A Class of My Own by Ree Peace

Hi all! Its Ree here, with my very first blog post and share. This is so very exciting!

I have started by sharing what I love doing most...scrapbooking. I have been dabbling with Mixed Media for a while now but never have I had a range of products that work so well together! I have also enjoyed getting messy with embossing for the first time ever!

I thought I would start by breaking my process up in manageable parts, or layers.

First I Gesso'd a strong white cardstock to prepare it for layers of liquid based products. Then is was a spray for all with...



some Colour Spray. I used the colours; Violet, Sunset and Bubblegum.

This is how the three colours worked together with random sprays and a slight sponge to remove excess liquid.

Then I added to the depth using the Packaging Method of spraying some Colour Shimmer Sprays, using the two colours of Tangareen Dream and Deep Water, on to a ziplock bag and 'smooshing' the product onto the page.

More layers and depth were created through the use of the versatile product of Colour Paste, again using the two key colours of Tangareen Dream and Deep Water (this colour combo is soooo pretty!!). I used my heat gun to speed things up with the drying process. I also managed to cause a few smudges so I worked with that and made some more.

Now to grab out the ultra new medium to me...

I had some fun playing with the Colour Embossing Powders in the same colours, using a very thin veneer. It was a tad tricky to get good coverage with my VersaMark on this particular veneer but the powder did adhere well. I had to be very careful not to get too close with the heat gun when 'cooking' the powder on but it produced very nice shine and enamel-look.



Next it was time to bring it all together, this involved dragging pieces from my stash and getting messy with glue, paper, tissue paper, fineliner pen, enamel dots, thickers, washi tape and small phrases from stamps and prints. I also cut my background down to a 8.5x11in.

Here is the final page!

So much fun was had trying these products.

I look forward to use the products in different ways and then sharing again with you soon!

Take care of you!

Ree x

Graffiti Pocket by Melissa Struhs

Good Morning Colour Blast fans! I can't believe this week marks the start of my 2nd term on the Design Team. The first 6 months flew by and now we have so many more products to play with and new team members to get to know.

I am sure that most people have some scrapping disasters from time to time and then you have to figure out where to go from there...do you throw it in the bin and start again? Or do you put it aside until inspiration guides you in creating a great cover up?

So in the spirit of sharing it all, my original layout has been added to the too hard basket and I have just continued on with the embellishments I had planned. It has ended up being a layered pocket that will eventually become the focus of my "fixed" design. More about that later!!!

The wood veneer frame was covered with a dark orange ink and given one coat of the

Tangareen Dream Colour Embossing powder.

Once heat set, it had a dimpled and textured effect and to make the frame pop even more, a black cardstock backing was added. My photo had a sanded edge and was layered diagonally over the lower edge of the frame.

I really wanted to break up the straight edges, so I started digging in the metal filigree container, I found quite a few pieces that could create the finish I was after.

Along the edges of a kraft envelope, I stencilled a distressed brick finish with a heavy gesso...

the height and thickness is divine.

The remaining gesso that was on my palette knife was lightly stippled onto some of the metal embellishments, this created a roughened base...

for sprays to be added to...the brand new Colour Sprays in Bubblegum and Sunset

create a matt finish,

and were them teamed with the Colour Shimmer Sprays in Lipstick and Tangareen Dream

for a little bling.

The kraft pocket was flicked with the Colour Shimmer sprays too, leaving bold shimmer over the stencilled edges and the outer edges.

Some metal embellishments were cut in half and layered with the "Colour Blasted" ones. Some under the pocket... 

some under and some over the wood veneer frame. I just kept shuffling them around until I was happy with the placement.

Here's a couple of close up images...

I was really happy with the overall effect, and as it turns out...it could be used as a pocket letter / tag. But, the big picture for me is to make a gigantic comeback and resurrect the original design that was cast aside. I plan on finishing it for my next blog post in 2 weeks time, wish me luck and pop back to see it done!

For the complete range of Colour Blast products, be sure to look for them on the Colour Blast website.

