Creating Holiday cards with Gelli Arts®

It's Holiday card time!!! I love the classic look of a bulb ornament and using a 3" circle Gelli Arts® monoprinting plate as a stamp makes this design super easy. Add in some texture from crocheted lace and you have a stunning result! There are just two mono-printed layers for each ornament and a few small finishing touches. I have included a video of my process as well as written step by step instructions. I hope they inspire you to create your own!


Let's get started!

Here is what I used:

3" circle Gelli Arts® monoprinting plate

Acrylic Stamp block (big enough to fit the Gelli Arts® plate)

Gelli Arts® Premium Acrylic Paints

Brayer

4x5.5 and 3.5x5 Kraft colored folded cards (with envelopes, from your favorite craft supply store) 

Lace (I used a crocheted lace found at a thrift store)

White Uni-Ball Signo gel pen

Silver Sharpie

Silver paper (or silver paint to make your own silver paper, that's what I did!)

optional: something to make your silver paper look corrugated. (I used a Marvy Uchida corrugator)

Step one: 
By placing the Gelli Arts® printing plate on the acrylic stamp block you can now use it like a stamp! The first layer of our ornament design is just a plain circle printed on the front of the card. This is done by adding a dab of paint on the Gelli Arts® monoprinting plate, spreading it around with the brayer and then "stamping" it down onto the front of the card. 

Go ahead and stamp as many cards as you would like. (I always make sure to stamp more than I need to account for mistakes. 'Cause mistakes happen, amiright?!) The colors I chose for this step are darker colors. Reds, greens, blues and oranges all worked well. I don't clean my plate between colors because I like the way the leftover colors leave little bits on the image. 


Step two:
The next printed layer adds the pattern to the ornament. Choose a lace with a bold design. 

The best colors you can choose for this layer are white or black but don't forget that contrasting colors can really pop. If your first layer was blue then a yellow or orange would be lovely. Take your chosen color and spread it onto the plate with the brayer. Position your lace on the plate, take a scrap paper and place it on top of the lace and gently press down. Lift the lace off the plate and you will be left with a gorgeous design. 

Take your printing plate, flip it over and line it up with your circle on the front of the card and stamp! Make sure the colors you choose for this step are either much lighter or much darker than the colors you chose in step one in order to achieve the best contrast.


Step three:
Now's the time to add a few details to transform the circle shape into a recognizable ornament. First, take a silver pen to draw a vertical line up from the top of the ornament to the top of the paper. 

Cut small rectangles from a corrugated piece of silver paper and glue it to the top of the ornament. (I created my own silver paper by painting white cardstock with silver paint and, when dry, running the paper through a Marvy Uchida Corru-gator paper crimper.) Please keep in mind that plain silver paper would work as well! The corrugation is optional. 

Step four:
The final step is a handwritten sentiment! I like using my handwriting to give my cards a special made-by-me touch. Feel free to add your sentiment anyway you like! 

Happy Creating!