Texture of the Week: Paint "Boogers"

First off, I want to say that I know paint "boogers" is not the nicest term and there may be better ways to describe this texture. But, as I noted to one commenter on Instagram...I do have to pick them off my paint tubes, so....

Anyway, I don't have this problem with all my tubes, but I use Liquitex Basics Acrylics for my workshops. I find it is easy for paint to accumulate under the cap and around the opening on this particular product.

I started collecting these little bits last spring in an attempt to be better about checking my paint after/before workshops. I didn't have a plan for my collection, but I had seen other artists save them and incorporate these little dried bits of paint into their work.

When I started playing with texture on my gel plate this fall, they seemed perfect for a stamp/texture plate. 

To make the texture plate, I put a generous layer of soft gel gloss on a piece of cardboard with a palette knife and then pressed the paint boogers into the gel in a random fashion. Enough to make it interesting, but not enough to completely fill the cardboard. I waited a day for it to dry before testing it out on my gel plate.

One thing I like about the finished print is the combination of small, perfect circles surrounded by organic blobs created when the paint spreads out around the opening of the tube. This contrast of geometric vs. organic shapes in the same blob is interesting to me.

I was hopeful that I'd be able to pick up enough paint on the blobs to stamp paint directly onto an empty area of the gel plate, but it only worked OK. I did pick up some paint (as seen below), but not a lot for direct stamping. Perhaps because the bits vary in height? It seemed to work better pulling the paint off an already loaded plate. 

Part of me wishes I had tried putting the boogers in lines instead of randomly placing them, but I'll just have to save up more bits for another stamp. 

Let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks!