Indigoblu Challenge 23 - Glitz & Glamour

Morning everyone,

It's challenge time again at Indigoblu, and this is my inspiration for this month's theme, Glitz and Glamour.

I made a masterboard from an A4 piece of card, and sprayed it with Indigoblu cottage paint in Aladdin, and Cinderella.  Once dried, I stamped dinkie snowflake bauble in flitterglu, and flaked in Sheffield Steel flakes, as a border down the edge.  The panel was also edged in Sheffield Steel.

I stamped Connor's crown jewels in stazon gothic purple onto a smaller panel, and also edged in flake.  This was layered onto black card for contrast.  The whole card was matted onto black, then a white 8 x 8 card blank.

I added some pearls and pretty lace for contrast.

Hope you like it.  We would love to see your entries, the blingier the better, over at Indigoblu this month.  All we ask is you use Indigoblu stamps or products you have, and show us what you can do.

The winner gets a guest blog spot, and some stamps of their choice from IB.  It's a great prize, fancy winning yourself a Christmas present!

So hop over to the Challenge blog, and get some ideas from the Design team, and then show us your sparkly entries!

This is the last challenge of the year, have fun with it, and have a very Happy Christmas.

Lots of love, and thank you for your support throughout the year,

Best Wishes,

Nikki K. xxx

Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge - December Reminder - White Stamping

Morning everyone,

It's reminder time over at the Craft Stamper Take it Make it challenge, and this month is a simple theme, white stamping.  We would like to see anything you have stamped, in white!

The sponsor this month is Rubber Dance Art Stamps, and the winner gets a £20 voucher to spend with them.  Not only that, but a guest spot on the challenge blog, and published in Craft Stamper Magazine!

Here is my reminder card,

I stamped circle dot background stamp from Indigoblu, onto some teal green card, and rounded two corners of the panel.  I used 'Crumb Cake' ribbon from Stampin Up!, it's my ultimate favourite ribbon for everything, as I can colour it as well.  The sentiment is from BFF, also Indigoblu.  I made a little tag flag and set it on sticky pads to lift it.  It's all matted onto kraft cardstock.

Hop across to the blog for some more fab inspiration, and don't forget to get your entry in, we'd love to see them.  

Have fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki.

xxx

Craft Stamper December Challenge - White Stamping

Hi all,

It's challenge time again!  A lovely easy wintery challenge for you - stamping in white ink.  It can be anything you like, as long as it's stamped in white.  You can use white paint, gesso, ink, anything, and any stamps you have.

The sponsor this month is the fab Rubber Dance Stamps:

And the winner gets:

Not only that, you also get a guest spot on the challenge blog, and your card featured in Craft Stamper!

My card has a faded wood effect background, which is a technique I learnt from the fab Jenny Marples, and still don't believe how easy and effective it is, so I keep doing it... lot's of pieces of wood style card around my house!  (thankyou Jenny).  It's two colours (hot cocoa & frosty sky) of Indigoblu Cottage paints, watered down, and brayered over the card, and then add lines to imitate the wood.  Jenny has a fab tutorial here.

I then took Rockin Robin from Indigoblu, and stamped in white gee sso good, onto kraft card.  The kraft card was distressed round the edges, and offset onto the background.Some pearls were added to the snowflakes, and a ribbon to finish.  Contrasting pearls were added to the wood panel behind.

We would love to see your entries, hop across to the Craft Stamper Challenge Blog to see some fab inspiration from the rest of the team.

Have a great weekend, hope this inspires you to get those white inks out and join us.

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Indigoblu Blog Challenge - November - Let it Snow.

Morning everyone,

Over on the Indigblu blog challenge this month - it's snowing!!  The theme is 'Let it Snow', and we'd love to see your entries again, it can be anything snowy, as long as you use Indigoblu stamps.  Any Indigoblu stamps of course, just make it look snowy!  We'd love to see your creativity.

My inspiration is an old favourite, using one of my baubles left over from last year, I stamped Sleeping George, on a bed of kroma crackle and glitter (to represent the snow), and used the sentiment from Season's Greetings, Let it Snow.  The paint is the fabulous Postbox Red.

I added a Christmas ribbon, to hang him from the tree.

So pop across to the Challenge Blog, and see the DT's fabulous inspiration, and we would love to see your interpretation of this months challenge. 

