A Few Of My Favourite Things with Melinda

Hello everyone and one very last welcome to the blog from me!! 

I am certain by now that most of you (probably all of you!) are aware that I am stepping down from the team. First up a very big thank you to Tenisha for taking me on board 2 1/2 years ago and giving this relative newbie a shot!! I have loved my time on the team and loved stretching myself every time I pick up a Colour Blast product! To all of my current and past DT members, thank you to each and every one of you also, I've learnt, I've laughed, I've shared and made some real friendships that I otherwise may not have.

So, that's that part of the post done. I am here today sharing some of my favourite Colour Blast creations from my time on the team.

These projects are in no particular order but I hope you enjoy this little wander down memory lane with me. I will link to process videos and old blog posts for you throughout the post ;)

Can't Wait to Meet You

Blog post is here and process video is here

Believe in Your Own Magic

Blog post is here and Process Video is here

Better Together

Blog post is here and Process Video is here

Fun Rainbow Boots

Blog Post is here and Process Video is here

Hello Treasure

Blog Post is here and Process Video is here

More

Blog Post is here and Process Video is here

Shine

Blog Post is here and Process Video is here

#Live Bigger 2017

Blog Post is here and Process Video is here

Dream

Blog Post is here and Process Video is here

So, I couldn't narrow it down any further!! I hope you have enjoyed seeing all of my personal faves over my last 2 1/2 years on this team!

Though this is farewell it is not goodbye! I am still a part of the Colour Blast Kit Club DT and am loving being able to create and inspire you all through that avenue and of course, I will still be in the FB group sharing my creations using Colour Blast goodies!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, see you around the net!!

Melinda

x

Dreams Canvas with Melinda Sweetman

Hey everyone and welcome to the blog today! 

I have something a little different to share with you

but oh boy, I love it!! It's not often I do "pretty" and "feminine" but I sure did for this and I got to have another play with the awesome Colour Artist Inks! Here is my project, a 12x12 canvas for a friend's daughter for her 15th birthday in June and it was well received!

If you have been on the internet at all in the last couple of months you will know straight away that this idea is most certainly not mine, I was inspired by the one and only Paige Evans and then all the people that were also inspired by Paige so got creating!

I started by working on the butterflies I had cut earlier on my Cameo. I left them on the mat to make it a bit less fiddly to colour. A quick, light coat of White Heavy Gesso which dried super quickly!

And then some random stamping with some Versafine Black ink. I popped that aside to dry thoroughly and started work on my canvas background.

Next I painted my black stripes. I have used the Black Heavy Gesso on my messy with a little bit of water to make it more of an acrylic paint consistency and used about a 1" brush to apply random black brush strokes across my canvas, varying where they started and ended.

While that was still wet I added some BIG black splatters on the diagonal from the top right to the bottom left by adding a bit more water to the black gesso and using my fingers to squeeze the bristles of the brush together to get big splats! I love this look!

Next I chose my warm colours in the Colour Artist Inks to play with knowing that they could mix together and would not get any mud! The colours I used (from left to right) are:

Citrus, Barley, Cider, Spice, Sunburnt, Cranberry & Bordeaux. 

If you haven't yet got your hands on these inks then it's important to note that these are beautiful vibrant colours. I was after something a little softer so I spritzed my paper with water and then randomly added drips of all the colours to my page and turned and tilted my page to get a good coverage.

When that was dry I went in with splatters of all the colours using a paintbrush and also some splatters using the Bling Colour Shimmer Spray; using both the nozzle and a paintbrush. This I left to air dry as well.

I grabbed my now dry canvas and added in some splatters of the Bling as well, once again using the Colour Shimmer Spray. I added these to tie in the gold from the butterflies.

While the canvas was drying I pulled all of the butterflies off of the cutting mat, stacked them on top of each other, adhered with a tiny dot of glue and then ran through my sewing machine, leaving all of the threads long for extra texture.

I wanted to add a little something more to the background so grabbed a stamp set and some white tissue paper. I stamped a bunch of butterflies and also the sentiment which formed my title and had a bit of a play with placement. When I was happy I adhered my stamped tissue paper with matte medium and left to dry.

