Forever 21!

Happy Thursday everyone,

What an exciting day it is today.  The wait is over, all the hinting is done and the BIG day is finally here.  Yes, the Indigo Blu 'Forever 21' Challenge Blog  has gone live this morning.  What do you think?  The Forever 21 bit is because we've all decided that's what we'd like to be! so the 21st was a good day to launch.

It's going to be a monthly challenge, with a different theme each month.  Don't worry, we'll keep them relatively easy (to begin with  -  mwahhaha!!!!!!).  There's going to be fab prizes for the winner and of course a Winners Badge for you to proudly display on your Blogs.
There'll be a new challenge starting on the 21st of each month, so there's plenty of time for you to design something fabulous.  All we ask is that you follow the challenge rules - there's not many (see the Blog post for details)  Your entry can be anything at all,  so you can make cards, mini books, scrapbook pages, tags, altered art, you choose, just stick to the monthly theme.  There's a Linky thingy at the end of the post for you to enter your projects.  

Exciting eh!  Well, here goes our first challenge ......

This month's theme is...........    

BLUE

(we couldn't start with anything else really ..... could we!)

We want to see gorgeous Blue projects - now that can be anything at all.  I've started off with a card .......

Challenge #1   Blue

This is definitely BLUE.  It's a nice big 8x8 card and I've used the Live Laugh Love stamp set.

I made my background using Pan Pastels, blended onto a piece of the Indigo Blu Perfect Stamping Card.  I then stamped the flower randomly all over using Versamark ink and sponged over the top again with Pan Pastels.  The tacky ink picks up the colour and Voila! you get your stamped image.  Next, the tricky part (if you can call it that).  I cut myself a few masks for the flower.  The easiest, and quickest way to do this is to stamp the image onto a pad of  Post It notes, making sure that part of it is actually over where the sticky bit is.  Take off however many sheets you need - I did 6,  keep them all stuck together.  Carefully cut around your stamped image, and there you go, all your masks done at once. 

Carefully mask off the flowers, you don't need to do all of them at once, just cover the ones in the area where your background stamp is going to go.  I used the Crackleglaze background and stamped using a blue Versafine ink.  Repeat over the whole of the card, moving your masks as you go.

Using one of the Rotating erasers (available on the website) I then 'coloured' my flowers.  Well, actually I supposed I took the colour away, but you know what I mean.  Made them white!  Added a piece of navy satin ribbon across the bottom,  and there you have it, background done.

I stamped more of the flowers, some leaves and the cute little bird, in Deep Lagoon Versafine ink, then cut them all out.  The little chap's been coloured using Pan Pastels again, then I've taken the colour away, just touches here and there on his wings, just to highlight.

Using my cut out flowers and leaves, along with a few paper flowers, some pearls and a beautiful Memory Box Flourish, I made a pretty arrangement in the bottom corner of my card and added a navy satin ribbon bow.

The sentiment has been stamped and cut out using one of the Nestabilites dies, inked around the edge with the die still in place with a touch of Distress ink, then layered onto some navy cardstock.

I added the little bird to finish it all off.   I don't use a lot of blue in my card making, but I like how this has all come together.

Check out the Challenge Blog to see more great 'Blue' designs from the rest of the DT.

Have we inspired you to enter?  I've said there's a monthly prize, well with it being the first challenge it's a rather special prize..........  Indigo Blu goodies to the value of a whopping £125!!!!  Yes, the lucky winner of the first Forever 21 Challenge will recieve a Flitter Glu Starter Kit, a tube of the brand new Kroma Crackle, and all 8 brand new stamp plates launching on Create and Craft on Sunday - yes, can you believe all 8 of them!!  Wow! what a prize.  But,as the saying goes .......  you have to be in it to win it.  So get crafting!!

The winner will be chosen by Mr random.org on the 20th March and will be showcased on the next Challenge Blog post.  Good luck!

Thanks for popping by.  Have a great 'Blue' day.

Cheerio for now

Linda

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