Lollipop Tree Pieces

These three were created using the IndigoBlu Lollipop Tree stamp which I'd never used before - it's always fun playing with a new stamp!

I stamped the tree with acrylic paint and misted the stamp with water to get this dreamy watercolour effect. I stamped the words from Sarah's Choice and stippled the edges with a make up sponge using the same acrylic colours I used for the trees (Raspberry and Grape). The button and purple twine are by IndigoBlu too and are available here.

Terrible photography... I inked the leaves with green Distress Ink then inked the branches and trunk with brown Distress Ink. I coloured the ribbon using the same brown (Frayed Burlap I think) and stamped the text from Sarah's Choice along with one of the definitions from the same plate. I stamped Twit Twoo onto shrink plastic and coloured him with chalks before shrinking and my side panel is stamped with the burlap panel from Sarah's Choice. The Stamp Pad have them in stock if you're interested!

Finally same stamps but I've stamped into molten UTEE and added MegaFlakes onto the black panel, stamped onto the ribbon and squished up the inked and stamped card then reinked over the creases - the IndigoBlu smooth card works well for this technique as it goes really leathery.

Enjoy! JulieD x

More IndigoBlu

I've been pretty busy doing Design Team work for IndigoBlu recently so I thought I'd post a few more samples! Kay will be on Create and Craft later today - the stamps they will be showing have changed so these samples are unlikely to be shown but I thought I'd post them - shame to waste them!! They are very different and needless to say the first is much more my usual style than the second!

I took the card out of the frames and painted all three frames with Gourd and Birch EcoGreen Acrylic paints. Once they were dry, I stamped the text stamp from Sarah's Choice in Green StazOn and inked the edges. The three frames have different textures - the first is inked and then stamped with the Twit Twoo stamp; the middle frame has verdigris Ferro in it which I stamped into with the text stamp and the third has Terra which I heated til it bubbled then painted with Birch paint and a touch of gold mica powder. Plenty of charms, beads and a few stamped words later I'd finished! I will be running a workshop to make a similar creation at The Stamp Pad next month - if you fancy coming along, you'll find the details here.

Second sample - a bit girly for me this one!

I embossed Poppy Heart onto vellum in white then stamped round the edges with Fuchsia StazOn and stamped the image onto acetate then layered them slightly to one side to create a shadow. Hope you like them! JulieD x

Sewing Mends The Soul (Apparently...)

I can't believe I've not blogged for so long - been poorly and very busy - lots going on including doing samples for IndigoBlu and prep for some workshops I'm running - starting with Art Journaling part 1 this Saturday! I thought I'd post some pictures of the samples I did for the last IndigoBlu Create and Craft show plus this picture of hilarity at the Stamp Pad last weekend...

Kay came up to the shop to do a Demo Day which was a big success and we had a great day - for those of you who don't recognise her from the telly, Kay's the one on the left with my great friend (and boss...) Gwen in the middle and me on the right! Kay was demoing lots of her stamps, FlitterGlu, MegaFlakes and the new buttons and ribbons pack - all available here.

These are the samples I did for the 'Sewing Mends The Soul' plate of stamps for Kay's April show - I absolutely love these images but in the real world, I'm useless with a needle and thread! As for previous posts, apologies for the photography...

This is my favourite IndigoBlu stamp yet - I have a thing about corsets (not sure if I'm supposed to admit to that...) and this is a beautiful image. It's stamped in black Staz-On on the silver card and stamped in FlitterGlu with silver flake on the black card. I've also stamped and silver embossed the tape measure image as a border with thimbles down the middle - add a black feather and ooh la la - Burlesque!

These two were a bit rushed - hence the uneven stamping (as a gay crafting friend of mine once said as we compared the wonkiness of our creations, - "straight's overrated..."!) Very simple inked background, clear embossed cotton reels on the black card and a lovely button. Done.

Another quickie this one - I used the thimble stamp as a frame and added faux stitching with a Micron Pen then added a gilded quote - I love this quote even though I wouldn't swap my hubby for the world (well most of the time ...)

