Friday Fun with Faber-Castell's Gelatos

Happy Friday!  My crafty time this week has been spent over at StampNation .  We just started a new summer MasterClasses series of tutorials with some awesome special guests.  This week the Faber-Castell crew showed us some great ways to use Gelatos!!   Gelatos are little tubes of color that remind me of chapstick.  You can buy them at any craft store or online and they come individually or in sets like this:

 There are so many different colors to choose from, they even have a line of metallics and shimmers.

 I've never used them before so I was super excited to give them a try.   I didn't realize how versatile Gelatos were until I started watching Faber-Castell's video tutorials over at StampNation.  They are water soluble so you can actually use them like watercolor paints.  I learned a bunch of different ways to use them with stencils too.  

For my card today I decided to use both those techniques, starting with an awesome background using some green, turquoise and yellow Gelatos along with a pretty leaf stencil from this package of 10   

Faber-Castell Mixed Media Stencils:

I used 140 lb watercolor paper that had some great texture to it and the Gelatos really blended nicely with my fingers.  I haven't finger painted since I was a kid but I found this was the best way to blend and a lot of fun too!!  After stenciling the green leaves I blended some light green and a little yellow over the top.  Around the edges I used a turquoise color.  For the finishing touch to the background I added some water droplets and dabbed them up with a paper towel.  The Gelatos reacted to water just like distress ink does.  Perfect!

Stamps:  Summer Blooms (The Ton), Hello World (Catherine Pooler Designs).

Ink:  Gelatos (Faber-Castell), clear emboss (Versamark), Midnight (Catherine Pooler Designs).

Paper:  watercolor 140 lb (Canson), Premium White Cardstock (Catherine Pooler Designs).

Accessories:  Mixed Media Stencils 102 (Faber-Castell),  Lattice Frame Dies, Hello World dies (Catherine Pooler Designs), white embossing powder (WOW!), Glass Slippers Mix (The Ton), twine.

Next up, I tried some watercoloring, using this beautiful floral stamp set from The Ton.  I have to say I was so impressed!  Gelatos worked beautifully applied with a water brush.  It was easy to layer each color for a for a deep shading affect too.

I love how bright and vibrant the colors are!

To my StampNation sistahs, be sure to head over to StampNation and check out all new Faber-Castell MasterClasses!   They will be with us thru the end of June so there's a lot more to come!  Also, be sure to sign up for their live video chat next Thursday too!  This will be a great opportunity to chat with the experts and get all your questions answered.

If you're not a member of StampNation this is the perfect time to join!  It's is going to be a whole summer of fun FREE classes given by some of the best companies and instructors in the crafting business. Check out this fabulous schedule and then head on over to StampNation  ---->HERE<----  and sign up today!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great weekend and Happy Stamping!!