Star Struck by Malinda

Hi Malinda here with my 2nd share of the month.

I did this page at a recent retreat I run in Melbourne called Scrap and Chat Retreats.

I love this page (sorry not very humble lol) because of the awesome texture and contrast in the colours. 

Do you like it?

First up I have to admit straight up all of the background "stuff" I didn't do...it's a paper from the 7 Dots Studio Hazy Days Collection...isn't it amazing.

So to add to the background I wanted to add some points of interest, some texture and some dimension, so I used Sunshine Colour Paste, a stencil and an old card and wiped over the stencil on random parts of the stencil.

Next I "painted" some raw wood veneers with Midnight Colour Shimmer Dust. This stuff is my fav thing to use at the moment. I can use it in multiple ways on one page and only have to use a tiny bit to get a true strong colour. I love the depth and the shimmer of the shimmer dust. I'll use it again for my splats later on.

Whilst the stars were drying, and they dry super quick; another bonus of the shimmer dusts...very quick drying, I stamped, matt my photos (in black CS of course) and arranged my embellishments. I was missing something yellow, a focal point so I took a white plain material flair and sprayed it with Sunshine Colour Shimmer Spray.

The flair button didn't take long to dry, the material soaked up the excess spray and I gave it a quick dry with the heat gun.

Last but definitely not least I used the left over liquid Midnight Colour Shimmer Dust to do some splats.

I love how it adheres to the page and the paste and whatever it drips onto. It's like it has melted or burnt the page. Cool hey?

So that's my latest page...and I love it. Don't you love it when you do a page and it just comes together just the way you imagined it...doesn't happen often for me lol.

Happy scrapping....Mal xxx

"What do I use Mica Powder for....?" by Melissa Struhs

I hope everyone's weekend has been a relaxing and crafty one! Have you had a chance to play along with the challenge this month? There are still a few days left to enter and be in the chance to win $30 to spend on Colour Blast products...

Most of all, some of the Design Team have been playing along and it has been great to revisit the range of Colour Mica colours. The most common question I get asked is what do you use them for when I am teaching...so instead of a layout today, I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at how the Mica's look in a mixed in with other mediums.

There are 8 stunning colours in the range and you can create some gorgeous tints of colours depending on how much you use as well as what you mix it into.... let's start with Gesso and a Clear Cackle Medium. This is what I have used in my samples below. 

The top row of my samples are using a Clear Crackle Medium and you can so how bold the colour is and will retain the metallic and shimmery effect...

and the bottom row utilises a White Heavy Gesso and creates a soft pastel with a matte finish.

The Colour Mica Powder can be added a little at a time until you get the intensity that you are after. A couple of hints...

1. You really need to mash the Mica through the medium for far longer than you think. Keep folding it through as you add more.

2. I let the medium intensify on my non stick mat for 5 minutes before I apply to my projects. This allows me to see if the colour is the right shade or not. You will be glad you give yourself time to experiment when you see how much it changes in a handful moments.

Colours from Left to Right are: Lemon Zing, Peach Nectar, Watermelon and Polar

and

 and Olive Grove, Cool Mint, Wisteria and Espresso

Why not make the time to experiment with the mediums you have in your stash...try impasto, modelling paste or a gel based medium and see what works best. You could make yourself a sample swatch like I have and pop them on a ring for quick reference when searching for the perfect colour for your designs.

Till next time,

Mel. 

  

Flying Baby with Melinda Sweetman

Hello there Colour Blast friends and fans! Melinda Sweetman here with you today sharing my latest make as part of the DT!

I decided to play along with the August challenge this month and instead of using just one product I have used 2 but in a RAINBOW of colours!!

Here again is the August challenge for you

I have used the Colour Spray and a Colour Paste.

Here is the line up of my sprays

Like I said, a RAINBOW! In it's true ROYGBIV form! Yep, I'm using Indigo and Violet but from left to right the colours are:

Love, Sunset, Saffron, Rainforest, Lagoon, Indigo and Violet. 

And just a refresher if you are  not sure, the Colour Sprays are beautifully pigmented flat colour with no shimmer but gorgeous none the less!!

Here is what I did with my Colour Sprays

This is a technique I have been meaning to use for ages but just kept forgetting! I have simply sprayed each colour 2 or 3 times straight onto the bubble wrap - which I cut to roughly 12x12 size - and then put my textured card stock on top and did some reverse stamping! No gesso needed as there was  not a lot of water being added to the page.

This is what my stamping looked like!! I just love it! And so too does my 7 year old who chose the photo's I am scrapping today ;) Needless to say, they HAD to be of him!!

I left that to dry naturally and added a couple of layers of white tissue paper behind my photo. By the time I got that stuck my background was dry and ready for me to do my next layer, which was some stamping in both a light and dark grey ink.

