Wednesday, 30 May 2018

Father's Day with Indigo Blu

Hello my lovely creative friends

Well Daddy's Day is almost upon us and I'm reliably informed that many people find it difficult when it comes to cards for the Men in our lives.

Over at Indigo Blu HQ, Kay and Alfie have kindly agreed to offer a promotional 20% discount to all our crafting friends. Simply take a look at the male inspired designs created by our talented design team for inspiration and leave a little creative love in their comments box. Enter FD20 at the checkout to receive your discount on the stamps listed below. The offer is available until 17th June 2018.

The Draughtsman
Drive Hard
Fly High
Travelling Home
Grand Tour I
Grand Tour II
Steampunkesque
Circus Alphabet

So let's get started....


To begin with,  cut a 14cm square panel from Indigo Blu Watercolour card. Using a non stick mat, add a 2p sized amount of acrylic paint in Fair, Medium Tan, Hot Cocoa, Ugly Duckling and Coastal Walk. Leave a space between them before adding a liberal amount of water either with a paint brush or a water spritz. Swish your cardstock through the paint. The colour should be subtle, if not a another spritz of water, heat and repeat. (Colour can be gently removed prior to heating with a baby wipe.


Using Phatt Foam, pick up a little Ugly Duckling Acrylic Paint and add carefully to the card panel edges. You can distress the outer edges of the card with the paint then remove with a baby wipe to avoid the colour being too intense if required.


Take the Faded Dots Stencil and mask off an area using sticky notes. I masked off a horizontal strip just above centre, covering the area where the cogs stamp would go. Apply Texture Pate with a palette knife and set aside to dry naturally. Once dry, add more watered down Ugly Duckling Paint into the centre of the card area. Spritz with water and allow to drip down the cardstock. Dry thoroughly with a heat tool.


Mix up 2 teaspoons of clear embossing powder with a 1/4 mixture each of Verdigris and Bronze Luscious Powders and mix well. Stamp the gears stamp from the Fly High Stamp Set down the left hand half of the card. Apply the Luscious Embossing Powder and heat, use a soft brush to remove the remaining luscious shimmer (this will slightly darken the embossed area).

Take Iced Spruce distressing ink and stamp the blueprint stamp in various places around the central area of the card. If your inkpad is very juicy stamp onto your craft mat first before stamping onto your card panel.


Using a large Slim Jim acrylic sheet, mix more Ugly Duckling paint with water towards the edge. Take a medium brush and flick the paint off the edge of the acrylic sheet onto the card panel. I've tried many ways of splattering paint and this is by far the most reliable and least messy of them all!


Here is a few close up shots....



Next stamp the Draughtsman onto Indigo Blu Watercolour Cardstock using Black Permanent Ink. Now stamp him onto a sticky note, ensuring his head is stamped over the tacky strip. Cut him out and mask the main image. Using the distress ink method from earlier, ink up the Collector's Edition No.4 Numbers Stamp. Stamp over the Draughtsman's head before removing the mask.

Cut down to size before inking the edges with Phatt Foam and Ugly Duckling Acrylic Paint. Cut a piece of corrugated card to size, distress and ink the edges as before. Take an old pen nib and add a length of wire before attaching to the card panel. Mount and set aside.


Stamp a sheet of cream heavy weight paper with the Map stamp from the Grand Tour II Set using the Iced Spruce Distress Ink. Using a knitting needle or kebab skewer, wrap the map paper around before tearing away the remainder and sticking the edge in place to create map straws. Cut to size, long enough to fit behind your dapper chap. Distress the edges and colour with Ugly Duckling Acrylic paint and Phatt Foam.


Die cut a few medium cogs using any die set. Mix a little regular sand with Ugly Duckling Paint and cover the cogs thickly. Apply direct heat with your heat tool to create bubbling within the paint layer. set aside to cool. In the mean time, mix a little water with Gold Luscious Powder to create a thick paint. Repeat with Bronze and Green Luscious Powders. As the paints start to dry gently apply a little to the cogs using your finger. This will have he same effect as using gilding wax without the smell.

Finally, cut a layer of brown card to 14.3cm. Mat and layer up the completed card panel and attach to a cream 14.8cm square card. Attach the map straws and cogs with wet glue. Take your quote stamp from Grand Tour I and stamp in black permanent ink before attaching your dapper Draughtsman using Super Thick Slap it On.


Why don't you visit the rest of the Indigo Blu design team for some amazing inspiration? Just follow the links below.

Don't forget to claim your 20% discount at Indigo Blu on selected stamp sets. Just quote FD20 at the checkout - valid until 17th June 2018. Offer includes: 

Thanks for stopping by. If you've enjoyed your visit, please leave a comment.

Bye for now, Julie x


Friday, 18 May 2018

Hochanda with the lovely LouLou...

Hi everyone

Two posts in one day, it's a miracle!

As promised earlier, here are the samples made for today's shows on Hochanda with Louise Withers and Indigo Blu. Lou's infectious enthusiasm will inspire you all so why not join her at 12 o'clock and again at 4pm today. She will be launching three fabulous new acrylic paint colours and demonstrating with a large variety of stamps of the floral variety plus a few cute little flutterbies for good measure.








