Colour Shimmer Dust & the Gel Press by Kasia Leach

Hello lovelies... I was inspired to get my Gel Press out after seeing Rachel Dutko's post last week and have a play with my Colour Blast stash and share my process with you and hopefully inspire you to make some prints also. 

I love the Gel Press for so many different reasons, but most of all because no print is ever the same and the possibilities are literally endless... hence the name mono-printing. 

You can use a heap of art supplies you already probably have on hand for mark making but also tons of items lying around the house or on their way to the bin... and we all love recycling don't we?

I squeezed some white acrylic paint into my palette and added a little bit of the Colour Shimmer Dust in Sunflower, Amber, Lush & Candy. Any acrylic paint will work, mine was just a cheap one I had lying around for ages. 

Mix the Colour Shimmer Dust into the paint really well until the colour is nice and even. You will end up with beautiful pastel tones and the more dust you add the more intense the colour will be. 

Now its time to get your Gel Press out... 

Add the paint to the Gel Press with a small popsicle stick, a palette knife or the end of a paint brush, just make sure you don't use anything sharp that could scratch the surface of the press. 

Using a brayer, roll out the paint and until you achieve a colour that you are happy with. You pull the print now on a piece of paper, cardstock, deli paper or tissue paper.  

This is the print I pulled from the above images. No mark making.. just the paint and brayer marks. Sometimes prints like these are just perfect if you want a matt for a photo on a layout or for a background for a card... or you can go to town and make some marks :)

Gather your texture stamps, foam stamps (if you don't have foam stamps you could die cut some fun foam using your dies), toilet paper rolls, register rolls, leaves, pencil with a rubber on the end, muslin, calico, stencils, string, ribbon, lace, doilies, scrunched up paper etc... literally anything with a cool texture that is not sharp is worth a try. 

Roll out some paint onto your Gel Press and start making marks. I love stamping off the stamps I press into the press onto a print to layer texture upon texture. Once you have some cool marks on your press, pull a print and repeat the process with another colour combo. 

Cleaning your brayer off onto paper creates a cool start to a print too so just have a stack of paper next to you and just keep playing. Above is a print with brayer marks & stamped off texture stamps. 

Here I have added a few prints after adding marks to the press with stencils. I also used muslin to add a bit more texture through the large opening of the gingko stencil. 

Side note: I have a number of Prima & Kaisercraft texture stamps that I don't mind if they get all messed up with paint and ink, but if you are worried about your stamps, wipe them off before the paint dries. 

I trimmed down my panel to fit into my small Dylusions Art Journal and inked up the edges with a Black Gelato and smudged it with my finger. 

I then gathered some of my favourite Dylusions & Darkroom Door stamps and had some fun. Lastly I got out the Colour Shimmer Cubes and added a little bit of shimmer to the leaves with the Dusty Charcoal. 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my process and its sparked you to get out your Gel Press and the Colour Shimmer Dusts and have a play.

Ps.. Don't forget to have fun!

xx Kasia