Image Transfer Printed Journal Cover by Gelli® Artist Marsha Valk

Hi there! Happy new year! It’s Marsha here today, and for me, a new year means a new notebook! This time I accidentally ordered the new one in a colour that I’ve had before. So I wanted to change the look with the help of my Gelli Arts® printing plate!

Watch how I transform my plain bullet journal with image resist transfer prints:

You can adapt this idea to personalize the cover of any art journal, bullet journal, planner or plain notebook!

In the video, you can see that I started gel printing directly onto the cover of my notebook.

I did not prime, sand or even degrease the cover beforehand. However, you can, if you need to.

If you do not like the original colour of your notebook, you may want to apply a coat of paint or gesso first.

Once you’ve finished decorating the cover with gel prints and collage elements, you can add a layer of matte medium or varnish overtop to protect the decorations from wear and tear.

Only time will tell if the coat of matte medium I applied is sufficient. The paint did not seem to scratch off when I tried it; however, because I’m going to use this notebook daily, I’m expecting some of it will wear off eventually.

Please know that the image resist transfer technique can be tricky and that sometimes the prints just do not turn out well.

The key is not to give up if you don’t succeed the first few tries. Practice lots and certainly give it a go with different brochures, magazines and old book pages!

If you’ve tried many times already and still can’t get the hang of it, you can try the StazOn method.

Birgit explains this alternative method in detail in this video tutorial: Image Resist Printing Using StazOn + Gelli Arts®

And, you can also find more video tutorials on the subject in this project section on the blog: Image Transfers & Resists

Wishing you lots of gel printing fun in 2022!

Marsha.

Materials:

Gelli Arts® 5 x 7 gel printing plate
Notebook (Leuchtturm A5 hardcover)
Acrylic paint (Liquitex Basics Light Olive Green, Rose Pink, Liquitex Soft Body Bright Aqua Green, Winsor & Newton Galeria Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue, Cerulean Blue Hue, Deep Turquoise, Payne’s Gray, Titanium White)
4″ Soft rubber brayer
Pages from magazines and brochures
Masking tape
Matte medium (Liquitex) or varnish
Optional: mylar, glue eraser, tissue paper, paint markers

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