SOMEONE CARES

When I was asked to Guest Design at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #202, I was delighted! But then I was told about this 2-week challenge, and I had a bit of trepidation - "G is for Gel Printing". I've never done any gel plate printing and didn't have the slightest idea how to proceed. So, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and ran off to Michael's waving my Christmas gift card and invested in a gelli plate, brayer, and small set of acrylic paints.

Since I am currently in my Valentine card phase I decided to limit myself in colors, which I can see yields a less interesting background. Next time I do this I'll tackle a bit more color and pattern. I used only Crimson Red, Vermillion, Titanium White, and Black. The first couple of prints I pulled were pretty boring, but this background came from a ghost print of a deeper red first try. I decided to use it anyway and see what I could do with it.

I stamped part of the sentiment from Tim Holtz with Memento "Tuxedo Black" ink onto a strip of the darker gel print (In retrospect I wish I had heat embossed this sentiment so that it would show up better against the red.). I did heat emboss the last line with white powder on a black paper strip and mounted both of these to the gel printed background. I decided to add a tie to the Tim Holtz Snarky Cat that I had previously used for my brother's birthday card and then I had fun coloring it with Copic markers and stamping tiny hearts into the white polka dots. I fussy cut him out and mounted him with dimensional foam to the face of the card, which I then mounted with a black mat to a folded slim-line card. I added several hearts, some directly to the background and some layered for dimension. 

My final bit of fun was to custom make a coordinating envelope lined with Valentine printed paper. I added a sentiment from Photoplay #S152150 "Made by Me" to the back of the envelope just below the flap.

And that's my first foray into gel printing. I look forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with!

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS Challenge #202 - G is for Gel Printing