How To Make Creative Gel Print Scene Cards
Learn how to make creative gel print scene cards. I used to avoid scene cards until I learned how to gel print them. Did you know you can acrylic paint your cards too? Welcome to the Colorado Craft Company hop and giveaway!
Video – Don’t Avoid Scene Cards, Gel Print Them
All the details to create these unique gel print cards are in this short video. Including, how I acrylic paint cards for the first time. Watch here or in HD on YouTube. While you’re there I’d love it if you like, subscribe, and share it with your crafty friends!
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Summertime Birthday
Do you have a history of avoiding scene cards because creating the background is intimidating? I sure did, until I learned to gel print my scene cards. The Summertime Birthday Stamp Set inspired this gel printing session.
Summertime Birthday calls for a background with three bands of color for the sky, pool, and pool deck. I started with a soft green print I had pulled to clean my gel press after my last session and added soft teal to it. As you can see there’s is more exposed green in the sky and a higher concentration of teal for the pool.
Next, I added Naples Yellow, Buff Titanium Light, and Venetian Rose to the pool deck adding texture with a handmade foam stamp. Then, I painted the girl, ball, float, and umbrella with the same acrylic paint I used for the print. I’ve never done this before, and I love the effect!
Finally, I stamped the sentiments with Stazon Midnight Blue ink. I stamped Big Splash on a blue-green scrap of the original gel print to contrast the yellow-pink pool deck.
Uh Oh! You Got This Girl!
Don’t even think about cleaning your gel press, use the leftover paint and texture for your next print. All that leftover goodness is the best part about gel printing.
Here I created a similar background with the same acrylic paints. The ground texture is from leftover paint on the gel press and the rainbow pattern is from a rubbing plate as noted in the supply list. The jeans are painted with Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons. The pigments absorb into the green acrylic paint because it has a matte finish.
I painted the remainder of the stamped image with acrylic paint. While I stuck with the gel print color palette, you could mix a darker skin tone with Burnt Sienna or other brown paint.
You Color My World
The You Color My World Stamp Set called for more vibrant paint. Here I chose Greenish Yellow and Gold Deep paint along with a different rubbing plate.
When you run out of room for your sentiment, just run it up the card sideways. There’s no harm in thinking outside the box and leaving tradition behind.
Build A Rainbow & Thinking Of You
Oh how I love Big & Bold Build A Rainbow. Are these rainbows awesome or what?! Here I loaded them all onto a large acrylic block and used them to lift paint from the gel press. Whether you choose to create a subtle duo-chrome background or a real eye catcher, this set will delight you!
Just look at the texture on this gel print, amazing! It’s all about thin layers of paint when you’re gel printing on smooth cardstock like Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb. If you’re printing on textured paper like mixed media or watercolor paper, you’ll need to use more paint to get in those nooks and crannies.
If the last one was a bit too vibrant for you, try a monochrome or duochrome card instead. Here I loosely mixed the green and teal paint directly on the gel press.
That’s a wrap on the cards. Are you going to try gel print scene cards? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
Giveaway
Colorado Craft Company is giving away an individual stamp set to 8 winners. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on each blog to be chosen as a winner. The giveaway ends on July 2nd at midnight mountain daylight time. We will announce the winners on the Colorado Craft Company blog and email newsletter on Monday, July 5th.
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Thank You
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Next Stop
The next stop on the hop is Sara Torzullo. To start at the beginning of the hop visit Adrienne Kennedy’s post at Colorado Craft Company. Be sure to leave a comment on each of the talented artists posts below to enter the giveaway!
Blog Posts
Adrienne Kennedy CCC
Jenn Gross
Bibi Cameron
Jennifer Kotas
Kelly Griglione
Daniel West
Caly Person
Mansi Bhatia
Kassi Hulet
Erin Thompson
Melissa Andrew
Donna Hitz
Nichol Spohr
Amber Davis
Sara Torzullo
Amy Young
Instagram Posts
Joe Sysavath
Traci Jenkins
Supplies
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I made a boatload of gel prints this past weekend. Now I know what I’m going to do with them.
wow, so creative and beautiful!