P.S. Here's a little teaser for what's to come...keep and eye out for some Colour Mica Powder ideas coming your way.

Till next time,

Mel

Believe, by Amanda H

Hello Colour Blast fans!!!!!!

My name is Amanda Hartmann, and I am honoured to be here, on the Colour Blast team. I have a feeling we are going to have a blast!

Today is my very first blog post, where I will be sharing one of my first projects made with Colour Blast. Of course, I have been madly playing with my Colour Blast goodies and have been enjoying that wonderful creative process when you get something new to play with! This page was created when I was experimenting with the new Colour Blast Mica Powders.

So here is my page, with some close ups and explanations of how I used the products.

The layout features my girls and their cousins, with a bit of fun at the park, and the colours were a perfect match to Cool Mint and Watermelon in the Colour Blast Mica Powders!

Starting from a white cardstock, I used the Colour Blast products to build colour into the background, before I embellished the layout. Here's how I did it....

I mixed the Cool Mint Colour Mica Powder with Gel Medium and used through a stencil on the page. (um.... I may have made too much.... that's okay, I put it through a few stencils and now I have a few backgrounds all ready for later!)

I like the soft, opaque, yet shimmery effect you get when mixing the Colour Mica powders with gel medium. It creates a completely different effect than the Colour Pastes! And there is lots of flexibility to mix more or less of the powder to get the right colour tone for your project.

You can see in both of these close ups, the light watery pink effect on the background. To do this, I mixed a small amount of Watermelon Colour Mica Powder with water. I used a water brush to apply on the background.

The last thing I tried, and was super excited when it worked, was to colour the wood veneer circle. Again I mixed a small amount of Cool Mint Colour Mica Powder in water and painted it onto the wood veneer. Only needed one coat to get that colour, and it dried so quickly - perfect!  The beautiful colour and shine of this, just can't be seen in the photos - I love it!

Thanks for looking today!

Amanda

Love and peace by Tina Connolly

Hi everyone, I've been playing with another art journal page, but remember these techniques could be used on a card or layout just as easily.

I prepared my page using gesso and allowed to dry, then used Colour Spays and Shimmer Mist Sprays to created background colour and patterns.

Draw a large heart and paint outside it with opaque paints (yes, you cover some of your work!)  I used Fire Engine and Bling Colour Paste through a stencil to add patterns.

Mix various Colour Shimmer Dusts with gel medium or texture pastes and use through other stencils.

Keep adding patterns and textures, have fun!

I added Snow White Colour Paste through a bubble stencil, and drew some accents with a white journal pen.

The completed page and some close ups.  (Wish I could capture the sparkle in photos.) 

Thank for visiting,

happy scrapping,

Tina

Sunshine Sisters by Tracey Campbell

Greetings and Salutations everyone, Tracey Campbell here with my first Design Team post for Colour Blast. With this layout I was itching to try out some of the pink range of the Colour Blast Colour Mica Powders; Watermelon and Peach Nectar along with some green/yellow tones of Olive Grove and Lemon Zing. I also detailed the flowers with some Colour Embossing Powder, Stormy Weather and the some Colour Shimmer Spray, Rose Petal.

Let me take you on a journey on how I created my layout. I have been seeing these lovely shaped flowers all over the internet lately, they seemed to be hand painted so I thought I would give them a go using the Colour Mica Powders as a water paint and hoped that they would reflect the beautiful shimmer in them. I first mixed a tiny amount of the Colour Mica Powder with a bit of water and used a fine brush to paint a five petal rounded flower shape. I used two of the Colour Mica Powders to create two different coloured flowers, Watermelon and Peach Nectar.

I then used an embossing pen to draw some detail into the centre of the flower, a large dot and some smaller dots around. I then poured some Colour Embossing Powder, Stormy Weather onto the embossing ink and pressed it down a bit with my finger. Pour the excess back into the pot and use a heat gun to set.

