Inspiration from Jannet and Emilia

There's the most gorgeous floral inspiration on the blog this morning from Jannet and Emilia. Check out the full tutorials by heading over to their own blogs (via the links below);

Jannet

Emilia

Guest Designer Trish Latimer

Hi there!

Trish Latimer here, very happy and honoured to be sharing a post today on the blog!

For those that don’t know me, I’m a messy painty mixed media artist, into all things colourful and quirky! I also love drawing faces and figures, and I have my own range of WhimsyGirl rubber stamps 

Oh, and I am also Editor of the best mixed media magazine around, Craft Stamper!

In February, I was thrilled to be asked to be a guest demonstrator for IndigoBlu at the UK trade show, Stitches. I had an absolute blast, and loved showing people how I created painty backgrounds for the figures I had made using the stunning face stamps by Kay. The journal pages I created there have since been featured on Hochanda (squeeeee!), with Kay doing an AMAZING job showing how to recreate the look!

I thought I would share a step by step tutorial on how I create figures from the faces, but first, here is the finished piece…

So, how to create the figures? (Please bear in mind that these are ‘quirky’ people, so might not be anatomically to scale)

Firstly, stamp the head, and then sketch in the ‘body’ (or shape of the dress). As a general rule I simply extend the lines from the sides of the neck, flaring out slightly as I go…

Next, extend the lines of the shoulders. For most of my figures, I’m not sketching actual body shapes, these are the clothes shapes, so the shoulders can be exaggerated to form sleeves.

For this dress, I wanted a collar, so this gets sketched in next…

The sleeve shapes can be finalised…

I’m rubbish at drawing hands, so most of my girls either have their hands behind their backs, or I draw an extra ‘something’ that they can be holding without the need to draw an accurate hand! This little lady had her hands behind her back…

Details can now be added, then the sketched lines that you want to keep can be drawn in with a permanent fine liner pen. You may notice that my figure ‘stops’ halfway down! I know the size of the background I’ll be placing her on, so I don’t need to draw in the rest. Of course, lines can be extended down, and legs and feet added if the whole person will be on show.

She can now be coloured! The ‘extra’ bit of stamped neck that was present in the collar was simply gessoed over before colouring.

All kinds of clothes can be drawn for your figure, check out fashion magazines or web sites for inspiration about necklines or dress shapes!

I then created a painty background using IndigoBlu paints, and background stamps collected from lots of different IndigoBlu stamp plates. No space here today to share just how I created the background, but if any of you are curious then I have video tutorials showing the process. The links to these can be found on my blog: http://www.inkpaintbeads.blogspot.co.uk/

The finishing touch was a wonderful phrase from the Mindfulness plate. I hope you like her!

 

Thank you so much for having me!

Trish xxx

http://www.inkpaintbeads.blogspot.co.uk/

www.etsy.com/shop/startrishdesign

www.craftstamper.com

Book of Flowers

Hello, Kay M here today to share my project with this month's theme, Blooming Marvellous. It has been inspired by the lovely Jenny Marples, she kindly gave me a set of Eileen Hull's journal die she had cut for from mount board and a painting technique she demonstrated last year. I've made a Book of Flowers to store my flower seeds both brought in and saved from the garden.

A piece of calico was cut 3cm larger than the made up mount board journal and placed onto a craft mat. Lemon Meringue, Burning Bonfire and MulberryBush paints was painted in horizontal strips onto the calico and then sprized with water to blend, it was then left to dry.

 

Images from Victorian Garden and Nature 1 was then stamped in black Archival ink. The calico was the attached to the journal using Fabric Slap-It-On and eyelets attached when dry.

A sheet of Damaged Dots paper was used to line the inside covers and make pen/pencil and label holders. 

I made one signature, the cover could hold up to three, from kraft card, all the pages were the same with a pocket for a packet of seeds an space for notes. Before making up the signature each page was decorated on both sides, firstly a wash of white Gee-Sso-Good, then random brush strokes of diluted Lemon Meringue, Burning Bonfire and Mulberry Bush paints. When these were dry Giant Poppy and Giant Peony was stamped over with black ink, finally white Gee-Sso-Good was sponged to provide areas to make notes.

The tie closure was coloured with Burning Bonfire and secured with a button and a couple of tassels were attached to finish.

May your summer be full of colourful flowers.