Wow, so many wonderful cards. Love them all!
Valerija xx
Great gel prints! I don’t have a gel press, so I’ll be sitting on the sidelines. {pout} Great release, though!
love these-escpecially your subtle background
These are stunning! Love the gel press backgrounds.
Love your monoprint backgrounds! I need to do that! My fave set is Old Chap.
All of your cards are fabulous! So much yummy texture. Everytime I see something made with a gel press I tell myself I need to get one and try it out…sooo cool!
Your cards are amazing! I love your Gelli Plate backgrounds. This is such a fun technique but I have never tried the stamping plates before. I’ll have to get some of those. I love how you used the stamps to lift from the print and then you could stamp those onto another one as well so as not to waste the paint. I also have never colored the images with the acrylic paint. Did you water it down or use it thick? It seemed more transparent than that! Great job. You have inspired me!
Love your cards using the gel press wow!
So beautiful! I love the distress look you backgrounds have!
Loved the video! Learned so so much! (I dont have the instant grams, darn). Following the “recipe” for each card will be wonderful. You do such a great job explaining (especially to me who excels in making mud). Sweet release, gorgeous and seems doable (gonna try) cards!
I have got to get my gel press out!! Such awesome cards!!
Your cards are so unique, lovely technique with awesome outcome!
This may be something I need to learn. Nice look
amazing background technique!
As I have just bought a gel press but it is still unused, watching your video really helps by showing me where and how to start and some of the effects you can get! Love watching you create! These cards are so special with the gel press backgrounds!!! Stay safe and thans so much!! 🙂
Your cards are all great. Love the gel print technique for creating the backgrounds.
This looks like so much fun! These stamps are perfect for sending to my girlfriends! YesvI am like many, my gel press is stashed away, not even used after several years. Time to get it out!
Lovely cards, I need to play with my Gelli Plate more often!
Your cards are awesome! I love the textured backgrounds! You’ve inspired me to take out my gel press!
Fabulous! I definitely want to try this technique!
Wonderful cards!
Pretty cards with these new designs! I especially love the way you used the rainbow set!
Love the gel print backgrounds!
Ready to pull out the gel press now!! Great cards!!! Thank you for sharing this!! ❤️❤️❤️
Love the backgrounds on all your cards!
LOVE your backgrounds! Beautiful cards.
These are amazing! Love the gel printing.
— Dalis
I think this is a fabulous idea! Once I start fiddling around with my gel plate I end up with a lot of backgrounds that I don’t know what to do with. Your cards are wonderful!
Love all your backgrounds. Great array of cards
using this fun release.
ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT CARDS, Amber!! I LOVE your summery bright cards! BIG HUGS! God Bless & the Love of Christ to you & yours!!
Thank you Amber!! Loved these inspiring gel press printed scenes. I tried JennMcG dye ink method and it works beautifully, so with my stamp stash I should be able to produce a scene card or two. 🥰👍🏾🤩💕😃
I LOVE these cards. I recently bought a gel press and I’m having fun playing with it. However, I’ve never used acrylic paints with it. I use ink pads (mostly distress oxide inks) and a brayer and I’m pleased with the result. However, you’ve convinced me I need to try paints — looks like I need to make a trip to the craft store!
These are beautiful! 🙂
Beautiful backgrounds and cards! I used my gel press last week (after watching one of your videos) adding to some of my previous backgrounds that were too plain. I haven’t used any of them yet but I love your idea for using them for a scene.
Ohhh, nice backgrounds. And your coloring of the stamped images–nice
Thanks, Sharon!
Awesome gel prints and beautiful cards. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks, Pat!
I have built my own ‘abstract’ scenes on gel plates but NEVER thought of using scenic stamps and acrylic/gouache to color them! Opens up a whole new world! I Love Love your work and thank you for sharing Tips and Creations! ♥
Yay, I think you’re gonna love it! Thanks, Clelie.
