Refresh Your Craft & Soul Blog Hop

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to my leg of the Refresh Your Craft & Soul Blog Hop - hopefully you've arrived here from Jennifer Grace Creates, but if not, you should pop over there now and start from the beginning to grab all the details and make sure you don't miss any of the fun. If you visit all the blogs on the hop and then pop back to Jennifer's to let her know, you'll be in with a chance of a FABulous giveaway - more details at the bottom of this post :o)

This is just the start of a weekend-long free blog event, which promises to be full of fun, inspiration, challenges, prizes and giveaways AND it's open internationally too - WooHOOO!


Jennifer has loosely based the theme for this event on her word for the year, which is "Cleanse". Over the course of the weekend, we will be exploring a variety of ideas inspired by this word, including watery themes and trying new things. 

Trying something new always refreshes my craft and soul, even if it doesn't quite work out as I had expected. For this project, I decided to challenge myself to try out my new gelatos, and then use them alongside some other watery media to create a scrapbook page without using any patterned papers - totally out of my comfort zone as they say!  Here's a tiny peek at part of my finished layout ... 


... and here's the lovely shiny new gelato set my DH gave me for my birthday - as you can see, they're still pristine and my birthday was back in March! 


It's a great starter set, which includes 10 colours of gelatos, a tube of gesso, paintbrush, dropper, mister, stamp, stencil, 8 swatches of different materials, a book ring and instructions. 

Well I had a really good go at working through all the ideas in the booklet, I really did, but eventually decided it was time for some expert help - so as always I turned to YouTube and found this excellent tutorial  by Jill Foster demonstrating exactly the same kit! I started off copying Jill fairly slavishly until I started to get a feel for it and by the end I was beginning to add my own little twists. Here's my completed swatch book ...


I also coloured some chipboard embellies with a coat of gesso followed by different shades of Gelatos. Five minutes before I took this photo, my desk looked like this ...


... but one of the many good things about Gelatos is that they wash right off your hands, so no inky fingers this time! 

OK, now I had got my head around the Gelatos I was ready for the next stage of my challenge, so I gathered up a few more supplies ...


A couple of water pots, mixing palette, water brushes, needle-tip bottles, dropper bottles, acrylic paints, mists, and Gelatos of course (I decided to go for a blue/orange/white combo). Also essential but not in the photo were a mister bottle, some baby wipes and paper towels.

I got the needle-tip bottles and dropper bottles from Amazon - they're brilliant for creating squiggles and splashes and you can mix up and store a small amount of paint, ink or glue in them. You need to mix paint/glue with water to get the right consistency to flow through the needle-tip successfully but still hold its shape well. 


For this project, I mixed up some orange acrylic paint in a dropper bottle, put some thinned-down blue acrylic and PVA glue in needle-tip bottles and some ink from an old bunged-up mister in the other dropper. I also pulled out some Dylusions Ink Spray in Squeezed Orange and Cosmic Shimmer Mist in Vintage Blue, and some watercolour paper. 

First, using some of the techniques I'd learned from Jill Foster's tutorial, I had a go at some PL size cards, because I have an idea to start making PL-style layouts to go opposite more traditional scrap pages, so that I can scrap multiple photos of the same event or time in my life and include more memorabilia and journaling ...


The one on the left was just a simple wash of Gelato to create a colourful background, then when it was dry I added a scribble of blue paint from the needle-tip bottle. For the other two, I scribbled with PVA glue first, allowed it to dry and then washed over the top with Gelato. I will probably add words to these later. 

Next, I created a background on plain white cardstock, using all my watery media - paints, inks, mists and Gelatos ...


... and lots of dribbling and dropping, stencilling, scribbling, splashing and stamping! You can even stamp with Gelatos, by rubbing them onto the stamp, then misting with water to activate the pigments before stamping - it gives a lovely soft watery effect. 

Last but not least, I used my watery media to alter some embellies for my page ...


Some canvas shapes from the Papermania Bare Basics range and some plain white paper flowers were just begging for a makeover ...


The flowers were just spritzed with mists and the canvas shapes were coloured with Gelatos - I introduced a touch of green and pink and used a watery brush and my fingers to apply and blend the colours.

For the title I used Prima Canvas Alphas in white and applied colour picked up directly from the Gelato with a watery brush ...


Finally, it was just a matter of assembling the page, layering up some of my PL-size pieces to form an interesting photo matt, tucking in a scrap of doily, finishing with flowers and my canvas bunting. Here's how it turned out ... 


It didn't turn out at all as it had looked in my head, but I had a great time and learned a lot of new techniques which I will definitely be using again. 

So, how about you? What new thing would you like to try? How do you Refresh Your Craft & Soul? Oh and I nearly forgot my little prize ...


... some dropper bottles, a needle-tip bottle and a set of Aqua-Flo water brushes in three sizes. Just leave a comment if you'd like to win these - after the event I'll pick a winner with a random number generator and I'm happy to post anywhere in the world :o)

Thanks for hopping by - your next stop is Becky's Burblings. If you get lost, just hop back to Jennifer's for the full list.

If you comment on all the blogs in the hop, finishing at www.jennifergracecreates.com to let Jennifer know you've been all the way around, then you'll be in with a chance to win a refreshing prize pack featuring Glitz 77 and My Mind's Eye Izzy items, total worth over £25! All entries must be received by Monday the 9th of June at 10.59pm BST. 

