I love using my gel press and brayer to make quick backgrounds for cards. It’s also terrific for times that I’m in a creative slump. Using the gel press with my dye inks gets my mojo back!
For my 2 cards today, I took my large gel press (8″ x 10″) and rubbed my Distress Oxide Ink Pads across it. Then with my brayer, I rolled up and down to get the colors to slightly overlap. I placed a 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheet of white cardstock and pressed with my hand. I had another sheet of cardstock on my table that I rolled the remaining ink from brayer on to have a 2nd background.
I removed the first sheet off my gel press and got this wonderful design! The colors of Distress Oxides inks used were: “Squeezed Lemonade”, “Twisted Citron”, “Mustard Seed” and “Salty Ocean”.
I let my sheet completely dry as Oxide Inks have pigment in them and they take a little extra time to dry. After that, I trimmed my sheet down to 4 A2 size panels (4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″).
For these simple cards, I wanted to draw attention to the backgrounds so I looked for a large sentiment to die cut. I chose Simon Says Stamp’s “Sending Smiles”. It’s a die that cuts out a heart instead of a dot for the “i”. I die cut it from black cardstock and the shadow with Lawn Fawn’s “Pearlescent” vellum.
I added the secondary sentiment from Simon’s “Just Miss You” stamp set with “Intense black” ink and die cutting it with their sentiment strips dies.
Very simple and clean cards but packs a big impact and I have extra gel press backgrounds for future cards! If you don’t have a gel press, I highly recommend getting one for your crafting. To see other cards I’ve made with a gel press, click here!
They come in various sizes and with a brayer and some ink, you can have a bunch of fun making quick backgrounds!
- Gel Press 8 x 10 size, 5 x 7 size here
- Brayers
- Distress Oxide Inks (Collections and Bundles available too)
- Accents Opaque 100 lb. White Cardstock
- Simon Says Stamp “Just Miss You” stamp set
- Simon Says Stamp “Sending Smiles” Die Word & Shadow
- Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Labels Dies
- Simon Says Stamp “Intense Black” ink pad
- Bearly Art Liquid Glue
- Lawn Fawn Pearlescent Vellum
- Simon Says Stamp Black Cardstock