When the matte medium was all dry I adhered all of my butterflies, added some sequins following that diagonal and my canvas was completed! Here are a few close up's where you can really see the dimension of all of those butterflies!

I seriously love how this turned out and when I gave it to my friends daughter she LOVED it!! Winning!!

Also, head over here for the process video if you'd like to see this canvas come together!!

Anyways, I hope I have inspired to create something today and I'll see you again later this month for my very last post as part of the Colour Blast Design Team!

Melinda

Love You To The Moon & Back ~ Mini Scrapbook Pages with Melinda

Hey everyone and welcome to the blog today! I hope you are managing to stay dry and warm wherever you are! Here in WA it seems Autumn went totally MIA and we have been hit with Winter!

Anyways, onto the fun stuff, that is unless you too love jumping in all the puddles ;)

I have something a little different to share today, and LITTLE sums it up! I am working on a project for my nephew who turned one last month and my contribution (besides the supplies ;) ) is some 6x8 pages! These are the first 2 I have made and I really love them. They are sweet and simple, yet effective!

Here is the first one! "Love You To The Moon & Back"

This photo was taken at the baby shower and I will do a full 6x8 page of journalling. Perhaps in the form of a letter to my nephew, as yet, I'm undecided!

Only a few quick, simple steps to this and the first was some of the beautiful Envy Colour Paste through a stencil on the diagonal I knew I wanted to work on. Oh, I had also drawn a light pencil line around where my photo was going!

While that was still wet I activated my Colour Shimmer Pot in Envy and using a paintbrush added some splatters on the same diagonal. Not to worry if you don't have the Shimmer Pot, you can always use the Colour Shimmer Spray or even water down some of the Colour Paste and use that to splatter! If you do have the Shimmer Pot/s make sure you let them completely dry out before you pop the lid back on!

I set that aside to dry and got together some bits for the next page I wanted to work on! This photo was taken the day little Emmett was welcomed into the world. You may have even seen this photo before as I have scrapped it for our album! "Baby Love"

Again, a simple and effective page I started with another stencil and this time 2 Colour Pastes - Snow White and Singin' The Blues. I smooshed the 2 colours randomly through my stencil this time covering my whole 6x8 sized page. I set that aside to dry and picked out a few other pieces for this page.

Keeping my mixed media pretty simple meant that these pages came together in not a lot of time so after they were both dry I started adhering my layers and finished off my pages.

I still need to do some journalling for both. Like I mentioned, the first one I think will have a whole 6x8 page and I'm pretty certain the second will be his full name and birth details on the yellow label on the bottom of the page. Here a few close up's of both pages!

I just cannot resist that squishy face lol

And here is the process video if you would like to see these pages come together!

Thanks ever so much for stopping by, I hope I have inspired you to create outside of your "norm" whatever that might be because "clean" mixed media is certainly not my "norm" lol

Have a fantastic weekend and I hope you get some scrappy time!

Until next time!
Melinda

Enjoying These Awesome Moments with Melinda Sweetman

Hello Colour Blasters, how are you this Saturday morning? Winter is getting ever closer and I hope you are keeping warm, if it is even cold where you are!!

I got a new stencil recently and had a play with it on another page which is totally where I got the idea for this page from! 

Here is a little looksy at what I have created

And here are my step-by-step instructions

First up I grabbed a piece of white (textured of course, it is my fave!) card stock and applied a quick, light coat of White Heavy Gesso across the entire page. Next up some stamping! I've used a couple of stamps that have not seen ink and some black Versafine ink right down the middle of page in a vertical column.

When that was dry I added some light modelling paste through my stencil (I seriously LOVE this new stencil!) and left to dry naturally.

I have been meaning to do this technique for AGES. Actually, to re-phrase, I have been meaning to do this technique and not hate what I created so I once again pulled out my Colour Shimmer Dusts in Peacock, Cobalt, Duke and Navy. I sprinkled the tiniest amount of each colour randomly across the stencilled background. You probably can't even see it in my photo but it is there - take a close look on the edge on the right hand side especially!

