Gel Printing With Alcohol Inks and Gelli Arts® Stencils by Marsha Valk 

Have fun giving them a go, Michele!

Thanks, Giovanna! 😘

Thanks so much for your kind words, Patricia!

Hi! So, from my experience, the alcohol in alcohol ink does not degrade the plate over time. The plate in the video is about seven years old and is still in perfect condition despite the staining. I don’t use alcohol inks daily, though. I use all kinds of media on this plate. You can absolutely use alcohol wipes or, for instance, hand sanitiser to clean your plate. However, you will often not need drastic measures like that. A spritz of (soapy) water and a wipe with a paper towel or a damp cloth will usually do the trick. And I prefer to use a drop of baby oil for more stubborn paint or stains. So it’s a matter of personal preference.

@marshavalk Thank you for the reply. I will certainly take all of this into consideration. I have been wanting to try alcohol Ink on my plate ..this info really helps thank you again.

Hi! Yes, you can use these prints in collage! The colours will not run!

You can use dye inks for gel printing. Dye inks do tend to bead up on the plate though, so your print will have visual texture. You can make the result more even by rolling over the ink with a brayer before you pull the print or you can try printing several layers of the same colour to achieve an even coverage. Dye inks can still stain your plate, just like all other stamping inks can. And you have to keep in mind that dye inks will not dry on your plate like permanent inks (like StazOn or Archival) so some of the things shown in this video will not work in the same way.