beYOUtiful by Danielle Vertigan

I've been offline with some technical issues but I'm so glad to be back!!!

Its been a massive few days getting everything up and running....

But Its done,

I'm here...

And I'm ready with a layout featuring all things green.

(My favourite Colour!!)

I started with my usual step of adhering my cardstock to a sheet of chipboard.

I do this using a high tac double sided tape, running along the 4 edges and also 4 strips through the middle from top to bottom.

Using the Envy Colour Paste I first mixed it with a little water to thin it before applying it to my cardstock with a spatula creating this rough plus sign.

It doesn't need to be smooth or even.

I selected two different stencils and first applied Dusty Charcoal Colour Paste through the small circles. Once dry this was followed by Steel Colour Paste with the cobblestone stencil.

Whilst the Steel was still wet I sprinkled with the Dusty Charcoal Colour Embossing Powder.

I removed the excess and dried with the heat gun.

This sets off the Embossing Powder and creates another texture in the Colour Paste as it bubbles from the heat.

A black gel pen adds another texture.

You can do this freehand or with a stencil.

Keep in mind you can use anything around you!

To create my circles I've used the inside of my tape rolls (I had 2 different sizes)

the outside edge of a glue pen and then finished by free handing the small circles and the border edge.

I love Colour Shimmer Dust and needed to create a little mix!

I needed the Lush to be softened and the Peacock a touch more green.

So a little mix in a pot and Whalla!! I added some water and I'm ready to go!

As seen in the above pics this was added to the layout in the left of my cross and the right.

I applied this with a Paint Brush using a splatting motion.

I wanted the random flicks.

This will get messy and you will most definitely want to get this into a splatter cubby or spritzing box to help keep your workspace clean.

I also wanted drips so I added more product with the brush creating pools on my page then titled it to encourage drips in the desired direction.

Just using the excess in my brush I traced the circles.

I also added some into the cross in different areas to help blend the colour.

Once dried I used a white gel pen to trace the circles free hand and soften the edges.

Along my straight edges of the green plus I drew lines with what I call heart blips in them.

These where done in different lengths in clusters with each other.

I repeated the same process with the white gel pen the same as I did with the circles.

I cut down a 5x7 photo to the size that suited my layout

I chose to keep my chipboard and wood raw

and also included a sprinkle of sequins.

You can see in the above and below pics how the white pen impacts the page.

This is a great shot of the texture added with the Colour Embossing Powder.

Thanks for stopping by....

I hope you enjoyed my little journey as this all came together.

It was a lot of fun to create.

The colour is so rich and the shimmer as always is divine!

Till next time.....

Danni



Secret Santa Gift Tags with Melinda Sweetman

Hi there fellow Colour Blast lovers, Melinda here with you today sharing some fun Christmas tags I made for my family Secret Santa gift exchange!

I seriously had a lot of fun putting these together and just playing so I really cannot recommend highly enough JUST PLAYING! It's so fun and you never know, you may make your most fave thing ever!

If you would like to see my process click on the link below for my process video, otherwise read on for my step-by-steps!!

First up I cut some tag shapes with my Silhouette Cameo (you could do the same with either a die, some pre-cut tags or even hand cut your own tags) onto plain white cardstock. I used my sketch pens and I font I LOVE to write out everyone's name knowing I wanted to water colour them.

I left the tags attached to my mat so that I could easily keep track of all the bits and took it over to my work space and got to work. 

First up some grey chalk ink with a Darkroom Door background stamp (Christmas Script) randomly stamped across all the tags.

I then grabbed the gorgeous Peacock Colour Shimmer Dust, added a little to an empty ephemera pack with a little water and used a little paint brush to colour the names on each of the tags.

I used some of the left over mix to add splatters across all the tags and when that was dry moved onto the colour paste.

I grabbed a little stencil from my stash and my Steel Colour Paste and again, added that randomly through the stencil across all the tags.

I knew I wanted to include pops of red so I grabbed out some packaging and my Love Colour Spray to do the trusty packaging technique to add some pops of red.

I used the nozzle to apply some splatters of the Love across all the tags as well.

I decided to add a flair to each tag so grabbed a few from my stash along with some red sewing thread to make a little nest for each flair. 

After they were all attached I decided I wanted a little more sparkle so grabbed my Steel Colour Shimmer Spray and added some splatters with the nozzle.

