step.

Using circular motions, I applied ink starting in the middle of the heart and worked my way out, creating a halo effect around the outside of the heart.

All that was left to do was mount it. I used craft foam the same size as the project.

And there you have it. A simple, cute way to say "I Love You".

Thanks for stopping by!

~Jackie

Links to materials:

• Heart Design
• Stamp carving rubber
• Stamp carving knife
• White cardstock
• Number cling stamps (originally sold at Micheal's in-store)
• Mini heart cling stamp
• Embossing ink pad
• Clear embossing power
• Ink
• Craft foam
• Adhesive
• Teal cardstock