Gelli Arts® Printing on Textured Paper

Smooth surfaces are wonderful for making highly detailed monoprints. But what if… you print on a textured substrate? Take a look at this video and see how fabulous the results can be!

This isn’t about printing on commercial textured paper, like a cold-press or rough watercolor surface. What we’re doing here is preparing an intentionally textured substrate designed to be an integral part of the print.

Because the Gelli ® plate has ‘give’, you can press a lumpy-bumpy textured paper into the plate and still get good paint coverage on your print. 

The ‘halo’ surrounding the raised areas on the paper enhances the dimensional look of the print. But if you prefer a more solid print, simply use more paint on the Gelli® plate! Or keep adding more layers.

There are countless ways to create an interesting texture on a sheet of paper. But here we’re focusing on building texture on your paper with dimensional paint and puff paint — thick acrylic paints that come in squeeze bottles with a small nozzle — (available at art and craft stores, with fabric paints). They’re so much fun to draw and scribble with! Experiment and play!

FYI: Puff paints require heat to achieve their full dimensional effect. A steam iron is often 

recommended for ‘puffing’ the paint. Follow directions for the specific brand you use.

The paper used in the examples is Staples® Card Stock, 8 1/2″ x 11″, White, 110 lb. The prints in this video are created on the 12″x14″ Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate — a wonderful size plate for creating bleed prints on these custom-textured card stock papers!

Preparing textured papers with dimensional and puff paints requires significant drying time. It’s best to prepare your sheets of textured paper at least several hours ahead. Overnight is optimal if you want to plan ahead. Make sure not to stack papers with wet or tacky paint or they’ll stick together.

The printing process on textured paper is the same as pulling any gel print. You can use your favorite masks, stencils, and texture tools, as usual. What makes this technique different is the textured paper!

Use dimensional paint to create 3-D, raised lines by squeezing the paint onto your paper. 

Simply squeeze lines, dots, squiggles, etc. on your paper. You can apply it randomly, or with a design in mind. Then, let it dry completely.

This is a layered print created over a design made with dimensional paint.

Here’s a detail from the print above showing the paint’s dimensional quality.

Also in the dimensional paint category, you’ll find puff paints. Squeeze them onto your paper, same as the regular dimensional paints. Allow to dry, then follow the instructions for heating the brand you’re using, and watch your design expand and puff up! This has a higher relief than regular dimensional paint, and puffs into a unique spongy texture.

This is dry puff paint — ready to be heated to expand.

Puff paint — heated and expanded. It turns lighter in color and a bit spongy.

This print has several layers of paint printed over a puffed paint design. The areas next to the dimensional lines didn’t make contact with the painted plate, creating an interesting ‘halo’ effect. Have fun drawing, painting and doodling into these white areas! The printed dimensional and puff paints also take paint and markers nicely, so you can embellish those too!

Here’s what the print looks like after going back into it with paint markers and pens.

And a detail picture for a closer look.

As you print the same piece over and over and layer paints, the prints created with textured papers continue to get more interesting as the colors build up.

This detail picture shows how puff paint accepts layers of paint.

Printing on textured paper is similar to using any texture plate on the Gelli® plate. That means the textured paper leaves an image in the paint left on the Gelli® plate — and can produce exciting ghost prints! 

Use dimensional and puff paints as a springboard for ideas on how to make your own textured papers for Gelli® printing! Make a bunch at a time and let them dry overnight! As you experiment and come up with your own cool papers and prints, please share them with us on Facebook!

This Contest is officially CLOSED

This
months Gelli Arts® blog giveaway winner (random number generator297) is Robyn – also known as RedDogGirl – You can see much of Robyn’s art on her Flickr site – https://www.flickr.com/photos/reddoggirl67/ Congratulations Robyn!!

Now for our GIVEAWAY

WIN ONE … GIVE ONE!!!!

One lucky winner will be selected at random to win the fabulous kit pictured below. We will 

ALSO donate one 12″x14″ Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate to the art teacher or school of their 

choice!

Our FUN giveaway kit includes:

• 1 – 12″x14″ Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate
• 1 – Speedball 4″ Soft Rubber Pop-in Brayer
• 1 – 4 oz. bottle of Tulip Matte (Black – dimensional fabric paint)
• 1 – 4 oz. bottle of Tulip Puffy (Black – dimensional fabric paint)
• 1 – 4 oz. bottle of Tulip Metallics – (Gold – dimensional fabric paint)

AND … we will ship a 12″x14″ Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate to the art teacher or school selected by the winner!

To enter to win simply leave a comment here on the blog! Comments will be accepted until Tuesday, May 27th, 2014 at 12 p.m. EST. Our lucky winner will be announced here on the blog and on our Facebook page no later than Tuesday, May 27th, 2014.

This Contest is officially CLOSED

Good Luck and Happy Printing! *And Happy Memorial Day Weekend!*