Paint Effect Lantern

Hello and welcome, it's Kay here. Today I would like to share a paint and Mega Flakes experiment; I used it to upgrade a cheap lantern to look like weathered metal, replacing the glass with handmade paper treated with Diamond Resin as it gives a lovely translucent effect.

One of the great advantages of Mega Flakes is the large size of the flakes - hence their name! - but even Mega Flakes do break down eventually and become unusable (until now!) This is what I used on the lantern along with the fabulous new Metallic Paints. 

The glass panels, base and handle were removed. A piece of Phat Foam was loaded with FlitterGlu and applied all over the lantern body, base and handle. The broken down Stainless Steel Mega Flake was used to cover FlitterGlu and buffed up with a Scoochy, at this point it didn't seem to matter if the flakes are a little lumpy as it added to the effect. A little Raven Black Paint was dabbed over the flake using a sponge, when dry a little Kingfisher Blue was then applied similarly and when that was dry Pheasant Bronze was dabbed over both with a sponge. This process was repeated until I was happy with the result, a final light sponging with Snow White was then applied to highlight.

The replacement glass panels were cut to the same size from handmade mulberry paper, a butterfly from the Floral Fantasy stamp set was inked with StazOn and stamped 4 times without re-inking on each panel. The paper panels were placed on a craft mat, 10ml of each Diamond Resin part was made up to the instructions on the packaging and sponged over all 4 panels and left for 8 hours. I found that the panels needed an extra coating of Diamond Resin, I applied this and left them to cure for 3 days.

I put the lantern back together and was very happy with the result, hope you also like the effect and will be making you own experiments soon!

Until next time, happy creating,  Kay M x

Kevin's Gang & Diamond Resin with Nikki K

Morning everyone,

It's my turn to share another jewellery make with you, and I had so much fun making this one! I absolutely adore the 'Kevin's Gang' and 'Duke's Gang' stamp sets from IndigoBlu, and decided to use Kevin's gang in this piece.

I stamped onto dictionary paper (the cat pages!) with black Versafine, and coloured my gang in with Sleeping Beauty, and Emerald City paints, watered down so the pages still showed through. These paints are so good the shimmer is still vibrant even watered down.

I then took some 0.6mm silver plated jewellery wire, and laid the picture flat on the table, and eased the wire around the cat shape by holding one piece down with my hand, and just gently  moving the wire with the other hand. It's easier than it sounds!

I cut the wire and wrapped one side around the other, creating a spiral tail. The cat shape is then finished and ready to glue down. Make sure it's as flat as you can get it, just work it a little to flatten it.

Using the new Slap It On Gloss, put a generous amount on your paper, and around the bottom edge of the frame, and glue the two together, and coat the whole of the paper to seal it. This makes it stronger and stops the resin seeping through the paper at a later stage. In this case we don't want the paper to go see through.

When it's dry, cut around your cat shape, you can leave a little border or take it right to the wire, or use a file at that stage if easier. Give the cat another coat, front and back, of Slap It On Gloss.

Repeat with all your shapes, until you have your 'gang' all ready to go.

Take your Diamond Resin, and mix one part A to one part B, in the mixing cup provided. Stir for 2 minutes, it will go cloudy then clear. If you have bubbles, leave it for a few minutes, and they should start to dissipate. Don't worry however, as when you spread the resin, it will clear further. You have around 45 minutes working time usually, although this may be less in warmer conditions.  

When the resin is mixed, add it to your shapes with a lollipop stick, being careful not to add too much. A thin layer at a time is fine, I usually leave it overnight to dry, then come back and do another layer. I did this on the front and back of all my cats, to make them stronger. There are probably four layers on each cat. You just need to leave them to dry overnight between coats.

Here's the gang together :

I then took some chain, and some beads, a clasp and jump rings, and proceeded to put a necklace together. You could use the two cats with opposing tails as earrings, but I decided a full jingling necklace was needed. Here are the finished results; hope you like them.

Can you see which dictionary pages I used?

Thank you for joining me today; hope to see you again with another Diamond Resin creation.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

xx

Mini Canvas Art

Hi there. Georgie here today sharing an arty canvas. Have you seen the new colours from IndigoBlu? They are just awesome and couldn't wait to get my hands messy in a project with the brights!! I will list everything separately at the end of the post.

I used the Laurel Leaves Stencil and dolloped some left over Diamond Resin before going over with the colours.

The Diamond Resin was made initially to create the focal. I used some gorgeous quirky sequins with and set them in the resin.

Also added some extra above and below the focal to draw the eye outwards. I used some of the Gee-Sso Good in black, watered down to blur the edge around the focal too.

The sides were also painted in the same style but with less texture, here are a couple of pics, aren't those colours so delicious?!

Of course, a piece of work using IndigoBlu products isn't complete without a little stamping. I headed for what I can see will be a regular for me, the text stamp from the Tasty Textures selection.

Hope you have found some inspiration here today and hope you get a chance to dabble in these new colours.

