Floral Tag

Hello, it is Cec here and today I am sharing a very feminine shabby floral tag with you.

I began by using a brayer to add Pink Iced Gem and then Wimberry Pie Acrylic Paint to a heavy tag.

Once the paint was dry, I brushed on a coat of Crackle Medium and let it dry completely before I painted on another coat of Pink Iced Gem.

I added some random stamping with the Script Background stamp and some Watering Can Archival Ink.

I cut a doily from a scrap of pink card stock using the Prima Lace Doily Die and then cut it in half.  The doily was then painted with Pink Luscious and splattered with some watered down Vodka Martini metallic paint before it was added to the tag.

Next I cut a strip of card stock and ran it through an embossing folder called Swiss Dots before I painted it with Wimberry Pie acrylic paint.  A little watered down Vodka Martini metallic paint was lightly sponged over the top and the strip was added to the tag over the doily.

Using Watering Can Archival Ink, I stamped flowers from the Live, Laugh, Love set onto some white card stock and pink Damaged Damask paper.  The leaves were stamped onto green Damaged Dots paper.

The edges of the leaves were inked with some Bundled Sage Distress Ink and then shaped.  Shading was added to the centres of the flowers with a Prismacolor pencil and then the edges were painted with some Vodka Martini metallic paint using a piece of Phat Foam.  The petals were shaped and then the flowers were layered.  Seed beads from my stash were added to the centre of the big flowers using some Slap it On Matte to adhere them.

I used a little EK Success flower punch to create a bunch of small flowers that were inked with Dusty Concord Distress Ink and then had purple pearls added to the centres.

The dragonfly and butterfly from Live, Laugh, Love were stamped onto scraps of white card stock and painted with Purple Luscious.  The body and the edges of the wings of the Dragonfly were painted with Vodka Martini metallic paint and tiny silver pearls were added to the body of the butterfly.

Finally a loopy pink organza bow was added to the top of the tag.  I hope my tag inspires you to use stamped flowers in the same you would punched or die cut flowers.

Inspiration from International Design Team members Ksenija, Cec and Giovanna

Lots more inspiration today from Ksenija, Cec and Giovanna. To check out further details and their tutorials, head over to their personal blogs via the links.

Cec

Ksenija

Giovanna

Dictionary Butterfly

It is Cec here and today I am bringing you a clean and simple card that I am calling Dictionary Butterfly.

I started by scanning the page in a dictionary that had the definition for Butterfly on it - look closely and you can see it down on the bottom right.  I inserted the image into a new document in Word  and scaled it to the size I wanted to cut it for my background (Click on the image and then on Format to get the size so you can change if desired).  Next I added the Butterfly text at the top making sure that my image was centred on the page first.  This is simple to do by making sure that the image is behind text (Right Click on Image after you insert it then click Wrap Text then click Behind Text).

The next step was to stamp one half of the Big Butterfly with Versamark and then emboss it with Ebony embossing powder.

I painted the butterfly using some IndigoBlu Metallic paints - Kingfisher Blue, Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty.  Then I took a fluffy brush and went over the whole butterfly with Silver Luscious powder.  This not only added wonderful shimmer to the butterfly but served to make the colours look a little more blended.

I adhered the panel to my card blank and then created a computer generated sentiment that I mounted on some purple card stock and added to the card with dimensional foam strips.

There you have my easy, peasy card.  I hope this inspires you to create with some of the wonderful metallic paints from IndigoBlu.

Inspiration from International Design Team Members Ksenija, Cec and Giovanna

Today we are sharing inspiration from Ksenija, Cec and Giovanna. For the full tutorial head over to their blogs via the link.

Ksenija

Cec

Giovanna

A Gift from the Netherlands

It is Cec here and I have a very simple card to show you today that comes with a special story.

I noticed on the news a little while ago that tulip growers in the Netherlands had cultivated a special tulip in honour of Canada's Sesquicentennial (150 years) this year.  Since I am Canadian and live near Toronto this news caught my interest.  Here is a photo of the tulip:

You might wonder why they would do this for Canada.  Well Canada and the Netherlands have a special relationship resulting from actions during World War II when Canadian forces led the liberation of the Netherlands and hosted the Dutch Royal Family in exile.