Hope you like them - enjoy your week! JulieD

Blogging IndigoBlu

I've not blogged for ages - been far too busy making samples for IndigoBlu and prepping workshops for The Stamp Pad (new workshop list available!) I can't remember the last time I did any crafting that wasn't for one of those causes but I'm having a day out crafting tomorrow and doing whatever I fancy!! I'm going to a Craft Day at the Stamp Pad - "Complete A UFO" - I was expecting a rude answer when I asked Gwen what it stood for but apparently it's 'Unfinished Object' - so a bit like a crop but take a project you've been meaning to complete and GET ON WITH IT!!! I've got dozens of things I could take ...

Anyway, I blogged two of my samples on the IndigoBlu blog which I created for the Create and Craft show on Wednesday - they didn't get much of an airing - they were on a stand next to the presenter but you can see them here!

I thought I'd show you the two samples I did using the T'wit T'woo stamp as well - it's a beautiful big owl stamp - my next idea is to shrink it, I think it would look great in shrink plastic!

This is the first one:

I stamped him onto white card and embossed him in black then painted him with a variety of brown distress inks and a touch of gold mica powder. The black panel behind him is a die cut Vintage Cabinet Card (using an Alteration's die I bought a couple of weeks ago and now I don't know how I lived without it!!) which I've stamped with the Script stamp in Versamark and clear embossed. For the rust coloured panel I've used the Crackleglaze stamp and the word panel is stamped with the burlap and the word Inspire - both from the Sarah's choice plate. I used two more Alterations dies for the branches - the one he's perched on is the Branch Tree die on its side and the side of the tree is an on the edge die - Twigs!

This is my second T'wit T'woo piece which was shown on Wednesday:

I stamped and coloured the owl in the same way as the first piece but masked him and overstamped with the Jack stamp in FlitterGlu then gilded with Morris Dance flake. I used a piece of corrugated card from an old box (one of my favourite crafting items at the moment!) a chunk of Core-dinations card which I stamped and embossed the words from the Pomp and Pageantry plate onto, then added the butterfly from the Wild Meadow plate.

Hope you like them and enjoy your weekend!

JulieD x

Discover Your Passion

That's the name of one of the new releases from IndigoBlu which I've been playing with for the last couple of weeks - they are beautiful designs and I've enjoyed working with them. I created the following two cards for the Stitches trade show and they were real quickies as I only got my hands on the stamps on Monday night and needed to send the samples by Thursday!! They were slightly different by the time I sent them as I added ribbon down the left side of the card and gems to the corners literally on my way to the post office (I stopped in at the Stamp Pad for the final touches!!) - they were up on the wall when we visited Kay on her stand which was a real thrill for me!!

For this second card I used my distress inks to colour my card background and the top panel with the quote on. Next, I stamped the flourish onto the background using VersaMark - I pounced on a copper coloured mica powder then stamped the two word stamps in FlitterGlu, gilding with MegaFlake. I stamped the dragonfly from the same plate onto grungeboard with Archival black, got hubby to cut out (not my strong point and he's a whizz with a scalpel!!) and added a charm!

This second creation has a sprayed background (ColourWash) and a gilded flourish. The butterfly is again grungeboard which is cut out and inked.

Thanks for stopping by! JulieD

IndigoBlu - Stitches Samples

I'm not good at this blogging lark am I? I must get more organised and make some time to post ...

I've recently done eight samples for IndigoBlu for the Create and Craft show tomorrow but I'm saving them for next week's blogfest - two are from a new plate which hasn't been seen by the general public yet so I'm under oath not to post those until after the show!!!

However, I did some samples for Kay to display on her stand at Stitches last week - on this occasion, I could use any stamps from her range for two of the pieces so I thought I'd share them today!

I've stamped with the Harlequin on the background with Champagne Encore ink then stamped over with Script in Black Archival. The Map has been stamped in FlitterGlu on black gloss card then gilded with Morris Dance flake. I embossed the quote (from Wild Meadow) with gold embossing powder. I'm not a fan of punches but I treated myself to the Martha Stewart punch you can see under the bird charm then left it in the box for a year - I got it out and used it for the first time on this card and it's really lovely, I might have to change my view on punches!!!