I did a real quick dry off with my heat tool and added another layer. This time I wanted sparkle and not much colour so I grabbed the beautiful Snow White Colour Paste and this fun 7 Dots stencil.

As you can see in the photo the paste goes on white with some shimmer but as it dries it goes clear with SO MUCH shimmer. It is beautiful and I love that you can still see the stamping and the rainbow through the paste.

Time for some coordinating embellishments. 

I chose wood veneer from Cocoa Vanilla Studios and 3 of the Colour Sprays - Love, Lagoon and Indigo and just painted the colour straight onto the veneer. I hurried along the drying process with my heat tool and then my next step was, of course, more shimmery goodness!!

I used my embossing ink dabber and of course the Snow White Colour Embossing Powder. 2 coats just to make sure they were super shimmery ;)

With all of my bits coloured and dried it was time to assemble my page and here is the final design

I felt that the white edge left a little something to be desired so I found this fun rainbow patterned paper in my stash, gutted it, cut down my white and attached my page. I think it really makes the whole page come together - especially with that rainbow stitched border!

Here are a few more close ups! Well, quiet a few close ups actually! Enjoy!

Here you can see all that beautiful shimmer from the Colour Paste!

I tried to keep the embellishments within the background colours and love how the veneer came out!

So, that is my challenge for August done and I love the end result using a technique I have wanted to try for AGES!

There is a process video available, just click the play button below!

You can load up your take on the challenge here in the FB group and I hope I have inspired you to play along for the chance of a Colour Blast voucher!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Melinda

Be Daring Today - by Fiona Hughes

Hi everyone. I'm back to share another of my layouts today. Once again I have recycled some, (what many would call rubbish, I call...), leftover remnants. Here is the final product, what do you think?

Let's get started......

I started with a piece of heavy gauge white cardstock, to which I stuck the leftover surrounds from a 12x12 die-cut sheet. Then covered the entire page with Heavy White Gesso & allowed it dry naturally, to prevent buckling of the cardstock. I love how this looks, it gives so much  subtle texture to the overall layout.
(picture pre-gesso below)

To build up the background texture, I picked a bubble stencil and 3 Colour Pastes- Deep Water, Stormy Weather & Steel. I splodged globs of all 3 colours, randomly on the stencil, from left bottom corner, upwards diagonally to  the right top corner.

I grabbed a 40cm plastic ruler and made only 2 swipes across the page, so as not to mix the colours. The result was 2 distinct areas top and bottom, with the 3 colours easily seen.

I grabbed my Colour Shimmer Sprays in Deep Water & Stormy Weather, and using the "smooshing"/packaging technique, added some more colour over, the now dried, Colour Paste spots.

After letting that dry, I wanted a little more randomness,  & I chose the Colour Shimmer Spray in Dusty Charcoal. Using the tubing from the nozzle,  I splattered flicks of shimmery magic over the page.

To finish this baby off, I embellished with phrase stickers,  paper flowers, flair buttons and a lovely teal hessian heart. I also split the title  to top & bottom, following the diagonal flow of the layout. The Be Daring part of the title, was originally raw watercolour card, so I used the Deep Water shimmer spray to colour it too.

This layout is, again, showcasing my journey of trying to learn some self-love this year. Thanks so much for humouring me and looking at my page today. I hope you can take something from it and use it yourself, with your own Colourblast goodies,  on one of your next pages, (I'd love to see the results).

 I hope your day is amazing. Here's to the weekend.

Cheers, Fi x

Relax by Suzy Loudon

Hello Colour Blast Friends. I bring to you another layout I did using the wonderful Colour Blast range. 
I hope I can inspire you to have a play with these wonderful products. 

To begin with I spread Heavy White Gesso roughly across my 7Dots paper. 

Once dry I sprayed water over the Gesso. Then using the magical Colour Shimmer Dusts I sprinkled a very small amount onto the water and watched the colour erupt. A little extra sprays of water helped it spread. 

 I used Paris, Peacock, Cobalt & Lush. 

I dried it using my heat gun moving my page around as I went. 

I activated some beautiful Colour Shimmer Cubes with water. Then using a wet paintbrush I brushed Blush, Deep Water & Singin' The Blues on my flowers. I then also blended some Just Blue around the edges of my blue flower.

I did two coats of Colour Embossing Powder in Blush on my chipboard.

My word title was in a colour that didn't go with my page so I gave it a coat with Bling Colour Embossing Powder.

I had a wing that I had made with resin but it was a bit too creamy so I coated it with some Snow White Colour Embossing Powder.

Putting my page together I added some die cuts, cheese Cloth & a charm & I was done.

Here's a couple of close ups...trying to capture the wonderful shimmer is so hard.

Thanks once again for looking.

See you next time.

xx Suzy