Printing with Clear + Rubber Stamps with Gelli Arts® by Marsha Valk

Hi there! It’s Marsha here today! Have you ever tried to combine stamped images with gel printing? If not, then I’m going to show you a super fun way to incorporate not only rubber stamps, but also clear stamps with gel printing.

In this video, I’m using Post-It tape to create masks. You can substitute the tape with low tack frisket film or even regular Post-Its as long as long as you stamp part of your images on the sticky part.

Cut your mask just inside the lines of the stamped image. Cutting slightly inside will prevent the occurrence of a white border, also called a ‘halo effect’, around the image on the final print.

Stamping inks are safe to use on the Gelli® plate. Give it a go with the ones you already have at home. Pigment, hybrid and solvent inks are my personal favourite inks for gel printing. However, there are types of dye ink that achieve fab results too.

I like to apply stamping ink to the Gelli® plate by tapping the ink pad directly on the plate. If you wish, you could use a brayer instead. The brayer creates a more even and sometimes subdued look.

If you do not have any stamping inks at hand, you can stamp (and gel print) with acrylic paint or water-based printing ink instead. Apply the paint to your stamp with a brayer or cosmetic sponge. Take extra care to not let any acrylic paint dry on your stamp. Clean it off right away!

Once your prints are finished, and the ink (or paint) is dry, you can remove the masks. Depending on the image you chose, you may want to enhance them with gel pens or coloured pencils. And, if you are creating cards as I did, then you can add a sentiment if you like!