Remember those gel press card backgrounds I made for a swap at convention? Well… you only would remember them if you follow me on Instagram. I totally forgot to share them here. (oops!) Regardless, I will share them now. The background on this card is one of the rejects from the swap. I rejected it because when I spread the acrylic paint with the brayer I didn’t quite get to the edge of the paper. but as you know we paper crafters and card makers don’t put anything in the trash!
Turns out that that was the perfect place for a sentiment. To make this gel press card background swap, I started with the FSJ acrylic paints in Pineapple Smoothie and Sweet Berry. You can see more of how it came together below. For the card, I decided to go with gold heat embossed Cottage Bouquet flowers and gold mirror paper. Plus a little silk splattered on! I love the way this turned out. Simple and so very pretty! & I love how I am learning to use the gel press leftovers!
Now lets see the original gel press background swap
I did not think at the time to take step by step gel press pictures. So these will have to do.
I made 26 of these backgrounds plus a few extras for me to use later! It’s Sweet Berry and Pineapple Smoothie acrylic paint mixed on the gel press. I mixed a good amount of paint on the gel press so I could press an 8.5 x11 sheet of whip cream card stock and then trim it to card front size(4.25 x 5.25). When dry, I stamped the Fringed Wall background stamp in Sweet berry ink. Looks really cool doesn’t it?
Here was my first card. I stamped some outline style flowers (now retired) in whip cream ink. The embellishments are rainbow drops, Spring Kisses (flowers) and the sentiment is die cut from the designer frames set.
Each Gel press print comes out a little differently. No 2 are exactly the same. This card was another one made with the same background. The difference is there are no white flowers and the Fringe Wall is stamped in bubblegum ink. I thought it was too light for the swap but saved the background for future use.
Next Time I whip out my gel press I will make sure to create a Video Tutorial. When I first joined FSJ, I was like – what the heck is a Journey gel press? Then I ordered it and it sat in my stamp room for a few months. I was totally intimidated to say the least.
It’s not so scary… and its actually fun! You can see another gel press project with acrylic paint here (with step by step instructions and a video) and a fun card made with re-inkers here and one with liquid colors here.
Here is an FSJ video that shows you how to use paint on the gel press. I did not 100% do it the same but its close. I used less colors!
Here are the products I used in all of the cards. click the image to shop in my online the store.
