All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit...
Acts 2:4
So, I finally did it. I finally broke down and ordered some Faber-Castell Gelatos. I have no idea what they are, but the idea of combining pretty paints and dessert sounded good to me. Plus, I've seen them pop up time and again on Pinterest.
Here's the skinny on Gelatos:
They come in tubes that remind me A LOT of Lip Smackers. If you've ever wanted to paint a picture using your lip balm, then these are for you. Seriously, though, Gelatos have an effect a lot like watercolor, but without the messy bleed-through.
I kind of love them.
When I sat down at the kitchen table this morning and opened my journaling Bible, I didn't have much of a plan. So, I found a good verse to read about and then went straight to art. I drew a lovely little doodle of a crown and some words with it.
I'll admit I didn't meditate as much as I should have. I was in such a hurry to try my gelatos, I kind of lost track of the real point of Bible journaling, which is to make the word of God personal in a beautiful, colorful way. (At least, that's how I use it.)
So, it's not surprising my first attempt was a fail. As I picked up my gelatos, I realized they are not really useful on tiny details, which this doodle had. They are very pretty for larger images or background color, though.
Attempt #2
I slowed down a bit and did a little research on Pinterest to find some ideas. Then I tried out my gelatos on paper to see how they interacted with each other, with water, with blending, with pencil on top and beneath.
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| How Gelatos interact with pencil and water and blending. |
Then I turned to Acts.
I decided to use my Gelatos to try to capture the fire of the Holy Spirit.
I cut a heart out of paper and quite boldly put the gelato onto the page and just kind of winged it. I scribbled around the edges, using the heart as negative space. *Lesson learned here: take the lids of your gelatos and have them ready if you decide to do this. I had to hold my paper heart in place with one hand while trying to take off lids with the other. A bit tricky.
After I'd scribbled over the heart with my gelatos, I then wet a brush (they come with one in the package) and tried a little blending (with paper behind my page to stop bleed-through). I also tried blending with the squishy and not-so-squishy blending sponges (also included with the gelatos).
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| Gelatos = No bleeding through the Bible page! |
HOW LONG DO GELATOS TAKE TO DRY?
I don't know how long these take to "cure". I don't say "dry" because they're not really wet. They are kind of like squishy crayons. They were "dry" to the touch shortly after use. The only "wet" parts were places where I'd put the gelatos on too thick. Still, I'm leaving my Bible open tonight. Tomorrow I'll close it and then update this post of the Gelatos leave marks on the opposite page. Sound good? :)Update** Gelatos seem to dry fairly quickly. They're not really "wet" to start with, so if you leave your Bible open for an hour or two, I don't think you'll have too much trouble with smudging or transferring to the opposite page when you close it. However, I let mine stay open for a few hours just to be safe. :)
FINAL EVALUATION OF GELATOS:
- They are like painting with tubes of lip balm, only much brighter
- They blend nicely with or without water (some people say to use a baby wipe to blend)
- They look like watercolor paint when blended
- They do not bleed through thin Bible pages! Hooray!
- Bible words DO show up beneath Gelatos
- They DO work OVER Micron pen, but smudge over pencil
- Pencil DOES write on top of Gelatos!
- Not great for tiny details, more for use as background color or large images
- Do they need time to "dry"? The jury is still out on this.
- Fun and pretty to use!
*Note: I dated my Bible entry wrong. This doodle was done on February 1, 2017. LOL!