Not a great photo - you can see the camera reflected if you look hard enough ...  I gilded EllaBella on black card then stamped her onto acetate at an angle using black Staz-On and overlaid them, alcohol inked the edges then attached with brads, added a violin charm and a row of flourishes - simples!!

Hope you like them - look out for Kay (and a few more of my creations) on C&C tomorrow! I'm off to the Stamp Pad to treat myself to some of the goodies we ordered at Stitches last week - the Mica Flakes and Colour Fragments from Stampendous which we saw Fran demoing and I fell in love with - it would be rude not to buy some after talking Gwen into ordering them really...

JulieD x

IndigoBlu Love Is Samples

If you saw the show on Create & Craft, hope you were tempted by some of Kay's beautiful IndigoBlu stamps! Thought I'd post a couple of samples using the Love Is stamp - this is such a lovely stamp, full of intricate detail and the FlitterGlu and MegaFlakes pick this up in an incredible way - none of the detail is lost!

I love working with black and so this week's challenge of using MegaFlake gilding flakes is great as I can use black in a really effective way - the flake looks great against a dark background! I started by creating a background using the Ranger ColourWash sprays and a touch of Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls spray. Once this had dried, I stamped the image using FlitterGlu and added MegaFlake, used a bit of Krylon pen round the edge and mounted on a black card with a strip of heavily distressed gold card. I added a key charm - thought it might work as an alternative Valentine Card - Key to my Heart!

My second sample for this stamp was a wall hanging:

For this piece, I stamped the image in FlitterGlu onto acetate, gilded, then alcohol inked with plenty of blending solution. I've stapled the roughly cut out acetate to lilac metallic card, mounted onto black glossy card then added velvet ribbon, bead trim, a fabulous charm (also available from IndigoBlu) and a bead! Hope you like them! More tomorrow...

JulieD x

IndigoBlu on Create & Craft!

I've not blogged for ages and not really crafted much since my last post - that is until the phone call I received from Kay at IndigoBlu last Sunday inviting me to be a member of the IndigoBlu Design Team! I've been doing samples for Kay since last Spring on an informal basis and I was extremely proud and excited to be asked to be on the official Design Team - then the reality hit me - IndigoBlu are showcasing ten of their stamps on Create and Craft tomorrow, Kay needed samples and I only had one of the stamps! So on Tuesday a parcel containing the stamps arrived along with FlitterGlu and MegaFlakes (which Kay will also be promoting on tomorrow's show) ready for samples to be created, so everything else went on hold for two days this week - I changed my hours at the Stamp Pad, hubby's been doing the school/ dance runs and I've been elbow deep in stamping and gilding materials!

Kay will be showcasing the stamps on the 11.00 am show on Create & Craft - here's one of the samples she will be showing!

I've stamped the EllaBella image on black card with FlitterGlu and then used MegaFlake to gild it - it's really straightforward - it takes the whole heating and melting stages out of the gilding process! I then loosely masked it and stamped the Harlequin over half of the image with Versamark which I clear embossed. The Morris Dance MegaFlake has a little copper and turquoise colour in it so I picked out some beads which matched these colours and threaded them onto some wire which I twisted and attached at the back with strong glue.

IndigoBlu will be on Create & Craft again on January 29th so I'm off to start the samples for that show - should be a bit less frenzied if I get on to it straightaway!!

I will be posting the other samples for tomorrow's show over the next few days. Enjoy!

JulieD x

Tag 9 - Greenery & Baubles!

Here's today's creation inspired by Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas:

I've followed the instructions today except for the baubles as I didn't have the candlestick die which Tim used so I used some ready die cut grungeboard baubles which I inked with the winter distress colours, embossed with clear powder and rubbed a bit of silver acrylic over the top. The background was created using the Harlequin stamp from the fab Indigo Blu range. My Festive Greenery die arrived yesterday and I'm very impressed with it - the variety of foliage and the detail they contain is amazing! Going to try and catch up with the missing tag from Wednesday! JulieD

Indigo Blu Workshop

Hi! I've not been blogging recently - not really been myself but getting there and determined to get some of my crafting pieces up here. My job at the Stamp Pad has kept me sane these last few months and I'm grateful to Gwen for keeping me busy - I've designed and run several workshops over the last few weeks which has given me a boost so I thought I'd blog my creations from these events!

