BS Sessions - Gelatos Tutorial 101

Welcome, Friendly Friends to the

third installment of the BS Sessions!

What are the BS Sessions? Well Samantha knows how to work a marker like nobody's business and Becca loves to get messy with mixed media. We both wanted to learn the other person's crafty secrets so we're going to ask one another a question on the last Thursday of the month. Becca will provide you with some amazing Mixed Media techniques and Samantha will show you some tips and tricks about coloring! We'll both provide our followers with a little tutorial, because if we have these questions - our followers might too!

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Which brings me to this month's question, asked by Sammy:

How do you use gelatos? What are some different things you can do with them?

Gelatos! I love them! Next to Distress Inks, they're probably my very favorite crafty supply because there is SO much you can do with them. 

Things to know about Gelatos:

>They have the consistency of soft crayons

>You don't have to be gentle with them. Definitely scribble away!

>They are reactive with water

Some of the things I'm going to show you have been published on my blog before, but I thought it would be helpful to compile a whole list of them right here. 

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Making Backgrounds with Gelatos

If you're looking for quick and easy way to make a background that's also super stunning, look no further. 

One thing I would HIGHLY suggest when using this technique is to paint the cardstock with a thin layer of gesso first. Gesso seals the tiny holes of the cardstock, so the gelatos will blend together more easily, rather than being absorbed right away. 

  

Background on the left is made without gesso - 

background on the right is with gesso. 

As you can see - background two is much better. 

I scribbled on some gelatos and blended them together with my fingers. I wanted it to look distressed, so I wiped away a little bit of the background with a baby wipe.

To see how this background got turned into a card - check out this blog post.  

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Making Drips With Gelatos

As I said earlier, gelatos are reactive with water, which means you can do some really cool techniques! One of my favorites is making drips. For this technique, it's almost essential to base your cardstock with gesso, or the drips will not go as far and will not blend well. 

To achieve this effect, scribble gelatos across the top (in this case I used three shades of purple and a gold). Next, use a mini mister to spritz the gelatos strip with water and hold it vertically so that the water can drip down the paper. Add more or less water based on the effect you want to achieve. 

To see the card I made with this panel, check out this blog post.

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Watercoloring with Gelatos

You can use gelatos exactly like you use watercolors in a couple of different ways. 

You can either draw directly onto an image and then paint over it with a watery paintbrush or waterbrush pen to blend:

Or, for more precise watercoloring, you can scribble some gelatos onto a clear acrylic block (or any surface) and then mix the colors with a little water and pick up with a paintbrush.

 

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Using Gelatos to Color Texture Paste, Gel Medium, or Gesso

Gelato shavings can be used as a coloring agent by mixing with any wet or liquid product. 

Shave some of the gelato stick into the texture paste (or gesso, gel medium, etc) and mix thoroughly. Obviously, the more of the stick you use, the deeper the color tone will be. I only used a little bit of the dark blue, so I wound up with a lovely pale blue in the end. 

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These are just of the few ways to use gelatos! There are so many possibilities! You can use them to color almost anything in a quick but stunning way! 

If you'd like to see all of the projects I've made with gelatos, you can check out my gelatos project library. 

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Now - if you're interested in improving your coloring skills, make sure you head on over to Sammy's blog 
because she's answered my question:

What the heck does a blender pen do? Do I need one?

My new stamp set is released today! STAMPlorations Caffeinated Christmas!

Fa la la la LATTE!!! I told you yesterday when I made an adorable hot cocoa holder that my new stamp set would be released today. 

And I wouldn't lie to you, so without further ado - I present to you:

Caffeinated Christmas!

I know I JUST designed another coffee-themed sentiment stamp set, but Shery asked if I would double-down and do a Christmas theme one with... wait for it.... PUNS! So, what we're saying is that it's the trifecta of perfection because it combines all of my great loves: Coffee - check! Christmas - check! Puns - check, check, check! 

This set is so fleeping cute! You can use it on cards, like so:

Dontcha love the plaid? Totally mixed and matched it to try to create a warm and inviting comfy Christmas feel. 

It's also good for making adorable little Christmas gifts like so:

I shared this in yesterday's blog post - with design specifications if you want to recreate it! 

And last but not least - it's PERFECT for holiday tags for little gifties that you want to give:

All of the sentiments for these projects came from my Big Grins by Becca Cruger - Caffeinated Christmas set. The adorable coffee cup stamps are from the Sketchy Coffee Cups set. 