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xx

Craft Stamper reminder - November

Morning all,

Today I have a card for you that I've done for the Craft Stamper Blog Challenge reminder.  You still have plenty of time to enter here.

Our brief was to take a stamp, that isn't a christmas stamp, and turn it into one!  For my first card a week or so ago, I made a butterfly Christmas tree.  Today I've taken a lace circle stamp by Stampin Up! and made it into snowflakes, by cutting and layering it.

The letters are just a hampton arts alphabet set, I added 'Let it Snow' for the christmas feel.  It's layered onto a piece of embossed red card, and has a piece of Stampin Up! cookie crumble seam binding ribbon around the centre, it's my favourite colour ribbon.

Hop over to the challenge blog to check out the rest of the fab Design Team's inspiration, and show us what you can come up with - the ideas so far are astounding!

There is also a prize from the Artistic Stamper, our kind sponsor's for this months challenge, and a guest DT spot on the blog, and you could get published in Craft Stamper too.

So what are you waiting for?

Have fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Craft Stamper November Challenge - A non Christmassy Christmas!

Hi all,

Today I have a quick share for you, the theme over on the Craft Stamper blog challenge this month is to use a NON christmas stamp in a Christmassy way.  This could be simple like a triange shape for trees, or circles for baubles, or you can come up with something from your vivid imaginations!

My offering is.... A butterfly tree!  

I simply stamped the little butterflies from 'Butterfly Collector' by Indigoblu, cut them out, and assembled them into a tree shape.  The background is spritzed 'Miss Moneypenny' paint, and the tree trunk is a leftover piece of Kroma Crackle on card, donated by my friend whose house I was at while making this. 

So hop over and see the DT's fab inspiration, and join us again this month for another exiting challenge, don't forget, you can win a stamp set from The Artistic Stamper:

And not only that, The Design Team will have a look at all your gorgeous work, and choose their Top Three..... and the overall Winner will get published in Craft Stamper magazine! Yes, the winning entry will appear in the UK's number one stamping magazine!

AND: The Challenge winner will be offered a Guest Designer spot for an upcoming challenge!

So what are you waiting for! ....  Well, you can stay and see my card if you like first :)

Right, now... off you go then!!!

Have a lovely week,

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xx

Indigoblu October Challenge - Magical Masking!

Morning everyone,

It's new challenge time over at Indigoblu, and it's a nice simple one for you, but one you can do so much with, it's magical masking.

All you need to do is either mask an area of card, or mask your stamps, we don't mind which, but they must be Indigoblu stamps of course.

I chose to mask a panel of my card, from top to bottom, with large post it notes (you could use paper and repositionable adhesive if you have it).

I used three colours of distress inks to blend into each other in the panel.  I then stamped the flowers at the bottom, while it was still masked.

I peeled the masks off, and then stamped the dragonfly only, from the bottom of the Butterfly Collector panel.  I was brave and cut him out separately, I can always add him to my stamp block again under the rest!  I love dragonflies, probably one of my favourite things, so he will get used.

I stamped him over the masked area, poking out from the sides, to give a little dimension.

And that's it - simples!  Such a quick card to make, but nice and clean.  You could add a sentiment for any occasion.

Come and join us and share your cards with us at the Challenge blog this month, anyone can win and we love seeing your work.

Most importantly, have a great time playing!

Best Wishes,

Nikki.
xx

Craft Stamper - Take it Make it October Challenge Reminder.

Hi all,

Halfway through the month again, and time for a little reminder of the Craft Stamper Challenge this month.  The theme is multicolour stamping, so get those ink pads or paints out, or anything you like to stamp with, mix up the colours on your stamp, and away you go!

We'd love to see your entries, and there is ton's of inspiration for you on the Craft Stamper blog, and now on the DT's reminder post here.

This is my take, and of course, as it's October, a little pumpkin wouldn't go amiss now would it?

I used watercolour paper to stamp my stamp addicts Tim Holtz pumpkin on, I love these stamps.  I used Stayzon ink in pumpkin (yes really), zesty orange, and olive green, to multicolour stamp the image.  I then used distress markers and a waterbrush to colour the image.  I flicked some distress markers across the page in different colours too, and added shading under the pumpkin.

Next I got my sewing machine out, I'll rephrase that... Next, I unpacked my sewing machine that I've had since April and never used...

