Bumble Bee Themed Flip Top Note Pad with Mike Deakin

Hi Guys,

It's Mike here with my DT project for June. As the sun has been shining and I see many honey and bumble bees in my garden buzzing around the lilac and hydrangeas I thought I'd capture the essence of early summer by creating a small A6 sized flip top notepad using the Collector's Edition No9 Bumblebee stamp.

As I normally do - I captured the whole creation process of making the journal on video for you to watch and if you're feeling summery, have a go at making one for yourself!

Click the YouTube link below.

Products used in this project can be found below:

Collector's Edition No9 Bumblebee

Collector's Edition No2 French Script

Flitter Glue

Phat Foam

Scoochy

Chocolate Box Gilding Flake

Here are a few close-up pics of the Bumble Bee NotePad.

Drifting Into Autumn







Hello Jannet here today, and I am honoured to be a member of the lovely Indigoblu Design Team for another year. October is full of golden crisp leaves swirling from the trees, so I thought I would try to capture that scene in a picture. I have recycled some items, and foraged from Mother Nature for other lovely natural pieces.

For my canvas I recycled the backing of a Watercolour pad. I began by covering it in fine texture paste. I pressed some leaves into the paste and then peeled them back. Some were more successful than others, but the textures they left were all interesting!



When dry I painted Warm Tan, Leather Corset, and Hot Cocoa over the paste.I had some crumpled copy paper ready to lay over it and then pressed it down, when removed it leaves lots of lovely textures from the creases.

When the paint was drying I repeated this process on a sheet of card, ready to die cut some leaves from. After cutting them, I randomly added a touch of flitterglu and some  flakes from the chocolate box mega flakes, which gave them an autumnal sheen. I crumpled up the leaves to try and make them look more natural.

I inked over the top of the raised leaf shapes in the texture paste and also, added some penny dreadful luscious to add some Shimmering shine. I mixed a pinch of  luscious with clear embossing powder, and heat embossed the Always something New To Discover stamp from the  “Dreams Come True” Stamp set.

I added another helping of texture paste to the base of the picture and added some little art stones into it. When dry I painted over the stones using the same colours as previously, and shook a little luscious with clear embossing powder onto to it, and heat set.

I gathered together some twigs, pressed leaves, and flowers and adhered them along with my die cut leaves onto the canvas.

Happy Autumn xx

Products Used

20,000 Leagues

Hello and welcome,    Kay M here today with a 20cm x20cm canvas with my take on this month's theme of story telling.  The story is not personal but the classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.  

The Nautilus came to mind  after I finished Steampunk inspired mini panel so it was incorporated into canvas using two of my favourite stamp sets- Steampunkesque and Under the Sea.  

For the canvas background fine textured paste was applied through the Laural Leaves stencil over the lower half, when dry the whole canvas was painted with Gee-Sso-Good white.  A wash of Stroke of Midnight, Kingfisher Blue and Emerald City then painted on, misted with water and left to dry naturally.   

  Images from  Under the Sea were then stamped with Kingfisher Blue and Vodka Martini.

 

The Steampunk inspired mini panel was made by arranging strips of hammer card in a random patchwork pattern on to a10cmx10cm  grey board and adhere with Slap-It-On-Matt.  

Apply 3D paint dots along the seam edges and dry.    

 Glue pin, cardboard and resin shapes as shown and dry.  

 Paint the entire board with black Gee-Sso-Good. 

For the metal effect blend a little Gee-Sso-Good- Black with Sleeping Beauty paint and Raven Black with a little Hot Cocca paints on a plate/tile, 

Use a paintbrush to apply each paint mix in patches over the surface and blending together, when dry, repeat. 
 

Use a finger to apply Gee-Sso-Good white to highlight the raised areas and edges.   Dry brush PheasantBronze and Vodka Martini paints individually over the whole board, concentrating colour on the shapes and faux rivets. 

The image from Steampunkesque was stamped, heat embossed in clear, painted and fussy cut.  

The ship's wheel and anchor were die cut form kraft card and 3D Roman numerals to the value of 20,000 had Chocolate Box Megaflake applied with FlitterGlu.   

All the elements were adhered to the canvas and a colourful 'monster from the deep' made from paper clay and painted with IndigoBlu English Cottage Paints added to finish.

 Thank you for visiting today and I hope you are inspired!