 

Now for the exciting news!! We're giving away a free set of the Caffeinated Christmas to one lucky commenter!!! 

Wanna know how to win one? (Of course you do, silly.)

How the mini release hop works:

• Go comment on the STAMPlorations blog.
• Visit the designers' blogs and comment on their featured project(s).
• Commenting closes on Friday, November 20, 11:55 p.m. Pacific (GMT-8).
• We'll randomly select a winner of the stamp set from comments left on all the blogs and announce it on Sunday, November 22.

By the way, Caffeinated Christmas is now available in the STAMPlorations shop and for one week only (until November 25), it's 10% off!

Thanks for popping by and checking out my designs. I still sort of feel like I'm in a dream that I get to do something so cool and all of you amazing people have been SO supportive. I have a LOT to be thankful for. 

STAMPlorations challenge - Newsprint and a Sketch

Christmas is in the air!!!! Ok, ok, I know we're still a whole week away from Thanksgiving, but I couldn't resist pulling out the green and red and making a whole lotta merry in my craft room this weekend. And I've got a super adorable project to share with you all - a hot cocoa holder! 

Sometimes when I look at a sketch challenge, I see something completely different and when I looked at the latest STAMPlorations challenge, I instantly envisioned this 

little cocoa holder. I think I'm totally going to make up a bunch of these for my coworkers for Christmas. 

Beee teeeee dubs, you don't have to use the sketch, we also have a theme, too! So you can use either the sketch, or the theme or both! Options!

But back to the cocoa holder!

Here are the specs! 

Cut a sheet of paper at 12'' and 5 1/2''. Score lengthwise at 4'' and 8'' and then score the bottom 1/2''. Fold on the score lines. Then cut the bottom 1/2'' of each of the side flaps off, leaving the scored 1/2'' of the center panel. Cut the panels at the angle you desire. 

Fold bottom 1/2 score line up and glue the right panel to it. Finally, glue the left panel over the top of that. Finished! 

By the way - the sentiment stamp is a sneakity peekity at my brand new stamp set that comes out tomorrow! Check back in tomorrow for the FULL reveal along with other crafty holiday gift projects. I also used Blooming Buds by Dee's Artsy Impressions. 

I'm also going to send this over to the following challenges:

Pile it On - Any Holiday/Celebration

The Challenge - look at this adorable cocoa-themed image!

STAMPlorations November Challenge - Newsprint and Sketch

ACKCKC!! I was away traveling in New England and totally forgot to schedule my post for the STAMPlorations November challenge - Now I'm in for it! 

This month at STAMPlorations, we're playing around with newsprint (that's our theme) and we also have a rad sketch. How our challenge works is that you can use either the sketch OR the theme OR both. (CHOICES! woo!) You can also use any brand of stamps that you want. (MORE choices! Woot!) And there's some great prizes, too! 

I looked around my craftroom for some newsprinty paper, and my eyes landed on an brown paper packaging bag. Not newsprint, but that's what my brain wanted to play with. 

I decided to make my own layered flowers and started by stamping some little blooms from the VIGNETTE: Eclectic Florals set. I fussy cut them out and layered them together in various ways, using a brad to hold them all together - and act as a pretty shiny thing for the center. 

Next I found a center panel that I wanted to use and pulled out my Dreamweaver glossy black embossing paste through the Botanical Lush ARTplorations stencil.

Then I used one of my favorite techniques to add funky texture - I heated it up with my embossing gun! When you heat it, it begins to bubble and crack. 

Oooooooooooooooooooooooo!

And here it is - all together!

Sentiment is from the Blooms Sketches set and paper is from Graphic 45. 

So play along with either the theme or the sketch. 

I'm also going to send this card over to the following challenges: 

Little Red Wagon - Mix It Up

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Texture 

Guest Designer - Cardz 4 Guyz - Feel Better

Up here in North Dakota, cold and flu season is in full gear. Sniffles and coughs can be heard 'round the clock! I haven't come down with anything yet, but being surrounded by miserable kiddos and grumpy adults has been swell. Poor things!

So when I was asked to guest design at Cardz 4 Guyz for the month of November, and found out the first challenge theme was "Feel Better" I immediately... well... felt better. Now I could color away the problems, right?!

 

 

 

Look at that little guy... isn't he just adorable? In a very-ill sort of way... adorable. ;)

This guy is a digital stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil called Needs Mummy. You may remember that I just did a vintage Christmas card with one of their images, too. I sort of am in love with how cute their stuff is.