Following German Occupation of the Netherlands, the Dutch royal family took refuge in Canada. Princess Margriet was born in exile while her family lived in Ottawa, which is the capital of Canada. The maternity ward of Ottawa Civic Hospital in which Princess Margriet was born was temporarily declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian government, thereby allowing her citizenship to be solely influenced by her mother's Dutch citizenship. To commemorate the birth, the Canadian Parliament flew the Dutch flag over Peace Tower. This is the only time a foreign flag has flown over the Canadian Parliament Building.

I have the Tulip stamp from the Nottingham Lace set and thought that I would see if I could paint it to resemble this special tulip and make it into a simple card.

Here is how I made this card:

I stamped the tulip on watercolour card with some Archival Ink (I used Wendy Vecchi's Watering Can).

Next I added some water to the English Cottage Paints and using a fine brush painted the tulip.  The head of the tulip was painted from the bottom up with Lemon Meringue and Postbox Red, blending between the two colours.  The stem and leaves were painted with a mixture of Lime Marmalade and Hunter Green.  I painted the rest of the tulip with Gee-Sso White Gesso because I wanted a really bright white.

When the watercolour card dried I noticed a bit of rippling so I used some Super Thick Slap it On to mount the tulip panel on a thick piece of card cut just slightly smaller.  This smoothed it out and gave the tulip panel a bit of dimension.  The panel was then adhered to a piece of red card stock and then added to the card blank.

I created the sentiment on the computer and mounted it on some red card stock before adding it to the card.  You could also stamp the sentiment if you have something in your stash that would work for the occasion.

Happy Birthday Canada and thank you to the Netherlands for the pretty gift!

Inspiration from International Design Team Members Solange, Ksenija and Cec

More inspiration from Internation Design Team Members Solange, Ksenija and Cec can be found over on their blogs.

Solange

Ksenija

Cec

Spring Tag

It is Cec here and today I am bringing you a spring tag that I created.

I am very, very fortunate that my husband has a laser cutter in the basement (it was his retirement present to himself) so he can cut me pretty well anything I want.  I don't like that normal manilla tags warp when you add lots of wet media so I got him to cut me a 4" x 8" tag from mat board.  The first thing I did to it was give it a border with Hot Cocoa Acrylic Paint because I intended to add a second layer.

I also had my husband cut a second tag from heavy card stock that was 1/4" smaller all the way around to use as a second layer.  I used some texture paste and the IndigoBlu Texture stencil to add some dimension.

Next I used some Slap it On Matte to add a few clusters of seed beads that I picked up from the dollar store.

I used some Martha Stewart Crafter's Clay and a Prima Mold to make a florish.  When it was dry I cut it in half and added it to my top layer using Super Thick Slap it On to ensure that it would not fall off.

I added a coat of Gee-Sso Good White gesso over the top of this layer and then sponged on Townhouse Teal, Coastal Walk and Hot Cocoa Acrylic Paint.  it was brighter than I wanted so I sponged a bit of the gesso on over the paint to knock it back a bit.

Then I decided to add a few spray inks - Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs and Lindy's Frozen Jack Frost but it didn't turn out as I expected.  I have a love/hate relationship with spray bottles and usually they won't spray when I want them to but this time the Tim Holtz bottle sprayed way too much.  I grumbled a bit and then started sponging the paint colours back over all the brown.  I also stamped some script from the IndigoBlu Tasty Textures set with some Coffee Archival Ink.

Next I used the Coffee Archival Ink to stamp a couple of flowers from the Live, Laugh, Love set on pale yellow card stock, fussy cut them and shaped them with a large embossing tool.  I used a sponge to add some gesso to the edges of the flowers and then mounted one on top of the other.

I also used a punch from EK Success to punch a bunch of little flowers from some of the 12" x 12" Damaged Dots paper.  I went back and cut a batch of even smaller flowers just to mix things up a bit.  Then I shaped them and added a bit of gesso to the edges.  When you see these little flowers on the finished tag take note of how well the blue and teal paints match the Damaged Dots paper.

To finish the tag, I added some twine at the top and pearl stickers to the centre of all the smaller flowers.  I watered down some of the gesso and flicked it on with an old brush.  Then I thought it needed something else and my husband actually suggested the feathers.  Usually he just rolls his eyes and shrugs his shoulders when I ask for his opinion so needless to say, I was happy that he had something to say this time.

I love this tag and hope I have inspired you to dig out your papers and paints and create.  Happy Spring!