These cards were amazing. I love how you use the gel press. Do you ever use ink instead of acrylic paints for your cards? I still haven’t gotten up my courage to use my gel press.
Thanks, Patricia! I do use ink pads on the gel press and it gives you a completely different look. Check out this blog post & video for a comparison of acrylic paint, vs ink pads including, dye, pigment, and metallic. https://notableink.com/altenew-build-a-flower-indian-lotus-hop-video/
Your timing is perfect. I was doing some gel printing to incorporate stamping and needed an idea to color my images. Painting with acrylics. How cool! I have been following your gel printing posts and feel very inspired by your posts. Thanks for the comments about your techniques.
Gail
The timing of this post is perfect. I was doing doing some gel printing with stamping and was trying to figure out how to highlight some of the stamping. Painting with acrylic paint would be perfect. I love the way you are incorporating gel printing with stamping. I am loving your posts.
Gail
Love your cards, Amber. Excellent backgrounds, love gel prints. Thank you for this inspiring tutorial!
Cool cards! I just love all these sentiments! CCC always kills it! <3
Love the gel prints and the cards. Gorgeous cards as always!!!
Amazing design work and techniques! Love the cards and new release!♥
So excited about this post. The gelli plate prints are so lovely. Up until now I have only seen the gelling plates with bold colors and brash patterns. These are so muted and organic. I am so inspired to try it out now! Thank you!
Beautiful cards! Love that you used the gel press with all of them. Thanks for sharing!
This is brilliant! I do avoid scene cards, especially little critter ones, because I don’t like the cutesy look. But this could be a game changer! Thank you for this inspiration!
Thanks, Tammy! That’s me as well. But, this makes even the critters approachable. Check out these gel print cards with the Anita Jeram release. https://notableink.com/how-to-make-gel-press-prints-for-cards/
This is such a cool idea! I often struggle with backgrounds for my paper projects, but using the gel press is a great suggestion. Can’t wait to try it! Your cards are amazing!
I am very inspired to use a gel plate and acrylics for background scenes. Wonderful cards.
This is a great idea! I have this one background stamp of a country road and coloring it with markers would be time consuming at best (I am imagining the hand cramps). I will have to give this a go.
Ooh, that would be super cool. Remember you don’t have to do the entire print in one go. If there are trees along the sides, you can add color to those areas by picking up bits and pieces of paint from the gel press and stamping directly on the print. Have fun! I’d love to see you project. If you post it on social media please tag me @notableink. Thank you!
Amazing backgrounds and I love your coloring!
I hadn’t thought of using my gel press as a background for my stamps. It sure would speed up the process! Do you think Distress Oxide would work on the acrylic background since it has pigment properties? Would it work instead of the acrylic? So much to think about!
I haven’t tried it, but I bet it would. Probably wouldn’t be as opaque as the acrylic paints, but that’s the joy of experimenting! Try it over regular acrylic paint and matte acrylic paint to see how it reacts. It will likely absorbed into the matte paint and give you a different look. Have fun!
really love your cards! love the colors and presentation – haven’t used a gel press yet – now I am really tempted!
Oh my goodness, you must try it. Full disclosure, it’s addicting, but you can use the prints for so many things! Thanks, Lillian and have fun creating!
Wonderful cards for this new release.
Wow, what great cards! I don’t own a gel plate but I have put acrylic paint on my cards before!
Wow, great inspiration here, love them all!
Wow, you really went to town with this new release. Love what you did. I love the Lovely Legs series and the new release is probably my favorite!
I adore how you filled the scene so beautifully and simply in each of the cards. Just beautiful
These are beautiful cards Amber. I loved the video and watching the process thank you.
So awesome!
These stamps worked wonderfully with the techniques you taught here! Very inspiring and yes I may try painting with acrylic on cardstock❤️
Love this release! And your cards are wonderfully fun!! Thanks for the inspiration