See you there :o)

Comments

Lydia said…
Beautiful project.. I have some gelatos on the way.. TFS xx
Frances said…
Annie - love your layering, choice of colours and bits of fabric. Going to give some of your tips a try. Thanks for the post and give-away!
Lesley G said…
Wow! Lovely bright colours, I should get messy more often!
rach said…
What a great layout, thanks for the inspiration.
scrappyjacky said…
What a gorgeous array of colours...love the finished LO.
Lou said…
oh isn't this wonderful. I'm loving all the paint/inks..not used gelato before though..the effects are great. Might have to invest in some mixing bottles x
K said…
Love a bit of messy play :)
Fab how you've got so many different effects out of them, which of course then go perfectly together on a page.
Annie Claxton said…
Isn't this fun!? Not sure if I have to leave a comment on my own blog post to qualify for an entry on the main giveaway so I thought I would be on the safe side! Have fun everyone :o)
Annie Claxton said…
Isn't this fun!? Not sure if I have to leave a comment on my own blog post to qualify for an entry on the main giveaway so I thought I would be on the safe side! Have fun everyone :o)
Sarah said…
Wow!! I love this Annie. I've never used gelatos before but of course now I want to!! I'm also going to go pick up a pack of those canvas banners! xx
furrypig said…
thanks Annie for sharing all your messy makes with us. Obviously I will be able to try out altering the flowers as you sent me some in the bag of stash I won....yay! Please would you be kind enough to give me the link to where you bought the needle tip bottles from... thanks
Anonymous said…
Fab layout and great insight about your foray into gelatos, I might just have to give them a try! :)
Jo Murray said…
Love all those dribbles and splashes. I've always wanted some water brushes. Your giveaway is generous and, while I hope my name comes out of the hat first, I wish everyone good luck.
Katherine said…
Love all the paint, what a super background, love your page.
Annie Claxton said…
Hey Furrypig - if you go to Amazon and type "needle tip bottle" into the search box it should come up - they're only £7.99 for 9 bottles which I thought was a bargain!
I have Amazon Prime so the p&p was free.
Lindsay Rose said…
I love the orange and blue combination! I really need to get my hands on some gelatos!
Maria Ontiveros said…
I'd love to win those! So perfect for so many things.
I want to try the gelli plate. I got Amazon and Michael's gift cards for Christmas to get one but neither carry it! Haven't broken down to buy it myself.
Oh, and what a great project! I love the canvas flags especially.
Rinda
Jimjams said…
A super page Annie - love the colours
karin said…
I really love it! the colors are bright and lovely and it turned out to look amazing!
petrii said…
Annie,
What a beautiful page. I love the gelatos. I have some, but never quite know how to use them.

Blessings ~~ dawn
Melissa said…
Wow - you certainly did a great job trying out something new. I have the complete set of gelatos & really need to get them out since I've only used them a few times & want to learn to use them in different ways. Great prize pack you're giving away!
Kristin said…
What a sweet husband! I love what you did with your gelatos and I love those little canvas shapes. Beautiful work - can't wait to see what you do for the SOC ;) xo
Stephanie said…
Great layout! I would love to try sewing on a layout :)
Margie said…
Wow, what a lovely mess! Love your project!!
Julene Matthews said…
Looks like you are having fun there. LOve the finished layout,it is so colourful.
Tania said…
Inspiring!
Jennifer Grace said…
Gorgeous page Annie! I have never heard of using needle tip bottles before and now I want to give those a try. Your background is fantastic I would never have guessed it started as plain cardstock, it has so much pattern and colour. Thank you for joining in with my blog hop! I'm glad it inspired you to break out your gelatos! x
mandysea said…
I felt like I went on a fabulous arty journey in your post! I love your messy desk. All I can say is wow - love it!
Becky said…
Great layout. I've not used gelatos - I really didn't know what you could do with them. Now I am very tempted!
Jackie said…
Super layout...love the colours!!!!!!!!
Tina Campbell said…
Love the tutorial, this is one thing I need to give a go I had gotten some in a swap and the package sits unopen. Now I'll be checking out you tube for that tutorial. :)
Love the bunting. Cant imagine the mess I would make giving that a go, I'm bad enough with mists!
Lisa-Jane said…
I love it! Great colours and I think the finished piece is amazing :-)
Love this! The textures on here are fabulous as are the colors!
jengd said…
Great page! I haven't really tried Gelatos yet but I love the way they look on your canvas embellishments! Nice job using these for their inaugural trip out. :)
Sheena said…
I confess I got some of these paints for xmas & still not used them... I think it's now time :)
cinmfoster said…
Love the background paper you made, it's gorgeous. thanks for the inspiration
TishSch said…
Wow, I love how you did the PL size cards and the flowers. I've been interested in the gelatos but kind of intimidated by them. Maybe I should get some and try too!
Dawn said…
What a fabulous way to show all the uses of gelatos. Love the pl style cards and the finished layout!
Laura said…
Absolutely love your background :)
Kimmeh said…
Are gelatos worth it? I see so many great project with it, but don't know if I should splurge anymore. :3

Great projects!! I hope to see more homemade project life cards.