Pour your Art out with Kay Halliwell-sutton and the BluBirds

Hello to you on such a wet and windy afternoon. Because its not nice out I decided it was the craft room for me and thought I would do a quick blog post to share with you with lots of photos and a couple of quick tutorials.


As you may have seen a couple of weeks ago, Kay shared with us on Hochanda another way to use the IndigoBlu Acrylic paints for Paint Pouring. If you ordered from her show you might be pleased to have a couple tips to inspire you to open those bottles and have a go! I have to say this is one of my favourite ways of using paint.










Kay has mixed up the paints with the Go-Flow pouring meduim along with a few drops of Cell-U-like and added each colour along with white paint to create a 'Dirty Cup'.




The cup of paint was then poured onto the prepared canvas set inside a foil tray to catch the excess paint from the pour.







With this pour Kay made little circle movements when pouring the paint from the cup, then tipped the canvas backwards and forwards until the paint covered all the canvas.




After a quick blast from the blow torch, more cells came to the surface and any bubbles were popped.




Kay then went on to show us that you can also do Pours over other objects like this bowl using the same method as above.




Below are some Video's I have made to take you through the first steps of Paint Pouring and mixing of the Paints and some easy fun techniques. The 2nd video shows you some different ways to do pours. I hope that they are helpful and you enjoy them.

Fellow Blubird Emma and I have put together a couple of quick tutorials for you to have a go out.

Emma Blake 1.To start with I used tiger Lilly, indigoblu, stroke of midnight and white paint.

2.I mixed up my colours using the 1:2 ratio and added a little water to thin the mixture down, I then added a couple of drops of the cell u like to the tiger Lilly and stroke of midnight.


3. I then poured each colour diagonally across the canvas.


4. Using a credit card I then made a wavy diagonal movement following the lines of paint.







5. I left the paint for a few moments to let the cells develop and went over with a blow torch and watched the rest of the cells pop up.


6. I then left the canvas on a flat surface to dry out. Its very important to make sure you do this.









Sue Ralph Quick Tutorial- Tree Ring Acrylic Pour




1. To do this type of pour, mix up your chosen paint colours (I used Aladdin, Welsh Slate, Olive Waistcoat and Lime Marmalade) and white GeeSoo Good with the Go Flow and a few drops of Cell-U-Like in the coloured paint in single cups then layer up the colours along with white in a separate cup to create a Dirty Pour Cup.


2. I choose to use a round Artboard with a stand for this Pour. I gave the artboard a couple of coats of white GeeSoo one side and when dry I used Masking tape to cover the back and the bottom part where it slots into the base so I could remove the tape and drips once the pour was dry.




3. Lay the artboard, without the stand on a cup in the foil container. Using the Dirty Pour Cup pinch one side of the cup together to create a spout to pour from. Using small circular movements, start pouring the paint into the middle of the board. Keep moving the cup in the same position and hand movement until the cup is empty or the artboard is covered.




4. Use a blow torch at this stage to pop any bubbles and to bring up more cells.


5. If you want to stretch out the rings gently tip the artboard in different directions. Now leave to dry out for a few days.


6. Once dry, take off the masking tape from the back of the artboard and paint that and the stand with white GeeSoo.


7. Leave to dry paint the stand and back of the board with Aladdin Paint. Now slot the two pieces together.


8. Wipe off any residue cell-u-like that has come to the surface of the pour, then Varnish to seal and protect your creation plus it also brightens up the colours again.








And so to finish off this post I would like to share with you some of the wonderful samples my fellow BluBirds created for kays Hochanda show. Absoulty stunning!




Samples by Julie Atkinson



Samples from Carolyn Lakin






Samples from Kay Molyneux









Samples from Emma Blake






And to finish off, a few more of my samples I made for the show.



Thanks for stopping by. I will be back soon with a few more quick tutorials and tips from Lou Withers Mxed Media Material IndigoBlu show . xx

Round up of News from IndigoBlu

Hello to you.

Over the last few months we have had quite a number of exciting things happening at IndigoBlu and I wanted to make sure everyone has had a chance to catch up or at least read about it here.

Kay and Alfie have been out and about with their Dirty Weekend on Tours having lots of Fun and Crafting along the way meeting lots of their lovely customers as well as making new friends. Whilst Kay runs the workshops with help from Lou, Alfie takes care of the Pop Up Craft Shop, which by the way is open to the public as well as to the Workshop folk so if you can't make the whole weekend you can still visit them for a crafty shop.

The Coventry Dirty Weekend is on this Weekend at the Holiday Inn Coventry M6 Jct2 for 2 Fabulous Full Day Mixed Media Workshops led by Kay Halliwell-Sutton. There may still be places if you're interested!