And look!  I worked it out!  I stitched the pumpkin to some music paper that I had gesso'ed to fade it a bit.  I trapped some twine between the two layers.  This was then layered onto black corrugated card, and the resin embellishment added.  It's using pebeo Fantasy moon and fantasy prism paints, and some watch pieces, covered in resin.

The little sentiment was added, it's a wooden stamp I have, not sure who by, and the piece of wire that wrapped up my sewing machine lead was twisted, and added in the corner!  It's all layered onto a distressed piece of kraft cardstock, and then a dark brown card blank.

Hop across to the Craft Stamper Challenge to see lot's more inspiration from the DT, and don't forget to join us, we really do love to see your work, and the prizes are brill too!

Have a great weekend,

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xx

New Challenge Blog - Always Anything Goes with a Twist!

Morning everyone,

I'm delighted to announce the start of a new challenge blog, called Always Anything Goes with a Twist, and happy to say I'm on the DT, with a lovely bunch of ladies.

Hop across to the blog here and find out what it's all about.

We have fab sponsor's every month, and different challenges, and teams of us that will be giving you inspiration.

My inspiration this month is for two digital stamp companies, DeeDee's and KSP.

Firstly, Dee Dee's Digi's. - Using the Home Tweet Home digital stamp set, I came up with this:

Please be nice to me, I'm a novice at colouring, and will be on a sharp learning curve on this DT, but it's great fun!  It's why I wanted to join, as it's different from the stamping that I love, and I can use paper's and embellishments to my heart's content!

The second sponsor this month that I chose to work from is Kittys Scrap post, KSP make lovely digital papers and downloads, I only used a tiny part for my project, as I fell in love with the vintage angel, and thought she would be amazing in a piece of resin jewellery.

As you can see, I'm very happy using this medium!  

I hope to bring you different projects from all the lovely sponsor's each time, it's great to be able to interpret the designs in our own way. 

The third sponsor this month for Team A is The Stamping Boutique, and if you hop across to the Aagwat blog, you will see more inspiration from the other DT members, with their fab digi stamps.

I hope you can join us in this new journey, we would love to see your makes, and we have some amazing sponsors each time, so keep your eyes peeled for your favourites!  They are currently all digital stamp companies or digital downloads, so it's easy to play along.  

Best Wishes for now,

Nikki K. 

xx

Craft Stamper Challenge October - Multicolour stamping.

Hi everyone,

It's the start of a new challenge over at Craft Stamper magazine again, a nice easy and fun challenge, we would like to see your multicoloured stamping, basically just using more than one colour of ink, paint, or whatever medium you can stamp with, on one stamp.

Here is my DT piece:

It's called triple time stamping, basically where you put three pieces of card on top of each other to stamp them, then separate them again and layer them onto a mat card, to show the images layered up.

I used a free stamp from the front of an old Craft Stamper magazine, sorry, can't remember who it's from or the month!  and a little background stamp from a set of clear stamps I had in a draw.  I just third gen stamped the background so you could only just see it.

The leaves are stamped in Stayzon Ganache, St Valentine, and orange. 

So remember to come and join us this month in the Craft Stamper Blog Challenge, show us your makes, you never know, you could win a slot on the challenge blog and in the magazine. 

It can be as simple or as wacky as you like, it just needs to be stamped!

Have a fun time,

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

xx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge Reminder - September - Tissue Stamping.

Hi everyone,

It's reminder time over on the Craft Stamper Challenge blog, and this month's theme is Tissue paper stamping.

I didn't realise there was so much you could do with this technique, but the Design Team have certainly opened my eyes, I'm blown away!

We would love to see your take on the technique too, hop across and join us, you still have plenty of time.

My DT piece is a canvas that I made at a day with Hels Sheridan.  I put my own twist on the piece, although it is definitely inspired by Hels.  I used my own stamp in the centre panel, the Hero Arts bird, forgotten his name though, naughty of me!

If you ever get the chance to go on one of Hels workshops, it's a fab day filled with fun!

The bird, butterfly and other stamping is all done on tissue paper, and beeswax is used to seal it to the canvas, which gives a lovely soft sheen to the piece.  Mica is added at the end and brushed over the wax, it just gives a little shimmer.  I added my own embellishments to this one, as I hadn't been sure what I wanted on it for a while!

