Gelli Print And Tissue Paper Experiment Butterfly Cards

Hi readers! I hope if you are living in a part of the country which is having a heat wave right now that you are staying cool. I can take the heat but right now it is the humidity which is killing me. Today also I noticed that the area is really smokey which means there must be fires burning somewhere near. Unfortunately because my craft room gets so hot and a fan blows everything around it is not conductive to crafting. However, this week I did turn the fan off long enough to do some experimenting with my gelli plate. Today I went ahead and turned it off long enough to make two cards.

First I decided to see if I could use wax paper on the gelli plate. I found out that although I cut out my shapes first with my Cameo that the butterflies curled when I took them off the plate. Next time I'll pull  the prints first on wax paper and then cut out with my Cameo. The frame panel the butterfly is on is wax paper and did not curl as bad. Unfortunately the photo does not show the shimmer on it from metallic paint.

The background is a print I pulled and used large bubble wrap on it.  The butterfly was one left over cut out of card stock. I used the grunge technique. The paint was dry on my plate so I brushed over it with acrylic ink then pulled the butterfly. I used 3d paint for the body and jute for the antennae. Then pop dotted it onto the wax paper panel.

I misted white tissue paper with color sprays I made using alcohol ink and water.  I let the paper air dry and then stamped with Ranger's Jet Black Archival ink. If you do this you will want to use a waterproof ink so your stamping doesn't smear when you glue the tissue paper down on your project. Also be aware that the color will dry lighter. Of course if it is too light you can always spray again like I did.

The trim was made by cleaning my plate with packing tape after the paint had dried on it. Then I brushed Mint Perfect Pearl on the back to fill in places where there wasn't paint. I cut it with decorative scissors.

This card was done basically the same way. However, this time I used corrugated cardboard to get the texture on the background paper. The wax paper panel blended in more but I think I like the softer look of this card.  Today I got in the mail Stazon Timber Brown ink so decided to use that on the tissue paper.  I turned my scissors over to cut the decorative trim which hides the seam.

If you don't have a cutting machine you can still download the Silhouette Studio software and set the cut lines to print so you can out by hand. You can also create your own labels,tags ect. in Studio. If you are going to do more than set the print lines there is a little bit of a learning curve but a lot of the process is the same as in some of the graphic programs on the market.

If you don't have a gelli plate you can either make your own using gelatin or pull prints on a piece of glass or acrylic. The advantage to using the piece of glass is you don't have to worry about damaging it with something sharp.

Packing tape can also be used to make trim using glitter, Perfect Pearls or other shimmer powders, or painting by hand.

I encourage you to look around your house and see what you might have on hand which you can modify with paint, color sprays,stamping, etc. 

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!