All That Sparkles - IndigoBlu Challenge

Hello again :)

Today I'm sharing my Demo Inspiration card for the IndigoBlu Challenge - All that Sparkles -

 which runs for another 16 days.

So there is still lots of time to join us...and there are the usual fantastic prizes on offer too!!

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!

I am entering this into: 

The Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes

Crafter's Cafe - Square Cards

OLLCB - Girlie 

That Craft Place - Anything Goes 

Happy Crafting :) 

Lydia xx

Christmas Door Hanger

Hello...and welcome to 2016!!

I'm really not sure where 2015 went to...but it's gone! 

I didn't get very far, with Christmas cards this year...I kept distracting myself with decor projects! So I thought I'd share this one with you before it's time to pack away everything Christmas. 

Using 

IndigoBlu Black GeeSoo Good Gesso

IndigoBlu's stamp - Connor's Crown Jewels

IndigoBlu Cottage Garden Artist Quality Paint

IndigoBlu Smooth Texture Paste

IndigoBlu Textured Background Stencil

...and

IndigoBlu  Mega Flake 

I'm entering this into...

Fussy & Fancy - Happy Holidays

Emerald Creek - Celebrations Around the World 

That's Crafty - Anything Goes 

Anything but Cute - You've got Happy Mail

SanDee & Amelie - Anything Goes Steampunk/Industrial

Altered Eclectics - 

Happy New Year...

And

Happy Crafting

Lydia xx

IndigoBlu - Demo Inspiration - Winter Blues

Good morning! :)

This month's IndigoBlu Challenge theme is...Winter Blues.

A gorgeous colour way for this time of year, and this little collection of trees from Anna Marie Designs is a lovely touch, even if you're not one for a big tree or lots of decorations.

The trees are coated in IndigoBlu gesso ... Grandma's Teacup & Park Lane...then embossed using the Twinkle Star stamp.

The base also had a coat of Park Lane, and a smidging of Fine texture paste added to resemble snow. 

I'm entering this into

Craft Stamper - Take a Technique - Sharing the Season

That's Crafty - Season's Greetings

Country View - Create a Scene 

Fairy Tale - Something Metal 

The prize on offer this month is: 

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 our lovely 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!

Thank you for visiting...

hope you have a lovely weekend.
Happy Crafting
Lydia xx

Countdown to Christmas!

Well...December is here and the countdown to Christmas has begun! Eeek!
What better way to keep check of how few days left to panic could there be, than a IndigoBlu'd Advent Calendar :) 

With design in hand, off went my better half...out to that man cave of his...and returned later with the base and frame for my calendar...bless him :* 

So, with IndigoBlu 

Black Gesso... Cottage Garden Acrylic paint,... Mega flake,... Christmas Compendium papers... stamps ...and a smidging of texture paste here and there later...

We're good to go!!! 

I'm entering this into:

Fussy & Fancy - Words

Crafting By Design - Get Ready for Christmas
Emerald Creek Dares - Bringing bits of Cheer

Thanks for your visit

Happy counting down &

Happy Crafting x

Lydia xx

Sleigh Bells Ring....

Well, here we are in the last full week of November!! Eeek!! 

Anyone ready for December??!!  I'm so not...but I at least have a decorated sleigh! :)

The sleigh is from Tando Creative...'flat packed' and made from chipboard, and then I've altered it... inspired by the ultra talented, Mr Andy Skinner.

I have used many DecoArt Media Line paints, Crackle Glaze, Crackle Paint, Texture Paste,

Weathered Wood,

Tando Creative Sleigh, Merry Christmas, Stockings and stars...

IndigoBlu Script stamp,  Ruby Slippers paint...

Archival Sepia Ink pad...

I had hours of fun with this project...thanks for taking a peek :) 

I'm entering this into:

Anything But Cute - It's Ornamental 

Mixed Media World - Anything goes

Happy Crafting

Lydia xx

IndigoBlu Demo Inspiration - Autumn Days....

