Let's Talk Tuesday: Gelatos Tutorial

Happy Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by for Let's Talk Tuesday. I'm so excited about today's post. I've been working on these projects off and on for a few weeks now.

Right now a huge trend in scrapbooking is mixed media/artsy looking projects like Wilna Furstenburg is so amazing at creating. Her beautiful scrapbook pages could double as a piece of art work. Confession time: I love the look of these more "artsy" projects but I don't like getting messy when I'm scrapbooking. I typically don't like to use paints and other art supplies because I'm not the most careful person and inevitably will smear something across my photos; that's just how I roll. I stayed away until, I found gelatos. I love my gelatos! They allow me (a not so artsy person) to achieve the look of watercolors with much less mess.

Let me show you how easy gelatos are and how much fun they are to work with.

First of all, for those of you that don't know what a gelato is, let me explain. A gelato is kind of like a very thick watercolor paste in a tube, very similar to a tube of lip balm. 

 They are so easy to work with. All you do is write or draw with the gelato onto a piece of cardstock. (For all of these examples I used textured cardstock. You don't have to use textured, smooth cardstock will work just fine. It's really just a personal preference.)

On the first project I used gelatos to create a rainbow background. Here's what my cardstock looked like right after I colored on it with the gelatos:

And here's what it looked like with just a little bit of water brushed on with a paint brush:

I just brushed water on the top portion (the blue portion) so you could see the difference.

And here's what my background paper looked like right after I got done brushing the water on:

I didn't blend the colors very much on this project because I wanted them as a distinct rainbow, but gelatos blend beautifully.

And here's the layout I created with this rainbow background:

 And here's a detail shot of the gelato background in action. Doesn't it look like I used some fancy-schmancy watercolors?

On this next project I drew lots of different colored hearts with the gelatos, brushed them with water, let them dry, and then cut them out.
Before water:

Before you add the water they look like crayon drawings. (They don't act like crayon though, they will smear if you run your finger across it.)

After the hearts were brushed with water (still wet):

And here's the layout I created with the hearts:

I had a few little hearts left so I created a super simple card:

 I used an orange gelato to highlight the area behind the title to emphasize the title on this layout:

What do you think? Are you ready to try some Gelatos?
Here are a few more links to projects I've created with gelatos:
There are so many beautiful reasons to be happy
All About Me
Wave & Smile

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Tuesday!

There are so Many Beautiful Reasons to be Happy {Bella Blvd}

The first manufacturer I designed for was Bella Blvd. They are so amazing to work for and I adore Stephanie's designs! I love bright colors and the bold graphic design in their products. Their mid season release is now hitting stores. I've been playing with it for a few days now and have had so much fun! Here's what I came up with when I was challenged to create a layout using the new collections. I mixed two collections (Classic Calendar & Scattered Sprinkles) to come up with this layout:

 The blue portion behind the title is done with gelatos. I wanted to put an extra emphasis on the word "happy." The title was fussy cut from the 'B' side of this piece of patterned paper:



The new collections are arriving at the Paper Issues Store. You can find all of them HERE 

If you use the code becki20 when you check out you'll get 20% off your entire order.

Here are some detail shots of this layout. (funny side note: I created most of this project while sitting in the car watching my little man's little league game. It was awful weather so I stayed in the car and fussy cut the title while I watched...how's that for multitasking! ;)

Thanks for stopping by today! Happy Wednesday!

Count Your Lucky Star at Paper Issues

Happy Monday! I'm back from a girls weekend with my sisters and my mom. We had an amazing time shopping, eating, and getting lots of laughs!

One of my favorite parts of our trip was a visit to the American Crafts offices/warehouse. It was amazing to see how things work behind the scenes. There warehouse is huge! I got to meet so many amazing people and even peeked in on a meeting about upcoming collections. The whole building was filled with inspiration. I left there so inspired and exited about what I learned! I think learning about what goes on behind the scenes will help me to do a better job! My sister-in-law snapped this photo just as we were leaving.

 It's not a great photo but I'll take it. (I should have taken my big camera though.)

Before I left I created a fun project for the latest issue at Paper Issues. There's a new issue starting today! It's all about Counting your Lucky Stars. I used tons of stars on this project from Bella's Lucky Stars Collection, the March Swag bag from Paper Issues, my Silhouette, and THIS font from Lori Whitlock. Lori is sponsoring this issue so if you link your project HERE you'll be entered for your chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Lori's store.

When I sketched this page out I didn't intend to have anything behind the photos. When I got the photos and stars on the background The photos seemed to get lost in the business of the stars and strips. I added a strip of patterned paper behind the photos but I didn't like the look of that either so I decided to do a water color wash with gelatos. I love how it made my photos stand out but it's not overwhelming either.

Thanks for stopping by, I so appreciate it! If you have any questions please let me know! I love hearing from my readers! Have a great Monday!