IndigoBlu - Art Gives you Wings. A little inspiration from the BluBirds!

Hello there, todays blog post is to share a little inspriation with you from the IndigoBlu TV Design Team 'The BluBirds'. The team are working towards bringing you some inspiration along with quick and easy instructions every couple of weeks highlighting some of the IndigoBlu Stamps and Products.

Today we have created different ways of using the 'Artist' Stamp set range.

Grab a cuppa and enjoy.

ART STUDIO

ART GIVES YOU WINGS

ARTIST TOOLS

The first person up is Julie Atkinson. Check out her blog Here!

1. Take an A5 card blank. Cut a panel of black card to measure 12.3 x 17.5cm. Cut a panel of Indigo Blu’s White Perfect Stamping Card to measure 12 x 17.2cm.

2. Using the white card panel, spritz along the top with water (don’t oversaturated the card, just enough to allow the paints to move).

3. Mix Blue Luscious Powder with water to create a loose paint. Add large drops randomly along the top of card where you’ve applied the water. Carefully spritz with water to encourage the Luscious Paint to drip, once again add just enough water to encourage flow.

4. Repeat the last step with Teal, Green and Mermaid’s Tail luscious powders.

5. Once dry, ink the paint brushes stamp from the ‘Art Studio Stamp Set’ using Versafine Onyx Black Ink. Stamp the image along the top of the card. Quickly apply clear embossing powder to the stamped area and heat (embossing the image will help it to stamp out against the mica in the luscious powders)

6. Stamp ‘Create’ at the bottom right hand side

7. Mat and layer your panels to finish

This next inspiration is from Aitch. Check out her blog Here!

1.On a greyboard tag I stencilled with true grit through the 'Blueprint' stencil. When dry I covered with white gesso, 'Teal for Two' and 'Purple Rain' blending the wet colours. I then lifted off some of the damp paint with a cloth and darkened a little with 'Ugly Duckling'

2. Die cut 2 hearts, one from corrugated card and one from hessian backed with paper. I painted the card heart with 'Mulberry Bush' then, using my fingers I highlighted the ridges with 'Bronze' Luscious. I dabbed a little of the bronze onto the paper side of the hessian heart and stamped 'Create' from 'Art Studio'

3. stamp the wings from 'Art Gives You Wings' coloured them with 'Verdigris' Luscious and then cut them out. I then stuck the wings and hearts together and added some paperclips.

4. Replace the Blueprint stencil over the tag and went through with black versafine and around the edges of the tag. I then added clear embossing powder over the whole tag and heated.

5. Add cogs and arrow die cuts to the tag and glued down the heart.

6. Finally I stamped a sentiment from 'Art Studio' on corrugated card and tore it out, glued it to the bottom of the tag and added another paper clip. I added bronze dots and a copper binder clip to the top and finished by darkening some areas with black ink.

And next we have a card from Carolyn Lakin. Check out her blog HERE!

1.Created this simple card using Transluscent acrylic paint in ‘IndigoBlu’ and white card.

2. Cut the white card into a square slightly smaller than the 150mm white card blank. Repeat stamp the brushes/pencils across the bottom of the card using the IndigoBlu paint colour. 

3.Colour wash the brushes/pencils with watered down paint to give a watercolour effect. 

4.Edge the card with the same colour using a piece of phat foam. Stamp the quote in the same colour onto a separate piece of card and cut into strips. 

5.Mat and layer the stamped card onto the card blank and adhere the quote strips onto the card.

This Inspiration piece is from me, Sue Ralph. Check out my blog HERE!

Step 1. Using a pre-washed tee-shirt I decided to do some tie-dying using the Cottage Garden Acrylic paints which are also fabric paints. I mixed the following paints, Sleeping Beauty, Park Lane, Grandma’s Teacup & Kingfisher Blue up into separate plastic cups with a little water.

Step 2. Using some small glass pebbles I took one at a time and gathered up some of the tee-shirt material from just one side of the shirt and wrapped some rubber bands up and around the material to keep the pebble in place. I did the same thing all over the tee shirt including the arms.(Learning from my mistake, don’t wrap the rubber bands to tightly as the paint doesn’t spread so well and stretches the tee-shirt material)!