All that's left to say is hop over to the Blog challenge and have a go!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge September - Stamping on Tissue

Morning everyone,

Today is the first day of the brand new Craft Stamper Challenge, and what a great challenge it is.  We would like you to have a go at stamping on tissue paper.

It's easy to do, just stamp on a normal household 2ply or 3ply tissue, tear out your image (leaves less lines), and then separate the layers until you just have the stamped first layer.  Use Indigoblu's Slap it on to put a layer onto your object/card first, then lay the tissue over, and use more Slap it on to seal it.

I used 'Under the Sea' stamp set from Indigoblu as well, as it's one of my favourites, and I wanted to create a sea goddess.



I used the grass as her skirt and her wings, using two colours of versafine to stamp them.

She has some real shells added to her base, and some seaweed I picked up and dried out.

She is finished with a top made from the shell stamp, and some pearls, and a little starfish attached to the top.

We would love to see your makes this month, they have to include stamping on tissue, and you need to link back to your post, not just your blog, but that's all we ask - hop across and check out the Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge blog, and see all the amazing DT design's to inspire you.

Have a lovely weekend,

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

ICE Resin Blog Hop

Morning everyone,

I'm so excited about today's blog, as it's the first time I've participated in a blog hop, and this one couldn't be any better!  Indigoblu have got together with Ice Resin, to bring you some fab prizes, and all for just leaving a comment!

So my piece for the hop is a little different, we were all given a parcel of the same items to work with, which contained some bezels, Ice Resin, beautiful Organza ribbon from the Art Mechanique range, and some embellishments from Ice Resin, and our own megaflakes, flitterglu and new Christmas stamps and paints from Indigoblu.

I used flitterglu and flake to stamp onto a piece of gift wrap tissue (yes it works), using the Design Merry Christmas stamp, and copper kettle flakes.

I laid the tissue onto a clean bin liner, and coated it with Ice Resin, letting it dry, and then repeating on the other side.  This gave me a beautiful clear flexible ice like piece of paper, with ragged edges.  I was going to trim the edges but decided it looked more natural, so left them.

I took four twigs from an old cut down tree, and bound them together using jewellery wire, and ribbon.  I punched holes in the paper and attached it by lacing the organza ribbon through the holes and round the twigs.  I finished with some pink organza bows.  I also stamped part of the rockin robin stamp, in cherry pink stayzon, and set in the bezel with ice resin, to dangle from my hanging, and attached it with pink wire and added a crystal bead.

It's day two of the hop today, so you can see Day one's entries below, they are amazing, stop by and give them some love, and if you comment today on each blog post, you will be entered into the prize draw, more info below.

These are the fab participants:

DAY ONE: Thursday, August 21

For IndigoBlu:

Jenny Marples – http://pushingtherightbuttons.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

Lisa Baker – http://lisabdesignsinspiration.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

For ICE Resin:

Kathy Cano Murillo http://www.craftychica.com/category/blog/

Jennifer Cabic http://jennifercabic.blogspot.com/

DAY TWO: Friday, August 22

For IndigoBlu:

Nikki K – http://fairyelephantdesign.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

Linda Walmsley – http://lindylou-lifeinthecraftlane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

For ICE Resin:

Carol La Valley http://wp.me/p1MCno-3st

John Creighton Petersen http://artnewwave.com/?page_id=468

DAY THREE: Saturday, August 23

For IndigoBlu:

Laura Williams – http://laurawilliamscards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

Kay Halliwell-Sutton – http://www.indigoblu.com/blog/?p=6341

For ICE Resin:

Clare Horner – http://gotpaintinmyhair.blogspot.com/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

Baerbel Born – http://wp.me/p4nlri-ud

To enter for the IndigoBlu part of the prize draw, all you need to do is leave a comment on the individual designers blog post, linked above each day. Comment on them all for more than one chance to win! It is that easy.

To enter the ICE Resin part of the prize draw, follow THIS link  on the bottom right of the page you will see an enter to win section. Follow the instructions and cross your fingers!

