I am delighted to share with you this step by step guide to botanical printing, followed by then framing your stunning prints in a beautiful collage.
I love working with a gelli plate to make prints at home using botanical materials. The shapes, patterns and textures you can capture with own botanical prints are simply beautiful.
For this easy DIY project I am choosing to work with stained papers for my botanical wall art project but equally back and white also has a big impact.
Table of Contents
Botanical Printing Nature Art
Materials:
- Selection of different kinds of papers for printing on
- Tea and Coffee
- Black Acrylic Paint
- Gel Press Printing Plate and Brayer
- Botanical Materials
- Glue Stick
- Art Frame
- Ruler
Stain Background Papers
Gather a selection of papers, from cartridge paper, to baking paper to printing paper, to wet strength tissue paper.
Make a tea, and a coffee and pour into trays. I am using aluminimum baking trays, use anything you have to hand.
Soak your papers in either the tea or coffee. Each paper will react differently. You are looking to stain the papers to fractionally different colours to provide a range of backgrounds for printing on.
Set aside and allow to dry naturally, then iron the dry papers to flatten.
Variations: As you set the paper aside to dry you can sprinkle coffee granules over the paper and/or salt this will create a slightly speckled print. Check out thecraftaholicwitch for more details about staining paper with tea and coffee.
This step is totally optional, you may prefer to work in black and white.
Gelli Plate Botanical Printing
Gather a selection of different plants and plant materials, with a variety of shapes and textures.
Roll out a thin layer of black acrylic paint onto the gelli plate, using a brayer.
Place a selection of natural objects onto the gelli plate. Then apply one of your stained papers on top, pressing carefully all around the foliage to create the leaf prints. If you prefer you can use a white background.
Remove the print and set aside to dry.
Remove the foliage from the gelli plate and allow the remaining acrylic paint on the gelli plate to fully dry. Apply a layer of Acyrlic Matt Medium with your brayer.
Place a piece of paper onto the gelli plate and press down all over.
Allow to fully dry then remove the print. This gives you a beautiful positive p[rint, often referred to as the ghost print.
Create a wide variety of botanical art prints so you have plenty of options to select from for your collage.
Selecting prints for the art collage
Choose your desired print size, for each individual print. Each of my prints measure 6cm (roughly 2 1/2″) square, I have 16 individual prints framed in a 46cm (18″) square frame.
Using a quilters ruler measure out on white card the individual print size and cut out to create a viewfinder. Using your handmade viewfinder you can choose the areas of prints you wish to use for your finished piece. In terms of composition this is well worth the few minutes it takes.
Choose whether you wish to cut your prints out to the required size or whether you prefer a ripped edge finish.
For a neat square use a quilter’s ruler so you can clearly see the 90 degree angles and a sharp craft knife to cut out the squares. Alternatively, fold the paper and finger crease and carefully rip the paper.
Composition and framing of nature art
Lay out your square prints and play around with the order until you are happy with the composition. Consider the negative and positive botanical prints and the lightness of the background papers.
You may find taking a photograph of different layouts helpful in helping you decide on your final design.
Using a good quality paper as the background, use a glue stick to adhere the prints to the background paper. I strongly suggest using a see through quilters ruler to measure out the placement of the prints.
Enjoy your new artwork encapsulating the beauty of nature. Botanical printing is one of my favorite techniques with a gelli plate.
No time to make it right now? Pin for later.
New to gelli printing? Check out my how to gelli plate print post, or for further creative projects gelli print ideas.
