Forever & Ever by Kaye Halls

Good morning everyone,

I managed to sneak by while no one was looking to share a canvas that I've been working on. 

I've heard people comment that they want to try mixed media projects but they look to complicated, well hopefully after seeing my canvas you'll see that they can be as complicated or as simple as you choose to make them.

The first thing I did was to get the canvas and photo I wanted to use, then I raided my chipboard stash looking for all those pieces I've been holding on to since forever!

Once I found the pieces I wanted to use I laid them out on the canvas and played around until I had them how I liked them. I then took a photo so that I had something to refer to as I put the canvas together. 

The next thing I did was work out where I wanted my stencilled bricks to go, I added them using crackle paste and then I glued the chipboard bricks in place. The reason for this was that if the chipboard bricks had been secured in place first it would have been to difficult to keep the stencil flat on the canvas and I won't have been able to get a clean image which is what I wanted. 

I also added some texture to the chipboard bricks by dabbing the crackle paste left on my spatular over them.

After adding some more crackle paste through a different stencil I left it to dry to allow the paste to crackle. I've tried hurrying the process using a heat gun but the crackle has to happen in its own time.

While the crackle paste was drying I glued down all the chipboard with the exception of the main frame, the words and the little birds.

Once the crackle paste has dried and crackled I brushed white gesso over the entire canvas and ten set it aside to dry.

I then painted the words, the main frame and the birds with white gesso on a non-stick mat.

I found I had to give both the canvas and the seperate chipboard two coats of gesso to get the desired coverage.

Once the gesso was dry I set about adding the colour. The first thing I coloured was the words. I covered the words in clear ink and then sprinkled Lovely Lilac Colour Embossing Powder over the words. 

To get the depth of colour and shimmer I wanted I added a second layer after heating the first.

I then moved on to colouring the flowers by using Lovely Lilac Colour Shimmer Spray. I sprayed some on a non-stick mat,

And then using a paint brush I painted the petals, 

by doing this I was able to capture not only the lovely colour but the shimmer as well.

When the flowers had dried the only ting left to do was to adhere the remaining pieces to the canvas.

And here is the end result!

When I started the canvas I had intended to add additional colour by spraying the body of the canvas with other Colour Shimmer Spray colours but I decided against it as I loved the way the white background highlighted the black and white wedding photo I had used. Depending on the photo you use and your own personal taste this is another option you can try.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this has given you some ideas. Don't forget to share your projects with us over on the Colour Blast Creative Corner on Facebook.

Until next time,

Kaye 

Love by Kaye Halls

Hi all, since illness has taken out our scheduled DT for today I thought I'd stop by and share a cute and simple little page I did at a resent retreat using a photo of my little piggy Ellah and the yummy Colour Blast Colour Shimmer Dusts.

Of all the Colour Shimmer Dust colours Candy would have to be my ultimate favourite and its the main colour I've used today. I love using sprays so for this layout I mixed some Candy with water in a mini mister. The beauty of this is that you can control the intensity of colour  by how much Shimmer Dust you add. I wanted vibrant so I added a lot!

Once I had the colour I wanted I used a stencil and sprayed some random shapes, but it still looked too neat so I lightly spritz over it with the spray.

Once I'd dried the spray off with a heat gun I worked out the placement of the photo and then using black paint, a sponge and a stencil I added some random black jigsaw pieces over the top of the spray.

While that was left to dry I set about colouring the wood veneer word and phone shape. For the word "Love" I used some of the left over Candy Spray. Unfortunately the photo does not do the shimmer on this piece justice, it almost looks like it's covered in little lights.

I wanted a dark contrast for the phone shape so I used some Midnight Colour Shimmer Dust and mixed it with water in a seperate mini mister to make a spray. This didn't result in any sparkle but I love the effect I got as it soaked into the wood.

Once they were all dry the only thing left to do was assemble the page and stick everything together. I also distressed around the edge of the page and added some black distress ink as well.

And here we have the final result!

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope I've helped inspire you to have a play with all the yummy Colour Blast products available. To check out the full range just click on the Link.

Until next time,

Kaye 

A Beautiful Life by Kaye Halls

Hi Everyone, Kaye here again with a project I've been playing with. This is a prime example of projects that have evolved as I worked on them and ends up nothing like I originally envisioned.

At Christmas I was given a box of Whitakers chocolates and in true scrapbookers style I looked at the empty box and thought ...."that would make a great project!", so thats what I did.

I started with the box which I removed all the chocolate branding.

Next I painted the box inside and out with black gesso.

Once it was dry I started putting Colour Paste through a couple different stencils. I started with Deep Water and Steel in the top left hand corner.

 then I used a diamond pattern stencil and the same two colours as well as Royalty. By putting several different colours over the stencil you get a really great end result .... just make sure you clean the palette knife between colours.

 Now this is a prime example of why should plan your project out, because I didn't think of putting the die cuts on until after the Colour Paste which then meant I had to be really careful when  painted over them with the gesso. I put some bricks in the bottom left hand corner and in the top right hand corner.

 Because I wanted to create a focal point in the centre of the box lid I placed some chipboard cogs that I'd diecut inside the frame I was using and trimmed them to fit then glued them down and painted over them with black gesso.

 I painted the wooden frame with black gesso and then looked at it and thought "no, to plain" so I used Deep Water, Steel, Royalty and Stormy Weather Colour Paste on my finger as a rub over the frame. I also used them as a rub over the cogs which will end up in the centre of the frame.

