Printing with Gelli Arts® Gel Plates and Pigment Ink Pads

Hello and welcome on the Gelli Arts® blog.

It’s Birgit here today showing you how to create colorful prints using pigment ink pads.

I’m using my New Gelli Arts® 9x12" printing plate along with VersaFine Clair and Distress Oxides but you can definitely experiment with other brands. I think the biggest advantage of using pigment inks instead of acrylic paint is that you can use your rubber stamps to create texture without ruining them.

You could use your brayer to lift up the ink from the ink pad and then roll it on to the gel plate but I prefer to apply the ink straight to the plate as that will give more vibrant colors.

Leave a little bit of space between the different colors to make sure you don’t contaminate your ink pads.

Then use your brayer to blend the color. Make sure to clean the brayer in between colors to avoid mud.

Now press texture plates or rubber stamps into the ink to create patterns and texture.

I’m using some art printing plates that I designed for Carabelle Studio.

The inks don’t dry on the plate which gives you a lot of time to work and create texture.

Place your paper on the gel plate and rub gently.

If you like to have more variety in your prints you can create a “collage.”

Apply the inks in blocks and blend the colors.

Then add texture in small areas, you can even let them overlap if you like, until the whole plate is filled with texture.

Now, instead of placing the whole piece of paper on the plate, print in parts. Print different areas of the plate on the same piece of paper.

Continue until the whole piece is covered and then move on with the next piece of paper until all the ink has been lifted up from the gel plate.

Now you have some beautiful colorful prints that you can use as backgrounds, but the inks are water soluble so the backgrounds are not permanent.

I like my backgrounds to be permanent so I found a way to solve that “problem.”

I applied a thin layer of gel medium to the gel plate and placed my print on top. I carefully rolled over it with my brayer.

I dried the print with my heat gun and then repeated the process to make sure the whole surface was well covered with gel medium.

When the gel medium is dry the inks will no longer be reactivated by water or other media.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to see what you create!

Happy printing!

Birgit

Products used in this video:

9”x12” Gelli® Printing Plate

Brayer

White tags (8x16cm/3.15”x6.3”) no brand

Tsukineko VersaFine Clair : Verdant, Glamorous, Purple Delight, Cheerful

Ranger Distress Oxide: Spiced Marmalade, Peacock Feathers

Stamp: Falling Leafs by Birgit Koopsen for Carabelle Studio

Art Printing Plates:

Circles by Birgit Koopsen for Carabelle Studio

Patchwork by Birgit Koopsen for Carabelle Studio

Stargazing by Birgit Koopsen for Carabelle Studio

DecoArt® Media^TM Matte Medium

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