Things to Alter

Hello and welcome to my blog post!

Tonight I share a project working with the gorgeous MDF shapes from Things to Alter.

The pieces are so intricately cut, and great for all sorts of projects. This time, however, I was sent a random selection from Jac, and I put them all together, layering some too, and created this lovely canvas, using black gesso and watered down metallic acrylic paints.

I do hope you like this - please visit the Things to Alter blog to see more fantastic makes!

canvas using Things To Alter products

close up to see the layers

All Things Bright & Beautiful with IndigoBlu

This month was a bit of a tight schedule for me, what with it being the school summer holidays, and going away camping, and also preparing for my daughter's birthday! I have needed to keep her amused too, and as she will be started 'high school' (they call it a college these days...!), I'm not wanting to do too much to take too much of my time away from her - so I've not been crafting as much as normal!!!

However, I did get a lovely 'objé-art' for you - and here it is!!!

I started with the rather cute little MDF shape and prepped with GeeSso Good in white, and then gave it a coat of Marshmallow, a beautiful pink from the bright set! (the "bright" part!!)

I stamped the gorgeous new Country House (using archival ink, which I heat set once stamped).

I then used the new Luscious powders, having created a watercolour pallet with them (and I must admit that I'm not 100% certain which colours I have, as I had them pre-packaging, but here I've used the blue, pink, bronze and a tiny bit of silver.)  I also used the lovely Lime Marmalade on the little topiary's (again, from the Bright set).

Once all dried, I added a couple of beautiful stamped critters! The Dinkie Dragonfly (the top one) and also a butterfly and teenie dragonfly from Grand Tour II (A5 set) and butterfly from Wild Meadow (A5 set).  Again, I used Archival and heat set, and then used my Luscious powders in their watercolour format.

I added a sentiment from Chemistry Lab (A5 set), then used a fine wood marker pen to dot around the edges. When all was dry, I used VersaFine ink in Smokey Gray, to stamp with Rain Droplets (A6) and then applied a clear embossing powder, which I heat set, to give the impression that my lovely little house is being rained on!  (It seemed fitting, considering the current weather....)

And there you have it!!! My finished project!!! Nothing too technical here, other than ensuring to use the correct ink pads, and remembering to dust with a little talc powder before stamping and embossing. My daughter likes this very much!! I also made her a little T-shirt embellishment, which I'll blog in a day or two (once my sewing machine is back up and running!).


Thank you for visiting my blog, please do leave a comment and do check out all the gorgeous inspiration from all the lovely talented ladies on the blog challenge! (why not go visit those who enter the blog too! There are lots of wonderful entries each month!!!).

To get back to the Blog Challenge Post - just click this line of text!

IndigoBlu Products used:
Stamp sets:
Country House
Rain Droplets
Dinkie Dragonfly
Wild Meadow (the butterfly)
Grand Tour II (the small dragonfly)
Chemistry Lab (the sentiment)

Luscious powders
Acrylic paints

Versafine Inkpads

IndigoBlu Summer Floral

Hello IndigoBlu fans and welcome to my little blog page.

The theme this month for the IndigoBlu Blog Challenge is Summer Florals!!!  So I present to you my little take on the theme with this little Summer Floral Rusted Box!
 

I have used a little cardboard box, that I picked up at our local recycling centre, and covered it with the white GeeSso Good gesso, then I followed with the spring paint set (IndigoBlu Acrylics Grandma's Teacup, Townhouse Teal & Banana Custard). Once dried, I gave the box a watered down coating with Kingfisher Blue.

I then used Fine Modelling Paste to create rough edges and then coated using the Autumn set (IndigoBlu Acrylics Hot Cocoa, Burning Bonfire & Postbox Red).

After that, I stamped the small flowers from the Giant Poppy stamp set, and covered a household tissue (that one would blow one's nose with)...using Vintage Sepia Versafine. which I then applied on both the lid and base of the box using Slap it On. I coloured this in with a combination of the Burning Bonfire and Postbox Red once it had dried.

I stamped the sentiment from the Nature I stamp set and cut all the words up. I edged with watered down Hot Cocoa on a sponge and glued to the lid, along with some paper flowers, which I very roughly painted by dipping into some watered down Kingfisher Blue (IndigoBlu metallic acrylic).

A final quick watered down brush over with the Kingfisher Blue, and a sprinkling of glitter on the flowers and sentiment, and the box was complete!

The 'spiderweb' on the flowers is just the stringy bits from sticking down the flowers with the hot glue gun - I left them as I rather liked the look (and my garden if FULL on spider webs right now!!)

Sadness Walls Journal Page

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog, and my piece for the Mausoleum of the Damned challenge this month.

