IndigoBlu Blog Challenge, "Love is all you need"!

Hello there,

As you may have seen, the IndigoBlu Blog Challenge has changed its starting date and will now be on the 1st of each month. The Design Team will still be posting their inspirational blog posts and the International Design Team will also be joining in.

The New Challenge is called "Love is all you need", just like the song! Have you got that tune in your head as well now?

This is my inspirational piece for the challenge and I have called it "Love Birds" Guessing you can see why!

Now when I started this piece I had a slightly different idea for the frame, I didn't like it so started over and painted it again so apologies for the first couple of photos as I thought I would still show you as a possible idea for a rust effect frame.

  
(For the rust effect on the frame I gave it a coat of black Gee-So-Good to prime the wood then mixed up some black gesso and Hot Cocco English Cottage Paint and mixed that in with some Coarse Modelling Paste and spread this on the frame. Once dry I then brushed on some dry Luscious Powders (Teal & Orange) and sprayed the frame with water working in the Luscious Powders. Once that was dry I added a little more powder and a touch of Burning Bonfire paint. But as I said it didn't really go with the rest of my project, it was too dark, so I started over and painted the frame in white Gee-Soo-Good, so you see, there is always a way to change something you are not happy with)!

 I love the texture the Modelling Paste gives to the frame

Once the frame was dry I then dusted over it with the Luscious New colour "Poseidon Blue" and some Teal. Once done I sprayed it all over with water to set the binder thats in the Luscious Powders.

 I wanted to create a reverse image as well from the bird from the "Take Flight" so I stamped the image first on one side of the glass in black Stazon Ink, then flipped the glass over and stamped another image. 
(When painting on glass make sure its really clean before you start and watch out for finger prints. Really important, remember to carefully clean again before putting the glass back in the frame)!

I then painted both birds on the same side of the glass. (If you try this you will find that one of the images is slightly harder to paint as you don't have a black line to paint up to. 

Once the images were painted and if you hold the glass up you can see where you have missed parts so the best thing to do is paint on the back of the images. This give a crisper image on the front of the glass.

 I used a couple of the metallic paints on the birds and its a shame I don't have a better photo to share with you but the natural hasn't been very good and electric light bounces off the glass. 

 

For the backing of the frame I covered the base with a piece of Teal coloured card stock from the set Damaged Damask, gave it a thin coat of white Gee-Soo-Good and Townhouse Teal paint. Once the paint was dry I used the Damaged Damask Stencil with Super Thick Slap it on mixed with a little Kingfisher Blue paint.

I took another piece of the card stock and stamped it with the Script Background Stamp, tore around the edges and highlighted them with Blue Luscious Powder I mixed with water.
I found some small wooded hearts in my stash, gave them some paint treatment and used them between the base of the frame and the glass.

The added embellishments were a small glass heart I had coloured with Luscious Paint and Mega Flake, Bakers Thread, small crystal clusters and a sentiment from the stamp set "Live, Laugh, Love" I had cut up.
I wanted the birds to look as if they were carrying the heart so used bakers twin as it was finer than the ribbons I had.

I hope I have inspired you to join in and have a go at this months challenge yourself. 
Have fun and Happy Stamping xx