Double-Dipping Background Prep

Mono printing feels like double-dipping but it's a great way to do some mindless art and get backgrounds prepped and ready for future journaling. The mino print produces one (or two) backgrounds and cleaning off the roller, stencils, and stamps produces additional pages.

The pink page was created by cleaning the roller on the left and pressing the 6"x6" gel plate on the right to clean off leftover paint. 

The blue page began with cleaning off the roller. I forced dried the page with a hairdryer and then cleaned off stamps and stencils after someone else had used them for mono printing. I pressed them in random places on my journal page for a very pleasing background ready for the next phase. 

Impromptu (Travel Bag) Art Workshop

I always take my art travel bag whenever I leave the house for a day trip or an overnight for two reasons; (1) I always hope that I'll have some free time to do art; (2) I enjoy doing art together with others and public places are perfect for discovering who also enjoys getting messy with mixed media art. To ensure I'm always ready for either option, I restock/refill my travel art bag immediately upon return from any away trip so I'm ready to grab-n-go for the next time.

We covered a large table with newsprint & spread out the supplies.

 I've started including a mini (6"x6") Gelli Art plate in my travel bag plus a small roller. I also include small stencils and stamps which can be used to add texture. My mini tubs of acrylic and tempura are plenty for an impromptu art evening with half a dozen people.
I begin by unloading everything in my travel art bag and explaining the possible uses for each. For this impromptu art evening with six women we set up in the common room at a retreat hotel. Some of the women became enamored with doing Zentangle and others made mini mono prints. 

Stencils, mini tubs of paint and a 6" square Gelli Art plate.

The only paper I had was my 6" squares of black.

Black 6" squares and Zentangle

A 3rd press of the Gelli Art plate for a faint "ghost" plus additional (heart) stamping.

Gel pens for Zentangle on black watercolor paper.

A 6"x6" first print on black watercolor paper using white gesso and acrylic.

Rainy Afternoon Vaca Art Day

Art with a view: rainy vaca day means break out the art supplies and play. No agenda. It was fun to add bits & pieces here & there on previously "done" pages. I also played with mono printing wo a roller. 

I didn't pack a brayer so I used a toothbrush instead.

It was easiest to press the 6" Gelli Art plate directly onto my journal page.

I collaged papers I'd torn from magazines during the flight en route. An afternoon of rainy day art netted lots of miscellaneous backgrounds for future journaling.

Tempura Paint for Mono Printing

Tempura is a great alternative media for mono printing instead of the more traditionally recommended acrylic. It is inexpensive and dries to a flat matt finish that makes is a preferable surface for art journals since the matt is easier to write on.

Squirt small dots of three colors on the printing plate and spread with a brayer. Be careful not to over-blend the colors. Make impressions as desired. Here I used oversized foam stamps. The paint on the stamp can be pressed on another sheet of paper or journal page. This has clean the stamp while also decorating another page. The brayer also can be cleaned by rolling it on a fresh journal page.

Christmas VBS Mono Printing

Mono printing with small kids is messy but joyous. We covered a ping pong table with paper and created six small stations to rotate children in for mono printing on a Gelli Art plate. The stations were set up with three choices of acrylic paint, a roller, and a selection of items for stamping texture and Christmas shapes. There was one adult per station to assist the children and to help with cleanup between kids. One of the helper teens demonstrated the process and then we cut the kids loose at six stations which were set up around a covered ping pong table.

 The stations included one Gelli Art plate, one roller, an assortment of paints and items to use to make stencils, stamps, and designs.

Each child created two mono prints on card stock which could then be folded and used as a card or cut into small rectangles and punched with a paper punch in one corner to be used as gift tags. Ages 3 to 14 participated and everyone was super excited about the art they created.

Inspiration from Listening to Christian Radio: A Guest Perspective

The backgrounds for these art reflections were created during a recent group session on mono printing, Mary used her original photographs as the "guide prints" that she positioned under a piece of clear Plexiglas and then used acrylic paints to quickly paint the gist of the image on top of the acrylic. Each print was individually pressed to pull up the rendered image. Once dry, the mono prints were adhered to her art journal for future artful reflection. Mary said her inspiration for the art journaling came while listening to the Christian radio station KLOVE.

 

DIY Christmas Stamps for Block Printing

Paper cross intended to be a painted ornament.

