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Wednesday 18 March 2015

IndigoBlu Challenge - Spring Greens

The current challenge at IndigoBlu is Spring Greens - not my go to colour but as it is a friends birthday shortly decided to challenge myself (no pun intended!) on her card.

Here is my entry for the challenge:


The backing card was created by painting it with Peppermint Tea,  stamping with stamps from Loud Music and Notes in  Emerald Green then stencilled using IB's Musical notes  with Snow White which gave a lovely sheen. To contrast I used another stamp from Loud Music and stamped with Olive Green StazOn.

One of my favourite techniques is to distress the edges with a craft knife as I think it gives the card some dimension. The problem with posting cards these days is they have to be fairly flat otherwise the cost of postage increases. By using layers of ink and paint and tearing can at least give the impression of dimension.

A piece of card painted with a mix of Emerald Green and Peppermint Tea was stamped with Snow White using one of the splat stamps from the new Ink Splats set. I made a few splats using very watery Snow White then stamped on the Splattered Guitar from Loud Music with StazOn.

This was torn and the edges dabbed with Peppermint Tea and mounted on a piece of a torn music sheet also dabbed with the same paint  around the edges.

The ribbons were originally white but IB's paints are also fabric paints making it easy to change the colour to match the project. A Musical note from IB's Altered Ego Music sheet painted with Emerald was added to finish off.

I am sure my friend will like it as she does have 'a little bit of the Irish in her'!

Bye for now! Take care!





Tuesday 10 March 2015

IndigoBlu Secret Retreat

Last weekend was spent down at IndigoBlu HQ at their biannual secret retreat, three days of pure crafting, no housework just inks, paints, papers and great company. Bliss!!

Here are my projects



Friday was our first day and this was spent playing with clay, not something I have done a lot with but good fun none the less.


Blue is always my go to colour and I chose blue. teal and white clay to work with. We cut various shapes and stamped into the clay, made clay embellishments and added some metal pieces before baking them. I dusted all my tiles with mica powders which gave the tiles a lovely iridescent look. The frame was a deep box and the starkness of the white frame seemed to highlight the colours of the clay.


Saturday was spent creating the large canvas, these are new in and they come with their own frame which when painted sets off the canvas beautifully don't you think?


We used lots of stencils through which we applied different mediums - molding paste, granular and bead gels to create lots of texture. I decided to go way out of my comfort zone with Country Cottage paints, Hot Cocoa, Burning Bonfire and Banana Custard!

I firstly applied the Banana Custard, then the Burning Bonfire and lastly the Hot Cocoa, that's when you really see all the texture. One of IB's new stamps is Caitlin and this was stamped and embossed onto one of the new mixed media  papers from the Belle Epoche range. I decided against colouring her as I rather liked the effect of leaving her au natural. Then the best bit for me is embellishing - I always like to take a few bits and pieces with me to workshops even though there are always some provided - I just like to have options I guess.

Sunday was a bit of a techniques day but we still made a project using the new framed canvas I guess what you would call a DL size.


We created texture using shredded newspaper and painted over this. Again I went with a colour I don't go for a lot but, as I had decided to use the stamp  from the Sewing Mends set, pink seemed to fit the bill being a 'feminine' colour. I used the metal cottage garden Cinderella paint and as a contrast I mixed this with Snow White to give me a lighter pink

 I had taken a few bits and pieces with me and these included some TH Sewing Room alterations mount board cut outs which were painted in the two shades of pink. I stamped the mannequin with IBs Sewing Pattern stamp, the cotton spool and button stamps from IB's In stitches set fit beautifully on the die cuts! A few bits of lace, cotton thread around the spools, some silver gilding flakes, frame painted and gilded to match and job done!

On one of the 6x6 Belle Epoche papers we did some 'drippy drippy' as my friend Barbara kept  calling it - so much so that it is officially the new name for the technique lol! 


As we were only playing this was not a finished project although I had stamped some flourishes and a Limor Industrial lamp and put on the embellishment. Baby Aloysius was painted with a watered down hot cocoa and his crown with metallic gold, cut him out and mounted him and added a couple of gems to the crown.

Last night at home I decided to mount it on and 8 x 8 canvas. I covered the canvas with some calico,  a piece of frayed hessian and a square of dark brown card which I distressed then glued on the Aloysius card. Really pleased with the overall effect.

So much fun and looking forward to the next one. Kay has invited Finnabair over next month for 3 days of workshops yay!! Can't wait.

Bye for now, take care


Monday 2 March 2015

PaperArtsy Challenge - Miniature Art

Quite some time ago I started a project using one of the wooden house frames - if I remember rightly I actually bought it at one of the Artsycraft retreats in Warrington! It was one of those UFOs put away in the cupboard and forgotten about!

The latest PaperArtsy challenge reminded me about it and gave me the impetus to finally finish it and it now resides in my sewing room!


I painted the house with Fresco Rose and dry brushed with Very Berry and Snowflake, papered the walls with some scraps from my stash and then set about filling each of the 'rooms'.







 I found this vintage miniature sewing machine on ebay, The fabric bolts were made from cardboard and wrapped in scraps of fabric from my sewing room





How cute is this mini hat stand I bought on ebay? The hat was from my stash

I made the hat boxes from a template I downloaded from here.



I made a hanging rail from a wooden skewer. The dress form was a buy on ebay and the scissors châtelaine was a free gift from a cross stitching magazine may moons ago.


                                                    
This fab little pincushion was made using a bottle top! Here is the link for the instructions


The antique button cards were downloaded but unfortunately I can't remember where. The white flat backed cotton reel at the back is a plaster cast I bought from Leandra at one of the Artsycraft weekends.

Tiny spools and wooden basque
Mini basket filled with lace
Lace & velvet ric rac, a couple of TH mannequin die cuts on the sides finished off the project.

Thanks for the challenge Leandra - this might still be sitting in the cupboard, forgotten and unfinished!!

Take care  x