Gelli Arts® Printing with Wax Crayon Resist

Draw with wax crayons on your printing paper before you pull a Gelli® print! Sound like fun? Watch this video and see how this simple resist technique works!

Who doesn’t like crayons? Bring a free spirit to this simple resist technique and create colorful drawings, doodles, lines and color blocks on your blank printing paper. A heavy application of crayon will work best since you want to apply a fairly solid layer of wax. This is not the time for a light touch.

If you don’t want to draw freehand, you can use stencils and fill in their patterns with crayon. Or try a rubbing over a textured item placed under your printing paper. Just be sure to rub hard enough to leave enough wax on the paper to create a resist.

And how about combining these techniques! Place a texture under your printing paper … then lay a stencil on top of your printing paper. Rub a crayon in the stencil opening to pick up the texture that’s under the paper — so cool!

Once you’ve prepared your waxy marks on your paper, you’re ready to print. This fun technique will work nicely with any size Gelli® plate. Using the round plate adds its own design element to your final print!

Here’s how to print for this resist technique:

1. Apply acrylic paint to your Gelli® plate and roll into a thin layer with a brayer.
2. Add designs, if desired, in the wet paint with texture tools. 
3. Cover the painted gel plate with your crayoned printing paper.
4. Rub the paper to transfer the paint and pull your print.
5. Allow the print to dry completely.
6. After the print is completely dry, use a palette knife to scrape the crayon off thepaper. The paint covering the crayon marks comes off as you scrape down to the waxylayer. And the crayon color is revealed!

What’s left behind is a colorful image of whatever crayon marks you made on the paper. The crayon resist areas have a nice waxy, shiny feel!

TIPS:

• This resist technique works beautifully with oil pastels and wax-based colored pencils, and the process is the same as for crayons. The tips here refer to crayon, but the same information applies.
• Your crayon color choices show in the final print. Create good contrast between your paint color and your crayon color for more vibrant prints.
• Metallic crayons are great for this technique!
• Use white crayons to leave white marks.
• Use a white candle or clear wax crayon when you want to preserve the color of the original printing paper.
• You can print more than one layer on your paper, just like any Gelli® print.
• This technique works best on paper with a smooth surface.
• Be patient and allow the paint to dry completely before scraping it off. It’s easier to gouge the paper if the paint has not fully dried.
• If you accidentally gouge the paper, it easy to touch up with additional paint.
• You can use a lint roller on your print to remove crayon ‘crumbs’.
• Try to avoid getting crayon crumbs and debris on your Gelli® plate. If you find any stuck on your plate, remove with a piece of tape or a lint roller.
• After the wax resist is scraped away, if you want to reduce the remaining shine — simply zap the waxy areas quickly with a heat gun. The crayon residue will sink into the paper and appear more matte.
• Oil pastels lay down a quick, creamy layer of color. It’s fast and easy to apply, and produces vibrant color

FYI: Materials used in the video:

• 8” Round Gelli® Plate 
• Speedball 4” Soft Rubber Pop-In Brayer 
• Amsterdam Standard Series Acrylic Paint 
• Blick palette knife 
• Strathmore Bristol 
• Crayola Crayons 
• Neocolor 1 Wax Crayons 
• Ranger Archival Ink (stamp pad ink) 
• Stencil 
• Plastic mesh circles (texture used as rubbing plate) 
• Found’ texture (packing foam material)

This super-fun technique can give you amazing results. So go ahead … get out those crayons and tap your inner child!

This Contest is officially CLOSED

And now, we have a fabulous giveaway 

so you can give this fun technique a try!

• 1 – 8” Round Gelli® Plate
• 1 – Blick Palette Knife
• 1 – Speedball 4” Soft Rubber Pop-In Brayer
• 1 – Caran d’Ache Neocolor 1 Wax Crayons (10 colors)
• 1 – Crayola Crayons (24 colors)
• 1 – Crayola Metallic FX Crayons (16 colors)
• 1 – Cray-Pas Expressionist Extra Fine Quality Oil Pastels (16 colors)
• 1 – Niji Metallic Colors Oil Pastels (6 colors)
• 2 – Plastic mesh circles (for texture)

To enter to win, all you need to do is leave a comment here on the blog. Comments will be accepted until Monday, March 24th, 2014 at 5 p.m. EST. One lucky winner will be selected at random onMarch 24th and announced here on the blog and on our Facebook pageno later than Tuesday, March 25th at 12 noon EST.

This Contest is officially CLOSED

Good luck and Happy Printing!