Hello!!
Woah...where did October appear from??  

One minute it was summer holidays...I must have blinked...and here we are in Autumn!
But Autumn (so long as it isn't wet, yukky and miserable like today!!) has got to be THE nicest season EVER!!
It's beautiful...and so full of colour.

Which leads me on to my inspiration piece for the IndigoBlu Challenge today...
... Autumn Days ...

I think I have just found a new addiction!! Art Journalling!!!

This is my VERY FIRST art journal page!!!!

This started as a blank double page, in a journal that I have been wanting to 'play in' for ages.

Using IndigoBlu Black Gesso as a base...a couple of paint brushes...and IndigoBlu Cottage Garden Artist Quality Acrylic Paint...I hand painted this...can you spot my little bunny?  :)

I have used the following IndigoBlu products to create this page:

Poppy Meadow - The beautiful sentiment

Nature II - The birds & the squirrel

Black GeeSoo Good Gesso

Cottage Garden Artist Quality Acrylic Paint:

Hot Cocoa

Postbox Red

Banana Custard

Burning Bonfire

Emerald City

&
Miss Moneypenny

-----

Other products:
Black Archival ink pad

White Charcoal Pencil

What is your take on Autumn? We would love to see! :)

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 our lovely 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. 

I'm entering this into:

Craft Stamper - Technique - Paint

Mixed Media World - Anything Goes with Autumn Colours

Fussy & Fancy - Autumn Colours

Fashionable Stamping Challenge - Words

Good Luck...and 

Happy Crafting 

Lydia xx

Frame It - IndigoBlu Demonstrator Inspiration...

Hi all
Well, Summer seems to have turned it's back on us, and September snuck in whilst no one was watching!! The nights are drawing in and Autumn is just around the corner....but I do love this time of year...it's so colourful and has that healthy kind of start to your day!
It also means more 'stay in and craft' time :)

This month, the IndigoBlu Challenge Blog theme is 'Frame It' .....
Frame an image...frame a sentiment...decorate a frame...or frame a frame...how ever you want to frame it, is ok with us! :)

I have used the totally gorgeous Giant Poppy as my focal image, using our IndigoBlu English Cottage Artist Quality Paints to hand paint both the Poppy and the background.
Rob has been back in his shed, and made me a frame from MDF (bless his cottons :) ) ...that has a covering of Texture Paste...dried... a coat of Black GeeSso Good - Gesso...and Vodka Martini! ;)

If you get a chance, nip across to the blog and see what the Challenge team have created...there is so much fabulous work over there as always x

--------------------
We would love for you to join in...and don't forget.....

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 our lovely 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!

To all those with children returning to school this week... I wish them all a great new term x

Happy Crafting...

Lydia xx

Precious Metal ...IndigoBlu Demonstrator Inspiration

Morning all :)
Well, here we are in sunny August...minus the sun!!! It's more like winter out there today!
Never mind...hopefully my Demonstrator project for this month's  IndigoBlu Challenge, will bring a little ray of sunshine x

This was a metal pot that I bought from good old Lidl. I introduced it to some IndigoBlu Gee-Sso Good Gesso...some English Cottage Artist Acrylic paints, Flitterglu and Mega Flake...and this is the result!
Perfect for my ever growing collection of brushes :)

Nip across to the blog for some wonderful inspiration from the design team...and all the info on the FABULOUS prizes on offer!!!

Until next time...
Happy Crafting

Lydia x

Flutterby - IndigoBlu Demonstrator Inspiration ...

Morning! :)

Here we are...one week into JULY!!! Shock - horror!!!! Where did half the year go to??

In Craft-land it's that time of year, when the 'man in the red suit' starts to creep up on us!! But before that, lets appreciate the summer for a while...and what better way than with some beautiful butterflies!

......... IndigoBlu Challenge ........
The challenge this month is Flutterby - and for my Demonstrator Inspiration piece, I made something that was more of a challenge to photograph than make!! Haha

I absolutely love working with acetate...but it's very difficult to lose the reflections and glare.
Hopefully you'll see the effects and beautiful shimmer going on in this card.