Step 3. I then dipped the material covered pebbles into different colour paints then went back to each part of the wrap and added different colours with a paint brush. Once done leave to dry out.

Step 4. Once completely dry, undo the rubber bands and take out the pebbles. Iron the T-Shirt to set the paints using some copy paper over the painted areas to protect your iron and board.

Step 5. Hand wash the T-shirt and dry. Then using Stazon Black Ink stamp out images from “Artist Tools”, “Art gives you wings“ and “Art Studio” around the Tie-Dyed patterns.

The final inspiration piece is from Emma Blake - Check out her Blog HERE

  1. I started by choosing a die cut tag, I then stamped and heat embossed the paint tubes.

2. I then stamped them again onto scrap paper and cut them out to make a mask. 

3. I covered the embossed tubes with the masks and made a wash with Luscious. I kept adding and taking away the wash until I was happy with the coverage being careful not to wet the tag to much so the mask didn't get soggy.

4. Once dry I used the limited addition dotty circles and stamped with Stazon ink.

5. I them removed the masks and painted in the painttubes. 

6. To finish, I stamped my sentiment onto card and used foam pads to lift it off the tag slightly to make it stand out. I them used a dark ink pad around the edges of the sentiment  and tag and stuck the sentiment into place.

We hope you enjoy creating one or more of these of your own xx

We would love to see how you have used these stamps so please stop by the I Love IndigoBlu Facebook Page and share your creations with us.

Happy Crafting xx

Grungy Steampunk Light Bulb Card

Autumn with you today to share some techniques for a grungy steampunk card.  I simply adore this stamp set.  There are so many options for making your own backgrounds, as well as focal points.

I sponged the perimeter of my card base with Walnut Stain Distress Oxide, then flicked it with water to give some color variation.  I stamped the stripes with Vintage Photo over the sponging all the way around my card.

I created a second layer with different colored inks and stamped the dots in the same manner, but in the end didn't use it for this project.  For the top layer I tapped my inks onto my craft mat, spritzed with water, then dipped my panel repeatedly until I achieved the desired color.

I chose the Numbers stamp for this panel and stamped it with Fossilized Amber.  The trick to stamping with Distress Oxides is to lightly mist your paper after stamping to activate the chalkiness of the inks.

I dipped another panel in Fossilized Amber to stamp my lightbulbs.  I fussy cut each one and mounted the larger with double foam tape for additional dimension.

I dipped the die cut gears in my Oxides and glued them to my background.  TIP: Use dark colors of Oxides first then layer with lighter colors, as they will stand out more.

For my sentiment I dipped a panel in watery Vintage Photo and then stamped and fussy cut each line.  What fun this was!  I hope you are inspired to make some backgrounds of your own today.

Purchase your Shine Bright stamp set and Collectors Edition Numbers stamp today!

CAS Distress Stain Ombre Silhouette Card

It's summer time and the livin' is easy!  Autumn with you today to share a simple silhouette card design featuring our lovely new Victorian Garden stamp set.  Here in the US, we've gone wild over Distress Stains, so I created an ombre sunset background with those.  I simply dabbed them onto my craft mat in rows of color then smooshed my watercolor paper into the ink, dabbing any drips.

There are so many color options you could use for this card design, but I chose a sunset palette.  I layered some fabric washi tape at the bottom for a punch.

To get my sentiment just perfect, I first stamped it onto my background panel, then onto the cut circle and matched up the font.  This sentiment is from our new Shine Bright stamp set with the lightbulbs - another must have!

Purchase your Victorian Garden stamp set HERE today!

DIY Designer Paper with Acrylic Paint

Autumn with you today to take you on a fun little journey with the new range of paints, Skin Tones Acrylic Matte.  I absolutely love this range from apricot to rouge to porcelain - they are gorgeous!

I thought I would test them out on my new Gelli Plate.  I definitely need more practice with the plate, but it was fun nonetheless.  You could replicate these techniques with a brayer DTP if you don't have a plate.  I printed the pink you see on the left, then loaded my plate with a lighter color of paint.  I stamped this soon to be released numeral stamp into the plate and stamped onto my pink panel repeatedly.  After, I did another press with the paint left on the plate, which reverses the image as you see in the finished product below (left).