Add water. Yep, it's as simple as that! Add water and watch the magic happen! Tip and tilt and turn the page to get the colours to move and blend and then dry. I did use my heat tool and I did apply extra colours in a couple of places by simply adding a tiny bit more dust and activating with water. I LOVE this background!

**TIP** 

If you are anything like me and make a MESS when you do this grab a paper towel and/or a baby wipe and where you have colour you don't want you can very easily wipe/rub/dab it away. This will only work if you have applied the gesso in the first place but the excess colour where I don't want it is often why I bin my "failed" attempts!!

I knew that I had a stamp set to use for my title so decided to build my own title/journal card and use it as I would a second photo. I added my stamped title and then my journalling and had some left over space so added another stamped word which I used a little paint brush and the Peacock Colour Shimmer Dust to paint - messy style!! Oh, and splatters on the card ;)

Time to play with layers!! I layered up my photo and title card onto a piece of patterned paper (the photo is popped up), messed up the edges, added a notebook edge scrap of paper and then dove into my Cocoa Vanilla Boys Rule collection for a few stickers and a flair badge to finish of the embellishing.

I added a little more stamping over the top of the colour and paste, I felt the stamping was a little lost. You can also see I have layered some white cotton behind all of my layers, used my tiny attacher for some tiny details and threaded my tag with some black and white twine.

I am so happy with the end project having had no idea what photo I was using to start with!! I have the most fun while experimenting with products and seeing what they do so pull out something you have maybe tried and "failed" at before and get playing!!

You can very faintly see some of the gorgeous shimmer you get when you use the shimmer dusts - it's super hard to capture it flatteringly on camera!!

Oh, I also have a process video for this page over here that you can see! Make sure you subscribe to the Colour Blast YT channel and click the little bell icon so you get notified anytime myself or one of the other girls upload there!

Please share your latest creations over in the Colour Blast Creative Corner FB group, we do love seeing all of your creativity! Until next time, get messy and happy scrapping!!

Melinda

x

Fun Rainbow Boots with Melinda Sweetman

Hey, hey and happy weekend!! Melinda here with you today to inspire you with some creative fun to hopefully get you creating!

Here is my page

You Tube process video is available here and this one is a bit of a quick one!! When my idea came together in my head it was super quick to put together and I had a page in less time than I would normally, winning!!!

And here are my step-by-steps

First up, textured white cardstock - my absolute fave to work with - and some Black Heavy Gesso. I put a small dollop on my work surface and added a little water - enough to make the gesso more like acrylic paint and less gesso like. I used the brush to randomly paint onto my page some black stripes making sure that I started and finished each of my lines in a different place.

After that was dry (super quick!!) I added more water to the left over gesso on my desk and added BIG splatters! I'm really sorry, no photo's or video of that process but super easy!! Load up your paintbrush with the watered down gesso, hold about head height over the page and squeeze the bristles and you will get big splatters. Love them!!

To be honest, this page has sat on my desk for a couple of weeks awaiting the inspiration to continue, so the black gesso was VERY dry when I picked it up again. I cut some whimsy-ish scallops on my cameo and then pulled out my BRAND NEW (I am so so excited to have some in my stash!!) Colour Artist Inks. And of course, rainbow colours for my first project with them!

I used some colours straight out of the bottle and I did mix a couple to get just the right colour. From left to right. Or ROYGTB (yep, I made up a new rainbow with NO purple!!) Red, Orange, Yellow - Citrus, Green, Teal-ish, Blue. And I simply painted them on each scallop with a paint brush.

After they were dry I stitched each coloured scallop over a black stripe and then added rainbow splatters in each colour.

Add the photo and a title. A little journalling and page completed! I love how this one came together and those Colour Artist Inks are so fun and vibrant! I can't wait to play again with them!! 

I have a couple of close ups to leave you with!

I hope you enjoyed this page and I'll see you again later in the month!

Melinda