Leave a Trail card with Emmy

Hello IndigoBlu fans!

Emmy here with my first project for April. This month we are focusing on stories at IndigoBlu blog. And here is mine - when I was little my granddad told me and my sister to think before we speak and that words are powerful and can really make a difference. He filled our house with books and stories and taught us how to appreciate words. So, today I thought to create a card with my favourite saying from IndigoBlu.

For my background I used the Grand Tour III Red Rubber Stamp - I heat embossed the compass using white embossing powder and my favourite quote with gold embossing powder. Then I coloured the panel using Luscious Pigment Powder - Blue mixed with Slap It On - Super Thick. As a final touch I added Unicorn Sparkles - Magical glitter.

Then I stamped Industrial Lamps Large Red Rubber Stamp using FlitterGlu and Megaflake Manchester Tart. I coloured the image using Scattered Straw and Squeezed Lemonade distress ink pads. 

I hope you enjoyed today's post!

Have a wonderful creative weekend!

Emmy

Dreams Come True

Good morning it's Elizabeth here today and I have a little story to share with you. So are you sitting comfortably, then we will begin............

Many years ago there was a little girl who would spend hours with a small box of watercolours and a book of images. She would take her time colouring in the pictures, blending the paints to create Rainbows of colour. One day afternoon she lay in the grass painting in her beloved book, at 4pm her Nana called her in for tea. They ate Cheshire Cheese and sliced apples, along with home made scones, it was a delicious meal. The child then headed off to the garden, but alas the rain had started and her beloved book was soaked through. The tears streamed down her face as she headed indoors. "Don't worry" said her Nana, "we will place the book on the kitchen table and it will dry overnight"

The little girl had such awful dreams that night about her precious book. But when she awoke the next morning, waiting on the kitchen table was the book.  The colours had run and blended together when the rain had hit them, making them look like the most beautiful rainbow she had ever seen........

And I've loved water colouring ever since....................

Working on a page from my Junk and Disorderly Journal, I stamped out the half doily from the Floral Fantasy Stamp Set using Teal Blue Stazon ink to create the top of my Dreamcatcher.

The Feather Stencil is perfect for the feathers of a Dreamcatcher.

I mixed a selection of Luscious Powders into some of the Super Thick Slap It On to create my own bespoke shade of Embossing Paste. I stencilled the feathers underneath the doily, and also added some texture to the page using one of the new Dinkie Stencils. That's also a great way of using up any left over paste on your craft mat.

Next I diluted some of the beautiful Green Luscious, and roughly painted all over the page, and give it a gentle spritz of water to make the pigment flow, for a watercolour effect.

After the green had dried I then went back over the top adding in some of the stunning blue powder, allowing drips to run down the page, and pools to form at the bottom corner. The sheen from the mica is just beautiful.

No watery rainbow would be complete without a little pink shining through. So that's what I added, dilute with a brush and also by adding a few splatters. I left the page to dry naturally, as I wanted the full shine from the mica powders, heat setting burns off some of the beautiful sheen.

One of the newest stamp sets at IndigoBlu is this Dreams Come True set, so new it's not on the website just yet.........I chose one of the fabulous sentiments, and added it using Black Versafine ink directly to the page.

To finish off and bring the colours together, I added a few black splatters using diluted Black GeeSsoGood and of course, sequins............for a little extra sparkle!

Have a great day, and I will see you soon.
Elizabeth x

Different

Hello Jannet here today, I hope everyone is having lots of fun with their Indigoblu goodies. Are you going to Ally Pally on 8th & 9th April it should be a wonderful crafty day out!

Whenever I am creating a little crafty project, I can't seem to help making up a story to go with it! So I am delighted that this month we have been asked to create a story!

Different

There once was a lovely young lady, who was a little different from all of the other girls her age.She was kind and thoughtful, but she just didn't seem to fit in.

One sunny spring afternoon she was sitting alone in the forest, trying very hard not to weep. When suddenly.... she heard a twinkling sound. She looked up, but at first she couldn't see anything making the magical sound. Then she turned her head a little to the right, and smiling over at her was the most beautiful Unicorn! She rubbed her eyes in disbelief, but he really was real !

