I made a mess today. Purple paint on my fingers,, smudges on my desk, and a very imperfect page.
I pulled out my gel plate, grabbed some foam alphabet stamps, and decided to make a TGIF print. Of course, the first pull didn’t work out. I didn’t use enough paint, and then it dried too fast and my letters did not come out crisp at all. But instead of cleaning it all up and starting over, I just kept layering.
That’s the thing about messy art—it almost always turns into something cooler than you planned. When I inked the edges of my journaling with my black Versafine pad, the whole thing came together. I’ve been a huge fan of inking edges lately—I love when techniques come back into fashion after a long time away. Even if it’s only my fashion lol.
Technique of the Day
I started out with the layer of purple paint, and then used foam letter stamps to create the TGIF sentiment. I love foam stamps for this because it’s so easy to use them backwards (which you need to do in order to get a right side up word on the gel plate). It’s not something you can do as easily with clear or rubber stamps.
To make sure that I got the letters in order, I first put them in the correct order on my desk, then flipped them all around so I knew I was putting them on the plate correctly.
After pulling off some purple paint with the foam stamps—which I think came out pretty good—I added the pink paint (and not enough of it). Which meant that too much of it dried and stuck to the gel plate, and didn’t adhere to the paper that I put down. You can watch the full video to see how it happened.
But that was totally fine, I got the basic outlines of the letters, and decided that it would look awesome with some black outlining. I grabbed my Sharpie Creative Markers and picked out the black brush tip to add another layer.
Even though things didn’t come out as crisp and clean as I was planning, I love how the finish page ended up—especially with the little strips of journaling. A great page to end the week.
Supply List
Heat Gun: Ranger
Trimmer: Tonic Studios
Gel Plate: Gelli Arts 8x10, 5x7, 3x5
This post may have affiliate links.
Tips & Creative Wisdom
Foam Stamps for the Win
Foam alphabet stamps are perfect for gel plate prints—they’re lightweight, bold, and easy to flip for reversed text.
Pro Tip: Lay your letters out in the correct order first, then flip them before pressing onto the plate. You’ll save yourself the mental gymnastics later.
**If you’d like to unsubscribe from these Daily Pages emails, but continue to get other emails, click here and learn how to update your settings to best suit your needs.