So I hope you have enjoyed your browse around, Ice Resin really is amazing stuff, and this show's it works with all your fab Indigoblu goodies too.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K. xx

Challenge 18 at Indigoblu - Christmas in July reminder

Good morning,

Well I have been slack on here, I did go away for two weeks but it seems so long since I blogged!  I'm here this morning with a DT piece for Indigoblu, for the Christmas in July Blog Challenge.  It's open until 20th August at 8pm, so we would love to see your entries.  It can be cards, mixed media, anything you like as long as it uses Indigoblu stamps.  And they don't have to be the new Christmas ones, any stamp you can make Christmassy (is that a word?) is fine.

Here is mine:

I used the brand new Snowflake Lace, Connor's Crown Jewels, and Merry Christmas Circle dinkie.  It's simply stamped in Versafine black and coloured in with a spectrum noir red, then matted and layered with a bit of ribbon.  An easy card if you are in a hurry to get some done, but effective with just a splash of colour.

Of course, you can always add a touch of glitter!

Hop on over to the Challenge blog for more inspiration, and don't forget to join us.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

Craft Stamper 'Emboss Resist' Challenge Reminder

Hi all,

It's reminder time over at the Craft Stamper blog Challengehttp://craftstamper.blogspot.com/2014/07/take-it-make-it-july-challenge.html, so the DT have got together to show you some more inspiration (don't we spoil you!).  We would love to see your entries for this oh so easy challenge, emboss resist is the theme, any colour you like, on any surface, as long as stamping is involved!

So my offering is using Wow embossing powder, in Pearl white, they are the sponsors of our prize this month and I love all the colours you can get, they have some fab new ones out currently too.

I stamped stylised flowers from Indigoblu all the way round the edge of both of my panels with versamark, and embossed.  Then used evergreen bough and squeezed lemonade distress inks on the panels.  On the top panel I did this a little lighter, and placed the Daisy stencil from Indigoblu on the panel.  I went over again with evergreen bough, blending it up into the yellow so there were no hard lines.  The sentiment is stamped on a separate piece of inked card, and cut out.  I distressed the main centre panel with my scissors, and mounted it on a small piece of yellow card before adding to the background.

I hope you like it, don't forget to hop over and see the Design team's inspiration and join us!

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

Indigoblu Challenge 17 - Reminder post is up!

Over at the Indigoublu challenge blog, the reminder post is up, with some more inspiration from the talented Design team.

My offering on the 'Tag You're It' challenge is a simple tag, which I sprayed with Townhouse Teal, banana custard, and vodka martini paints, and when dry, edged in salty ocean and mowed lawn distress inks.  The vodka martini shimmer's through the tag, it was hard to get a photo of though!

I flitterglu'd and megaflaked the stylised flowers stamp, and second gen stamped the birds in versafine sepia.  The sentiment is stamped in onyx black.

  I painted the altered ego's with wimberry pie, grandma's teacup, and Goldfinger, and layered the fence and bunny at the bottom for interest.  A simple organza green ribbon was added to the tag.

Don't forget to join us in this month's challenge, and check out the rest of the Design Team's work.

Rules are here if you need them :)

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

xxx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge Reminder June - Bleach Blocking.

Hi all, Craft Stamper have a reminder post up on the blog for the Take it, Make it Challenge for June, which is Bleach blocking - without the bleach!  This is a technique created by Hels Sheridan, and is in this month's Craft Stamper Magazine.

It's a matter of covering some card with different colours of distress ink, blending them as you go.  Then take a piece of cut & dry, or your distress tool, and wet the sponge.  Lay the wet sponge on area's of your coloured card for 10 seconds or more, then lift and blot.  This lightens the colour and leaves blocks where it takes the colour out. Repeat all over where you want lighter patches.  You can overlap this stage.

I chose to make this tag, and once I had dried it off a little, |I used the diamond stencil from Indigoblu and some mowed lawn distress ink to go over the background to add interest.

I stamped Jane from Indigoblu in black Memento ink, and when dry, used a tiny paintbrush to remove some of the ink with a bit of water, from her eye area, which makes it stand out more.  The sentiment is from Alice II, and just fitted nicely.  I then stamped with my new favourite toy (a piece of lego), in white Gee Sso good, to make dots on the tag.  A final touch with a promarker to her lips, and she was done.  The ribbon was some fluffy wool, which I just used both colour distress inks on to colour it.

Hop across and join in the challenge, and see all the great entries here: 

We love to see your makes, and you could get published in the magazine!

Have a good week,

Best Wishes,

Nikki K. xx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge June 2014 - Bleach Blocking.

