The first thing I want to show you is my home made Gelli plate. I have been watching You Tube videos - and there is a ton of them out there - showing you how to make your own Gelli plate! Now, here in the UK the smallest one (6"x 6") is around £20 (approx $30) and the largest (8"x 10") is around £30 (approx $43), mine is approximately, 9"x 6.5" . . . so, a medium one, which cost me £3 . . . yes, £3. It's a no brainer, you just need, gelatine, glycerine and water.
Now, in my experiment, I discovered a couple of things:
That I should have made sure my container was perfectly flat - mine was one of those plastic boxes, with a lid, you know the sort, they come in various sizes, that I think we all have, for storing, card, peel-offs, and all manner of crafty things - and although I didn't really pay much attention until I used the Gelli plate, mine had a dome in the middle where it was manufactured - hard to explain, suffice to say, I'm going to have to rethink the mould.
That I should only use the smooth side. I saw the froth that had set on the top and thought it would make a cool texture . . . it doesn't . . . the paint just gets caught in all those tiny, set bubbles and makes a awful mess that won't come off. Luckily, they say that if something happens to it, you can just melt it down in the microwave and reset it!
The other thing that I made was a gold shimmer spray, that actually works! In the past I have tried to make these sprays with, Perfect Pearls, Pearlex, Iridescent Acrylic paint and other various, shimmery things, but they all clogged the spray bottles! I mean, I would only use them once and then they would just clog and no matter what I did, they would never unclog, even after taking them apart! To be fair, I only ever bought the cheap spray bottles (trying to keep costs down), so that could have been the main reason.
This time, I thought I would actually buy the sprays that were made to do this very job, so I bought a three pack of Ranger Mini Misters. The paint I used this time was made by Imagination Crafts (the same people who make the Sparkle Gel I am in love with) the paint is called Starlights and let me tell you, when I use them I literally drool . . . they sparkle and shimmer like nothing else I have ever seen. Apparently it is down to the real metal flakes that they use. Anywho, I put a very small amount in a Mini Mister, topped it up with water and shook well. I have now nearly used up a whole bottle (they don't hold very much) and they are still spraying well and the shimmer on these backgrounds is unbelievable in real life . . . as is always the case, a photograph just cannot capture the amazing beauty of these paints/sprays!
Well, thanks for sticking with me this long (if you are still here) and I will bore you no longer and show you the backgrounds I made with my new DIY supplies!
The mixture in the mould
The Gelli plate inked up