 

 

Sketch Saturday opened their competition up to ANY past sketch from their gallery to participate in the challenge this week, and so I chose one that caught my eye. Sketch Number 238 if you're counting.

 

I used a mountain of Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to get him colored up just right.

 

See - a literal mountain!

 

But in the end, he turned out oh-so-cuuuuute!

 

 

The sentiment is from STAMPlorations Blossom Overture. If somebody doesn't feel better after seeing all this cuteness in one location, welp... they're probably a goner.

 

I'm also going to send this over to the following challenges:

Try it on Tuesday - Lots of Layers

 

 

Mixed Media Card Challenge - Family

It's the first of the month and that means it's a new challenge up at the mixed media card challenge. Some people think that mixed media means you have to get allllllll messy and grungy. While, I find it fun to do that stuff (throw texture paste around like confetti!) mixed media for this challenge just means mixing 3 different types of mediums. 

Think inks, markers, embossing, paint, ribbon, wire, rhinestones, sprays, watercolors, etc- The possibilities really are endless and totally fun to explore. 

The theme over at the Mixed Media Card Challenge is family with the option of adding arrows.  I was looking through some digital stamps recently, and stumbled upon Boughs for the Wreath by Mo's Digital Pencil. 

Every Christmas, when I was a little girl, my dad and mom would my siblings and I trudging through the snow to find our perfect Christmas tree. We kids would dance around, pointing at this tree and that until we finally found the tallest, roundest, fullest one and my dad would crouch down and saw away until we took it home! 

He's also very known for making gorgeous Christmas wreaths with the leftover boughs - so this image just made me stop in my tracks and relive all those memories. :) 

But enough of the sniffly sentiments and on to the show! For my background, I pulled out a lovely emerald green piece of cardstock, dry embossed with circular shapes (because they reminded me of wreaths) and then added some Perfect Copper Perfect Pearls to really accentuate the raised areas. 

There are many different ways to use Perfect Pearls, but with this type of application, I inked the raised areas with Perfect Medium, then applied the dry powder directly to the inky areas. Finally, spritz with water from a mini mister because that's what makes it adhere permanently to the paper. 

The end result is so shimmery and gorgeous and sure to make a statement! 

I finished coloring the image, and then thought about the other aspects of a wreath to inspire my finished design. 

I die cut the image with a Spellbinders frame, and added little red rhinestones, because they reminded me of the berries my dad uses on his wreaths. And it wouldn't be a real wreath without ribbons and bells, so I found this lovely leftover piece of ribbon, tied it in a big ol' bow and then glued on some jingle bells. Finally, I embossed a simple gold sentiment from the STAMPlorations Joyful set. 

Totally love how this turned out, and I think it's the perfect homage to my papa!

I'm gonna send this lovely over to play in the following challenges:

Really Reasonable Ribbon - Get a head start on Christmas or Hannakuh 

Allsorts - Christmas

Hiding In My Craftroom - Freestyle

Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes

DP2 Challenge - Anything Goes with Mo's Digital Image

Eclectic Ellapu Challenge - Balloons, Banners or Bows

Holy schmoly! Is it November already? Where has the year gone?! I dunno, but I've had a very busy weekend in my craft room catching up on Design Team stuffs. 

Once such card, I'm super excited to share because I had tons of tons of fun making it. 

I recently received the Simon Says Stamp July Stamp Set - Sailing and finally got the chance to ink it up. 

I knew I wanted to do a shaker card, but I didn't know that I'd spend the next two hours on the project... But that's how ideas work, isn't?

Here's how I made my shaker and frame: 

The green square was cut out of foam because that's honestly the EASIEST way to make a shaker ever. Just make a cutout with foam and a frame that will cover it! It will keep all your shaker bits in and it's much easier than trying to use double-sided tape and line everything up with no gaps. 

The tan square was actually a piece of cardboard that I cut to the dimensions I needed. And here's where the two hours part comes in: I decided to wrap it in red twine. I don't know why... the twine was staring at me saying "Use me" and my brain was like "ok then" and two hours later I was scratching my head trying to figure out HOW I had managed to ever make yarn crosses like that in Sunday school as a toddler. It was HARD! 

On the plus side though, it turned out uber cute!

Since the theme of the challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu is 

>>Banners, Balloons, or Bows<<

I incorporated a sweet little banner in the upper corner. My shaker has a ship, waves, and a little bit of blue frantage. All of the papers are from the same Simon Says Stamp kit. 

I'm gonna send this fella over to play in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Work it Wednesday - Thank you card
Just Add Ink - W is for (Water in my case)