A couple of finishing touches including red and white twine and some sequins and 8 tags ready to go!

I'm really pleased with how these turned out and best of all I really did have a lot of fun creating them!

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas Day celebrations and perhaps some of you even found some Colour Blast goodies under the tree?!

I can't wait to share my next post in the New Year so until then, stay safe, celebrate in style and get messy!

Melinda

Picture Perfect by Suzy Loudon

I'm afraid I've been in Christmas denial this year so just couldn't pull a Christmas layout together. So I've stuck with a nice bright cheery layout to brighten our summer days.

To begin with I tore around the edges of a sheet of watercolour paper. I stuck it down onto a random old sheet of paper (I'm sure we all have plenty of old paper in our stash). I then sewed twice around edge with my sewing machine. I marked out where I wanted to put my photos then using Stazon Ink added some stamping.

Using a tiny amount of Colour Shimmer Dust (it goes such a long way) I sprinkled it onto the paper then used my water bottle to spray.

I did this alternating between colours and drying each time. The Colour Shimmer Dusts I used were Passion, Paris, Lollipop & Peacock.

I then used Colour Paste in Snow White through a stencil.

Some small hearts were added using a stencil again with Colour Paste in Lovely Lilac.

I coloured all my flowers using the same Colour Shimmer Dusts. I used my water pens to dip into the Dust. Then mixed the colour on my craft mat. Leaving some of the colour intense I then squeezed more water out mixing some of the intense colour in to make a lighter tone. This way as I painted my flowers (with the water brush) I got different shades. (I tried to make the edges darker...I succeeded with some)

Using Passion Colour Shimmer Dust I sprinkled some on my craft mat then sprayed with water. I ran my cheese cloth through it soaking up the colour. I then dried it with my heat gun.

I gave my title 2 coats of Colour Embossing Powder in Lipstick.

In assembling my elements together I kept it pretty simple. I stuck down some lace, added my coloured cheese cloth, my flowers, a die cut and a few sparklies.

All my flowers used (apart from the one left white) were coloured with the Colour Shimmer Dusts. I am so happy with the way they turned out. I seriously love these Dusts...now to buy the colours I don't have!!! Hmmm...maybe that's the way to get into the Christmas spirit!

Hope you've enjoyed my layouts this year and you've been inspired to create some of your own.

May you have a wonderful and safe Christmas.

See you next year!

Suzy.

"Gorgeous" LO by Michelle Logan

Hi Colour Blast fans!

I am back with a Mixed Media fun in the form of a LO featuring one of my nieces that live a long way away in the States.

I love getting their photos, it is a chance for me to get a girlie fix, not that this page is very girlie really you could do the same for a masculine page too.

So here is the page:

And now a few step by step pics to show how I created it:

I drew roughly where I wanted to place the ball flower thingies...lets call them blooms form now on.

I tore up old book paper and glued the pieces down with Gel Medium as a start to my Blooms.

 Once dry I added some Glass bead Gel to create some texture.

I then chose my colour scheme and gathered supplies....time to get splashy with colour!

I splattered a few drops of Colour Shimmer Spray in Bling first all over the page.

 I sprinkled Colour Mica Powder: Lemon Zing and Colour Shimmer Dust: Sunflower, Amber & Lollipop on to the Blooms then added water with a brush moving the colour around into a ball shape.

 I was not happy with the shapes they turned out a bit "Blobby" so I decided to use the sprayer out of the Colour Sprays:  Bubblegum as a "brush" and do some defining scratches to make the blobs look a little more organic and loose.

They ended up looking a little more like flowers, loved the scratchy bits.

Then I used the sprayer to splash more colour around the page. 

 

I did a total of 3 Blooms (have to work with odd numbers for balance).

I felt they still needed some texture so I reached for the Colour Embossing Powder in Bling adding a few layers heating as I sprinkled. 

I added some doodly lines to define the blooms with a Posca paint pen in Black.

I think I can call them done now!

Lastly I layered patterned paper around my photo, added the chipboard title that I painted black and lastly a few embossed chippy hearts done with the Bling Colour Embossing Powder to tie the composition together. 

So the page is done, what do you think?

The blooms were once again an experiment but I do love a play and I think they turned out ok!

The close ups don't really show the blissful shimmer of all the powders and the shine of the embossing powder sorry you shall just have to believe me when I say it looks fab!!

And that is me for the month! 

See you in the new year!