Using Versatile Gelatos

Hi, it's Lesley here. I was recently fortunate enough to travel to the State of South Australia and do 5 classes with Steph Devlin who is on the Prima DT.  We covered a number of different techniques with Step and whilst I don't feel I have anywhere near mastered any of these techniques yet, I am having a wonderful time playing around and trying to create a similar style to Steph's without copying her designs.

One of the fun things we learnt was about Gelatos the newly released fun tool to use for scrapbooking.  I see Gelatos as not only adding a fun element to creating your pages, but being able to create your own background's on your pages, I use so much 'white' cardstock now, therefore a saving on patterned paper.  On this page I have used Gelatos 4 ways, mainly for demonstration purposes and probably wouldn't use all 4 methods on a page all the time.

Firstly I wanted to give a watercolour effect behind the photo and dies.  To achieve this, because you will be using a water spritzer on your paper you apply a layer of Gesso to the area you want to paint, then when that is dry its as easy as scribbling just like a small child would using the colours of your choice.  Then you spritz lightly with water and using your finger blend the colours together, I've used Orange and 2 shades of Yellow on my background, you only have to use a small amount, and, if the background isn't as you choose you can add any colour to change the shade and it all blends together beautifully.

The 2nd method is using a mask, I've used a circle mask and added the Gelato directly to the paper (no Gesso required), you just blend it inside the relevant shape you may be using and then what I also did was rub my finger off on another circle to achieve a lighter shade.

The 3rd method is creating a mist using the Gelatos.  To do this you simply shave a very small amount off the bottom of the colour of your choice into a paint pallet, again I used orange and yellow, then add just a very small amount of water and using a paint brush mix it until it quickly turns into a paste.  Use the brush to scrape it into a water spritzer bottle and then add more water, you only add a small amount at a time so it remains reasonably thick, yet thin enough to spray.  I probably would only use the yellow shade on this layout at the moment so I only mixed a small amount and then cleaned the spritz bottle out ready for my next project.  It then sprays on just like any other commercially purchased mist.  I  held the paper up so I run a few funs down the page which can be seen on the bottom right.

The 4th method is applying it directly to my chipboard on the left of the page just like you would marker pens, again a small amount goes a long way.

Well I hope you enjoy playing with Gelatos if you get the opportunity, I purchased the large box to start with and then you can buy them in smaller amounts in different or the same colours to add or replace.

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Cathy Dippolito
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Lesley Walker
Gael Spence
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