Saturday 21 February 2015

Challenge 25 - Spring Greens

Hi everyone. It's the end of one challenge and the start of another. We had some fab entries again this month - thank you all for entering.

The winner of Challenge 24: 'A touch of red is...'


# 24 MacMable

Congratulations MacMable. Please contact anna@indigoblu.com to arrange your prize and don't forget to grab your Winner's Badge from the Badges tab above.
The fabulous Winner’s prize this month is your choice of IndigoBlu stamps.  As always, you have 3 options to choose from:

1:   2 Large stamp plates
or
2:   4 Small stamp plates
or
3:   1 Large and 2 small plates

There’s also the Winner’s Badge, and one for the Top 3, to display proudly on your blog, and the WINNER of the challenge will also be invited to do a GUEST SPOT on a future Challenge Launch post. That’s right, your work will be on the Challenge Blog alongside the Design Team!

Also the Top Three each month (chosen by the DT) will all be invited to do an inspiration piece to be included on the new reminder post that now goes live mid challenge. So, if you’d like a chance to be featured on the IndigoBlu Challenge Blog get those stamps out and get creating!

You’ll find all the information on how to enter the challenge,  the rules (don’t worry, there’s not that many) and get to meet the Design Team in the tabs above.

This month’s Top 3 from the 'A touch of red challenge' as chosen by the DT are...

1: Alex Cross
2: Doreen's Dream
3: Heidi Schleimer

Well deserved congratulations to you all, and don't forget to grab your Top Three badge from the Badges tab above.

This months challenge is... Challenge 25: Spring Greens

Last month's winner, Shelagh, has made this beautiful piece of artwork for us;


Here is what she had to say:

Hi, Shelagh Metselaar here. A big thank-you to IndigoBlu for selecting my card as the ‘Glitz and Glamour’ winner and for sending my selection of stamps as a prize; to say I was surprised and delighted to win is very much an understatement and to be invited to design a project for this challenge is an even bigger thrill – oh! and the perfect excuse to forget the housework and craft for a legitimate reason! I must admit the theme did have me pondering for quite some time as my stash of IndigoBlu stamps is quite eclectic and nothing seemed to fit however after much head-scratching, a ghost of an idea formed and from there on in, it was all inks to the canvas!

Materials:-
·         Canvas
·         IndigoBlu Stamps:- Nature 1, Stylised Flowers
·         Inkpads:- Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark; Distress Inks – Pine Needles, Black Soot
·         Embossing Powder:- Wow Twinkling Green and Twinkling White; Clear Detail
·         Spectrum Noir Aquatints – Greens (from all sets)
·         Acetate:- Heatable
·         Pebeo:- Mixtion Relief Outliner, Mirror Gilding Sheets Green and Silver
·         Sakura:- White Pen
This project was quick to realise, once thoughts and materials were gathered (omitting drying time.)

Extras:-
·         Deep photo frame
·         Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Pale Green
·         Mod Podge Sparkle

Instructions:-
1.       I painted the canvas with water then dropped on the greens in areas allowing the variety of shades to fuse and keeping the blue-greens towards the top.
2.       Once dry, I stamped the ‘Stylised Flowers’ four times (‘off the page’) using Versamark Black and embossed with clear detail embossing powder. The butterfly was stamped three times using Versamark and heat-embossed using ‘Twinkling Green.’ The clouds were stamped twice, again with Versamark then heat-embossed using ‘Twinkling White.’
3.       At this point I blended Ranger Distress ‘Pine Needles’ and ‘Black Soot’ around the edges.
4.       The flower stems were out-lined on one side with a white pen; the seed-heads were outlined with the Mixtion and once dry but still tacky, silver leaf was applied. The same was applied to the centre of stems but once dry, green leaf was applied. P


NB The silver leaf looks white on the photo – oh! the joys of photography!
5.       I stamped the butterfly three times onto heat-proof acetate, embossed with the green powder as before and cut the images out.  I folded the wings back and attached them over the image on canvas with Cosmic Shimmer glue.

