Halloween Launch

Good Morning,

Carolyn here with you today and I'm sharing something new that will be launching later this month. Be sure to join Kay on Friday 21st September at 4pm on Hochanda to see these fabulous new designs. The DT are thoroughly enjoying making their spooky samples for the show. Thanks to Sue for the image below.

My idea was to use all the stamps and create a simple one layer card so I'll take you through a step by step of how I made this.

The first step was to decide how much of the card to mask. I used the 'Rule of Thirds' to help me position my stamped images. If you've not heard of this before it has been used by artists and photographers for centuries.It is considered a basic yet essential guideline to help compose an image and decide where to place the subject to create a well balanced image. The basic principle is to divide the card into 9 sections, 3 across and 3 down and where these intersect would be the strongest focal points

As I only wanted to divide my card vertically I masked my card on the dotted lines and I would stamp my images between these masked areas. I chose to stamp Batty first in the bottom left corner using my stamp platform.

Next I stamped Clarice the Giant Moth using Black Versafine in the top right corner. Both these were also stamped onto Post It Notes and cut out to create masks.

I then wanted the Skull to appear in the background so the masks were placed over Clarice and Batty before stamping the Skull.

The final stamp I used was the 'Cracked Glass' which also looks a little similar to a spiders web. So after creating a mask for the skull I free stamped the Cracked Glass in the blank areas.

The image below shows the stamped images after all the masks have been removed.

I had planned to leave it black and white but decided to give it a little colour. As it is for Halloween I decided to use Leather Corset and Burning Bonfire. These were watered down to give a muted effect plus I didn't want to lose the effect of the stamped images. I also drew a line either side of the images to define the edge and added a few zig-zags to break it up.

The final piece was matt and layered onto brown card an then onto an orange card blank.

I do hope you found this step by step useful and be sure to join Kay on the 21st to see what the rest of the DT have produced with these fantastic designs.

Have a wonderful day

Happy Crafting

Carolyn
x

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

Twinchie Canvas

It is Cec here and I have some autumn inspiration for you.

I thought this time I would make a canvas in fall colours to share with you.

I started with a 6" square canvas and gave it a coat of white Gesso.  Then I added some texture through the IndigoBlu Mixed Media Stencil.

Once it was dry I covered it with Lemon Meringue Matte paint and then added Burning Bonfire and Postbox Red that were thinned with water, wiping each layer back with a baby wipe in random areas.  After I took this photo I decided to knock back the colour a bit by dry brushing another light coat of Gesso on the canvas.

I cut eight 2" x 2" pieces of chipboard and glued them in pairs with Super Thick Slap it On to make four twinchies.  I used double sided tape to cover them with old book paper.

The twinchies were coated with white Gesso, painted with Lemon Meringue Matte paint and then dry brushed with a little more Gesso.  Take note of the text because it is soon going to disappear.

Next I used a variety of Distress Spray Stains, some Miss Moneypenny Metallic paint and some Gold Luscious to add some interest to the canvas and the twinchies.  I sprayed, splattered and dropped blobs of colour on.  I find it fascinating how differently the substrates react to exactly the same additions.

I used Jet Black Archival Ink to stamp the butterflies and small flowers from the IndigoBlu Live, Laugh, Love stamp set.  In the end I stamped 4 of each and then fussy cut them.

I painted both sides of the butterflies with Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink and the flowers with Candied Apple Distress Ink.   Next I painted the front of two butterflies with Miss Moneypenny Metallic paint and the front of two flowers with Ruby Slippers Metallic paint.  I cut between sections of the flowers and shaped them a bit before I layered them in pairs with the painted flowers on top and added some black pearls for centres.  I layered the butterflies in the same manner and added pearls to their bodies.

The twinchies were adhered to the canvas using Super Thick Slap it On and the embellishments added to the twinchies.

I hope you are inspired to play with twinchies.  I am now on a mission to try something with inchies.

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