Sorry, the photos aren't brilliant and I didn't manage to take a picture of another sample as I forgot... it's my age!

You can find Hochanda's TV Schedule here. Why not sit back and relax and let Lou motivate your creative mojo or record for a later viewing - don't forget if you're like me and have Virgin it's not available on TV but you can watch live on line or via the rewind option at a later date.

All the lovely design teams samples are available on Instagram and Facebook one the shows go live should you wish to take a closer look.

I hope you enjoy.
Creative hugs, Julie x

Feeling Proud...

Morning all

I hope you're enjoying the fab sunshine?

So today I'm proud because my entry into Frilly and Funkie's Blog Challenge - Neutral Point of View has been awarded a Top 3 Mention, yay! Here's the link if you wish to check out all the fab entries and their new blog challenge - Surf's Up.

I had entered it after having a play around with rusty mediums so I'm so honoured to have received a mention, thank you all at Frilly and Funkie for liking my efforts.

The lovely Suzanne is sending out a Top 3 Badge so I can wear it loud and proud here on my blog, excited!

Right, I'm away as I have loads of samples to do for Lou Lou's next show on Hochanda for Indigo Blu. Happy post or should I call it Luscious Post, has just arrived so that's me taken care of for the weekend!!

I will be posting pictures of the samples for today's show at 12 o'clock today to coincide with Lou's first show on Hochanda for Indigo Blu. She will be launching some lovely new paint colours and has lots of wonderful stamps to share so make sure you tune in or hit record. You can see sneak peaks on our design teams facebook page.

Ciao for now

Julie xx

Thursday, 3 May 2018

Feeling rusty....

Hi lovelies

It's been a hectic week with family and despite starting this post a week ago I'm only just completing it! Best laid plans... by the time I've come to complete this piece let's say my creative energy wasn't at it's best. In fact, I was in two minds whether to post this but after lots of creative love from my team mates over at Indigo Blu here goes...

I chose to use Indigo Blu's 'Fly High' and 'Draughtsman' Stamps on this panel along with a multitude of the Indigo Blu acrylic paints. Should you wish to check out all the wonderful stamps, paints and luscious powders you can visit the website here.


I've recently purchased a number of the rusty products created by some fabulous mixed media artists. Anyone who has known me a while or attended my workshops will know I love anything vintage, grunge or rusty!The products were all brilliant but in hindsight I personally I miss mixing it up and using my imagination plus fine sand, heavy bodied acrylic paint and my good old - battered heat tool to create that rusty effect. The products are excellent especially if you are in a rush, not particularly confident or don't want to mess. However I enjoy messing - personally it is the best part! Here is what I've created...


I began with a piece of heavy weight greyboard - the sort of stuff you find at the back of kids drawing pads! I decided to start with a green first layer followed by a random application of Large Grain Texture Paste. I then added stencilled detail with phat foam and cream acrylic paint before applying glazing medium randomly with a palette knife. Glazing medium acts as an extender with acrylic paint, giving you more working time. In this instance I'm using it to resist additional paint layers. You can also use matt medium or Vaseline. To be truthful, Vaseline is more difficult to remove due to it's greasy consistence but it will do the trick. I've taught a workshop many moons ago using this same technique to create faux leather, why don't you give it a go and see what you come up with? Next I added lots of rusty colours using my palette knife and dry brush technique before removing the glazing medium to reveal the green base layer. A few more layers of paint - by this point I had lost track, with my favourite tunes on and I got totally lost in the creative moment.


Finally, I added Finnabair's Art Extravagance Rust Paste in a variety of colours for added dimension. As it was a play piece I then experimented with Emerald Green's Chunky Rust Embossing Powder and  Paper Artsy's Rusty Car Infusions Pigment Powder. Loved the infusions, the colour was instantaneous and very vivid. I tried the Chunky Rust and the Vintage Beeswax Embossing Powders and loved them but feel I need to play some more with them alone to see their full potential.

Once the background was complete - meaning I'd experimented until I felt enough was enough, I started planning the focal point. I knew I wanted to use the draughtsman as the main image and my growing stash of gears. I die cut a frame using Seth Apter's Shield Die and set to creating more texture using the previously mentioned products. I felt the whole piece was too dark so began lifting the colour of the frame with a little gold paint. The Draughtsman was stamped using Black Archival Ink followed by the Numbers - Collectors Edition No.4 Stamp by Indigo Blu in Watering Can Archival Ink. The edges were distressed before adding beeswax to the surface to give the image an older feel. 



I set out the design with an old cigarette card giving a hint towards aeroplanes and torn corrugated card for wings before layering all my ephemera and gears. The words 'Fly High' are from the Stamps of the same name by Indigo Blu. Stamped in archival and finished off with a little more beeswax.



I would like to submit this rusty experiment into the following challenge blogs:


OK. We now have the next dates for Hochanda (link here) so it's back to TV samples. Kay will be live on Monday at 11am and again at 3pm with some fabulous new products. If, like me, you have Virgin where Hochanda isn't available or are unable to watch you can always catch up online by selecting the rewind option and selecting the show.

Have a fabulous Bank Holiday Weekend. I hope the sun shines and you have a great time with family and friends.

Creative hugs, Julie xx