I like the oversized foam stamps which are intended for printing on t-shirts. When I couldn't find any themed for Christmas I decided to find an alternative way to make my own. I cruised the Christmas craft section and bought various shapes for other projects and then used heavy duty glue to adhere each to a free sample piece of flooring (available at your local super-sized building supply store). I used a 6"x6" Gelli Art printing plate as my "stamp pad" and "inked it up" with a liberal dose of acrylic paint from a tube.
There are several variations on the theme. You can simply use the Gelli Art plate like an ink pad, inking and re-inking (washing between as appropriate) or you can use the Gelli Art plate as the stamp. Of course a combination also works. I worked on a journal page which already had some basic preparation done for the background. I chose purple to provide a strong impact image and to complement the existing colors.

The Gelli Art printing plate can be pressed directly onto a journal page.

A selection of DIY stamps that children will use during Christmas VBS.

This is my practice page to experiment with the DIY stamps and Gelli Art plate. I'll add more layers later.

Grief Group & Gelli Art Photo 'Transfer'

Using a photo which holds a significant memory is a helpful tool in so-called art therapy and one's journey through grief. In the example here, the mother of a teen who was killed last year works with a photo she took while she was taking her son on a ski trip. She had asked her son to roll down car window and lean way back so she could take a picture of the scene they were driving past making the slow climb up the steep mountain road. As a symbol, the artwork doesn't need to exactly duplicate the actual scene; rather the shapes of the symbols point to something bigger than "just" the trees. In this example, the trees symbolize the special times that she has had with her son at their mountain retreat. The mother used black paint for the first imprint (below); washed the gel plate and used purple (on of her son's favorite colors) for the second round (left).

Place the photo in an acetate sleeve and tape to work table. Position gel plate. Mix retarder into your acrylic paint to slow down the drying process and then quickly paint your image using a generous application of paint. 

Press a sheet of watercolor paper and pull the print. The "trees" image shown below was printed onto a page previously prepared with a gel imprint with silver acrylic and a stamped image to suggest the texture of snow. You could pull a second "ghost" print; spritz the plate with water and them pull a third and possibly fourth print. Adhere the mono prints into an altered book art journal as backgrounds for future reflection.

Purple Water Lily Mono Print Variations

First run/original pulled imaged.

I used the photograph of the water lily as my guide print for a mono print. In the spirit of total art experimentation, I pushed the art envelope to see how many variations I could create from just one Gelli Art mono print "original" painting. I came up with the following five options from just one round of "first run" painting on the plate:

1. Original printed onto prepared background.
2. Ghost of original printed onto a second prepared background.
3. White acrylic brayered over leftover paint after previous two prints had been pulled; use fresh paper which doesn't have any previous printing.
4. Heavy spritzing of water onto leftover from above; enough so paint runs; press using fresh paper.
5. Final print on fresh paper to soak up the remainder of the watered down acrylic. You could press using fresh paper or add this as another layer to a previously printed sheet.

"Ghost" image with 2nd pressing of subject onto prepared background.

Third print: white acrylic over leftover paint; pulled on fresh sheet.

Fourth print onto heavily spritzed with water gel plate.

Fifth print with the leftover watered down acrylic.

Pink Lily Mono Print Variations

First run mono print.

There are several possibilities for using up the excess acrylic on the Gelli Art plate after pulling the first "Plan A" print. Of course there's always the basic "ghost" print. Press a prepared sheet of paper onto the leftover paint and see what you can pull up. In the example here, I cover the leftover paint on the gel plate with thick white acrylic paint. After applying with a brush to generally coat the plate I ran a brayer over it to smooth the surface. Take a fresh piece of paper and pull the image. You will get much of the leftover paint up from the flower plus a soft look with the white paint.

Cover the leftover paint with white acrylic; roll smooth with a brayer.

Water Lily Acrylic as a Gelli Art Mono Print

A fun way to incorporate the photo into a journal page is to use the photograph as a "guide print" for a mono print from a gel plate. Begin by sizing a digital photograph so that it fits underneath your printing/gel plate. I opted to use my 8" x 10" gel plate so the print here is slightly smaller. (My inkjet printer is B&W which is why the print is B&W. I then referred to the digital image on my cell phone if I needed a color guide.) Slip the inkjet print into an acetate sleeve to project the gel plate and the print. Tape the acetate sleeve to your work table so it doesn't slip around and top with gel plate. Once this is situated, you're ready to begin. I wanted to make a two-pass mono print with the background printed first and the subject (flower) second.

 I used acrylic paint for the background and subject. Because acrylic dries pretty fast, it is necessary to add a few drops of "extender" to each color of paint; stir, then apply the paints as usual. You will still need to work fairly quickly, so have everything you need all laid out and ready with a basin of water nearby to drop in the various tools that you use. I painted the lily and the leaves and then lined up the previously printed background and "pulled" the subject onto the background.

Ready to lay down the paper and pull the print.

Extra paint left after the first print was pulled.

The completed mono print which I then adhered to a double-page spread in my art journal.