If you're a user of PanPastels and any commercial gel plate (I don't know if this will work on a home-made gelatin plate, as I've never made one), and you're looking for a simple way to clean excess pastel off your tools, keep a second gel plate handy and wipe the tools off on that. Since the surfaces of commercial gel plates are very grabby, a few good swipes seems to get most of the pastel off. The clean-off plate can then be covered in a thin layer of gel medium or acrylic colour of choice, and as the above tip mentions, lay the paper on that wet layer and allow it to dry. Voila. Abstract work, or a background you can work into later.

Incidentally, having a second gel plate handy also makes for a simple way to get the spongey tips back onto the handled PanPastel tools if they're slipping off and you don't want to muss your hands up too much pushing them back on. Just put the applicator against the gel plate so it's being grabbed by the surface, and push. You can get the tips off this way too, without having to touch them.