Summer of Color, week 4: Red and Metallic with Gelli Plate and Stencils

Hi! The fun Summer of Color challenge series is already in its week five, but I'm running late with my posts, so here comes the palette number four: Red, Red and a Metallic colour! I like the fact that in Summer of Color, you can add your weekly links also later on - you just won't be joining the prize draw after the deadline, which is always the Sunday of the challenge week.



For the red and metallic theme, I decided on free experimenting with my Gelli plate and stencils. I got my Gelli plate recently and have only had a chance to try it a couple of times. I can't wait to do more soon!



In this piece with the hearts, the collage background is a Gelli print. The one in the first photo, on the other hand, began with all the leftover paints that I just spread around and stenciled here and there. So in that one, the background is not made with Gelli, but I cut collage elements from the printed papers instead.

These are the shades of red and the metallic colour that I chose.



I didn't make my own mixes this time, but used three different brands of paint as they were.



I can already tell that I love the Gelli plate! I was expecting I would, too, because I've loved all kinds of printing so far. I have a lot to learn with the Gelli plate, though, so I really look forward to playing with it more - and moreover, it's perfect summer crafting, don't you think?

One of the things that could work better is different sorts of paints, for example. The ones I tried now did not feel an ideal consistency, so next time I'll mix them with a bit of water before I start. I sprayed water on the plate but the paint could still have been more easy to spread. Especially my metallic paint was quite thick, so I did the last prints using only the leftover reds on my palette.

The following three are simple monoprints with Gelli, nothing added!







While in this one, the punchinella pattern is stenciled onto the print afterwards.



I really enjoyed the creative session just experimenting, not planning any particular end result! These will serve as backgrounds and for cutting collage elements. One of the backgrounds I can't show you here, because I already made it into something else! You can see what I made with it in my next post, soon to follow!

And be sure to pop in at the Summer of Color to see the palette for week 5!