Morning everyone, it's that exciting time again, a new challenge over on the Craft Stamper challenge blog.  This month it's 'Bleach Blocking'. . .. without the bleach!

This is a simple background technique.  Colour your background with distress inks as usual, then taking a clean blending tool, dampen the sponge, and press it in blocks around your distress ink background, and it will lift colour, making it look 'bleached'.  The colours I used here are fired brick, spiced marmalade, and shabby shutters.

If you don't have a distress tool, you can just use a piece of cut and dry foam, or even just a square bit of kitchen sponge.

To my project, I have added some stamping with a block of lego my husband found on a beach in Wales last week, most impressed I have him hunting for things for me, he is quite good at it!

I have scribbled round the edges of the dots in some places, then added black gesso credit card lines, circles with a deodorant lid, and stencilled through a tando sequin waste stencil in other places.  I also used the end of a spectrum noir marker!  

Minky from Stampotique was stamped directly on to the card, and then I stamped her again onto a seperate piece, and coloured with promarkers, and cut out.  she is glued on top of the first stamped image, so you can see her hair etc, as it was too hard to cut out!

The sentiment is from an Indigoblu stamp plate, and I just thought it went brilliantly with the rather miffed look on her face.  I used a piece of the leftover card to stamp it on, and edged the card in fired brick distress ink.

I absolutely love this stamp, I'm a latecomer to Stampotique, I've admired them from afar for years, but never actually bought one, and I got this one from someone having a craft clear out, she is now my prized posession!  

I have to say, I felt like she looks the other morning, I was trying to find something in my shed, but I could barely even get in there for all the stuff, and it nearly all came back out. . ..through the window!!!  So I had chocolate instead. . .

Anyone else ever feel like that?

Hop on over to the Craft Stamper challenge blog, and join us this month in this easy technique, don't forget we need real stamping on the cards as well for it to count.  (And not with your feet). 

The rules are on the page too, there aren't many, we just ask that you link the actual project you have made, back to the challenge blog, to spread the word.

Have a fab time playing,

Best Wishes,

Nikki. xx

New Challenge at Indigoblu - Monochromatic

Morning everyone, I hope the rain is staying away for you in the day time so far, it's nice here but a bit nippy this morning.  I'm 'furbaby' sitting, had our friends dog for the night last night with our dog, they are like sisters and it's been so funny, watching them play!

My DT piece for the Monochromatic theme over at the Indigoblu blog challenge this month is purples, and you can see lots more brilliant inspiration from the rest of the team there too.  All we ask is that you use Indigoblu stamps only, but you can make cards, art, mdf shapes, anything goes, and following the theme of the month of course.

For full rules you can click on the tab at the top of the Challenge page, it will give you more information. There is also an inspiration page there, and you can learn about our lovely DT.

So to start, I used milled lavendar distress ink to lay a background to stamp on.  I splashed it with water and dried it, to give some effect.  The honeycomb is also stamped in the same.  The poppies from Poppy Meadow were then stamped along the bottom of the card, and a single poppy as my feature, in Versafine purple.  The bird (take flight) and sentiment from Grand Tour II are stamped in the same.

I coloured the poppies with milled lavender distress marker, and added some glamour dust glitter to the stamens.  The leaves and stem of the poppy are coloured in with a prismacolour pencil in mulberry, but it was a little pink so I went over with the milled lavendar distress ink to tone it down a little.  And the same on the bird. The bird also has some glamour dust to highlight his wings and tail.

All the panels are edged in versafine purple.  Here it is finished:

I hope you like it.  Hop across to the Challenge blog, get some inspiration, and join in this month, we have had such lovely cards for the Words challenge, we would love to see your take on Monochromatic.

Have a good day,

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Indigoblu Challenge Reminder post - Words are All you Need

Hi all,

Hope you are having a good week so far, and the weather is being kind to you.  It's certainly nice here this morning.

We have a reminder post up over on the Indigoblu Challenge Blog, with one week to go, we would love some more entries, it's great to see all your work.

Here is my little inspiration piece, I went with a muted colour scheme.  I stamped Circles and Dots, as a background, and then just die cut a frame, and used the fab Voices stamp, always makes me laugh.  I edged in Tea Dye distress ink around the panels.

