Multimedia Picture- I was sure you could not be so Beautiful.

Good Morning all, beautiful day here in Gloucestershire!

My youngest daughter is off enjoying her 21st Birthday surprise weekend away and as the IndigoBlu Stamp Dianne reminds me so much of her I thought I would show you a Multimedia piece I have been working on!

I had an idea in mind as to what I was going to do around the stamped image of 'Dianne' and the more I progressed, I added a few more techniques. Let me show you what I did!

To start off with, I choose a 12"x12" Paper from one of the New Mixed Media Papers Vintage from IndigoBlu and the Rugged Edge stamp set. This set has 4 stamps and I used long 'splat' stamp with white embossing powders to create a little texture along the sides of the paper then used the 'stitches' stamp with pumice stone distress ink to add a little more depth to the paper! (you may have noticed I don't have a long enough stamping block for this set, but my Sizzix cutting plate worked wonderfully well)!

                                 

The next step was to use more texture on the paper so I brought in some texture paste and a Flourishes Stencil which I added to 2 of the corners along with a dots stencils randomly added across the page! Once the paste was dry I then added some paint drips watering down some of the Goldfinger and Aladdin metallic paints. I then went in with a couple more paints and the honeycomb stamp from the rugged stamp to add a bit more detail!

         

I stamped the 'Dianne' image onto white card with StaZon ink then painted the hair with Goldfinger paint and added brown highlights with a brown marker! Before sticking the image down I added a doily and strips of  thin jute ribbon underneath the image. The doily was a bit too white so I rubbed a little Aladdin paint over it!

I had some plain white, petals in my stash in a couple of different sizes so out came the paints to bring them to life! Some homemade embellishments were made using SU simply pressed clay then added to the center of the petals. Peppermint Tea, and Goldfinger paint were used to colour them! (using the clay I also made a couple of flourishes, a bow and a small boarder for and painted them once dry with Aladdin paint and used the Goldfinger paint to highlight them). 

                                    

I went on to add a few more paint splashes, Bakers Twine and flat backed pearls.  

To finish off this piece off  I stamped out a sentiment from 'Mr Darcy' several times and punched out each line and added the punched pieces to the picture.

This was lots of fun to make and I learnt quite a few things along the way!

Thanks for stopping by today. See you again soon. Sue xx

                                 

                                 

IndigoBlu Stamp, 'Blue's Look Out' - Creating a Shadow Box

Good Afternoon Everyone,
I hope you have enjoyed the Bank Holiday here in the UK, and the weather has been pretty good as well hasn't it!

Well I was lucky enough to go and Visit IndigoBlu's HQ and shop earlier this week in Retford after we dropped our youngest off at Uni.
So of course I had to make the visit worth it  didn't I, so purchased a lovely bag of goodies!
You can also find the shop and HQ  at Unit 3 Ebor Court, Trinity Park, Randall Park Way, Retford, Notts, DN22 7WF. ( Two units opposite each other)!

I spoke to Becky in the shop and after I finished shopping she offered to take me over to the HQ side so I could take a look at the samples on show over there!

Such a lot to look at and so may ideas and inspiration. I then also got the opportunity to chat to Alfie Halliwell-Sutton for a short while!

The IndigoBlu Shop

IndigoBlu HQ samples on show

               

Alfie & Becky

New stamp sets- 'Plume' & 'Blue's Look Out' are a couple of the stamps I used for this project!

So I started off  by taking the glass out of the shadow box and painting the frames and inset with Gee-Soo Good. 
Once dry, I used the FlitterGlu and Gin & Tonic Mega Flakes with the Honeycomb stamp to decorate the frame along with the Anemone Corner and Dinky Anemone stamps.
Then using 'Blues Look Out' & Blazing Poppies stamps on heavy white card I used some of the English Cottage Artist Acrylic Paints to colour in the images and did some fussy cutting. I then covered the back of the frame with white card, used Pan Pastels for a sky and grass background, stamped the birds from Blues Look Out and then stamped the background twice with Summer Lovin stamp!
The 'Freedom' sentiment came from the stamp set 'Plume'.

The Cat and Poppies were glued in place just inside the frame, then the insert went back in then the back piece of the frame. I did it that way to give the piece a more layered 3D look! To finish everything off, I added a few butterflies and a little bling!

Thanks for stopping by today, hope to see you again soon.

Happy Crafting, Sue xx

I'm Back!

Good Evening Everyone, 

I would like to apologies for my lack of posts but I have been having technical issues with a broken link?

So for someone like me who doesn't really understand all of the computer jargon it has taken me a little time to sort this out! So I am back, but using a slightly different domain name.

http://birdcagecraftstudio.blogspot.co.uk

Now to catch up some overdue blog posts!

