Falling in love with my Gelli plate

On Thursday I had a change to my plans. I was going to meet my dearest and oldest friend Karen for ladies' lunch but very sadly her dear Mum is very seriously ill and she is at the hospital. We  have been best friends since the age of 11 so obviously I needed something to distract me at such a sad time.

Now I have had a Gelli plate for *whispers* a couple of years and I confess I have never even taken it out of the packet. It is one of those things that needs a good few hours to play with and to be quite honest I have never had the time. So it was the perfect time to play.

Now if you are not interested or are already a dab hand with  Gelli plates I would suggest you scroll down to check out my card...otherwise grab a cuppa.

Here it is

Yes it's just a small one 3" x 5" as when I got it ( I used some prize winning money from the Craft Barn) I decided that I would start small to see if I liked it. They come in lots of sizes and shapes now.
I have watched lots of You Tube videos over the years but decided that the best thing to do was to grab some bits and pieces, dive in and just play.

There are lots of fun challenges around including Love,colour palettes, using words in our art and even bubble wrap (It was recently National Bubble Wrap day in the USA according to Darnell!) so I decided to incorporate them into a special card for my BF.

I chose these colour Paperartsy Fresco Paints for the colours over at Rubber Dance. Pink is also Karen's favourite colour. Yes...we are opposites in one way only...our favourite colour, as I am so not a pink girl 😉

I chose some stencils, bubble wrap, stamps and even a doily to add texture with. 

I got out my brayer and off I went..starting just with cheap paper and progressed to cheap (Wilko) water colour paper.

pulling off lots of prints..such fun

The bubble wrap gave such a cool print.

The small Tim stencils fitted perfectly over my Gelli plate.

I love this effect with the hearts over the floral base

I cleaned my brayer onto a piece of watercolour paper as I worked.

and by the end had this

far too pretty to throw away....so I added some Rubber Dance floral stamping using Watering Can Archival ink which is a lovely grey.

Yesterday I went back to my prints and I decided to use this one as a backing for my words.

I searched my stash and found the perfect one....I think these words are very appropriate at a time like this. I stamped and embossed it.

I used some of these prints to die cut some hearts to show my love.

I cut a piece of my "clean up" masterboard as my card backing.

I then used my fave Artistic Stamper Latin mini calligraphy plate stamp on my die cuts. This is particularly apt for Karen and I as we were both useless at Latin but had such fun with our lovely Latin teacher...Mrs Clifford. She took such a shine to us both and we had many hilarious times with her...happy days and memories. 

Now that I had all my elements made it  was them time to put on my creative hat and come up with something special.....here it is. 

You can see my Gelli plate prints clearly in here. I edged everything with Pumice Stone distress ink and used grey card with the pink to mat it with.

 I added a few sequins to give it some sparkle and add some more sunshine to my card.

and one last photo

My card was made for my dear Karen...and for the following challenges;

Darnell's  NBUS #10 2/3 My Never before used stuff is of course my Gelli plate and I even managed to create using Bubble Wrap!

Rubber Dance February colour palette 

A Vintage journey words that are special 

The Artistic stamper 1/3 love hearts I used my Artistic stamper calligraphy stamp

Noor have a heart

Craft Heaven 2/3 love is all around

Simon says stamp Wednesday the colour of love my card shows it doesn't always have to be red....

Dies R Us hearts

Shopping our stash Days of Yore

Uniko anything goes I have also gone for the optional love twist.

Paper creator love is in the air  

In the pink 1/3 with love

Thanks as always for your visits and kind comments. After a wet Friday afternoon and evening it looks like it might be dry, if chilly, for us here in the South of England.

Hold on to the thought that above the clouds the sun does indeed shine. Sending sunshine, and hugs if you need them to you all, especially my dearest Karen.  Have a lovely weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x