"Hello" he said in a friendly Unicorn sort of a way. "Could you please help me " asked the Unicorn "I think I am lost, and I can't see any other Unicorns around."I am feeling a bit scared a.n.d...well lonely"

"Where do you want to go ?" asked the young lady smiling.

"I'm not sure" replied the Unicorn "Somewhere I won't feel different I just want to fit in, and be loved" replied the Unicorn.

The young lady wheeled over to the Unicorn and reached up and wrapped her arms around him.She held him as tightly as she could and the Unicorn sighed a deep and happy sigh.

"You can come home with me"she whispered, "I will love you forever, and look after you."

"And I you." replied the Unicorn.

If you ever see a trail of sparkles anywhere you can be sure the young lady and her Unicorn were there!

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I started creating my picture by stamping Caitlin onto some watercolour paper, and then stamping her again on some masking paper.I cut her out of the masking paper and placed her over the top of her corresponding image on the watercolour paper.

Next I stamped Jewel the lovely Unicorn over the top of Caitlin, after removing the mask he appears as if he is behind her.

I painted in some cloudy skies and spring grass. I added some colour to Jewel with watercolours, and of course I added the all important Unicorn Sparkles to his mane!

To create the tree branches I used some fine texture paste, and when dry I painted over them.You can also mix acrylic paint into your texture paste before applying. The branches needed some spring blossom, so I painted a piece of card with iced gem paint and a random sprinkling of Raspberry Luscious.

Which created many differing shades of shimmering pink.

I die cut lots of little flowers from the card. To add some shape to each flower I placed it over the top of my paint brush and cupped it around it.

Some flowers needed a little more colour, and I added a dot to the centre.I adhered each flower onto the branches.

Wishing you many happy magical days.

Lovely Products used

VideoTutorial: Spring in a tin

Hello , Giovanna here with my first video tutorial on the IndigoBlu Youtube channel. I hope you enjoy it!
Upcycling is definitely my cup of tea, and it has been a long time since I altered a fish tin. Now is a tiny house for a couple of sparrows to celebrate this incoming Spring.

Some details:

I hope you have a chance to upcycle a tin with the marvellous IB stamps, it is super easy!

Materials I used:

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!

Breathe! It's Spring!

Hello Everyone and Welcome!

Today Ksenija is here, and I am happy to share with you a new project as a part of March inspiration from International DT.

I am featuring Live Laugh Love stamp set in combination with other IndigoBlu stamps and products.

I started with stamping this gorgeous flower from Live Laugh Love set in scarlet dye ink and repeatedly in embossing ink. To make dye ink watercolour resistant I covered the image with fine clear embossing powder and heat set it.

I added light colouring to the flower with watercolour markers. To create a soft shading around the image I masked off the flower with masking paper and blended in Distress ink in Salty Ocean. Then I stamped a dotted splatter image from Butterfly Collector set using FlitterGlu and covered the impression with one of my favourite Megaflakes - Chariot of Fire. 
At the end I stamped down Breathe from Plume set in black ink and mounted the panel to scarlet card base.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope, you enjoy this card and you will play with IndigoBlu flower sets during this weekend.

IndigoBlu Supplies Used:
Live Laugh Love Stamp Set
Butterfly Collector Stamp Set
Plume Stamp Set
FlitterGlu
Chariot of Fire Megaflakes

Spring Mixed Media layout

Hello everyone!! It's Solange Marques here again!
Today I'll share with you a new project using the wonderful IndigoBlu products!
The month theme is Spring, then I prepared a Spring layout with a lot of flowers and butterflies!

I used the collections: Floral Fantasy and Damage Damask Mixed Media Paper pads12x12.
I've stamped some daisies using Blooming Great  A5 stamp, and I've used IndigoBlu English Cottage Artist's Acrylic paints : Banana Custard, Lemon Meringue, Frosty Sky and Hot Cocoa.

On the background I've used Honeycomb Background A6 stamp :

I've applied Lancashire Rose MegaFlakes on the chipboard using Flitterglu:

I hope you enjoy it!