See you soon,

Happy Crafting,

Sue xx

My New IndigoBlu Stamps & Giveaway Update!

Hello Everyone,
Hope you are all doing well and enjoying the sunshine once again!

Christine contacted me to let me know her Giveaway parcel arrive today! This is what she wrote!

Hi Sue, 
>> Parcel arrived this morning, what a lovely selection of goodies ! My friend has just had a baby girl so the embellishments will be just perfect, thanks. Specially pleased with the Tonic scissors, will keep them just for cutting ribbon. 
>> Thanks once again, I'm a 'happy bunny' 😀
>> Christine x

I'm so pleased she has something in mind for these items! Happy Crafting Christine xx

So on Monday I went into Gloucester to pick up some New IndigoBlu stamps from MJ Crafts. If you are around this area, pop in and say 'Hello' to Mel. (Support your local Craft Shop' I say!
MJ Crafts - 15 Saint Aldate Street, Gloucester GL1 1RP  Tel:01452 415440. ). Lots of goodies on offer and Mel is only to happy to help with any query you may have!

Time for me to get creating!
See you soon,
Sue xx

Card Swap Challenge - This months Challenge

Good Morning all, looks like the good weather is back on its way which im so pleased about! The last few days have been a bit dull and damp and im so ready for some sunshine!

The challenge for the month was to make a Book Mark Card using some of those Free Paint Chips you can get from DIY stores to make embellishments and to use tone on tone stamping on the card stock then to make a detachable bookmark with a white stamped front!
This was the card I came up with! Thank you for stopping by today! See you again soon xx

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Just for Fun, My Slideshow- Create a Home Deco Piece from Start to Finish using IndigoBlu Products!

ANOTHER GIVEAWAY- NOW CLOSED

NOW CLOSED -Hello there,
To celebrate the Birth of the Baby Princess I have a GIVEAWAY for you!
All you have to do is leave me a comment. 
It can be about the New Royal Baby or one of the other posts you have read on my Blog! 
I will put all comments and names in the draw and pick out a Winner on Monday 4th May 2015! (so don't forget to leave your name)!
Good Luck

I also have more freebies on my Facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Birdcage-Craft-Studio-by-Sue-Ralph/508067685909077

Giveaway Goodies
Forever Friend Celebration Digital Designer
Tonic Scissors
Stampin Up Stamp Set and VersaFine Mini Black  Ink Pad, Mini Doilies,

Plus an assortment of Baby Girl Embellishments.

Welcome to the New Princess

Congratulations to William and Kate on the birth of their Baby daughter this morning!
Welcome to this Big Beautiful World.............................................?
So what do you think she will be named? Possibly have her Grandmothers (Diana) name in there somewhere?

I sat down to make a Baby Boys card this morning, its for my niece so I can't show you yet, but here is a Baby Girls card in honor of our new Princess!

I had planned to do a giveaway on my Facebook page today as I have nearly reached 400 likes before I heard the news of the Royal Baby, so now to celebrate the New Princess I will also give a few things away on here as well!
Please leave me a comment below and I will choose a couple of people to send some goodies out to on Tuesday, Thanks for stopping  by!

Just one Layer

Hello there,
This week I decided to enter the IndigoBlu Challenge, creating something with 'Just One Layer' so I decided to do something other than a card and this is what I came up with!
If you would like to join the fun, check out IndigoBlu for yourself at http://indigoblublogchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

I had managed to get hold of a couple of wooden disks when I went to a scrape-store some time ago which were crying out to have something done to them, so thought I would use one to make a Home Deco Plaque!

The wood was a bit rough to stamp directly onto even-though I painted it with gesso, so I decided to stamp onto thin card first. 

First of all I stamped a Daisy flower (from a free IndigoBlu set) onto the card, masked it off then stamped over the flower with the Flutterby Dinkie, using different coloured inks. Once this was done I masked off the Butterflies and used Pan Pastels in Blue & Green make up the background colour!  

The next stage was to build up the design so I left the masks on and stamped with the Blazing Poppies using black Versafine ink to pick up all those lovely details.                                                                   

The next step was to mask off the poppy heads so that I could use the Ickle Poppy stamp and I also added a sentiment from the Hocus Pocus set!

I took all, but the butterfly masks off and used the Honeycomb Background stamp and FlitterGlu to add some Gin and Tonic MegaFlakes.
 

Next step was to add colour all these lovely images so I used the English Cottage Paints, watered down as they keep their intense colours! I just love these paints!! I think I may have used all the colours Lol.

I went around the Butterflies with a brown and black pen to add a bit of shadow and depth

Cookie deciding to get in on the Photo Shoot!Thank you for stopping by. Let me know what you think.Happy Crafting and Bank Holiday Weekend xx