Multi Pocket Card

What could be better than receiving a handmade card -  a handmade card containing gifts !  This card has two pockets on the front, and another pocket on the enclosed tag.

I used a 7 inch / 17.8 cm square blank card making sure the fold was at the top, as it will be better balanced that way. The  pockets will be filled with goodies.  

I cut a piece of card 7 x7 inch / 17.8 x17.8 cm and cut it diagonally, I also cut a strip of card 7 x 2 inches 17.8 x 5.08 cm  these would both become pockets. 

The lovely Christmas Spirit stamps were perfect to decorate the pockets.  I coloured them with Luscious Powders. I wrote some wishes and sentiments onto the tags tied around the bottles. You could also personalise them with names.

I used double sided tape on the diagonal pocket and adhered this first, followed by the  rectangle strip adhering with foam tape which raised the pocket to give it  more room to fill with goodies. 

Chocolate lollies can be a fun and yummy gift. I decorated this foiled covered lolly with a fussy cut snowflake from the Alternative Christmas stamp set. I stamped  it with versamarker  ink and it brushed over with Luscious powders. 

Other small gifts could be Indigoblu Stamps,  face masks,  gift cards, bookmarks, scratch cards stickers, pens etc.

I also made a tag with a pocket on the front to slip an extra gift card into.

Christmas Spirit Stamps

Have fun creating your pocket cards xx

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!

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!

Butterfly Tag

 Cheremane here with you today, let me take you for a walk through a Victorian Garden with some stunning new IndigoBlu goodies.

I started with a little resin frame I had in my stash and painted it with the New Junk and Disorderly paint Olive Waistcoat.

I mixed 1 part paint to 4 parts water to make a spritz with Warm Tan, another of the new paint colours, then spritzed a Junk and Disorderly tag and let it dry before stamping one of the sentiments from the new Victorian Garden stamp set. I added some Steam Whistle paint eekkk another new colour to some phat foam.

 I then used the Steam Whistle and the phat foam to stamp the lovely grasses from Victorian Garden stamp set. Stamping with the Indigoblu paints is so effective but make sure you clean your stamp straight away.

I added some of the Warm Tan to phat foam and stamped one of the butterflies from Victorian Garden, I also spritzed the paper roses with the Warm Tan and Olive Waistcoat paint to coordinate with the other elements.

To finish off I edged the tag with Steam Whistle then I attached the roses and butterfly with glue gel, added some green micro beads and some grey ribbon. There we have it a beautiful Victorian Garden walk.

Thank you so much for stopping by be sure to pop back again soon to be inspired by the team.

Crafty Hugs

Cheremane x