You can put just about anything on an Impressable gel plate…including modeling paste! The texture these two create together is magnificent…can you tell that I love texture?  What can you do with this flexible piece of colorful texture?  I used it create a golden jeweled canvas.

Watch Modeling Paste on an Impressable Gel Plate on YouTube.

What is an Impressable gel plate?  It is made entirely of the same wonderful gel that Gel Press uses in their regular gel plates and it has a raised pattern on it. I’m using the Rose Mandala designed by Jen Starr.

The first step is to get paint on it. Any color, or colors as you can see in the video.  Getting that dark blue color on there so perfectly was quick and easy because the pattern is raised, or embossed.  So by using the brayer lightly, it only put the blue on the pattern.

Let the paint dry completely and add a layer of flexible modeling paste.  Really slather it on there so it gets in all the nooks and crannies and covers the design completely. You want a pretty thick covering of it, to the point that you can’t see the design underneath.

This is the tough part, the letting it dry fully part.  It takes 1-2 days depending on where you live. I couldn’t wait 2 days with my impatience so it was only a day O.O.P.S.!

The O.O.P.S., Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly, happened when I lifted the modeling paste off the plate. Not all of the teal paint lifted off and that created the most wonderful color opportunity!

By adding a thin layer of yellow, it now looks mottled because of anywhere the teal paint was missing it looks lighter.

There were a couple of spots of the dark blue that needed a touch up.This is where the texture in this is extra handy. Since it is a raised pattern, staying in the lines is a breeze.

The modeling paste is flexible and scissors cut it like butter.  I cut the Rose Mandala in half because the canvas I was using was small.

The modeling paste curved effortlessly around the canvas, wrapping the texture over the edge.  A little bejeweling with stick on gems and a quick word using my Rembrandt’s Words stencil and this little canvas is complete.

Thanks for stopping by for today’s play. If you’re new to gel printing and want to know more, I’ve got a page full of resources here from getting started to techniques to what to make with your prints.

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 it helps keep the free tutorials coming!

My muse has a twisted sense of humor and she likes to make certain points to me.  I have had a lot of monkeys on my back, more accurately in my head, that have been getting in my way.

As I was searching for something that should have been easy to find on my computer,  I ran across this unposted mixed media canvas from years ago and realized the message the muse was sending me. This is my circus and these are my monkeys!  I never found what I was looking for by the way.

This canvas started with Golden Flourescent paints and the Random Circles stencil. That paint can be overpowering, just like the monkeys on my back can be.

A layer of Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap contained the the monkeys, I mean colors.

The word circus in die cut letters fit perfectly. What did I do to color the letters?  That is another mystery that time has claimed.

Remember Mimi on the Drew Carey Show? I think she was the inspiration for her “makeup”.  If there’s going to be a circus, at least she’ll be a colorful clown.

A touch of glitter on the edges of the fabric flower and some scribble journaling on the hat added the finishing touches.  Something subtle to go on a very colorful canvas.

This is the stare of someone realizing the craziness around her is hers lol!  The muse has made her point that I need to not take all the monkeys so seriously and just laugh at the circus in my head.