TUTORIAL TUESDAY - Guest Post, Jodie King

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Hi friends, it's Jodie here today and I'm so excited to bring you my first post as Guest Designer for APOCD's January Releases! I've used the Cupcake Kit and a January release Cut File & Brushes from the Digital Store.

Our DS is about to start Uni, and this weekend he moved out of home so that he can study in Brisbane. I wanted to create a layout to celebrate this incredibly exciting time for him, a time when the whole world just seems to open up and anything is possible.

The January Cupcake Kit has two gorgeous Double Scoop Gelatos, and I've used the Mango Gelato in three ways to create my background. Here's a quick step by step on how I've created it.

Start with a piece of white cardstock and prime it with Gesso. Priming allows the Gelatos to blend more easily over the surface and gives a smoother finish, and it also prevents the cardstock from curling and distorting quite as much.

Allow the Gesso to air dry. When dry apply the Gelato across the page where you want the most vibrant colour to be. As you can see you don't need to be super neat with this step at all.

Take a baby wipe and rub over the Gelato to blend the colour, this creates a watercolour effect. When you have blended where you'd like the most vibrant colour, go over the edges with a clean section of baby wipe for a lighter shade, blending back to the white cardstock.

To use your Gelato to create a droplet or splatter effect, put a very small amount of water into a glass or small container. Rub the Gelato in circles on the bottom of the container to release the colour into the water. This may take a few minutes, but the more you rub the more concentrated the colour becomes.

When you have your desired colour, use a small paintbrush to apply splatters to areas of your background.

The final element to our Gelato background is to use a background stamp for subtle visual texture.

For this technique you will need a background stamp, a Gelato and a spray bottle of water (I've used a background stamp from my stash).

Apply the Gelato directly to the stamp in random sections (to create an imperfect edge). It's okay to get a fair bit of colour onto the stamp as it will be a darker layer over the already-coloured background. Spritz the stamp with water and let it sit for a minute while the Gelato activates, then stamp it on the already coloured section of the background. Repeat to create a random pattern.

And here's the background with our three Gelato techniques.

I've pulled a lot of the brighter papers and embellishments from the kit to match the vibrant Mango Gelato background. These pennant die cuts from the My Mind’s Eye Jubilee mixed bag come together as a quick and easy banner.

I've cut the word "Celebrate" in black cardstock from the Clink Clink Cut Files and Brushes. It doubles as my title and also as part of my journalling. I was curious if the scripty font would cut cleanly on my Cameo and I'm super happy with how it turned out - a beautiful clean cut.

There are lots of woodgrain elements in this kit, some of my faves being the Studio Calico Heyday frame stickers and the Jillibean Soup woodgrain frames.

To finish the layout I've added some black ink splatters using Mr Huey's (from my stash) and a few of the metallic sequins from the kit.

Thanks for dropping by today!

Jodie