Gelli Arts® Printed Fall Bouquet

Hi there! It’s Marsha here with a fall decor idea that
is fun for kids as well as adults!

Preparations:

First things first – gather leaves. You do not have to dry the leaves before you
print them, but flattened leaves are easier to print on, so press them between
the pages of an old book before getting started.

Bare in mind that if the leaves are completely fresh, they
will dry out after gelli® printing and that means they can warp and buckle.

If you don’t want that to happen, press them in the old
book for a while once the print is dry.

Step 1:

Start gelli® printing! This project works in two ways: use
the leaves as masks to create beautiful leaf gelli® prints on paper and be sure
to cover both sides of each leaf with paint in the proces.

Step 2:

Once you have all sides of all leaves covered, you can
throw some stencils into the mix. Look for stencils that have clear patterns.
These leave the best visible impressions on the leaves.

Don’t forget to pull some ghost prints!

My main focus was
on printing the leaves, but each time I saw a really interesting pattern left
on the Gelli® Plate after printing the leaves, I pulled
a print on a fresh sheet of paper to preserve it.

Step 3:

Use the NEW GelliArts® Round Mini Kit to stamp another layer onto the leaves. Alternate
colours and marks made with punchinella and the 3-sided texture tool.

Step 4:

Add the finishing touch by splattering some black paint
onto the printed leaves. I like to tap onto a paint marker to create splatter.

Step 5:

Let the leaves dry for a bit and then attach each leaf to a
wire. Just wrap the wire around the stem of the leaf and then reinforce it with
tape.

Wrap two or three wires together to form a branch.

I covered the wires with masking tape because I wanted to
be able to paint the branches. You can easily substitute the masking tape with
coloured or washi tape.

Step 6:

Paint the branches and let dry – once completely they’re all dry place where everyone can enjoy!!

Have fun arranging your colorful leaves in a vase!

– Marsha Valk

Materials:

Gelli Arts®:

Gelli Arts®Mini Printing Plate Kit

8″ x10″ Gelli® Printing Plate

4″ Pop-In Soft Rubber Brayer

Stencils that are part of the Student Printing Plate Kit

Other:

Leaves

Paper

Acrylic paint (Royal Talens Amsterdam: Azo Yellow Medium, 

Reflex Rose, Titanium White, Turquoise Blue, Ultramarine Violet)

Paint marker (Posca: black)

Stencils (Nathalie Kalbach for 

Stencil Girl Products: Buenos Aires, Toledo)

Wire

Masking tape