The black base card has been stamped with the Crackleglaze background, using Townhouse Teal and Aladdin - English Cottage Artist's Acrylic Paint

I have used Magicals - from Lindy's Stamp Gang on the Big Butterfly wings...along with Mega Flake.
The Dinky Butterfly on the acetate has been stamped using our 'Flinky' technique...and painted with our wonderful paints.

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!

Don't forget to check out the Challenge DT's wonderful work for this challenge on the blog too xx

Take care
Happy Crafting

Lydia xx

Golfing...off to a Tee...

Hi all :)
Well...here we are in summer!!! I thought I'd tell you, just in case you're in one of the many areas in the UK that has had copious amounts of rain today!!  Down here in the South we were quite lucky, only having rain this morning, but sunshine to dry washing outdoors this afternoon!! Whoop!! :)
But hey...a good day for crafting, if you're stuck inside!!! ;)

Today I'm sharing with you a project that I made for Father's Day. 

An mdf frame ...
IndigoBlu English Cottage Paints
Texture Paste
IndigoBlu Fairway to Heaven stamp
IndigoBlu Tree from Nature 1
Ice Resin
Dad Lettering
And erm... two of Rob's Tees...and a golf ball!!! ;)

I'm entering this into this month's Craft Stamper Challenge ...
The theme is TEXTURE

Anything but Cute - Make it Masculine

Happy Crafting
Lydia xx

A Pocketful of Posies...or....

...A Tinful of Poppies!!! :)

Morning!!
Here we are in June already....another 6 months and it'll be ....cold!!!! Lol
But, for now it's that midway inspiration point for the IndigoBlu Challenge!
The demonstrators have given you a bit of inspiration ...and a gentle reminder that you have 16 days left to enter!! ;) 

I have used some of the BRAND NEW releases to make my project...as always when we release newbies, my challenge is which one to use first!! 

Don't forget that there are awesome prizes up for grabs too!! x

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

Happy Crafting

Lydia xx

IndigoBlu meets Stick It!

I was going to say 'Good Morning'...but it seems that as I've had a lovely time playing...I missed that part of the day!! :) But...I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that's what happens when you get engrossed in your crafting! ;)

I was recently given a few sheets of the 'much talked about' Stick It - to 'play' with...by the lovely David and Brenda at Craft Obsessions...via the just as lovely Kay at IndigoBlu. These double sided adhesive sheets have been designed by the fantabulous crafter Ken Oliver. He designed them with the thought of making intricate die cuts easier to stick...and he soooo succeeded!! The sheets are just fabulous for that....BUT.....you know me...so let's find another use for them too :)

The dies that I used for this project aren't too intricate, so I used the good old gluing method to attach them to my card. Hmmm....defeat the object you say? Well...this is why. I wanted my die cut to match my background colours...and my background colours were......PAINT! I also wanted sparkle...so I needed to adhere that on too! Soooooo.....

I painted my background with IndigoBlu English Cottage Artists Acrylic Paint...and then dried it. I then covered the area I needed with a sheet of Stick It....and cut my shape out.

Carefully peeled the adhesive backing sheet off...

...and covered in ultra fine glitter!

The result....glittery die cuts to match my background :)

Thank you to the lovely David and Brenda at Craft Obsessions...I shall be creating again soon!! :)

Lydia xx

Posted with Blogsy

Just One Layer!

I don't know what it's like where you are...but I think someone forgot to tell the weather that we are no longer in April!! Phew! You'll definitely get a bit soggy around the edges if you go out there, and rather windswept too!!!
Personally, I think you should stay in the warm and create something cheery :)  How about something for the IndigoBlu Challenge?? ;)

This month the challenge theme is 'Just One Layer' ...and that's all there is to it!!!! Unless, like me you like lots of layers usually...and then it's what it is supposed to be...a challenge!! Lol
Don't forget there are the usual fabulous prizes ...  