Extras:-
To finish the project, I painted the frame with pale green ‘Fantasy Prisme,’ the second coat stippling the paint to create the illusion of texture. Once dry, I applied Mod Podge ‘Sparkle’ to add more interest.  I removed the two peripheral acetate butterflies, placed the canvas inside the frame then glued butterflies over their stamped images but on the frame.
I hope you find the above useful and feel encouraged to ‘have a go.’
Thank you,

Shelagh.

What a beautiful piece of artwork from Shelagh for us this month, a huge thank you for being a guest designer this month, and congratulations on your prize again.

And here is the Challenge Design team's inspiration for you;


Laura Williams

Nikki K.

Julie Cassidy

We'd love to see your work - do enter for your chance to win!

Good luck,
The IndigoBlu Challenge Design Team.



Wednesday 11 February 2015

Challenge 24 Top 3 Inspiration - A Touch of Red

Hi everyone,

Today we have for you some wonderful inspiration for this months challenge A touch of Red. You still have about a week until the challenge closes, you can enter the challenge HERE, or by following the instructions in the above tab and e-mailing us your entry.

First up, and in no particular order we have Claire:


Its such a pleasure to be joining the fabulous Indigo Bluebelles as Guest Designer this month. This challenge was a great excuse to use some of my favourite Indigo Blu stamps too. I began by stamping the A6 Poppy Heart stamp with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and coloured the image with alcohol markers before distressing the edges with my craft knife and matting on black card. I created a background with the gorgeous English Flourish stamp, using black archival ink on white card. The next layer was made using the A6 Harlequin stamp, again with black archival ink on white card. I've used black card to mat and layer and then added some lace, ribbon and a little paper poppy. 


Thanks again, I'm chuffed to bits to be GDT as I adore Indigo Blu stamps
crafty hugs

Claire xx


Next up it's Theresa:


I decided to go with the valentines's theme. I had bought this heart stamp from IndigoBlu that I was itching to use.  So I got out my brushos and decided to go with 3 colours. I used brilliant red, yellow and a green.
I spritzed the canvas with water and then sprinkled a few crystals of each and spritzed again with water. I kind of created little puddles of colour and then breathed heavily over thus creating the splatters.

I stamped heart onto tissue with black archival ink and when the canvas
was dry I stuck it down with modpoge. I inked the bubble stamp with glue and stamped it randomly along edge of the canvas. Once it had 'cured' for a couple of mins I used gold and variegated green gilding flakes.
I finished it off by adding some pearls to create more dimension.

This is my little project that i have wanted to realise for a while and I hope you like it.

Theresa


And finally the lovely Lyn:
:

The background I've inked on Indigo Blu stamping card. First the 'Harlequin' background was stamped using Vintage Photo distress ink, and then I used Antique Linen distress ink applied with an inking tool. On top of that I've stamped the 'Script' using Black Soot distress ink. This background is then matted on to red card leaving a very fine border.
The White Rabbit is from the stamp plate 'Alice 11' and is stamped and cut out then details coloured using Barn Door distress marker. The character is then 3D'd on to the background.

The butterflies are stamped from the 'Butterfly Collector' plate, cut out and coloured with Barn Door distress ink, and adhered to the background with their wings raised.


I hope you will agree there is some fab inspiration here from our top 3 winners from the Glitz & Glamour challenge.  Very talented peeps!  Thank you so much ladies for taking the time to do this for us, your work is beautiful.

And remember, this could be you next month!  Just hop along and join us in the challenge HERE. xx

Best Wishes,

Indigoblu Challenge Blog Design Team.
xx

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Challenge 24: A Touch of Red Demonstrator Inspiration

Hi all,

Today we have for you an inspiration filled post full of fabulous makes from the demonstrator team for the latest challenge, Number 24. A Touch of Red.  Have a look at the fabulous work then join in the fun of the challenge!  You can also visit our Demonstrator team's own blogs by clicking on the link below their picture, if you want to learn more on how they made their inspiration piece.

You can enter the challenge HERE. Tune in next week for the inspiration from the top 3 winners of challenge 23.

Thanks for visiting!