Gelli Printing Fun!

When we first arrived here in Oregon I got the bug to do some gelli printing to make into greeting cards.  As it turned out, I never got to it.  Until now!  I had purchased a 5 by 7 gelli plate at Blick's art store.  It was still in great shape after lying unused for almost two years.

With the old acrylic paint a very nice lady named Anna on Freecycle gave me, I finally gave it a try.  Being more or less a patriotic person, I decided to use the red, white, and blue paint.  Well, there was also brown, plus a bold yellow, but I stuck with red, white, and blue.

The way you do this form of art is to put a few drops of paint on the gelli plate then use a roller to spread the paint over the plate.  When it is covered the way you like, lay a piece of paper over the gelli plate and carefully smooth the paper over the paint and rub well so the paint will adhere to the paper.  Lift the paper and set it to dry.

Almost always after the first print, you can make a "ghost print", or two.  Lay another piece of paper over the top of the gelli plate and rub very very well over the whole plate then lift off this print.

You never know what you are going to get from a print with this method of printing.  I LOVE this print.  It was the third print of the first paint application.  I call it "Cardinals in Winter" because it reminds me of the cardinals in the bush outside my mother-in-law's house in Barre, Vermont.  She called her cardinal Pierre.