I cut the best sections that would make great bases and then used the scraps with dies.  For my first project today I am showing you what I did with this center layered panel.  You can see the number printed paper worked great to cut my doily.  The numbers don't show, just the color variation on such an intricate die.

I made one more sheet of colored paper by dropping a little paint onto my craft mat and spraying with water then smooshing my paper into it.  I used it as the base to stamp these butterflies from the Victorian Garden set repeatedly in pink and brown ink.

I gave everything a splat of Metallic Goldfinger Acrylic to finish it off.  The photos don't show the color variation and depth, but trust me it's there!

The next day I picked up one of the other panels and decided to test out Distress Oxide inks over the paint.  Just as I had hoped, the paint did resist the ink in a way.  The ink soaked into the unpainted sections of my paper.  I decided to overstamp and make a pattern, similar to designer paper.  So I embossed the butterfly repeatedly.

See there the number stamping coming through the butterfly?  This butterfly stamp is just soft enough to make a beautiful pattern without being overwhelming.  LOVE!

Here you can see the resist I was referring to.

I layered up some dies and our fabulous Flutterby stamp, which I stamped in brown over some leftover smooshed paper.  Finally, I added one of the sentiments from the set, stamped in the same DOX and attached with the Tiny Attacher.  Thanks for reading to the end!  ;0  I hope you are inspired to make some paper today with your IndigoBlu stamps.  Until next time...

Preorder your Victorian Garden Stamp Set HERE today!

Purchase one or all of the new Skin Tone Matte Acrylic range HERE today!

1 Stamp 5 ways: Only for Cat Lovers

Giovanna here, aka a crazy cat lady...and this post is dedicated to one of myfavourite IndigoBlu stamp and cats...:-)
I definitely love this stamp "Kibble Kits"designed by Gem:

And here are five different ways to use it: in an ArtJournal page, featuring my lovely Dido, I used the stamp on a piece of gesso page cut in a heart shape, and as background:

Stamping the whole stamp, coloring it with Gelatos and cut in squares, to make a card:

Stamping the whole stamp, coloring it with Gelatos just one detail and adhering to a card

Stamping the whole stamp, coloring it with Gelatos, cut  to shape and then mounted to make a couple of fun, colourful earrings

And least but not least, stamping on fabric coloured with acrylic paint and then gluing the fabric to an empty masking tape rolls, to create a couple of bangles.

SO, what's your favourite stamp? And in how many ways you can use it?

December Challenge Reminder - Snow Snow Snow

Morning everyone,

Today is challenge reminder day, and we'd love to show you our Inspirational DT's work once more, I hope it inspires you to join in!  

I love this fab piece by Rachel, it just shows that snow doesn't have to mean white!  

Rachel

A beautiful snow scene by Wanda: 

Wenda

Absolutely love this Stag by Lydia too!: 

Lydia

A perfect wintery scene from Claire: 

Claire

And a gorgeous Robin hanger by Sue: 

Sue

You can hop across to the team's blog to check out how they made their pieces, but don't forget to come back and enter yourself!  

We have fab prizes each month, Indigoblu stamps of your choice as follows:

3 options to choose from:

1: 2 Large stamp plates (A5)

or

2: 4 Small stamp plates (A6)

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 our lovely DT) will all be invited to do an inspiration piece to be included on the reminder post that 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 theDesign Team in the tabs on the sidebar.

So all that's left is to say Happy New Year from the Challenge DT and thank you to all our Guest Designers through 2016, we look forward to meeting more of you in 2017. 


Best Wishes,
IndigoBlu Challenge DT.

An InLinkz Link-up

Beautiful Autumn card with Emmy

Hello everyone!

Emmy here today with a brand new autumn card I created with the amazing IndigoBlu products. There will be a lot of Autumn projects on out blog in October :-) 

To create the background of my card I stamped the image from the Rain Droplets Red Rubber Stamp with FlitterGlu on white cardstock and heat embossed the set using gold embossing powder. Once the project has cooled down I colored the cardstock with a mixture of autumn coloured Distress Ink Pads.

I stamped the lovely Ella from the Ella Bella A6 Red Rubber Stamp with FlitterGlu on a white cradstock and used Megaflake Chocolate Box to colour the image. 

Products used:

I hope I managed to inspire you today!

Have a very creative week!

Emmy