Family Canvas

Hello and welcome, Kay M here to share the canvas I made for this month's seasonal theme of bonfires and fireworks.   

November has a few annual family gatherings involving food, bonfires and fireworks and where there's a gathering there's the group photo!   I've used one from the  Lost Family paper stack as the main image.

A 20cm x 25cm canvas was painted with Gee-Sso-Good black, when dry,  a Sleeping Beauty wash was painted over and more black sponged around the edges to frame the canvas.

Unicorn Sparkles was mixed with Super Thick Slap-It-On and used through the Starburst Stencil three times on the canvas and left to dry.   Pink Luscious was then added to the mixture and this was used through the Weird Science Stencil into the centre of the Starbursts.  This same mix was watered down and splattered over the canvas,  when dry,  white paint splatters and lines were added.

The elements were prepared. 
I used fine texture paste through the Laurel stencil and fussy cut them out when dry, they were painted with a Emerald City and Pheasant Bronze mix and then dusted with Gold Luscious.   Wooden sentiments were painted with Gee-Sso-Good black then dry brushed with Vodka Martini and a little Hot Cocoa and backed with white card.   The family were fussy cut and a black pen run over the cut edges. 

To finish, the family group was attached with silicon glue and the laurel leaves adhered horizontally behind and in front of them.  The sentiments placed as shown.

I love how the Unicorn Sparkles work with the Starburst stencil to look like an exploding firework.  I do hope you have enjoyed this canvas.

Take care until next time,  Kay M x

Introducing Guest Designer and our new Brand Ambassador Linda Simpson

It's "Time" to introduce a Guest Designer and new Indigoblu Brand Ambassador Linda Simpson.

Linda is based in the UK and loves all types of crafting from crochet to mixed media and steampunk. Today she is sharing a project using one of the IndigoBlu Small Clock Kits.

Using the small Clock kit and an MDF fob watch I painted a coat of Gesso over them both.  Once this was dry I mixed IndigoBlu acrylic paint Hot Cocoa with Gesso and again covered both MDF pieces.

 

 

Using one of the papers from the clock kit I adhered to the clock face and covered with a coat of Mod Podge. I stamped IndigoBlu Mechanics with Versafine vintage sepia.  Once this was dry I then dusted Luscious Powder Orange which adhered to the stamped image.

The fob watch outline I covered with a combination of Lemon Meringue and Burning Bonfire Acrylic Paint with a baby wipe as this gave it some texture.  To give it a rustic feel I then dabbed on with again a baby wipe metallic acrylic paint Pheasant Bronze.

Once the paint was dry I then added FlitterGlu to a foam pad and dabbed around the edge of the fob watch.  I then stamped the Mechanics stamp around the edge with Stazon.

 

Next was to add the numbers to the clock face. I did this by using the stencil which came with the kit, I mixed Super Thick Slap it on and Acrylic Metallic Paint Goldfinger.

Once everything was dry on both pieces I then adhered the clock face to the front of the fob watch outline.

 

 

The last item to attach to the project was the clock hands which came with the kit.  

 

 

Happy Crafting

Linda x

An Autumn Canvas

Hello,   Welcome to the IndigoBlu Blog,  Kay M today and I would like to share an Autumnal canvas.  I've combined lots of textures with the Indigoblu English Cottage Artist'sAcrylic Paint colours of the season.
 

I began by covering an A4 sized canvas with skeletal leaves using Slap-it-On Matt and added dimensional paste butterflies through the Floral Fantasy stencil.  Cocktail and bamboo sticks were dipped into fine and coarse pastes and then glued in place.  Die cut leaves were crushed then scattered and adhered were they landed, the canvas was left the dry.   The entire canvas was then painted with Gee-Sso-Good white, a wash of BurningBonfire and two further washes of  Gee-Sso-Good white dabbed with Goldfinger, ensuring each layer was dried before adding the next.
    

Five chipboard leaves were covered with coarse paste and left to dry.  Ruby Slippers, Burning Bonfire and Emerald City mixed with PheasantBronze  then  painted onto all the leaves.  Gold Luscious mixed with water was applied to highlight the paste butterflies. 
   

Images and the sentiment from Nature II were stamped, painted and shaped where necessary.    The tree stump and ferns, stamped onto tissue paper and applied with Slap It On Matte, all the other elements secured with silicon glue as shown.  

To finish a little brown Distress Ink was sponged around the canvas edge.

I do hope you enjoyed my autumn canvas.

Take care,  Kay M

Guest Designer Mike Deakin - Lost and Found for IndigoBlu

Guest Designer Mike Deakin has created a fabulous Steampunk inspired project using the gorgeous new metallic paints. You can check out the tutorial over at the IndigoBlu YouTube Channel HERE

Butterflies and Blooms Cushion Covers

Hi it's Elizabeth here sharing some of the cushion covers I made for Jenny Marples show on Hochanda last Monday. If you missed the shows they are still available on catch up on the Hochanda page, but be quick!

I kept the designs quite simple to show that you don't have to cover the entire piece, just a corner or centre if that's what you would prefer.

As you can see I love using the Dinkie Butterfly, it's such a beautiful stamp and the image stays true when stamping with the IndigoBlu paints.

The Lilac blossoms were stamped up using Mulberry Bush and Marshmallow, which are perfect colours for these flowers. The Lime Marmalade and Hunter Green blended together to stamp out the Laurel Leaves stamps beautifully.

These Dinkie DragonFly's were stamped out onto scrap fabric with the Kingfisher Blue, cut out and attached using the Fabric Slap It On, which is a fabulous product. I love the Lime Marmalade paint alongside the Kingfisher Blue and Hunter Green it really comes alive.

And last but not least my favourite cover made using the Dinkie Butterfly and the beautiful half Doily from the Floral Fantasy stamp set, along with Lime Marmalade, Kingfisher Blue and Pheasant Bronze paints, and a little splattering.

So Tomorrow (Saturday 7th May) the cushions will be at Port Sunlight for the Happy Stampers Show if you would like to have a closer look, or have any questions about the products used, the team will be happy to help. I'll pop a list of products used at the end of this post.

Happy Crafting and hope to see you at Port Sunlight,
Elizabeth x

Marshmallow Cottage Garden Paint
Mulberry Cottage Garden Paint
Pheasant Bronze Metallic Paint
Kingfisher Metallic Paint
Lime Marmalade Cottage Garden Paint
Raven Black Metallic Paint
Hunter Green Cottage Garden Paint
Dinkie Butterfly
Dinkie Dragonfly
Laurel Leaves Stamps
Floral Fantasy Stamps

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