Monoprint Note Cards Using Gelli Arts Printing Plate and Grafix Art Plastics

It's springtime in Oregon and that means a lot of us are spending every sunny day outside weeding and preparing our gardens for summer fruits and veggies.  When I'm working with my hands in the dirt, my feathered friend, Lisa is scratching right beside me.  She's a clever one.  She knows that when we work together, she'll get the biggest, fattest grubs that can be found in the yard.  Can you tell I love my chickens?  Naturally our girls have inspired this theme and when I'm done I'll have a fun set of handmade cards to mail to family and friends we're missing right now.

Materials used:

Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate
Gelli Arts Mini Printing Tools
Grafix Dura-Lar .004 Wet Media Film (for masks)
Grafix Super Sanded Shrink Film
Grafix Artist-Tac Permanent Dry Adhesive
Canson XL Mixed Media Paper
StazOn Ink
Rubber Stamps
Acrylic Paint
Brayer
Handmade Foam Stamps
Kraft Card Stock for Card Bases
White Card Stock for Card Fronts
1/4" Scor-Tape Adhesive
Colored Pencils
Embroidery Floss
Scraps of Burlap
Scissors
Paper Trimmer

A couple of weeks ago I discovered that I liked the ease of cutting Grafix Dura-Lar Wet Media Film for a stencil I had created.  The film cuts really well with both scissors and a hobby blade.  The durability of the film was appealing to me so I created my chicken masks from it as well by tracing sketches I had made of our girls.  After I had used them, I realized that the masks could also be used later as an image attached to a card or collage.  For now, I'll keep it in my stencils and masking supplies for printing.

I started out by creating a few different background designs with a Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate.  I used a brayer to blend colors onto the plate, then the Gelli Arts Printing Tools and handmade foam stamps to create textures onto the paint that was printed in layers onto Canson XL Mixed Media Paper.  Regular printer paper could have been used and that would actually be a great way to recycle the kids' schoolwork, but I liked the weight and texture of the Mixed Media paper and I had some on the shelf, so that's what I used for this project.

After I was happy with the few backgrounds I had created, and long after they had time to dry, I cut them up.  If you know me, you know I love to create one big panel and reduce it to create several cards from it.  I knew in the beginning I would be quartering the panels which is why my chickens were sized and placed where they were.

The panels were pretty just the way they were and they would have been fine on a card alone, but I thought they needed a little something extra.  An embellishment created from Grafix Super Sanded Shrink Film was just the thing!  I used the masks, this time as a stencil, to trace my chickens onto the film.  I used colored pencils to color them, then stamped sentiments onto them with StazOn ink.  I then used scissors to carefully cut inside of the lines of the chickens so that the lines wouldn't be seen on the finished pieces.  A dedicated toaster oven was used to shrink the film according to package directions.

A length of embroidery floss was cut and separated so that each panel had six strands of colored thread across it.  It was attached on the back of the panel with little pieces of Scor-Tape.  I then attached the panel to a piece of white card stock cut just smaller than my card base, which happened to be 4 1/4" by 5 1/2". 

The last thing I needed to add to my cards was the little scrap of burlap and the Shrink Film chickens.  I didn't want to mess with wet glue and decided on trying Grafix Artist-Tac, which happened to be the perfect adhesive for both items.

I now have some other card ideas I'd like to try, but only after our chores and homework are done!  I hope this has inspired you to try something new.

I encourage you to visit Grafix and Gelli Arts social media pages for even more inspiration, product information, and project ideas!

Gelli Arts
    Facebook: @GelliArts
    Instagram: @GelliArts
    YouTube: www.youtube.com/gelliarts
    Twitter: @GelliArts
    Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/gelliarts/

Grafix
    Facebook: @GrafixInc
    Instagram: @GrafixArtPlastics
    YouTube: www.youtube.com/grafixarts
    Twitter: @ArtsGrafix
    Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/grafixarts/