Logical Decisions with a Stencil and a Gel Plate

Why did I use black paint for this gel print? Why did I use a gel plate? Is there a reason why I chose to use watercolor crayons? Yes, there was a logical reason why I made the choices I did and I’m sharing it all with you!

When I’ve got a new stencil, especially one as fun as this one by Mary Beth Shaw, it’s logical that I want to play! There are lots of ways to play with a stencil, so why did I choose a gel plate?

Since I’m impatient and like to do things quickly, a gel plate was the most logical way to stencil. It’s the fastest way I know to stencil!

I love using old dictionary pages to make gel prints and you can use just about any paper to take a print. The only papers I stay away from are heavily coated papers like glossy inkjet photo paper. I could leave it just like this, or add a bit of color…

When I want to add color without any pressure to do it neatly, I grab watercolor crayons. All you do is scribble, draw, write, whatever you like with the crayon and then brush over it with water.

So why did I use black paint? I could have used any color but the gift of black paint is that it hides the places where I color outside the lines. That way I don’t have the pressure to do this precisely or neatly, but it will look like I did!

Since stenciling with a gel plate is so fast, I usually make more than one print. This is a great opportunity to play around with colors and variations! All of these were made with watercolor crayons. Notice how there are still crayons “lines” on some of the petals. That’s where I used more pressure when scribbling and drawing with the crayons.

This is just one way you can use stencils on a gel plate! If you’d like more ways to get more out of your stencils and deepen your understanding of layers on a gel plate, check out my online workshop Stencil-rific Layers

Here are the supplies used. Some of these links may be affiliate links which means I may get a small percentage and it doesn’t cost you anything extra! And you get a really good feeling knowing that you are helping keep the free tutorials coming!