The Altered ego's were painted in brown cottage paint, and then embossed with frantage and verdigris embossing powders.

I layered it all together, and added a couple of prima butterflies, I just love these.

So hop over to the challenge blog, and show us what you can do!

Best Wishes,

Nikki K

Indigoblubelle &
Challenge Design Team Member

Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge - May - Stamping with Potatoes!

Hi everyone,

It was back to childhood for me this week, and a great, fun piece to make for the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge.

The theme is stamping with Potatoes!

You can see all the Design Team's inspiration here, and we really would love you to join us this month and just have fun with this challenge!

For my piece, I started with Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, and Picked Raspberry, and covered a piece of white card randomly.  Once done, I spritzed the card with a secret ingredient. . .Dettol!  It's just the clear kitchen spray dettol, but I stumbled upon the idea one day when I couldn't find my water spritzer, and just happened to grab the nearest spray. . .

Blot the card after a few seconds, and it leaves a lovely distressed effect.  I edged the panel in spiced marmalade distress ink.

After this, I carved my potato stamp, and chose Indigoblu's Goldfinger paint to stamp in.  I painted a thin layer onto my stamping mat,

Then stamped randomly over the background.

I had repeated the distress ink pattern onto another piece of card, but adding dusty concord for a bit of contrast.  The edge of the card is stamped with English Florish, and on top of that I stamped Indigoblu's Big Butterfly, and clear embossed it.  I used the sentiment from BFF, and also clear embossed it and edged it in spiced marmalade.

This is the final card, hope you like it!

You have a whole month to join in the challenge and play with potatoes, how much fun is that?

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge April - Bottles!

Hi all,

If you already have your copy of May's Craft Stamper magazine, you will have seen the fab bottles and bottle related cards, and the ace free stamp this month.  The April monthly challenge has also been running a week now, and we would love you to have a go yourself, and join in the Craft Stamper April Challenge, and show us your makes.

All you need to do is use a bottle as a main feature, whether it's a real bottle, a stamped bottle, a bottle tag, or label for a bottle, it's fine.  We just need to see stamping on your make.  Hop across to the blog for some more inspiration, and the dreaded rules.  (There aren't many I promise, you just need to use bottles in some shape or form, and blog your make, with a link back to the actual post, not your general blog please).

Any paints, inks etc are allowed, run riot!

Here is my DT piece for the reminder, I took an old Port bottle (courtesy of the husband), and covered it in music paper, just like paper mache.  At that stage, I didn't know I would end up covering it all up, but it's a surprise if you look through the bottom of the bottle.  I then pasted different types of lace, doilies, and material all over the bottle, to give the textured look.  I was going to show you step by step, but forgot to take photo's as I got carried away on this one.

I gesso'd and then sprayed the bottle with Indigoblu Cottage paints in Townhouse Teal and Banana custard, mixed with a little water in a spritzer bottle.

The stamp set I have used is Under the Sea, by Indigoblu also, it's one of the newer sets that came out in February at the Trade show, and as I'm a seaside lass at heart, I can't resist it.  The shells were stamped in Versafine Sepia, and then sprayed with a little paint to co-ordinate the colour.  I cut them out and arranged them around the bottle.  I stamped the tag in Deep Lagoon, and clear embossed the sentiment.  It's matted onto a little lable, and a ribbon added and tied at the back.

Let me know what you think, and don't forget to join us in this month's challenge.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xx

Indigoblu Blog Challenge 14 - Spring Blossoms

Hi everyone,

It's that time again, the blog challenge over at Indigoblu is fresh up, this month the theme is 'Spring Blossoms', and the design team have created some lovely zingy inspiration for you.  Why not come over and join us and show us your style.  All we ask is you use Indigoblu stamps and the rest is up to you.  Canvasses, cards, altered art, jewellery even, anything goes.

Here is my card for this months theme.

I used mustard seed, evergreen bough and picked raspberry distress inks, and then splashed with water to distress further.  I stamped the Best wishes, from Nottingham Lace, in picked raspberry, 2nd gen stamping.  The tulip was stamped and embossed twice, in a pearl white, and the same distress inks used to colour the panel.  The second tulip was cut out and layered over the first image.

A bright and zingy card for spring!

Now I'm sure you can show us some amazing spring cards, and lift your spirits at the same time, so pop over to the Blog Challenge and join us.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K

xx