On Yer Bike!!!

Hellooo,

Well .... that's Monday over with.  I hope your week's got off to a good start.

It's not been a bad day at all here, lots of jobs done ...... samples finished, boxed up and sent, DT project done for later in the week, birthday card posted and the craft room is tidy - ready to start again tomorrow.

Here's the last of my projects, as promised, from the IndigoBlu Secret Retreat back in March ......

What a way to finish off 3 fabulous craft filled days ..... decorating this cool Penny Farthing from Prima.

I gave mine a quick dry brushing with a coat of Gee-Sso Good, follwed with some of the IndigoBlu Paints.

You can see we used the Fran-tage again ..... love the effects you can get with this product

The scene inside was created by stamping onto layers of acetate then cutting away the excess.  Working from the back, starting with the photo on the inside of the door, the layers were then attached inside the frame each one slightly forward of the last.  some had quite a few layers inside, I kept mine to four .... the photo (one of my favourtites of the little man with hubby), then the words.  Next was a layer with the grasses stamped across the bottom and I finished off with the fence from one of the sheets of Altered Egos.

I added some metal embellishments, and paper flowers

You can see I've stamped onto some of the Altered Egos to add a bit more interest ....... they take colour and ink so well.  My tip is too colour the whole sheet, before you take any of the shapes out, they're easier to handle, and let them dry completely.  You can use a heat tool, just don't let them get too hot!

Well, that was the IndigoBlu Secret Retreat - March 2014. 
Does it look like fun?  Do you fancy joining in with the next one?  Well, the dates have been set ...... for the end of October/beginning of November ....... don't leave it too long though, I believe they're filling up FAST! Check out the website for details or ring the girls at IndigoBlu HQ,  I'm sure they'll tell you what you need to know, and I'll see you there.

Over the weekend there was a rather nice, very expensive looking, large yacht called the Luna moored in Douglas Bay. Little did I know who it belonged too ........

photos from Google

I might have taken a bit more notice if I'd have known ........ Apparently it belongs to Roman Abramovich .... the owner of Chelsea FC!!!  It's a 114 metre 'Super Yacht' and was purchased by Abramovich in 2010 for a ridiculous amount of money  - £115 million!!  How the other half live or what!!

Must dash ..... there's a chinese takeaway just arrived and it's got my name on it!!!  Nom Nom!

Thanks for popping by, enjoy your evening.

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

It's a puzzle ......

Happy Sunday folks,

How's your weekend been?
I said I'd be back to show you another of the projects I did a couple of weeks ago, on the IndigoBlu Secret Retreat 
The re-run of the retreat will have come to a close now.   Another group of satisfied crafters will be packing up their stash and getting ready to head off home.

This is what Day 2 was all about ......

We created a beautiful frame that had a jigsaw puzzle attached ..... cool eh!

There was a re-cap on all the techniques used on Day 1 .... paints, texture paste, stencils etc. ..... with the addition of Fran-tage ...... love this product!!

We'd been told to take black and white photos with us, and we used these to make the focal point in the frame ...

The detail behind is made up of self adhesive canvas, that we coloured using the paints and stamps, then cut it into pieces and arranged inside the frame.  We added in some of the Altered Egos along with metal and resin embellishments from the new Prima range (the angles and cherubs are just adorable)

The whole thing is so dimensional and full of texture.

The large jigsaw pieces were coloured to match, and arranged around the edge of the frame ......

The words, and the sea weed, are from the brand new Under the Sea stamp set from IndigoBlu.  I believe this is one of the new stamp sets launching on Create & Craft later this month .... watch out for the show times.

Well, that was another busy day over with.  One more to go ....... I'll be back tomorrow to show you what we got up to on the final day of the retreat.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy your Sunday evening.  The day's ending a lot better than it started over here .... the rain has finally stopped, and we might just get a nice sunset you never know.  I don't know what I'm getting excited about though, there'll be no romantic stroll along the prom this evening .....  I've got an overdue appointment with the iron  (oh joy!)

Cheerio until next time........

Linda 

xx

Didn't we have a lovely time, the weekend we went to Retford!

Morning everyone,

Happy weekend!!

Well the IndigoBlu Retreat - part 2, is well under way by now, so that means I can blog what I got up to when I was down at HQ a couple of weeks ago.

The three day Secret Retreat back in March booked up so fast that Kay decided to add a second weekend with a repeat of the workshops, so that no-one missed out.
Keep your eyes open for the dates of the next one ..... and if you get the chance book on one!  I would recommend them to anyone.
It was a fabulous weekend ...... a fun, very busy, inky, technique filled 3 days spent in the company of a lovely bunch of ladies and the fabulous, very talented, Kay Halliwell-Sutton.  And this weekend ..... Kay's doing it all again ....... it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!!

Here's what I created on the first day of the retreat ....... an A3 'Txt Me Frame'

This is all based around a fabulous A3 sized Bible page.  Yes, I did say Bible ........ the book itself was simply amazing.  A good friend of Kay's found it and I can't believe that we cut pages from it.  I'm not a religious person at all, and I'm sorry to say that I've never read it, other than what we did in school, but it was kind of strange cutting actual pages from the book, and stamping onto them, with inks and paints etc.
Some of the group wanted specific texts, Kay said not to over think things and just pick any page.  I was quite lucky and found this one ......

Fancy it having Hubby's name on it ...... that was the only reason I chose this page.

Anyway, we used paints, including the brand new Metallic paints from IndigoBlu, which are just gorgeous,

texture pastes, and new IB stencil designs.

We added Mica powders, flitter glu, and flakes to cover the MDF frame, and add highlights

And I even sneaked a little bit of stamping on there too ...... I had to use my all time favourite IndigoBlu stamp ........ Vintage Flourish.   Have I ever mentioned how much I love this design (just a few times I think!)

We covered loads of stamping techniques ....... embossing, masking and adding colour ......

Using Gee-Sso Good to cover up some of the text so that we could stamp our own words onto it ....
(another of my favourite stamps)

And then we got to play with the new Altered Egos.  I added in a few metal bits too and then just touched here and there with the FlitterGlu and Flake to finish the whole thing off.

All in all it was a brilliant first day, with a great piece of home decor at the end of it.  I'm sure the ladies that are there this weekend are having a ball ....... Maggie and Jill I can't wait to see what you've created when you get back.

I'll be back again tomorrow with Day 2's project ........ It's a Puzzle

Thanks for looking ..... enjoy the rest of your day.  I'm off to make my weekly Merry Monday Christmas card now before the challenge closes.

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx