Under the Sea

It's time to post a little canvas I started last weekend and completed this morning. This one was inspired by Mike Deakin's YouTube video tutorial for IndigoBlu;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZKvmBtcyrQ

My canvas is 5" by 7"

I used texture paste through my PaperArtsy stencil PS030 by Darcy Wilkinson for the underwater flora. Then painted the canvas with IndigoBlu luscious pigments mixed with water (green, aqua and blue). I bought those a while ago to try so only have three colours but they are perfect for a shimmery underwater background. As advertised, they are packed with pigment so those little pots are going to last a long time.

Stamps used :

IndigoBlu collector's edition 1 bubbles and 12 seahorse.

There are splashes of white gesso on there too.

The pair of seahorses were coloured with a Promarker I found in my stash called starfish, another sea themed word. I cut them out, stuck them on the canvas with cosmic shimmer glue and added some adhesive pearls (Mike's idea in the video, I liked that).

Here's a close up;

I love doing nautical themed crafting so had great fun with this one. I hope you like it.

Blues and Greens Challenge

I had the time and felt like doing a challenge so decided to make an entry for the August Country View Challenge. The theme is Blues and Greens, a great colour combination. I was going to make a tag but changed my mind and made a small canvas. Here it is, photo taken outdoors in the sun so the colours look a little paler than in reality:

For the background I used an old book page and some torn music paper and painted it with Granny Smith and Teresa Green Fresco paints.

I added some circles stamped in chalk paint with a bottle top.

This is watercolour card stock with PaperArtsy infusions : In the Navy and the middle panel was an experiment with a few greens, The Sage, Emerald Isle and Slime I think. I didn't use that one. I die cut some Tim Holtz wildflowers from the larger panel and used the TH butterfly punch.

At this stage I thought the canvas needed a bit of stamping so I added some text with leaf green archival ink and the bubbles in cornflower blue. Sticking to the blues and greens for the stamping I was happy with the background. I added the die cut flowers and butterflies plus a TH quote chip colour tinted with the infusions.

Here is a close up so you can see the book text still shows through the paint although they were opaques, I watered them down a little.

Ingredients used for this canvas:

PaperArtsy Infusions : In the Navy

Ranger Archival ink : Fern Green and Cornflower Blue

Tim Holz Wildflower dies

PaperArtsy Fresco paints : Teresa Green, Granny Smith and Chalk.

Stamps : PaperArtsy Mini MN61 and Indigo Blu Bubbles background.

Tim Holz butterfly punch.

This is my entry for August on the  Country View Crafts' Challenge Blog.

Thank you for visiting today. 

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : E

The letter E for the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary challenge should have been easy as there are so many words to choose from but having too much choice can send you spinning around in circles not knowing what to choose. Anyway, I opted for "Experiment" so I could use my IndigoBlu Weird Science stamps from the chemistry set. I have done a similar project before but this time, I used test tubes.

An experiment : Procedure tried on the chance of success or to test hypothesis.

So, imagine the test tubes full of different coloured inks and the flowers drinking that ink, would the petals change colour? Mine do, but that is art, anything can happen.

Thanks for dropping by. 

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : X

Well, this was a challenge as the letter X in my pocket Oxford dictionary only has 6 definitions and not only that, I also have the letter Y on the same page and we have not had that letter yet. So, I chose X as in Roman numerals and kept the design simple.

My entry for this fortnight's Craft Barn Alpha Dictionary Challenge :

I started by using a clock stencil from Indigo Blu and a fine black pen to get the layout positioned across the pages. I drew the outline numerals for 2016 and filled them in with a red inktense pencil and added water. The page needed something else so I stamped the flower to fill up the space and water coloured it with the same red inktense pencil.

Job done. I have resisted peeking to see what everyone else chose to do for this letter so I'm off to have a look now.

Thanks for dropping by and I really appreciate the comments you make on my work, thank you so much.