Inspiration from International Design Team Members Cec, Giovanna and Ksenija

Fancy a little more inspiration from our International Design Team, then head over to their blogs for the full step by step details for their projects.

Cec

Giovanna

Ksenija

Love Hearts

It is Cec here and today I am bringing you a card that is really clean and simple, which is a change from my usually shabby style.  I think this would make a great Valentine card for a fellow.

I started by using some Red Geranium Archival Ink and the dots stamp from the Tasty Textures set to stamp randomly on a panel of white card stock.

Next I dabbed some Silver and Gold Luscious around the stamping.

I used an old heart stencil to draw and then fussy cut a red and a brown heart from each of the Damaged Damask and Damaged Dots 12"x12" paper sets.  I also cut one brown heart from a Tim Holtz pad called Shattered Kraft Core and then took a Krylon Gold Leafing Pen to the edge of each heart.

To assemble my card, I printed my stamped panel with the word "love" using the print feature in my Cameo.  I mounted that panel on a panel of brown card stock and adhered them to my card blank.  Then I added all my hearts in a wonky row and topped the first one with a red button from my stash and a bow made from burlap string.

This was such a departure for me but I had so much fun seeing it come together with very little effort.

And more inspiration today from International Design Team members Cec, Giovanna and Ksenija

And lots more inspiration today from International Design Team members Cec, Giovanna and Ksenija.

Cec

Giovanna

Ksenija

Vintage Travel Canvas

It is Cec here and I am bringing you a canvas I made using some of my favourite IndigoBlu stamps.  Like most people, I couldn't just pick one favourite so I chose some that I thought went together quite nicely.

I started by taking a 5" x 7" canvas and covering it with Gee-SSo Good White.  Then I used some texture paste and the Texture stencil to add some interest on the edges.  I also added some paste with my fingers and made some areas that were simple bumpy.

Next I painted around the edges and a portion of the canvas top with Hot Cocoa English Cottage paint and then dry brushed some Goldfinger Metallic paint on top.

I cut four strips of chipboard, covered them with some old book paper and then gave them a coat of watered down Lemon Meringue English Cottage paint followed by a light dry brushing of Hot Cocoa.

The next step was to add some Distress Spray Stain in Gathered Twigs and Tarnished Brass.  I also added some Red Oxide acrylic ink.  Once the inks were dry I dabbed on some Pheasant Bronze Metallic paint.

The next two steps and a couple later on are missing photos because just after I had completed them, our anti-virus software started to indicate that there were hundreds of thousands of files infected with viruses and quarantining the files on every computer in the house.  Talk about panic setting in but after a few hours we discovered that these were false positives and the company had installed a fix so we could restore all the files from quarantine.  Unfortunately a few files would not restore and some were the photos I wanted to show you.

So, the next step was to add some stenciling with the Texture stencil and the Believe stencil using Coffee Archival ink.

Following that I lined the panels up the way I wanted them to look on the finished canvas, carefully taped them together on the back and then turned them over and stamped the dirigible from the Grand Tour I set and the hot air balloon from the Grand Tour III set using Jet Black Archival Ink.

I decided to add some texture at this point so I mixed a drop of Orange Blossom reinker with Super Thick Slap It On and put it through the Texture stencil.

At this point I adhered the panels to the canvas but since I decided to leave a bit of space between each panel, I had to go back and paint the rest of the canvas.

I used Versamark embossing ink and stamped some clocks from the Good Times set onto some transparencies and then heat embossed them with some Copper Embossing Powder.  All the clocks were fussy cut.  This photo shows my first attempt using Gold Embossing Powder because the photo in Copper is one that I lost.  Transparencies are slippery so the stamping is not crisp but I loved the outcome because it added to the vintage feel and as long as I kept my heat gun high enough and moving, it did not warp or melt.

Now it was time to add some embellishments.  I pulled all sorts of metal and wooden pieces from my stash and my husband's workroom and set about to alter them so there was a consistent copper theme.  Metal pieces were altered with Rust Alcohol Ink blended with Copper Mixative Alcohol Ink and wooden pieces were painted with Miss Moneypenny Metallic paint.  I used Super Thick Slap It On to attach all the embellishments and usually find that using my finger to smear it on is the easiest way.

I know this was a long post but I hope there are something to inspire you to dig out your favourite IndigoBlu products and play.