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

Venturing into the relm of Memory Jars

Hello to you,

Today I would like to share with you an idea I have had for a memory Jar. I had read about these a few years ago but never did anything about them until I saw a post on Facebook over Christmas and thought this time I would make my own. Now most people who put these jars together start putting in there memories from the 1st January them open them up on New Years Eve and look back at what they had achieved over the year.

Well I didn't start my jar at the right time for this idea so I thought I would do my own thing and collect together certain things to put into the jar that meant a lot to me in 2016 and would continue into the end of this year 2017 or until I can't fit anything else into the jar.

For me, 2016 was a pretty good year. I went traveling, was invited onto several of the IndigoBlu Design Teams and my children have all done really well, in their careers and personal lives.

The highlight was I went traveling with my husband around New Zealand for six weeks and my Jar depicts this in quite a few ways. I wanted to visit Hobbiton (where Lord of the Rings was partly filmed), hence the doorway on the Jar, also I wanted to show the Fern leaf as its something I have always loved the look of especially the new shoots unfurling, but also as a NZ Government vote was being taken on a possible change of their flag to show the Silver Fern. ( The vote was taken and the Flag remained the same)!

I think its now time to get on and show you some photos of the jar. It started its life off as a mason jar which I first of all painted with white Gee-Soo-Good to form a good base to paint onto.

For this project I used the IndigoBlu Diamond resin with moulds as I found that the resin after a day of setting is still slightly flexible and be molded around  a curved surface. (Make sure you use a really good strong bonding glue to attach your piece to the glass otherwise it will straighten out. I used E6000).

Once all the pieces were glued in place I gave everything another coat of white Gee-Soo-Good then a coat of Aladdin Metallic Paint.

Once the paint was dry I then started adding colours to all the different molded parts using Paints and Luscious Powders

For the door I mixed up a thick paint using the Gold Luscious Powders

The details on the door were picked out using paints and Luscious Powders and I added small polystyrene balls to ground to look like s stone path. I also added a few words to the jar using the Believe stencil and embossing paste. Once these were dry I painted them in Aladdin Paint then once dry highlighted them in white and rubbed some silver and gold Luscious powders over the top.

The inside of the Jar was given a paint treatment, this time using Black Gee-Soo-Good and Raven Metallic Paint.

The top of the jar is decorated with a round Resin Frame and in the middle I placed a Resin Gem all painted with Luscious Powders. 

I added a couple of small embellishments to finish off the jar. I decided to add a pen to the jar so there was always one to hand. I took the pen apart and added a piece of paper I painted with Luscious colours to match the jar.
The first three tags I am going to add to the jar are photos taken on our trip to NZ.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my latest creation, I now have a different idea for one for my daughter who loves to travel. Once I have finished it I will share the idea with you.
So thats all from me today. If you continue scrolling down, there are a few detailed photos of my jar.
Thanks for looking, take care and Happy Crafting xx

Don't forget to check out IndigoBlu's online Shop 

Glisten & Sparkle above and below the sea!

Hello Everyone, i'm back today with a inspiration piece for the IndigoBlu Blog Challenge called Glisten & Sparkle.

My first inspiration piece was a Christmas Card and i'm guessing that's what most people would think of doing so near to Christmas, but this time round I wanted to do something different.

Martin and I went traveling around New Zealand at the beginning of the year and one of the things I remember most was the times we spent by the sea and lakes and the way the sun shone on the water making it look as if there were diamonds floating on top and the way the sun shone through the water into the sea so I thought I would try and show this in my inspiration piece for Glisten and Sparkle. 

As my idea was set around water I pulled out the IndigoBlu stamp set 'Under the Sea', and stamped the images onto Acetate with Black Stazon and painted them with most colours of my Luscious powders mixed with some slap it on. (This helps the colour adhere to a slick surface such as acetate).

With the frame im using I gave it a coat of Gee-Soo Good in white then when it was dry I painted the frame with Blue Luscious Powder and added Sheffield Steel Mega Flake in patches. 

I used a sea-life mould with paper clay to make some embellishments to give the picture a more 3D feel.

Stamped images and die cuts were added to the background piece of card coloured with inks then that was overlaid with stamped and coloured images on acetate.

The acetate waves were highlighted with the SS Mega Flakes in three layers then small diamond gems were added.

The acetate layers were wrapped around the base card in a slight dome. Once all were attached I put this into the frame then added a sentiment at the top of the frame and added a little bottle with a message to the bottom of the frame along with more acetate images.

Many thanks for taking a look. 

Sue xx

Don't forget if you long on to the IndigoBlu blog page not only will you find all the information for the current and past challenges but there is also an online shop.

       Gee-Soo Good (White)                 Under The Sea

Luscious Powders

Luscious Pigment Powders By IndigoBlu

Hello all,

Today I would like to introduce ways to use "Luscious" powders by IndigoBlu and if you haven't heard of them yet I urge you to watch my video as they have so many possibilities.

They are filled with rich pigments and mica which makes them so special. They also have an inbuilt binder which is activated when water is added to them or when you use them with slap-it-on, embossing paste, inks. 
TIP: The one thing I have found is that if you "Dust" the powders over your project you will need to activate the binder by spraying it lightly with water.

You could also try spraying your card first with water, sprinkle Luscious Powders over and watch the colours spread out.

I was sent six pots of this magic powder to "play" with and they are so much fun with so many uses. 
You can do so many crafty things with them and so far I have only just scratched the surface. 
The shimmer you get from these powders really make anything you make with them pop and shine.
The powders can also be added to the English Cottage Paints & Gee-Soo-Good. You won't get the shine come through but you can make some different lush colours.

I felt it was easier to make a video to show you some of the different techniques I have used so far with the Luscious powders.

Here are some examples of how I used them on different projects that I made for Kay Halliwell-Sutton's Hochanda show when the Luscious Powders were introduces a few weeks ago.

 Luscious Powders use to bring colour to this re-cycled jar. I also used the powders to paint the shrink charms I made.

 Several techniques used on this canvas. Background was stamped with VersaMark then Luscious powders dusted over the top. Luscious added to Super Thick slap it on and put through a stencil. The New "Owl always love you" stamp image was water-colored with the powders.

The "Owl" was stamped out and embossed then painted with the Luscious powders.

This tag card has been embossed with paste. Different colour powders were added before the paste was used with a stencil. More painting on the Poppy Heart.

This piece was first started by the Luscious powder being mixed with Kroma Crackle and spread around the outside of the canvas. Colours were added to ST slap-it-on and spread through a stencil. The Poppy Heart was stamped several times onto Modeling Film, painted, then the film was softened by a heat gun so that I could mold them into a flower for the center of the canvas.

Several techniques were again used on this card, can you see which ones?
Just look at the luster coming from the colours!
Come back soon, until then,
Happy Crafting xx