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

Have a go...we'd love to see what you create 

Have fun

Lydia xx

Here Come the Girls......

Hello!!! I'm back... with the girls on the catwalk of the Tattered Lace blog this time! 

There is so much you can do with these dies...I'm loving them!

For this project I used an mdf base, well...it's actually a box top which will hold 'hair bands and bobs'...but you can make something similar as a card very easily. 

Take the project base of your choice and coat it with a layer of Gel medium or PVA & water mix. Cover with a piece of dressmaking pattern paper and add another coat of gel medium.

Die cut 4 x Kensington Corners...adhere those to each corner.

Randomly spritz with paint/glimmer mist or similar. Dry off with heat gun.

Arrange different sized and coloured buttons in a couple of corners and adhere with hot glue.

Take a length of lace and make a bow with the small Bow Maker (absolute must have item!!! ;) )

Adhere to a big button in the corner. Make another bow with narrower lace and ensure you leave long enough tails to trail over the base.
Layer the two bows and add another button to the top. Glue down the bow tails.
Die cut the clock - Counting the Moments - then ink the hands and a few hearts in a contrast colour...adhere the clock and glue on the coloured pieces.

Die cut 6 of the girls and double layer them. Cut out dresses...again, doubling them up for a bit of strength and dimension. 

Cut out their shoes and hair...adhere the girls to the base and decorate them. 

Die cut some of the words from Fashion Sentiments in two colours to shadow them and add those.

Randomly dry brush some metallic paint to finish off your project x

Have fun!!

Tattered Lace Tools

Bella's Body - D716

Counting the Moments - D272 

Fashion Sentiments - D722

Bella's Short Dresses - D711 

Bella's Hair - D718

Kensington Corner - D318

Embellishments

Buttons 

Large Pearls 

Small Pearls 

Lace Trim

Happy Crafting

Lydia xx

Peppermint Tea in Emerald City.....

Morning! :)
And what a beautiful...be it a bit chilly...morning, down here in the South it is!! Spring is definitely trying to come out to play! Whoop!! :)

Quite apt really...our challenge theme this month with IndigoBlu is...Spring Greens ...and here is my 'reminder' piece. You still have 16 days to enter, and there's a whole heap of good reasons to do so!!

 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!

Nip across to the challenge blog for a wealth of inspiration x

Have fun
Happy Crafting
Lydia xx

I 'Love' This Die!!!

Hi Everyone  :)

 I'm back with another project that's on the Tattered Lace Blog, using the fabulous Monumental Moments - Love die. 

Whilst this die enables you to make some stunning cards - equally it lends itself to the class of home decor.

Today I am sharing with you a stand up piece that is sturdy & simple to make x
-------
You will need to cut 8 'Love' words in a sturdy card-stock...I've used 300gsm. Glue and layer each die cut...remembering to trim the tab top of the 'O' into an oval on each layer as you go.

Coat the entire piece with Gesso, including all the edges, and leave to dry.

Whilst that is drying cover a plain mdf plaque with some designer paper, then run Walnut Stain Distress Ink around the edges.

Take the Love wording and spritz it with some watered down acrylic paint.

I have then used a crackle stamp & some gilding flake to decorate both the wording and the base, and run Distress ink in both Walnut Stain and Worn Lipstick around the edge.

Stamp a verse/sentiment of your choice onto the base and then, with a hot glue gun, adhere the wording to the mdf base, holding it steady while the glue sets.

Cut 2 butterflies in matching papers, ink and gild random areas and adhere to the 'O' ...cut a few sets of the Floral Flourish & Lacy Rose dies...ink and adhere those also.
That's it...you're done!! :)

Tattered Lace Tools

Monumental Moments - Love  - MON02
Floral Flourish & Lacy Rose Die  - D677
Butterfly - C&C exclusive Magazine


x Happy Crafting x

Lydia's Blog