Kay and Alfie are sorting out Venues for next year so if you have ideas of where you would like them to visiot please let them know by leaving your comments on the FB pages or Kays own FB page.

You may also have seen IndigoBlu out and about at the various Craft Shows over the last couple of months. Create it Show, Happy Stampers, and at the Dome in Doncaster where Kay did a live Hochanda show with lots of lovely techniques using the Mega Flakes.

As some of you may already know, Lou Withers has now joined Kay doing some of the IndigoBlu shows on Hochanda.

Lou's first show was to bring us some fabulous New Junk and Disorderly Paint Colours, and beautiful Red Rubber Stamp sets that are IndigoBlu!  (as we all know Lou loves her paints), these were Ugly Duckling, Duck Egg and IndigoBlu and we watched some super demos on how to used these paints for painting, stamping, mixing colours together and of course using them on fabric and Rice Paper.

Lou then went on the do her 2nd show on the 8th June at 12pm & 4pm (which you can still catch on line at Hochanda for another week) with Brand New Luscious Pigment Powders, Dragon's Blood, Mermaid Tresses and Unicorn Dreams and some stunning Stencils. These work beautifully in so many ways. Brush them over images that have been stamped with VersaMark or better still IB Flitter Glu, mix them with a little water and you have a paint, mix up a little on your glass mat or similar and press your stamp into it  then stamped images on your card, Rice paper etc,  mixed them with Fabric Slap-it-on for a Luscious shimmer paint for designs on materials.

The IndigoBlu DT have been showcasing some brilliant projects over the ;last few months from samples for the Hochanda shows to Blog Tutorials and videos. 

Did you see the Blog Hop for Fathers Day? Well if not you can check it out here. Don't forget you can still claim a 20% discount off some of the stamps we used up until Sunday 17th. These stamps can be used all year round for Male themed cards so please don't miss out on this Discount. Shop online here.

We really love to hear back from anyone who loves IndigoBlu as much as we do so Julie Atkinson and I, together with Kay are trying to get the "I Love IndigoBlu" Unofficial Facebook Page going again. Kay has very kindly has offered to sponser Giveaways and Challenges in the hopes this will spark peoples interest again. The First Giveaway we have running is on the FB page, (Kay is giving away 3 of the New Ladies 8" canvas panels plus one she has painted herself) now so if you would like to Enter all we are asking you to do is to join I Love IndigoBlu group, invite a friend and share one of your own IB creations with us. You need to hurry though, it ends this weekend!

Kay and Lou have more Hochanda shows coming up over the next half of the year with lots of Gorgeous, eye popping products and I should know as I have seen and am working on samples as we speak for the shows! I'm just going to leave you now with that little teaser now.

Thanks for stopping by and having a read and

have yourself a great weekend, whatever you may be doing.

Have fun and Happy Crafting.

Sue xx

Dirty Weekend- With IndigoBlu on Tour

Hello there, I thought I would write a post about the IndigoBlu Dirty weekends as I have had a lot of people asking me about them and thought sharing the Information would help those of you who are still deciding.

We have received so much positive feedback from customers about the workshops I have asked two of the ladies to write about their experiences which you can read further down the page.

The dates for the remaining 2 day workshops are:-

Coventry 16th & 17th June 2018 (Holiday Inn Coventry M6 J20)

Edinburgh 14th & 15th July 2018 (Holiday Inn Edinburgh City West)

Maidstone 15th & 16th September 2018 (Holiday Inn Maidstone-Sevenoaks)

Exeter 17th & 18th November 2018 (Jurys Inn Exeter)

The workshops are led by Kay Halliwell-sutton and help from her best friend Lou Withers from 10am-5pm each day with a break at lunchtime (Please provide your own lunches).

All Materials will be supplied within the cost. 

Kay will be showing you how to decorate your very own Canvas with lots of techniques, hints and tips on how to build up the layers of the face and the surrounding images. 

There will be more but I don't want to spoil that surprise!

All you need to bring with you is the following: 

Apron, 1 cm Paint Brush, Blending Tool, Heat tool, Pair of Strong Scissors, Knife, Cutting Mat, Pencil & Ruler.

Alfie will be running the IndigoBlu Shop throughout the day, so you can buy supplies to build up your crafty stash! Who doesn't like to do a bit of crafty shopping!

*Total Cost for the 2 days is £175.00  and when you go to book on the IndigoBlu website it says from £50 which is the deposit amount.

*Each hotel charges different rates for the rooms so when booking please ask to speak to the Events Coordinator as Alfie has negotiated a reduced rate with them.

But don't just take it from me about these workshops being a bit special. Here are the testimonials from a couple of ladies who have attended one of these workshops.