Weird Science

I got some time to play with my new IndigoBlu Chemistry Lab stamps today. I love the science stamps and stencils in the Weird Science series designed by Kay Halliwell-Sutton. A couple of weeks back I saw one of Kay's demos on Hochanda using this set so had a go. I don't have the IndigoBlu paints so I have used Deco Art Mixed Media paint and made a small canvas.

This was great fun and I am pretty pleased with the result. The design is not original, it is inspired by Kay's demo.

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : R

The next letter in the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary challenge is "R". I chose Raven. The definition in my pocket Oxford dictionary is "Large black bird of crow kind; (attrib, of hair) black". This reminded me of the Edgar Allan Poe poem so my pages are all about the poem.

Stamps used are from my IndigoBlu Hocus Pocus set.
Colour added using Tim Holtz Distress crayons : Fossilised amber and Rusty Hinge.

Just for a change it was dry enough to take a photo outside, roll on Spring.

Mannequin

Today's post was inspired by an idea in Craft Stamper magazine this month using the freebie stamp by IndigoBlu.

The mannequin is stamped using black archival ink and mounted on pink polka dot paper from my stash distressed with antique linen ink. The flowers and butterflies are cut from the same image stamped on white cardstock and coloured with promarkers then mounted with pinflair glue. The sentiment is from an Anna Marie Designs stamp set on a panel of the same polka dot paper. Added the dotty corners and ribbon and all mounted on a 6x6 Kraft card. 

Antique Songbird

Another project completed this morning, this time it is a card. I used the IndigoBlu Antique Songbird stamp, stamped it on white cardstock with Galaxy Gold, Elderberry and summer sky dew drops and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. It was hard to see the blue on the stamp so there is only a tiny bit of blue but I rather like the effect. The image was then coloured with Antique Linen distress marker and  mounted on purple card. I quite liked it at that point but there was something missing so I added the silk flowers joined together with a white brad and stuck on with Pinflair glue.

I hope you are enjoying what's left of Sunday and if you get a minute, go check out Alison Bomber's blog, Words and Pictures where she has posted a particularly amazing vintage tag project and in celebration of her one year blog anniversary she has Blogaversary Candy to give away if you leave a comment. Good luck!

Demos and Inspiration

I so enjoy going along to these demo days that our local craft shops run. It is such a good day out and you come away brain loaded with inspiration and maybe a few new things to add to the stash.
On Sunday I went to The Glitter Pot near Burgess Hill with a friend, we didn't know about the demo days at the weekend until I happened to notice a blog posting from Imagination Crafts mentioning that they would be there. So, a quick bit of organisation, like who picks up who and who is driving and off we went. The Imagination Crafts stencils are so nice and they have brought out some thicker ones that you can use for embossing with a 6x6 embossing mat, interesting.

Fab demo from Kay for IndigoBlu and I resisted buying the Kroma Crackle which was stupid because I think I want some of that, yes, I do want some of that! Kay was amazing, she showed us a demo of the flitter glue and mega flakes then did a one on one for my friend to try it, how kind.

One of the demonstrators was from Hobby Art and she showed us a quick card using some of the elements from the Butterfly Kisses set "Old Crock", a lovely image of an old car. So, I bought the set and Monday morning I had a go. This is the card I made:

Materials and recipe:

Butterfly Kisses stamp set - Old Crock BK-HA008

Background coloured with distress ink, shabby shutters, tumbled glass and edged with vintage photo.

The branches and foliage are first and second generation stamping, I used an old green marker pen.

The car image was coloured with Promarkers.

Mounted on pale turquoise card from Craftwork Cards.

Just as well we had a Bank Holiday on Monday so I had a chance to play. 

IndigoBlu FlitterGlu

I love the IndigoBlu range of rubber stamps so treated myself to a FlitterGlu starter kit and a set of the Pomp and Pagentry rubber stamps back in February when I visited the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft show at Bluewater. The snow came down the night before so the show was pretty quiet, good for us but not so good for the exhibitors.
Here is a card that I made. 
I used evergreen bough and festive berries distress inks from the Tim Holtz winter set for the background and swirls. The Union Jack is stamped with FlitterGlu and Yorkshire Dales Mega Flakes applied, the gentleman was stamped with black archival ink.