Together on Furlough by Michelle Henderson

I'm back again today with a more "traditional" vintage layout this time, using the wonderful Limited Edition paper range designed by Michelle Grant.

A sneaky sneak...

I started with some stamping ink and my platform, stamping along the top edge of my page with the Unpredictable stamp and the Original paper.

 I then used the Enough stencil and Heavy White Gesso to stencil some cogs here and there in a vaguely vertical area, either side of the pattern.

Time to add colour - I used Colour Shimmer Dust in Lush , which I sprinkled on after spraying with water...

I thinned some Colour Artist Ink in Walnut down into a mister, and then sprayed through the same stencil in a couple of areas, and splattered a bit of both colours here and there. I also used the Colour Shimmer Brush Marker in Gold for some splatter - loving that sparkle 😍

I used the watered down Walnut to edge my diecut clock, and undiluted Walnut on the chipboard, which I also edged with the Gold marker.

I also mixed some Colour Mica Powder in Olive Grove and Espresso into clear gel, and used it to alter some metal cogs.

I realised I hadn't taken all the photos I meant to, so here's exactly what I used...

And here's how it ended up - 

See you next time!

Trust by Suzanne Franin

Hey Everyone Suzanne here

My project was a gift for a friends birthday and this quote is perfect for her

I didn't want to do to much to the frame so I kept it simple and let the photo stand out

I used Colour Mica Powder Espresso with water over the frame 

Then went outside and sprayed a good coat of the Helmar Crystal Kote Fixative It's fantastic to stop the Colour Mica Powders from coming off without having to use it with another type of medium and this way you don't loose the gorgeous shimmer

On the background of the frame it had a fabulous texture so I used Some Colour Paste Blush just with a palette knife 
I didn't want it too thick so you can still see the texture
The Colour Paste Blush is so pretty

I had this flower in my stash (well I have lots of them) and it went perfect with everything 

I wanted to put it on the corner of the frame so I added a couple of piece of cardboard to the back of it

As you can see it needed the two pieces for the height

Then I ran some pearls through some glue to lay over the frame

I had some plain white leaves and wanted to add a bit of sparkle to it so I used some embossing liquid on the edges of the leaf then dipped it into the Colour Embossing Powder Snow White then heated it with my heat gun till it melted 

I had lots of sparkle everywhere but my leaf looked so pretty and added the pop of sparkle it needed on the frame

Here you can see the difference between the leaves

Well I hope you enjoyed my project

Thank you for visiting and I hope you will be back soon x

I like Big Cups by Michelle Henderson

Hi everyone! 

I'm so happy to have been chosen to join this fabulous team, and as the only Kiwi, I'm going to try to do NZ proud!

 I live in Christchurch, in the South Island of NZ, and have been scrapping for nearly 20 years (gulp) with my two sometimes reluctant daughters as the main focus of my pages.
I thought for my first project I would share one of my addictions... (other than crafting!)

Here's my first page...

As I didn't have any gesso to hand, I used watercolour paper as my base, which reacts differently when using inks.

Firstly I covered most of the paper with water, to allow the Colour Artist Inks to flow and mix beautifully. I used a little Citrus firstly, then more of Spice, and finally a touch here and there of Cranberry. I covered about two thirds of the page at the bottom and then a small area at the top to balance it.

I grabbed a coffee ring stamp and used my Versamark stamp pad to make a sticky impression which I then sprinkled with Colour Mica Powder in Espresso. I carefully brushed off the excess.

I also decided at this point to use the Shimmer Brush Marker in Gold and tapped it to spatter a few little spots here and there. I love how shimmery they are, totally live up to their name 💓

I felt it still needed more in the way of coffee stains, so I used a stencil and dabbed on some Colour Artist Ink in Walnut with a wipe. I used the same colour to tint some hessian strip that would be one of my layers.

I thought it was nearly there, just one more thing - so I used a random spotty stencil and added a little Sienna Colour Paste to the left of my photo layer area, and the secondary area at the top of the page.

Things were looking pretty good by this stage, so I assembled my layers and embellie clusters and stuck them down. I almost always include some thread, as it helps to tie everything together. Finally the title went on, along with a spot of journaling.


I hope you like the finished page as much as I do - thanks for visiting!

Swagger- by Fiona Hughes

Hi there Colourblasters. 