 Take care,  Kay M x

Chocolate and Roses Canvas

Hello and welcome,  

Kay M here today with my Chocolate and Roses canvas board. The  chocolate comes from the gorgeous ChocolateBox Megaflakes and the roses with the Rose stencil and colours chosen to give a vintage romantic feel to highlight this month's heart theme.

 Fine texture paste was thinly spread over a 18cmx24cm canvas board to give a rough plaster texture.  When dry, more paste was used through the Rose stencil across the middle of the board and dried,  then  whole board was painted with Gee-Sso-Goodwhite.   Pheasant Bronze, Townhouse Teal and Marshmallow paints was applied in patches and brush blended into each other.  When dry, Dinkie Script was randomly stamped over and the roses highlighted with a brown Archival ink.    Gee-Sso-Good white was dry brushed over the canvas for a softer look. 

Super Thick Slap it On was mixed with a little Rose Bronze Luscious powder and this was applied through the Family stencil onto tissue paper. When dry,  individual words were added to the canvas with Matt Slap it On.

The Dinkie Heart stamp was stamped with FlitterGlu on card and then covered with Chocolate Box Megaflake.  The heart was then cut out, given a wash of Rose Bronze Luscious then clear embossing powder applied.    Another heart was stamped out using Brown Archival ink on a sheet of card which had been painted with Rose Bronze Luscious powder, that was then cut out.   Chocolate Box Megaflake's were also applied to a heart frame.  

The canvas was finished by adhering the hearts with lace trim, die cut arrows and a feather embellishment as shown.   

I do hope you get inspired to join in our heart theme this month and enter the blog challenge! 

Take care,  Kay M

Love Beyond Words with Emmy

Hello IndigoBlu fans!

Emmy here today with a brand new project to share. This month is all about LOVE! Of course :-) What I prepared for today is not the usual Valentine's card, but I really love this quote and I think it says it all!

To create my card I used two different stamp sets, Mega flakes and Flitter Glu. 

I stamped the swirl using  Floral Swirl A6 Red Rubber Stamp. I added Flitter Glu to a Indigoblu Phat Foam and "inked" the stamp with it. Once I've stamped the image onto white cardstock, I covered it with Megaflake Chocolate Box. 

I coloured the background using Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads - Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold and Fired Brick. 

For my sentiment I used Live Laugh Love A5 Red Rubber Stamp with gold embossing powder.

I die cut the frame around my sentiment and coloured it with Indigoblu Artist's Acrylic Paint Goldfinger (Metallic Gold 60ml).

I hope you enjoyed today's project!

Come back soon for more inspirational creations from our design team!

Emmy

Winged Heart Mixed Media Valentine

Autumn with you today sharing an altered art Valentine created with our lovely Flutterby stamp.  This month we are working with our favorite stamp and this is by far my favorite!  I wanted to do something different and decided to stamp it out in a color, because I so often stamp in black.

I used Fired Brick Distress Ink and stamped onto some brownish inky paper.  I drew a heart onto chipboard and cut it out.  I embossed it with an ultra thick embossing powder mix for texture.

My sweet friend Barbara was cleaning out her stash and gave me a stack of restaurant coasters, which I thought would be the perfect base for a collage - I was in the mood to get messy!  I covered one with french book pages randomly, then while the adhesive was wet I sprinkled on tiny Art Stones and wiped away any that didn't adhere fully before giving a few sprays of ink.  I used some vintage lace and crochet that Barbara had given me for texture and contrast and glued on a strip of corrugated board, as a base for my sentiment.

I gave it all a good splash of watery black GeeSso Good! gesso and then added some Chocolate Box Megaflake with FlitterGlu along the edges.

I glued on my text strips and added some tiny staples.

And here's a closeup of the embossed heart - what fun!  I hope you are inspired to ink your stamps in a new way today and get your hands messy.  Thanks for your visit - Autumn :)

A Card with Chemistry Lab

Hello IndigoBlu fans!

Emmy here today sharing a card I created with two of my favourite stamp sets from IndigoBlu - "Chemistry Lab" and "Industrial Lamps" -

For the sentiment I used heat embossing with Gold embossing powder. Then I coloured the background using Tim Holtz Stormy Sky and Broken China distress ink pads.

Then I stamped the lamp on another piece of white cardstock using Indigoblu FlitterGlu and Chocolate Box megaflakes. Then I fussy cut the image and coloured it with a mixture of Tim Holtz Scattered Straw, Tea Dye and Spiced Marmalade distress ink pads.

I hope I managed to inspire you today!

Come back soon for more inspirational projects from our design team!

Emmy