Indigoblu Challenge Reminder - October - Time Flies

Morning all,

Today is reminder day for the Indigoblu Challenge, and this month the theme is 'Time Flies'.  I am sharing with you some of my previous makes for Indigoblu, that fit the theme, and give you some idea.  I love watches and cogs and clocks, so I have plenty of makes to choose from, but these are a few of my favourite. 

My first make is using the 'Time Flies' stamp set from Indigoblu, and is stamped with distress ink and coloured with distress ink, in first and second gen stamping all over, and in sections on the background.  It's then added to with some black stamping and layering of the card, and the sentiment.

My second piece for you is my favourite ever, I wear this all the time.  It's an Indigoblu fob watch bezel, with 6 or seven layer's of resin, containing cogs, stamping, music sheet, (yes, look closely), bits of megaflake, and embellishments.  The wings are created using the Script stamp, onto tissue paper, and glued to wire armature's.  It's then coated in several coats of resin to harden them.  Inside the fob watch, the word eccentric pops up, this was from the Sarah's Choice stamp set.

And my third piece is again distress ink and white embossing, using Music Sheet stamp set and Time Flies.  I used Vintage photo distress ink in varying levels all over the card, and stamped and embossed everything in white as a contrast.  Some embellishments are added and it's all layered up.

I hope this gives you a little inspiration for our Challenge, and you can see the ladie's inspiration HERE too.  

We would love to see your entries this month, please join us HERE.

All we need is that you use Indigoblu stamps in your design.

Good luck!

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge - May - Take a stamp.

Hi all,

It's the Craft Stamper Take it Make it May challenge, and this month is to take a stamp... any stamp!

Our sponsor this month and the fab prize is from Wow! - This really is a lovely one too, this fabulous lace stamp, and a case of 6 vintage embossing powders.  Oh why can't I enter....

I'd love to get my hands on those embossing powders and that pretty stamp!  They would all work with my favourite medium... resin!

That leads me to my creation for this month's challenge, it's one of my spoon necklaces, using resin and stamped flowers.  The flower's are from Indigoblu's new Giant Peony stamp, I love the little extra delicate flower's, and they were perfect for this.  Each flower is stamped, coloured in (I used pro markers), and then cut out.  They are individually sealed so the resin doesn't seep through the images, it's not the effect I wanted here, and then they are set into layer's of resin, it took around five days to make, layer by layer.

I added a few watch cogs in the layer's, and near the top a sprinkle of glamour dust glitter, to give some iridescence.

I love using old spoons for necklaces, they take some bending but I think the effort is worth it!

So we'd love to see your entries, any project you've stamped - doesn't have to be a card.  It has to be new, and not entered before, but I'm sure you talented peeps will amaze us as usual!

You can enter the challenge here: 

Hope you can join us, make sure you hop on over and see the rest of the Design Team's amazing creations, and leave us some comments if you like too.

Best Wishes,

Nikki.
xx

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 - 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

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

Kay on Create & Craft tomorrow!

Hi everyone,

A quick note to say you can catch the wonderful Kay Halliwell-Sutton with her Indigoblu products on Create and Craft tomorrow, at 9am and 3pm.  With new stamps, products and demonstrations for you.

This is a sneak of a card I made, of one of the stamps that Kay will be showing tomorrow, More than Words.  Of course, if you pop across to Indigoblu now. .. you'll find this link leads you to this very stamp on the website!  I love this plate, I was laughing out loud when the DT received it, so funny.

Well I know that's teasing, but you will have to tune in to see more :)  The rest of the DT have done some amazing samples, to really inspire you.

I also just thought I'd mention that the March Indigoblu Blog Challenge - Going for Gold is on, so if you haven't entered, pop across and take a look and show us your work.  You never know, you could win some great stamps!  (And you get to choose, how cool is that?).  The other great news is that there is space still on the April Retreat, pop across HERE to book.  I can't tell you how cool the classes are, I've had a sneak peak at one and can't wait to do it myself next weekend!  The other's are a surprise even to me.

I'm off out now, for a girls night out, so I've taped the 9am show, as I might not quite make it!