Take care, Kay M

A water-colour card for any occasion

Hello everybody,

Emmy here today with a new creation to share. This month we are focusing on florals at IndigoBlu blog and since IndigoBlu has so many fantastic stamps featuring flowers, it was very difficult to choose one to use.

This card is quick and simple and all you need is white cardstock, a rubber stamp, white embossing powder and distress crayons.

Cut a 21 x 15 cm for the card base and fold it in two. Cut two more panels from the white carstock, slightly smaller than the card base. Colour the edge of one of them using Indigoblu Artist's Acrylic Paint Vodka Martini (Metallic Silver 60ml). Allow it to dry.

Stamp the image from the Indigoblu Summer Lovin Red Rubber Stamp using embossing ink and heat emboss with white embossing powder. Colour the image using Tim Holtz Distress Crayons Set #5, Set #3 and  Set #1.

Once everything has dried add Ranger Stickles Glitter Glue and Self-adhesive Rhinestones.

I hope you enjoyed my post today!

Come back soon for more inspirational floral projects from our design team.

Emmy

Live Creatively

Hello Cheremane here with you today. This month is all about flowers at IndigoBlu.

I've used the stunning Peony Posey stamp along with lots more IndigoBlu goodies.

First I stamped the Peony Posey using Versfine black ink and heat embossed it with Clear Superfine Embossing powder,  I did this twice so I can decoupage parts of the image later. The embossing makes the image easier to colour and also give it some texture.

Using one of the new paint colours Rouge and some phat foam I created a border on some stamping card to create a cordinting mat. Doing this means you always have a piece of matching card for layering.

With a waterbrush and the Rouge paint I coloured area's of the Peony Posey and cut a few elements out from my second image that i'd stamped. I also stamped and heat embossed the sentiment from the gorgeous Mindfullness #1 stamp set. I did some mat and layering and also added some black card to make it pop, before decoupaging the flowers over the top with glue gel.

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

Why not share your IndigoBlu floral creations with us on our Facebook page.

Crafty Hugs

Cheremane x

CAS Distress Stain Ombre Silhouette Card

It's summer time and the livin' is easy!  Autumn with you today to share a simple silhouette card design featuring our lovely new Victorian Garden stamp set.  Here in the US, we've gone wild over Distress Stains, so I created an ombre sunset background with those.  I simply dabbed them onto my craft mat in rows of color then smooshed my watercolor paper into the ink, dabbing any drips.

There are so many color options you could use for this card design, but I chose a sunset palette.  I layered some fabric washi tape at the bottom for a punch.

To get my sentiment just perfect, I first stamped it onto my background panel, then onto the cut circle and matched up the font.  This sentiment is from our new Shine Bright stamp set with the lightbulbs - another must have!

Purchase your Victorian Garden stamp set HERE today!

Always Something New To Discover

There is Always something new to discover in nature, and nature has always been a huge inspiration in my art. During this lovely sunny June we are celebrating flowers, there are so many wonderfully different varieties and colours! I have created a mini book this month using the gorgeous new flowers, butterflies and sentiments from Indigoblu.There are a lot of pictures today!

On the inside cover I made a grass pocket to hold some tags.I die cut the grass and covered it in texture paste and painted it with Olive Waistcoat.

I used Gelatos directly on the stamps as brilliantly demonstrated by Kay on Hochanda.

One day I was throwing away a gift card and holder, and I wondered if I could recycle it.So I gave it a try... I used 2 coats of gesso on the card and then painted it with the divine Stroke of Midnight. Then I wondered if I could heat emboss the plastic card, so I tried it out, and it worked ok!

I am always finding forgotten pressed flowers inside of books. So I added some to this page, along with some buzzy bees and a wonderful quote,

I used texture paste on the background and pressed a few twigs into it, to leave some twiggy impressions. When dry I painted it with Warm Tan. A real leaf was joined by some skeleton leaves and some raffia. Aren't all the new quotes just brilliant!

I used a chipboard butterfly and painted her with Clockwork Heart Luscious. I then heat embossed the bubbles stamp on her wings. She needed a body which I made with paper clay, and then used some black wire for her antenna.She sits happily in a corner pocket.

Another matching pocket on the inside back cover, to hold two tags.The reeds are from the Clumber Park Stamp set, and the deers are from the Winterland Wood Stamp set.

I hope I have inspired you with my posts, may all of your days be sunny and careless xxx
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