Hi everyone! Karen Ellis here.

If you know me, or my articles in the magazine, you’ll know that I love my Gelli Plate.

I love creating one of a kind papers for my cards, collages and projects. It’s an incredible amount of fun to make your own designs and I love discovering new ways to make marks and uniquely designed prints.

Recently I spent the weekend in the studio channeling my inner kindergarten student… creating texture tools out of some items I had laying around the shop.  Here are some examples of what I created and samples of the prints they made.

1. Buttons – glue buttons to some foam and stamp away!!

2. Elastic Bands (and a little Saran Wrap) – Wrap the elastics around a play rolling pin (I got mine at the dollar store). Tear off a bit of Saran Wrap and wrap that around the pin too!   Gives is a little extra texture!

3. Straws – Cut up some straws and glue them to a piece of foam. Use that to press and make mark in your prints!

4. Foam – I used my Brother ScanNCut Electronic die cutting machine to cut some dollar store craft foam to create texture rollers.

Design patterns with the pre-programmed images. Don’t forget to use positive and negative images for this!!

Negative Heart image:

Positive Flowers and Snowflakes:

The MOST Fun I had using the Brother ScanNCut was creating my own texture foam roller from one of my own doodles.   Here I doodled a floral image with a sharpie and then scanned it into the Brother ScanNCut machine to create a cut file.  Then I went ahead and cut the image out of the foam.   LOVE how this turned out!  I think I might have to cut this image again out of vinyl to create my own stencil/mask.   How cool is that?

What can you use to make marks with your Gelli Plate? Common, I know you have some ideas….. pasta, string, stamps…   the possibilities are endless. Take the time to play and make your own special papers.   If you have any questions about the plate or you’re looking for ideas on what to do with the papers once they’re made, feel free to contact me anytime at thearthousestudio@rogers.com

Have fun!