Have fun,

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

New Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Monthly Challenge - March 2014

Morning everyone,

You might have seen that I shared some news on Facebook earlier in the week, that I had been asked to join a great new Design Team over at Craft Stamper magazine, for the Take it, Make it Challenge.

Today the challenge is open, and will be monthly from now on, with a fantastic team to inspire you each month.  I am in awe of the talent on the team, and can't believe I made it!

So this is my interpretation of the theme - Monoprinting.  We were asked to take an acrylic block, 'smoosh' it with paint, turn it on to a suitable substrate, and use the resulting prints we made in a card or artwork of our choice, and in any way.

I used some gold acrylic paint I had, and Indigoblu's Cottage paints in Winberry Pie and Grandma's Teacup.  I love these paints as they are so high in polymers they print brilliantly, and come out nice and smooth. The colours are pretty fab too!

As I had plenty of my printed background left, I decided to die cut lot's and lots of Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, and layer them with stamping.  I used 'Beautiful Mind', and the words from the 'Boadicea' stamp plates from Indigoblu.  The female phrenology head made a lovely base for her hair to be made of flowers.

I coloured some brad's with alcohol inks, to make the centre of the flowers.  The words were stamped on little pieces of leftover background, cut out and inked around the edges with stazon in Midnight blue, the same as the main piece.  I used M|idnight blue and Gothic purple to stamp the main image, words and chemistry signs on the flowers.

This is the finished piece, I love the subtle glow of the gold through the muted colours.

So come and join us in the Take it, Make it Craft Stamper Challenge, show us your Monoprints, remember it doesn't have to be a background, all we need is monoprinting somewhere on your artwork, and of course, rubber stamping.

Have fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki K
xx

From the Heart - Indigoblu Challenge Jan/Feb 2014

Good Morning everyone,

Today is the day of the new Challenge over at the Indigoblu Challenge Blog.  The winner of  'Your Favourite Indigoblu stamp' will also be announced over there, and you can see all the entries from the last month.

This is my DT piece for this month's challenge 'From the Heart'.  It's extremely simple, but I think the colours worked well.  It's a large chipboard tag, painted with 'Grandma's Teacup' Cottage paint, and I've stamped and embossed all over in seafoam white embossing powder.

I used Ikkle Poppy, the birds from Mr Darcy, the flower meadow from Poppy Meadow, and the dinkie Poppy Heart stamps.

I added a simple cream ribbon, and there you have it, effective but simple.

Pop across and see the Design Team's inspiration, and have a go!  Great stamps on offer each month as prizes, and we would love to see your work.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Get Crafty with Creative Connections!

Hi all,

I've been a member of the Creative Connections Design Team for the monthly challenge for a while now, but we now have an exciting new blog to play on!

Each month will bring a new challenge, open to all to enter,  May's challenge is 'Weather', and you can see the Design Team's interpretation's here.

Not only is there a monthly challenge, but the Design Team will be contributing to the blog with ideas, stories, tutorials, musings, and much more.

If you haven't heard of Creative Connections, it is a huge online community of like-minded people, we promote each other, have events pages, classifieds, swap shops, and the fabulous Creative Crafting magazine, all free for you to join and browse.

From Creative Connections comes the amazing Craftfest, the biggest online Craft fair, that runs for a whole week.  The next 'Fest' is on 29th June to 6th July 2013.  You can come along just to browse or buy, or book your own stall. Just click on the 'Craftfest' link above.

You won't regret joining this great team of people, they are all about supporting each other as small businesses, and some of the nicest people I have 'virtually' met! 

And if you are a shopper, you will experience great customer service, attention to detail, and an individuality unrivalled on the high street. 

Well this was my DT piece for the May challenge, do you like the way it matches my nails?  It's a vintage image, printed on high quality matte paper, sealed, and set in jeweller's grade Ice Resin, in a gunmetal adjustable ring blank.

Especially appropriate for the beautiful sunshine we have had over the last two days, I must admit to being slightly beetroot around the arms, I was responsible with the suntan lotion, just obviously not enough. . .

I'm off to walk the dog in the last of the evening sunshine, have fun everyone.

xx