One workshop which runs each month at the Stamp Pad is 'Getting the Most From One Stamp' so I suggested that as I already design for Indigo Blu I could promote a plate of their stamps. We decided on Grand Tour II which is a fab selection of travel inspired stamps and this is what I came up with:

Apologies for the photography! This is my favourite of the three - my colours, my type of stamps! I love this image of the statue and thought it looked good stamped in black Staz-On on mirri. I made up a spray with Adirondack Wild Plum reinker and silver mica powder which I spritzed on a manilla tag and die cut the bottom with a Tim Holtz On The Edge die, stamped and embossed the quote directly onto the black pearl card and added a strip of distressed purple patterned paper. I love the purple bead trim too!

These other two cards are a bit more outside my comfort zone but I thought I ought to do some designs to appeal to a wide range of workshop participants and to showcase some of the products we have in the shop!

I inked a white card then stamped and embossed the church image on white card. I die cut this piece using a nestie and inked the image while it was still in the die. I did the same with the quote using the smaller sized nestie - they are a bit fancy for my taste but extremely popular with the customers! A bit of ribbon, a few gems and a grey card background and I was finished.

Finally, the really feminine one!

A bit blurry ... I stamped the butterflies in green Encore ink, coloured the flower (which started out white) with the same ink and then pounced with two colours of alcohol ink. I stamped 'Dream' in Versamark then covered in green mica powder. The background is a paper from the Graphic 45 range 'Once Upon a Springtime'.

All of the products I used are available from the Stamp Pad. Hope you like the detour away from my usual style! Enjoy your week.

JulieD xx

Indigo Blu Samples

I was asked to make samples for Kay over at IndigoBlu stamps a couple of months ago and I'm currently sorting my second batch!  Here are a few of them:

This is a mini canvas which I painted with haematite Inka Gold, edged with tissue tape and stamped the spider from IndigoBlu's Hocus Pocus plate in purple then went over the top with Glossy Accents. I covered the brass coloured key with silver mixative and black alcohol ink  before adding a touch of the purple Inka Gold and stamped and embossed the quote from the same plate. I also painted the mini easel in the purple Inka Gold and stamped onto it with black stazon for a textured look.

This is a paper mache book box which I've also given the Inka Gold treatment (can you see a theme running through these projects - I am completely smitten with Inka Gold at the moment and currently have six different colours - I'm working on the rest ...). This is the dark grey 'haematite' type colour (none of them have a colour name printed on them so we make them up!) I stamped the Wish You were Here image onto white tissue and used matt medium to adhere it after tearing around the image and added a cute old bike charm with fibres! The inside has stamped images from the Grand Tour II plate - the back image is stamped on silver mirri card and the front image is embossed in silver and raised on really thick foam pads to fill the space more effectively. I made a hole in the top of the box and dangled a second bike charm.

This final project didn't go exactly to plan but I'm reasonably happy with it! It was an alternative version of a canvas which I'll blog later in the week but which used products which weren't from IndigoBlu so I couldn't send it on to Kay! This one is all IndigoBlu so I'll be submitting it - it's a 12in x 12in piece of MDF which I've painted with cream emulsion and a bit of gold acrylic then smudged the edges with the gold and again adhered stamped tissue with matt medium. I've also roughly stamped the butterfly from the Grand Tour II plate onto the background and stamped various other images from the same plate onto black and gold surfaces which I've layered and distressed. Hope she likes them! Look out for them if you're at any of the UK craft shows later this year!! JulieD

Grungy Monday - Stamped Vellum

Something new to me this week - I don't really use vellum, it's not that I don't like it, I just never think of it when I'm planning my projects, so this week's Grungy Monday challenge from Linda at StudioL3 was a bit different! Using an example from Tim Holtz' blog from way back (2008 I think) I've created a panel (with no purpose other than to look pretty!!) with a distress inked background and pieces of stamped and inked vellum which I rolled the corners of before attaching:

I threw water at my background which I blotted and heated before adding a stamped IndigoBlu flourish in two corners, my current favourite stamp (the raven from IndigoBlu's Hocus Pocus plate) is stamped and then embossed in gold on a black card background - the words are also from that plate and the Harlequin stamp is also one of theirs. I had a cream coloured flower embellishment which had been sitting on my craft desk looking a bit sad and not really my kind of thing at all so I sprayed it with espresso colourwash and dabbed gold mica powder over it - now that's more like it!! Hope you're all enjoying the weekend! JulieD x

Grungeboard Fun

I've had a whale of a time creating this week's Grungy Monday piece - the challenge was to create something using Tim Holtz's grungeboard and as grungeboard is one of my favourite surfaces ever it was a joy to make this!

I covered a piece of greyboard with kraft resist, swiped it with dusty concord distress stain then chopped some pieces of embossed grungeboard into small squares and coloured them with the stain. Next I  used black Staz-On to highlight the raised bits and stamped the Eccentric quote (one of IndigoBlu's from the Brideshead plate) onto glossy black card - then embossed with gold detail powder. A couple of charms, Krylon edges and more embossed and stained grunge and my gothic masterpiece was finished!! Hope you like it! JulieD

It's not even Sunday Night ...

Hi, here's my Grungy Monday entry for this week and it's not even Sunday night - my usual rushed GM time!! I actually created this on Tuesday but didn't get round to blogging it! Our Tim Holtz inspired challenge this week was to create a background using a distress ink to cover the background then embossing the whole surface with clear embossing powder. Here's my attempt:

I've used Wild Honey to cover the tag with a straight to paper swipe from the pad then embossed and gone over the tag with Walnut Stain - again straight from the pad. I quickly rubbed this with kitchen towel - that's it, a very quick and easy background - the man's a genius isn't he?? I've used the technique he describes in the same blog post of inking up a stamp with a variety of colours and again clear embossing - this gorgeous stamp is from the IndigoBlu plate, Hocus Pocus - I've used Fired Brick, Walnut Stain and Wild Honey to ink up the stamp and then used foam to blend over the top of the image after it's been embossed - simple resist. Hope you like it! JulieD

Grungy Monday 14

This week our Tim Holtz inspired challenge on the StudioL3 website was to make our own mica powder/ink sprays and using paint as a resist create a masterpiece! Here's what I came up with:

I stamped the IndigoBlu Harlequin image on an eight inch square of greyboard with Snow Cap Dabber paint four times to cover the piece, then sprayed three colours of homemade mica spray randomly onto the panel - quite feminine colours for me! The stamped images are all also IndigoBlu from the two Alice in Wonderland plates - I have coloured the tissue tape with Copper Dabber paint and inked over the embossed images with distress inks in shades a little darker than the ones used in my sprays. The central image is stamped onto a piece of corrugated card which I've torn some of the top layer off and inked with Fired Brick Distress Ink. It makes a nice change from all the Christmas cards and other items I've been creating this week for the Christmas In July Demonstration days we have had at The Stamp Pad over the last few days! Enjoy the rest of the weekend. JulieD x

Grungy Monday 12 - Just In Time!

Well I've not crafted all week but I'm determined to do this Tim Holtz inspired challenge every week so I've put a really quick hanging together to sit alongside the one I did for Grungy Monday 9 - I'm dipping in and out of some of the other challenges but this one is my weekly focus!

Linda's challenge over on StudioL3 was to do a resist technique using patterned paper as the background and stamping and embossing with clear ink and powder. Here's my creation:

I've used a piece of patterned green paper and stamped the new IndigoBlu Harlequin stamp onto it with versamark, clear embossed then painted over with black acrylic and rubbed back with a damp cloth to remove the paint from the resist areas. The rest of the stamps are from the Alice 1 plate - also by IndigoBlu. Well that's all I've got time for today - hoping to get back to some kind of routine next week! JulieD

Grungy Monday - Faux Batik!

Long time no blogging ...

After my determination to get blogging regularly, I've still managed to leave it eleven days! Oh well, there's always next week, and in my defence, I've been busy making samples for IndigoBlu, still invigilating, we had the Whit Friday walk of witness yesterday (which is a really big event round these parts) followed by the Brass Band Contests and I've been on a school trip to a farm with my youngest's class this week too so all in all a busy week or so! And that's not counting my job at the Stamp Pad and being a taxi service to two small people...

