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Using a gel plate, stencils, and a paper bag to make a giant piece of colorful paper

How big of a print can you make with a little gel plate?  As big as the paper (or whatever you are printing on)!  This almost 4 foot long print was made with the 3×5, the 6×6, and the 4″ round Gel Press printing plates!

Just printing over and over on the paper with the 3 small gel plates, this jumbo print was created!  Cleaning the brayer off directly onto the paper added to the layers of color.

A video posted by Carolyn Dube (@carolyn_dube) on

Here are the steps to make prints. (If you are getting started gel printing  have all sorts of free resources here.)

Step 1

Put any acrylic paint on the gel plate.

The paper I started with was a paper grocery bag to create this jumbo 4 foot long patterned paper.  This isn’t my first time paper bag and gel printing – you can see a video of the process here.

Using a gel plate, stencils, and a paper bag to make a giant piece of colorful paper

Step 2

Put a stencil on the paint.  Here I am using my Ladders stencil from StencilGirl.

Using a gel plate, stencils, and a paper bag to make a giant piece of colorful paper

Step 3

Plop it onto the paper bag.  You can do it gently and carefully, but I enjoy the fun of plopping it!

Using a gel plate, stencils, and a paper bag to make a giant piece of colorful paper

Step 4

Lift up the gel plate and stencil to reveal the print.  There is still lots of paint on this one so it can make more prints without adding any more paint.  Repeat as many times as you wish until the layers and colors make you happy!

Using a gel plate, stencils, and a paper bag to make a giant piece of colorful paper

Step 5

Stencil on top of the prints.  Once I had the paper full of pattern and color, I finished it by stenciling words here and there.  My Verbage stencil can do more than one verb tense.  I simply covered up the -ed on the words with a scrap of paper and wished became wish!

Using a gel plate, stencils, and a paper bag to make a giant piece of colorful paper

Here’s what the paper bag looked like after an afternoon of play. Will I do more to it?  Will I leave it as it is? Will I use it as gift wrap?  Will I cut it up?  Who knows!  What I do know is I had a blast making it!

Using a gel plate, stencils, and a paper bag to make a giant piece of colorful paper

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you are helping me keep this blog and my videos ad free! Thank you- I don’t like ads any more than you do!


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When I started this page, I glued a leftover copy of a vintage photo into my art journal without a clue where I was going with it.  No plan meant no expectations. After all, I had no idea what direction that very serious woman in the photo was headed.  In the end, she was able to release her untamed creativity!

How does having no expectations help me play?  It is really about letting go of the expectation that it will look “good” or that it will be “good”.  So technically,  it is more like trading expectations. Instead of the stress inducing, paralyzing “it must be good” I choose to have more of a who-knows-what-it-will-be expectation. It might be ugly, it might not.  But no matter what, I’m going to have fun playing!

Watch How I art journal using vintage photos and stencils on YouTube.

How else did no expectations help me play?  When I drew her body, I had zero expectations that it was going to perfectly proportioned.  Clearly, she is not and guess what…she didn’t have to be perfect for me to enjoy the creative process!

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Why waste any color! I used a small paintbrush to get the last bits of paint out of the tube to color the some of the diamonds yellow from my Alternating Diamonds stenciling.

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How many OOPSies can I have on one layer?  Quite a few it turned out.  After stenciling with Doodle it Bigger, I had to do something about that white space…and then it was OOPS after OOPS.

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Apparently, the Smurfs were on my mind as I gave her blue skin.  If that wasn’t enough to do to her, I decided to give her face a few accents…with a dark Pico Embellisher…which really started to give her a black eye.  OOPS!

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She started out as such a serious photo.  After a few layers and bits of color- she is showing her untamed creative side!

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Now you’ve seen my play, let’s see yours!  Share what you’re creating with us all in the Facebook group and be inspired by what others are creating! And be sure to leave a comment here to get entered in the monthly $50 gift certificate giveaway! ***giveaway now closed***

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you are helping me keep this blog and my videos ad free! Thank you- I don’t like ads any more than you do!

 


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Using a stencil to quickly make butterfly cookies video tutorial

What if you could have butterfly and flower shaped cookies without having to use a cookie cutter? You can when you use stencils and the right kind of cookie recipe!

Using my Butterfly Journeys stencil and Flora Bowley’s Bloom True stencil I created a fun platter of colorful cookies.  I’m not a big fan of spending hours doing anything, so this is a fast and easy way to make cookies that wow every time I bring them to a party!

Watch How to Use Stencils to Make Butterfly Cookies on YouTube.

Using a stencil to quickly make butterfly cookies video tutorial

 

The recipe I am using came from the Mindful Eating Miraval cook book- a great big thank you to the amazing Miraval resort and chefs for giving me permission to share this with you!  You can find the recipe at the end of this blog post.

StencilGirl Products stencils are food safe.  Be sure that you are using a food safe stencil and of course, once a stencil has been used with art supplies or non-food items, it is no longer safe to use with food.  That’s why the stencils look so clean in the video- they’ve never been used in my art studio.

All that squiggly color came out of a make shift pastry bag created with common sandwich bags and a pair of scissors. The colors were mixed up using gel food coloring and ready made white frosting.

Using a stencil to quickly make butterfly cookies video tutorial

But why the upside down paper plate?  It creates a raised surface so it is easier to work on and move the cookie when finished.
Using a stencil to quickly make butterfly cookies video tutorial

Here’s the platter of cookies all ready to bring a touch of sweetness and color to the party!  Could you use other shapes of stencils with this technique?  Absolutely!  If you’re looking for silhouettes to use, try a stencil with dancers, a trio of women, or an alphabet to spell anything you wish!

Using a stencil to quickly make butterfly cookies video tutorial

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you are helping me keep this blog and my videos ad free! Thank you- I don’t like ads any more than you do!

HONEY TUILE COOKIES

Recipe from Mindful Eating Miraval

1/2 c. confectioners’ sugar
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened (I substituted soy butter in the video)
2 Tbsp. honey
1 large egg white
1/2 c. all-purpose flour

PREHEAT the oven to 350 F. Line each of two large baking sheets with a silicone cooking mat.

IN the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or with an electric mixer, cream together the sugar and butter on low speed until starting to become fluffy, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and mix for an additional minute.

ADD the honey and mix on medium speed until well blended. Add the egg white and mix on medium speed for 30 seconds. (The mixture will separate and look curdled, this is fine.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the flour. Blend on low speed to incorporate, scraping the sides as needed to incorporate all the ingredients. Blend on medium speed until well combined, 1 minute.

(The batter can be refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to five days, and frozen for up to one month.)

SPOON the batter through the template (I used a stencil in the video) spreading the batter to the edges of the template with a small offset spatula.  Bake until just golden brown around the edges but still soft to the touch, 5 to 6 minutes.  Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet.

CAREFULLY slide a very thin spatula under each cookie to remove the cookies to an airtight container until ready to serve.

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