 Once that was done I used a nice juicy clear ink on the top half of the chipboard word, and embossed it with Steel Colour Embossing Powder. Once it set I put another layer of ink and another layer of Steel Colour Embossing Powder to make sure I had a good thick layer. Next I repeated the process on the bottom half of the word using Royalty, making sure the colours slightly overlapped.

Once I had all the elements completed I glued down the frame with the word centred over the top.

 I then added some beads and bling to finish it off.

 And there you have it ..... the completed lid!

My next project is to make a mini album to go in the box. 

If you'd like to check out the rest of the fantastic Colour Blast products just follow this Link to the Colour Blast website.

Thanks for stopping by, have fun creating.

Until next time,

Kaye

Art Journal - Fly by Kaye Halls

Hello again, I had so much fun last time that they let me out to play again.

I'm sure like me, you're all busy with life and sometimes that can squash your creative mojo, well, it had for me until I started playing with an art journal. Todays project started out as a reverse canvas, but when the image in my mind wouldn't materialise on the canvas I put it aside and decided to just play.

First of all I took some pages from a music book I had in my stash and stamped one of my favourite butterfly stamps on it using an archival ink so the image wouldn't run.

Next I used Colour Shimmer Spray in Sunshine and Deep Water, straight from the bottle as a water colour paint. 

 I love the fact that you get the colour and the great shimmer but can still see the music and the stamped image through it.

Next I dried off the spray using a heat gun and then fussy cut around the outside of the images and set them aside.

Now comes the really messy play! Using a cog stencil and some modelling paste I stencilled the image across the journal page. I love my cogs and have lots of dies so I cut out lots of little cogs and placed them across the page too.

Using a thin paint brush I sprinkled a little Colour Shimmer Dust in Midnight across the page. As you can see there is very little on the page

But once you add a spritz of water, the magic happens, and how much magic depends on you. The more water you add the lighter the colour and obviously the further it will run.  Once I was happy with the spread of colour I used a heat gun to dry the page.

Once the page was dry I placed the butterflies in their respective spots and stuck them down by placing glue down the body only, this way the wings remain free.

 Once the butterflies were in place I used some of my favourite phrase stamps and stamped them randomly over the page using black archival ink. 

And to finish it off I added some gorgeous graphite coloured beads in random places to help highlight the colour and shimmer of the Midnight Shimmer Dust.

And there you have the complete project! A great relaxing way to get creative in only a couple hours in the evening after a long day at work.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope I've inspired you to have a play and get creative. To see the fantastic Colour Blast products I've used today just click on the Link to the website.

Until next time,

Kaye 

I Love you More by Kaye Halls

Hi Everyone, Kaye here,

I'm the DT co-ordinator so I normally stay behind the scenes and let our talented DT Team WOW you but they have let me out today to share some of my work.

I've been fascinated by the Art Journals for a long time but not being gifted with the talent to draw anything more than stick figures I'd been to scared to try. After watching our clever DT girls playing with the Colour Blast products in Art Journals at the Papercraft Expo in Brisbane I was inspired to have a go.

I'll tell you now, this is no great masterpiece but I think thats the whole point of art journals and its what makes them so much fun. You don't have to create a masterpiece, just have a play and allow your creative juices to flow.

One little trick I will give anyone playing with wet mediums in a journal for the first time is put a heat resistant sheet or something waterproof between the page you're working on and the next page otherwise you will end up with colours bleeding through to other pages.

I started off by playing with our new Colour Shimmer Dust, its a big favourite of mine because it is so easy to use and so versatile. I started off by sprinkling a small amount of Velvet over the page, to do this I picked the dust out of the container using a small paintbrush and then tapped the brush to sprinkle it. It will look like there is hardly any on the page but once you add a spritz of water the magic happens!

Now I could have left it to dry naturally but I'm impatient so I used a scrunched up paper towel to blot up the excess colour, I then patted it on some of the blank patches of paper to add extra pattern. When I was happy with how it looked I took some Navy Shimmer Dust and sprinkled it over the page and lightly spritzed it with water. Next I moved the page around to blend the colours and repeated the blotting process with a paper towel. I also dried it with a heat gun but you can allow it to dry naturally too.

Now that I have a background I'm happy with it is time to add some texture. For this I used Snow White Colour Paste through a stencil.

And to add a bit of sparkle I sprinkled pinches of Bling Colour Embossing Powder over the birds while the Colour Paste was still wet and set it with a heat gun.

Once the embossing powder and pastes were set I added to the background with stamps from my collection and along with a little heart embellishment. The heart is made from paper clay and was just plain white, to colour it I mixed a little Velvet Colour Shimmer Dust with water in an palette and mixed it to make a wash which I then used to paint the heart. 

To finish off the page I did a little bit of doodling around the heart and the birds and added a quote I found on Pinterest around the edge of the page. When I tell my husband I love him he always says "I love you more" so this quote really touched me, it says:

"When I say I love you more, I don't mean I love you

more than you love me. I mean I love you more than the 

bad days ahead of us, I love you more than any fight we will 

ever have. I love you more than the distance between us,

I love you more than any obstacle that could try and come

between us. I love you the most."

So this is my end result, like I said, its  no masterpiece but it was fun to do and it was nice to just have a play and create after a hard day in the office staring at a computer screen.

So, if, like me you wanted to try Art Journalling but weren't sure where to start, buy a journal and have a play .... but be warned, it is addictive!!!

Thanks for stopping by today, 

until next time, happy creating.