Anyway, back to crafts! This week on the StudioL3, Tim Holtz inspired Grungy Monday challenge, we're doing remelting embossed images with an iron! I have also used a technique which Tim refers to in the Compendium of Curiosities as Blended Batik (basically the same but using embossing ink instead of distress ink). Here's my creation:

As you can see, I've given up trying to use entirely TH products - I ran out of stamps I hadn't used pretty quickly so although the image of the buildings and the overstamping in brown are all Stampers Anonymous, the main image is from a gorgeous set I bought earlier this year by Darkroom Door. The image of the buildings was stamped in blue distress ink (Tumbled Glass I think), clear embossed then inked over with a variety of distress inks. I then ironed over the image with a sheet of tissue paper over the tag so that the embossing powder remelted and came away from the tag. As I wanted to stamp the 'Splendid' image at the top, I attempted to do the technique again but using Versamark instead of distress ink - it works but leaves a waxy finish as the versamark is left after the embossing powder has been removed - I liked the effect though! I added the brown stamped images of clocks and documents, ribbons and clock charm.

Hope you like it - I'll be back soon (hopefully)!! JulieD x

Distress Inks-fest!

Welcome to my Distress Inks gallery!! I have been having a play with a new plate of stamps from IndigoBlu called Grand Tour 2 (available directly from IndigoBlu or from The Stamp Pad if you're interested!) and have gone down the inked background and stamping with distress inks for all of them.

My first creation is my submission for the Tim Holtz inspired Grungy Monday 10 over on StudioL3 which this week is a broad challenge to use distress inks - well, I've certainly done that!

I've kept it simple and created a background by blending several colours of distress inks then used the same shades to colour three smaller panels which I have stamped in distress ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I've matted the butterfly images, attached a length of dark green ribbon down the centre of the main panel and added a couple of pearls. Very simple for me - not a charm in sight!

I also decided to try a couple of new challenges this week - now that I've got the hang of Grungy Monday I'm having a go at Less Is More and Simon Says Stamp. This next one is my submission for Less Is More:

The challenge this week is to create a monochromatic piece. Again, I've used the beautiful butterfly stamp - I stamped directly onto the inked card in a really random way using fired brick distress ink, stamping 3-5 times with each application of ink so that some are intense and others are paler. I've added a panel with the same image onto a lightly inked background and added two layers of coordinating ribbons.

And finally, this is my creation for Simon Says Stamp! which this week requires masculine makes:

After preparing an inked background, I stamped and embossed the fabulous building and script image from Grand Tour 2 and added bits of Paperartsy German Scrap as corners. I've used a kraft card as my base.

Well, my blending tool has been busy over the last couple of days - I'm off to get even inkier fingers! Enjoy! JulieD

Grungy Monday - Shabby Chic!

Better late than never - only a couple of hours before the next Grungy Monday challenge appears! I've changed my rules this week! Although the Grungy Monday challenge by Linda at Studio L3 uses a technique or product by Tim Holtz, participants are free to use whichever other products they wish, however, up to now I've tried to use all Stampers Anonymous stamps and Ideaology embellishments but this week a stash of IndigoBlu stamps have come into my possession and I've used the Alice 1 plate and the Harlequin background stamp to create this week's piece! Check out their website or my favourite craft shop (The Stamp Pad) for the whole range, there are some fabulous and really original images!  We were given the tried and trusted Shabby Chic technique on Grungy Monday this week, I went with a wall hanging:

I painted a piece of card with black acrylic, stamped the Mad Hatter image in versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder and the quote with white powder. I then painted over the whole piece with copper dabber paint and, when dry, rubbed back the embossed areas to expose the stamped images. I over-stamped with the Harlequin stamp, added some white dabber paint to the Hatter image and added my embellishments - I did wonder how I would use this teapot charm - perfect opportunity (I coloured it with copper alcohol ink mixative to coordinate better)!! I've also brought back the eyelets - I haven't used eyelets for years but felt they worked well on the bottom of this hanging. Enjoy! JulieD