Printing Plates made with Stencils

Some time ago, I made printing plates with scraps of matboard, molding paste and stencils.  

Using each piece of matboard as my substrate, I covered it with a stencil, then used an old credit card to spread molding paste thru the stencil's openings.  

After each stencil was lifted, it was cleaned.  I don't clean stencils if I've used them with thin layers of acrylic paint. But when they're covered with any thick medium, like molding paste, I clean them with Windex and a soft cloth or paper towels.

My way of printing with them was to brayer a layer of slow-drying acrylic paint* over a Gelli Plate, then to press the plate -- with its 3-dimensional pattern down -- onto the acrylic paint.  

After I'd lifted the printing plate, an impression remained in the still-wet acrylic paint.  

Next, I placed paper onto the plate and burnished its entire back surface with my hands, before pulling the print.  Prints made this way have been incorporated into my collages.

The plates themselves became so pretty with their accumulations of paint that I've decided they themselves will eventually get cut up to become collage elements.  I've posted them today, before they go to the chop-shop.  They delight me as much as the papers that I printed with them.  

The printing plate above was made with my 9"X12" stencil Mimosa.

Above is the printing plate made with my 6"X6" stencil Trivet B.



Above is my favorite printing plate of the three, made with my stencil 6"X6" Mimosa. 

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To see my complete line of stencils, check here. 

*open acrylics by Golden