Here again, to share my layout for today.

This is my middle child, Ethan. He is a good looking young man at 19yrs old. He is a born leader and is involved in Herbalife. Regularly, he is asked to speak , do presentations, or give his testimonial. (Proud Mumma right here!)

So here we go! I picked some light kraft cardstock (heavy gauge), and the left over Colour Mica Powders (in- Olive Grove & Espresso), that I'd been using on another project.

Using a wet, soft paintbrush, I loaded it with the leftover medium, and splattered it over the page in a "+" shape, on the central part of the page.

Once dry, I splattered some of the awesome, Stormy Weather - Colour Shimmer Spray, in the same configuration.

Once this was dried I chose an irregular  spotty stencil, and, through it I smooshed Leather Colour Paste, vertical & randomly.

Take a look!.......

I let  the paste dry naturally,  then I was ready to put my page together.

Some lovely Australian designers...  I have kept it pretty minimalist for this layout, with just the small pop of green in the matt for the pic and the cotton nest for the flair button. I used a black paint pen to draw a border around the page to bring it all together.

Finally, a few sprinkles of Steel & Leather- Colour Shimmer Spray.

Hope you like it.
Cheers, Fi  x

Breathe - Art Journal page with Melinda Sweetman

Hello fellow Colour Blast lovers!! Melinda here with you today and I am sharing my latest DT project which is another art journal page! Here is a bit of a sneaky peek

And I am playing along with the September challenge which is

So, remember, you have until the end of the month to load your project into this album on Facebook using the prompts provided!

And here are my step-by-steps (I did MEAN to have a process video, phone was loaded and ready to go but I forgot to press record!!)

First up I picked a page in my art journal that I had applied some left over products from another project onto some time ago! My White Heavy Gesso and a paint brush and applied a very random (I did not cover the whole page) layer of gesso.

Next up, I of course heat set that first, some stamping for texture. I grabbed my archival black ink and a couple of stamps I wanted to use and again, randomly applied those across my page.

Again with the heat gun! And next was some actual texture! Here I grabbed my Colour Mica Powders in Espresso and Polar. First I mixed the Espresso with some White Heavy Gesso (I accidently discovered you get this beautiful grey colour when you mix these products together!) and then applied randomly through a stencil. 

I cleaned up that mixture and again with the gesso but this time Polar Mica Powder. I had left the stencil in place so again applied this colour randomly over the stencil, both over lapping the other colour and some by itself.

I love how this stencilling came out!! Remember, the more colour you add the bolder the colour you will get mixing it with white gesso!

I left that to dry naturally and started work on my chipboard. I picked a single word for my title and decided to emboss it using the gorgeous Just Blue Colour Embossing Powder. First up however, I wanted a "cleaner" colour so I applied a quick coat of gesso and let that dry.

Next up, I grabbed my embossing ink dabber, applied liberally, added embossing powder in Just Blue, shook off excess and heat set. So pretty!

While embossing I decided that the background needed some more colour so I activated my Just Blue Colour Shimmer Cube by adding a little water. When that was ready to go I applied the watercolour to the page, spritzed with more water and turned and titled the page until I got the colour where I wanted it. 

Time to put the finishing touches on! Before I stuck anything down however I decided that I had this new stamp that I HAD to use so I stamped that 3 times onto some tissue paper, heat set and tore around.

Using some different fibres, my title and 2 of my butterflies I came up with placing that I was happy with and stuck everything down. Wet glue for the fibres and title and matt medium for the butterflies.

Oops, I nearly forgot my last 2 finishing touches!! I grabbed some tiny blue beads and matt medium and stuck some of those down around my title - I feel like I now need some shells!  

And then I grabbed my fan brush and my Roadbase Colour Spray for some black splatters!

I love, love, love how this came out! I challenged myself when I started this page to keep LOTS of white space - which is VERY unusual for me in my art journal. I was lucky enough to have Fiona Paltridge create a page in my journal and one of the things I really loved about it was that not every single inch of the paper was covered so I though I'd give it a go myself!! Here are a couple more close ups!

Swoon, I so LOVE all that texture!

That's it for me for today so have fun playing with your fun Colour Blast goodies and make sure you pop into the FB group to share your creations, we love to see what is being made!!

Happy scrapping!

Melinda

xx