I've picked this unusual image from Ike's Art - I like it, because it reminds me of many things and I feel it is very apt at this time. I've used blue as my colour, and high lighted the face using Glossy Accents.

The quote, by Jim Rohn, reads:
"The walls we build around us to keep SADNESS out.....Also keeps out the JOY...."

Dark Attic Challenges: Unicorn

Here is a beautiful little Unicorn by Ppinky Dolls.

This is printed out on regular photocopy paper - not what I'd usually use, so I used my colour pencils - well it worked a treat, as you can see!!! I finished off by using a few distress inks around the edges and stamped a little 'distress/texture' to give it depth. This lovely little sentiment really worked with the image, I thought. I mounted this onto a navy cardstock and popped on an A5 card!

Such beautiful images from Ppinky Dolls, can't wait to play with more.....(trotting off to colour more!)

Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to comment and don't forget to enter into the challenge back over at The Dark Attic Challenges Blog!!!

Maxine

All your dreams come true with IndigoBlu

Thank you for visiting my blog today!! This is an inspirational design for the "All your dreams come true" blog challenge with IndigoBlu. I hope you like it!

This month, I have taken a little wooden box (I do love to alter a box) and turned it into a little trunk.

This was a little plywood chest from Efco (via a craft shop) and I've had it for rather a long time.

I love working with the IndigoBlu paints, and I have a lovely chest that I keep all my essential oils in, so I thought that I would mimic that with this chest.

First, I painted it all over with the delicious Hot Cocoa acrylic paint. I took the Goldfinger metallic acrylic paint and watered it down (on my craft mat). I then took a piece of Phat Foam and sponged the paint onto over the chest (once it was dry).

I then took a piece of Kraft Card - this one was 8x8. I painted it over completely with the black Gee-Sso Good (I cannot live without this stuff!!) and once dried, used the Goldfinger once again, only this time I did not water it down, I 'dry-brushed' it over the card, almost stippled it, to create a lovely mottled look.

I cut this down into thin strips and distressed the edges - I used this neat little Distress Tool from IndigoBlu, it's much safer and easy to use, but you could also use scissor edges. (also, I'd do this outside as it creates a lot of paper-fluff!!! Thankfully we've had sunny weather this week!)

I used these to create the strips of 'metal' that are on a treasure chest! They could be either metal or leather straps, but really they are just card! As this is my first attempt at sticking them down, I think I could have done a better job, but I'm still pleased with the results.

I will finish the chest with little embellishments made with UTEE using my Melt Pot and a Plaid mould set (Ornaments) - I used 28 all in all, of the the same little one! I very lightly brushed over with a little bit of the Goldfinger paint, and I mean with a very dry brush, to get much the same effect as gilding wax.

Now to decorate the inside!!! I want to use it, but I also want to create a dream-like quality to the inside of it. So many fabulous stamps to choose from at IndigoBlu!!! I went with Sarah's Choice and Boadicea They have lots of texture and also lovely words.

I painted the inside with my black Gee-Ssoo Good. I will be covering up areas with paper, but the glue will adhere better to the painted surface than directly to the wood. I decorated my paper using a selection of the stamps from the two sets, with Vintage Sepia versafine and also Goldfinger paint, for the base and inside lid, but left the edges black.

These little glass bottles are super cute and I dry brushed/dabbed the Goldfinger paint over them, so they are still transparent - and added contents using glamour dust, flower soft, bead soup, mica flakes and mega flake, and labelled them. (Think of the Pensieve in Harry Potter!!. I used some Velour Dots to stick the bottles into the lid - so that I can still use the contents if needed! (plus I've run out of glue sticks for the hot glue gun!!)

I absolutely love what I've done, and really pleased with it, and I can tell it's something that I may well add to in future too, although I am not sure I will use the box other than for decoration. It can be my dream box, where I keep my dream journal. Don't forget that the true treasure is what is inside us, our hopes and dreams.

Ingredients!
A5 Stamp sets:  Sarah's Choice & Boadicea
Paints: Hot Cocoa Acrylic; Goldfinger Metallic Acrylic; Black Gee-Ssoo Good

Dark Attic Witch

Part of the Dark Attic Challenges! This lovely digital image from Delicious Doodles called Gothic Deadly Night Shade - isn't she beautiful?! (find her and many others at this link).

This beautiful digital stamp lent itself very well to this book I found in a charity shop. I decided to add it as my first page - stuck down with my colall all purpose glue. It was a bit tricksy getting the paper around the string, but all in all I think it looks rather wonderful!! I might distress the edges with a little distress tool or scissors, but I'm undecided yet!!!

She's coloured in with Promarkers and then cut down to fit into the book. Then I used Walnut Stain Distress Ink pad to darken around the edges - it really frames the page!