From Wendy Wallace

From initial shock at being presented with a large blank canvas to going home with a finished piece to be proud of, Kay guided us through a range of techniques using the fabulous IndigoBlu products. The pace was geared to ensuring everyone grew in confidence and succeeded, with a mix of group demos and individual support and the techniques taught have been easy to transfer to other projects done at home since. Add to that a great venue, the company of other crafty folk, lots (and I mean lots!) of laughter and the lovely Alfie running the pop up shop with discounts on all our purchases, and you couldn’t want a better crafting weekend. Can’t wait for next year’s dates to be released so I can do it all again!

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From Clare Calver

I first came across Indigoblu when I saw Kay on Hochanda demonstrating the spiffing art journal bundle with 5 steampunk paints. I'd only recently started watching Hochanda and didn't really know what an art journal was, but loved the look of the products and demos and the art being created, so I ordered it. As soon as I got the order I was hooked on the brand because the quality of the products was brilliant.

Since then I've watched many shows, bought many more products and it has become my favourite mixed media brand by a long way as I just love everything they do. When I saw mention of the Dirty Weekend workshops, I instantly wanted to go to one. Modern life is too busy and I rarely get time to enjoy messing craft time in extended periods around everything else, and two whole days sounded amazing! It took me a little while to afford it, but hey, I'd decided it was a treat to myself, and I was going to go. When I mentioned it to my friend (a newbie to indigoblu) she was unsure but decided to come too as a weekend of art and no children/housework/cooking seemed too good to turn down.

When the weekend came, several months later I was so looking forward to the me time. And also a little excited to meet Kay as I was such a fan. We'd also booked a room at the hotel the workshop was being run at, so when we got there the kindly receptionist looked after our bags for us while we went to the function room. When we walked in, I saw a treasure trove of indigoblu products for sale (with a lovely discount) and I saw Kay smiling away chatting and have to confess I felt a little star struck! She was the famous clever lady from telly after all! She welcomed us, introduced us to Alfie (finally, a face to the name) and Lou and we got little name tags personally handmade by Lou. This was a lovely touch. I already felt special.

After everyone arrived we got cracking on our first piece of the weekend, which was taught step by step by Kay herself showing us in stages what to do. It was broken down so well it was impossible for any of us to go wrong, and if we needed any help, Kay and Lou were right there to help. We ended up running slightly over on time but by the end, everyone in the room had created a portrait of a lady with flowing hair. When they were all drying it was amazing to see as they were all so different, but all really lovely. That shows how well everyone was taught. It was so relaxing and enjoyable and I felt I'd really achieved something. In fact I have since framed it and hung it, and that's the only piece to have ever made it to my wall!

At the end of the day, Kay and Lou said that if anyone was staying over at the hotel, they'd put on an extra treat of a little practical demo of other things, so after we'd popped to our room to freshen up, we went to that. It was really good and I picked up lots of tips from it. In fact I cannot stress enough that while Hochanda shows are great, you learn so much more at a workshop. After this, my friend and I went to eat at the hotel restaurant (which was very nice) and had an early night as we were tired and wanted to be nicely refreshed for the next day. Sunday was spent playing with many delicious luscious colours creating a mini journal and some pages. I should also add that there were copious free drinks and biscuits provided throughout the day! When it was time to leave, we helped tidy up a bit as there was a lot to do and I'm sure Kay must have been worn out! As people were leaving I noticed Kay and Lou thanking everyone individually for coming and for their support. What struck me was the absolute sincerity of their thanks, and this is something that means a lot. I can honestly say that while indigoblu is a business, it really isn't about making a whole ton of money. I can see Kay's passion and her desire to make everyone into an artist. To give people the tools, knowledge and confidence to create art that they enjoy. It was that sincerity and absolute gratitude that really stood out, and I love everything about Indigoblu. To sum up, the weekend was fantastic and I cannot wait to go to another!

Places are filling up fast so if you fancy a bit of time for yourself and  learn a few new techniques, plus have a good laugh with like minded crafters this may be, just the weekend get-a-way for you.

Happy Crafting,

Sue xx

Kent Mini workshops........ LAST CALL

Join Kay this weekend at the Maidstone Create It! Event... She is running 2 mini workshops - see below....

Saturday 19th May - 10am-11am You will be painting one of our brand new mini panels. Only £20.00! All materials will be provided. Spaces are limited so BOOK NOW to avoid disappointment!! Sunday 20th May - 10am-11am You will be painting one of our brand new mini panels. Only £20.00 All materials will be provided. Spaces are limited so BOOK NOW to avoid disappointment!!

Fabulous New Stamps Launching.................................

Join Kay on Hochanda as she launches IndigoBlu's brand new stamp designs. The team have had a fabulous time creating some amazing samples for the show, you can see just a few in the collage above.

So tune in at 8am, 11am and 2pm for lots of creative inspiration.

Elizabeth x