I have always been a fan of Valentine’s Day even when I was depressingly single and the only card I received was from my sister (anonymously of course). There is something special about making a card or present if you have time so when I was challenged to make a card decorated with Gel-A-Peel it was just the motivation I needed to get thinking up cheesy puns. I created a few designs which work well whether you are sending them to your partner or your BFF for "Galentines".
I was sent the new Gel-A-Peel Jelly and Fuzzy accessory kits to decorate my cards with and I LOVE them. The colours in both sets are bright and slightly translucent rather than the pearlescent ones I have used before.
The Jelly Accessory kit came with pink, red and orange gels as well as a gel tray and design templates inspired by sweets and fruit. The Fuzzy kit came with a bright pink, purple and blue gel, but the special addition in this set is 2 pots of ‘fuzz’ which you sprinkle on to the wet gel then gently brush to ensure good coverage. The end result is a furry, fuzzy design.
My Gel-A-Peel Card Designs
For more info on how to use Gel-A-Peel and what comes in the accessory kits read my previous reviews. As I’ve said before one of the things I love is that the gels are so versatile. If the gel design is created on the included clear drawing sheet then you can peel it off once dry and either turn it into jewellery or stick onto practically anything or you can choose to create the design directly on an item or card. With porous material like paper it sticks really well, but I wasn’t brave enough to do my designs straight onto card. It’s great that now we have a few sets we can use the drawing sheets from other kits creating more designs in one session without waiting for it to dry.
Sending You a Lot of Love on Valentine’s Day
To make this card I filled one of the plastic drawing sheets with little gel hearts using the colours from both the new sets because they work together really well. I created the hearts by squeezing a ball of gel out to form the top of the heart then moving the pen diagonally down before lifting it up, and then repeated it in the opposite direction for the other side of the heart.
I waited until the gel was dry on top and around the edges before peeling off (about 3 hours). It was still wet underneath so it stuck to the card without the need for glue.
You Make My Heart Go All Fuzzy
I originally created a heart using the star shaped nib and the purple gel from the Fuzzy Kit. I love how it looks, but I thought it would be ruined by covering it up with fuzz so I started again with a plain heart using the bright pink gel from the same set. I used the heart shaped bracelet design to trace around for the outline then I filled it in going back and forth gently squeezing the tube.
The fuzz was easy to apply, I just had to brush softly enough not to disturb the wet gel. It mostly covered up the colour of the gel, but if you used contrasting colours you get a bit of a two tone effect. The end result with the fuzz is the shape is still flexible, but it’s soft in a fuzzy way instead of smooth and shiny.
I left it to dry slightly longer than the little hearts, but again I moved it over to the card while the underneath was still slightly wet to avoid needing to use glue.
I Love You Berry Much
The tray which comes with the Jelly Kit has some great shapes including a variety of fruit and sweets. I decided to use the strawberry to make a fruity pun. I picked the pinky red from the Jelly Kit and a green from another kit we have used in the past. It was really difficult to get both colours in to the mould pressed down to avoid gaps and flat on top. I think I’ll stick to single colours in future.
The moulds take much longer to dry than anything traced on the sheets due to their thickness and surface area exposed to the air. The detail is on the inside of the mould so to ensure you have a great looking shape when peeled out it needs to be completely dry. In the past I have left the moulds over night, but this time I was impatient and wanted to finish my cards off so I kept fiddling to check it. This isn’t recommended for a good finish. I found putting it near the radiator didn’t seem to speed the drying time up either so it’s definitely worth leaving plenty of time to finish any designs using a mould.
You Make Everything More Bearable
Some of the sweet shapes in the Jelly Kit’s mould are of gummy bears and I just had to use a couple of the shapes to make a cute bear couple. I chose two of the coloured gels from the Jelly Kit to make complementing bears.
I did my best to push the gel down with the pink squeegee tool, but there were still some air bubbles so it’s worth taking your time to get a good finish. My eldest also found it very hard to do this, but at 6 she is under the target age for Gel-A-Peel so I expect to have to help her at times.
I love the end result when you peel the shapes out of the mould; they are so shiny and cute, perfect to go on a Valentine’s Card.
***Disclosure: We were sent the Gel-A-Peel accessory kits in Jelly And Fuzzy and challenged to make card designs. I am entirely responsible for the ban puns and poor hand writing. Both sets are £14.99 RRP ***
These look like lovely cards, you have really inspired me to get crafting today x
ReplyDeleteThese look so cute - its so lovely to do handmade cards!
ReplyDeleteThese are really cute and nice that they have that homemade touch! x
ReplyDeleteAwww these are all so cute, it must have been such fun making them!
ReplyDeleteWow, I've never seen anything like these before, they look amazing
ReplyDeleteThese look super cute and I love the cards you made with them :)
ReplyDeleteOh wow these are new!! I’ve never seen them before but they look fun - hand made cards are so cute for V day’!!
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