Creative hugs

Georgie
Xx

IndigoBlu Products Used:
Laurel Leaves Stencil
Diamond Resin
Gee-Sso Good! Black
English Cottage Artist Acrylic Paints: Marshmallow, Lime Marmalade, Lemon Meringue, Pantry White, Coastal Walk
Fine Modelling Paste
Tasty Textures Stamps

Colourful Bezels

I must admit - jewellery making has never been something I intended to start with. I knit, I scrap, I read, I go to the gym - well time is limited. THEN I got the Diamond Resin in my Design Team parcel and I had to change my mind about the whole jewellery making business. This is SO fun! And the possibilities are so many - you can use patterned papers, stamped images, metal pieces, glitter, well maybe even dead insects?

I have used stamped images that I painted with IndigoBlu English Cottage Artist's Acrylic Paints for all of the bezels I show you today. The ones above was and the one below was cut out from one of stamped images from the Boadieca A5 Stamp set (the bottom stamp). I used pink, lime green and yellow acrylics. As you can see I have applied some sparkle on one of the items - Finnabair Glass Glitter "Crimson Red" - also available in the IndigoBlu shop.

I added small word stickers on top of my stamped images on two of my bezels before I covered them with Diamond Resin.

On this one I have combined yellow & green on the butterfly from the Floral Fantasy A5 stamp set.

I hope I could inspire you to make some jewellery. The Diamond Resin is really easy to use so I really recommend you try it our!

Products from IndigoBlu:

IndigoBlu Floral Fantasy A5 Stamp Set

IndigoBlu Boadieca A5 Stamp Set

IndigoBlu English Cottage Artist´s Acrylic Paint "Banana Custard"

IndigoBlu English Cottage Artist´s Acrylic Paint "Cinderella" (metallic)

IndigoBlu English Cottage Artist´s Acrylic Paint Lime Marmalade

IndigoBlu English Cottage Artist´s Acrylic Paint Mulberry Bush 

IndigoBlu Diamond Resin Kit

Various Bezels

▼

Marie Johansson

Kibble Kits & Kibble Pups!

Hi everyone,

Nikki here today, it's been a while since I posted on the main blog, but we have lots of new stamps, and these in particular were perfect for me to make jewellery with, so I thought I'd show you how. I'm using the brand spanking new Kibble Kits & Kibble Pups, which match Kevin's Gang (Cats) and Duke's Gang (Dogs). You can leave them black and white, colour them all in, or colour just one cat or dog that takes your fancy and make it stand out. They are brilliant for card backgrounds and the single stamps are just adorable and so much fun.

I've also been using the new IndigoBlu Diamond Resin, which is just AMAZING!  It's a jeweller's grade 2 part epoxy resin, which is very simple to use. It's self levelling and self doming, and can be used on your artwork, paper, with jewellery, or to protect and preserve objects. It's also VERY good value!

So here's how it goes..

Take an image of your choice from the stamps, and cut it to fit your bezel. Colour in as you wish.

Coat the front, back, and sides with Slap It On. Make sure it's coated well, and dried well, before gluing into your bezel. You can use Slap It On for that as well. This protects the image, and stops the resin from seeping into the paper. This is useful for photo's and any image you don't want to go darker or see through.

I make up a lot at the same time, then leave them overnight to make sure they are dry, but an hour or so is usually fine. This stops the risk of any moisture getting into the mix.

Think about how much you will need for what you have made, it's best to make a few items and have them ready, before you mix your resin. Have a clean, flat, prepared area to work in, and something to cover your work to protect it from dust while it dries. I use the lid of a storage box usually. If you need to rest your bezels on something to lift them (the bail sometimes sticks out), I use an acrylic block or similar.

Take your Diamond Resin, and mix one part A to one part B, equal measures. Getting the right measure's is the most important part here, other than that it's easy peasy. Mix together for two minutes, stirring slowly, making sure you can't see any striations in the mix (it goes cloudy then clear, then you can tell if it's not mixed by lines you can see in it). Don't worry about little bubbles at this stage, they will go.

Once mixed, use your stirring stick to ease resin out of your mixing cup, I pick it up on the stick and use it that way, but you might prefer to pour from the cup. Just pour a little at a time.  It's easier to add resin than to take it away. Ease it to the edges of your bezel, but don't force it.  It will find it's way. Don't fill the bezel completely, it's easier to come back and do a second coat when it's dry enough, and the second coat will dome the piece.

Leave your piece under cover for at least 8 hours, I prefer to leave it overnight.  It should be dry to touch overnight, and will be jeweller's grade rock hard in 72 hours. You can re-coat after about 8 hours when it's tacky dry if you can't wait to do your second layer, but I tend to wait for 24.

I made quite a few pendants, but here are some I liked because they were all differently done, some coloured completely, some with just a lone cat. And I loved the dogs all different colours, and 'bright cats' as I like to call it.

I hope you like them and it gives you some inspiration, I think they are great for so many applications, and I can't wait to do more! And if you've ever wanted to try resin, this is a great place to start.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xx