Challenge 25 - Spring Greens

Hi everyone. It's the end of one challenge and the start of another. We had some fab entries again this month - thank you all for entering.

The winner of Challenge 24: 'A touch of red is...'

# 24 MacMable

Congratulations MacMable. Please contact anna@indigoblu.com to arrange your prize and don't forget to grab your Winner's Badge from the Badges tab above.

The fabulous Winner’s prize this month is your choice of IndigoBlu stamps.  As always, you have 3 options to choose from:

1:   2 Large stamp plates

or
2:   4 Small stamp plates

or

3:   1 Large and 2 small plates

There’s also the Winner’s Badge, and one for the Top 3, to display proudly on your blog, and the WINNER of the challenge will also be invited to do a GUEST SPOT on a future Challenge Launch post. That’s right, your work will be on the Challenge Blog alongside the Design Team!

Also the Top Three each month (chosen by the DT) will all be invited to do an inspiration piece to be included on the new reminder post that now goes live mid challenge. So, if you’d like a chance to be featured on the IndigoBlu Challenge Blog get those stamps out and get creating!

You’ll find all the information on how to enter the challenge,  the rules (don’t worry, there’s not that many) and get to meet the Design Team in the tabs above.

This month’s Top 3 from the 'A touch of red challenge' as chosen by the DT are...

1: Alex Cross
2: Doreen's Dream
3: Heidi Schleimer

Well deserved congratulations to you all, and don't forget to grab your Top Three badge from the Badges tab above.

This months challenge is... Challenge 25: Spring Greens

Last month's winner, Shelagh, has made this beautiful piece of artwork for us;

Here is what she had to say:

Hi, Shelagh Metselaar here. A big thank-you to IndigoBlu for selecting my card as the ‘Glitz and Glamour’ winner and for sending my selection of stamps as a prize; to say I was surprised and delighted to win is very much an understatement and to be invited to design a project for this challenge is an even bigger thrill – oh! and the perfect excuse to forget the housework and craft for a legitimate reason! I must admit the theme did have me pondering for quite some time as my stash of IndigoBlu stamps is quite eclectic and nothing seemed to fit however after much head-scratching, a ghost of an idea formed and from there on in, it was all inks to the canvas!

Materials:-

·         Canvas

·         IndigoBlu Stamps:- Nature 1, Stylised Flowers

·         Inkpads:- Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark; Distress Inks – Pine Needles, Black Soot

·         Embossing Powder:- Wow Twinkling Green and Twinkling White; Clear Detail

·         Spectrum Noir Aquatints – Greens (from all sets)

·         Acetate:- Heatable

·         Pebeo:- Mixtion Relief Outliner, Mirror Gilding Sheets Green and Silver

·         Sakura:- White Pen

This project was quick to realise, once thoughts and materials were gathered (omitting drying time.)

Extras:-

·         Deep photo frame

·         Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Pale Green

·         Mod Podge Sparkle

Instructions:-

1.       I painted the canvas with water then dropped on the greens in areas allowing the variety of shades to fuse and keeping the blue-greens towards the top.

2.       Once dry, I stamped the ‘Stylised Flowers’ four times (‘off the page’) using Versamark Black and embossed with clear detail embossing powder. The butterfly was stamped three times using Versamark and heat-embossed using ‘Twinkling Green.’ The clouds were stamped twice, again with Versamark then heat-embossed using ‘Twinkling White.’
3.       At this point I blended Ranger Distress ‘Pine Needles’ and ‘Black Soot’ around the edges.

4.       The flower stems were out-lined on one side with a white pen; the seed-heads were outlined with the Mixtion and once dry but still tacky, silver leaf was applied. The same was applied to the centre of stems but once dry, green leaf was applied. P

NB The silver leaf looks white on the photo – oh! the joys of photography!

5.       I stamped the butterfly three times onto heat-proof acetate, embossed with the green powder as before and cut the images out.  I folded the wings back and attached them over the image on canvas with Cosmic Shimmer glue.

Extras:-

To finish the project, I painted the frame with pale green ‘Fantasy Prisme,’ the second coat stippling the paint to create the illusion of texture. Once dry, I applied Mod Podge ‘Sparkle’ to add more interest.  I removed the two peripheral acetate butterflies, placed the canvas inside the frame then glued butterflies over their stamped images but on the frame.

I hope you find the above useful and feel encouraged to ‘have a go.’

Thank you,

Shelagh.

What a beautiful piece of artwork from Shelagh for us this month, a huge thank you for being a guest designer this month, and congratulations on your prize again.

And here is the Challenge Design team's inspiration for you;

LindyLou

Gez Butterworth

Laura Williams

Nikki K.

Julie Cassidy

We'd love to see your work - do enter for your chance to win!

Good luck,
The IndigoBlu Challenge Design Team.

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