I then repeated the process using the Coloured Mica Powder as a water paint, but this time I used Lemon Zing and Olive Grove to create some leaves. Once the leaves and the flowers were dry I hand cut them out. I hope that these photo show you just how beautiful the shine from the Colour Mica Powders are.

After I had the hand cut flowers in the Watermelon and Peach Nectar colours together I decided that I wanted another coloured flower, but I didn't want it to have as much shine to it. I grabbed some of the Colour Shimmer Spray and being careful not to shake the bottle I used the Petal Pink colour as a water paint and painted a few more flowers. In the photo above you can se how the Colour Shimmer Spray can go on looking flat, but once you give it a shake it will have a beautify shimmer to it, thus making it a very versatile product to have.

I then sprinkled some of the Colour Mica Powder, Watermelon onto the base cardstock and lightly spritzed with a bit of water, this caused the Colour Mica Powder to bleed and blend together for a very soft, subtle background with a lot of shimmer.

 To finish off the layout I placed some washi tape down over the top of the Colour Mica Powder on the left hand side of the cardstock base, making sure not to cover up all of that wonderful shine. Next were a few torn pieces of washi tape on the top right hand corner, where I would place the matted photo. Next I placed the hand cut flowers and leaves using some dimensional tape to add a few layers to the layout. To add the final touches I embellished with a few die cut hears, puffy word stickers, gold thread, sequins, heat set brads, a title and hand written journaling.

The Colour Blast Products that I have used in this layout are available from the Colour Blast Store or by simply clicking on the individual products listed below;

Colour Blast Colour Mica Powders

Colour Blast Colour Embossing Powders

Colour Blast Colour Shimmer Spray

Thank you for stopping and viewing my first layout for the Colour Blast Design team, I look forward to sharing my next creation with you soon.

Hugs

Tracey



Simply the Best & Precious Moments Together by Amy Prior

Hi there Colour Blast fans! Amy Prior with you here today for my very first blog post as a new Design Team Member for Colour Blast *squeal*.

Today I have a couple of quick scrapbooking layouts to share with you all using a tonne of gorgeous Colour Blast goodies. This first layout that I have to share is titled 'Simply the Best' and was a recent creation for the gorgeous Miss Tracey Henly. I had donated a scrapbook layout original to a charity auction and Tracey was the lucky winner.

This layout was created using lots of gorgeous Prima Marketing products alongside some of my all time favourite Colour Blast products. Among the Prima Marketing products lies a lot of gorgeous Scrappers Garden flowers and some 2Crafty chipboard as well. I love using lots of fantastic Australian manufacturer products!

To create this layout's background, I have simply sprayed a lot of water to create some water puddles on the background paper, before sprinkling some Colour Shimmer Dust in Candy over the water. 

When these puddles were dried, I wanted to dull down the red colour a little by adding some Colour Shimmer Spray in Lipstick colour. I just adore the colour Lipstick as it has a nice pink tone to the red which is so very pretty.

Once the background pink and red colours were dry, I have added some stencilling by simply scraping some Bling Colour Paste over a stencil using a palette knife. My simplest tip for using Colour Paste over a stencil is to simply scrape on and then scrape off. Don't over-work the paste or it will end up leaking through and not giving a nice crisp image display.

The last step before assembling this gorgeous layout was to decorate my chipboard pieces. This chipboard was actually a 6x6 piece that I have cut down into smaller pieces after it was dry to poke here and there throughout my layout. To decorate the chipboard I have simply sprayed the entire piece with some Colour Shimmer Spray in Dusty Charcoal before adding some heat embossing using the gorgeous Colour Embossing Powder in Lipstick colour. To ensure the embossing powder stuck well, I have dried the chipboard thoroughly after spraying with the Shimmer Spray. To emboss, I have simply dabbed the entire chipboard piece with some Versamark before sprinkling embossing powder over the top, tapping  off the excess, then heat drying.  A great tip when heat embossing delicate pieces of chipboard is to adhere the chipboard to a craft mat using double sided tape before heating. This will stop the chipboard from blowing away from the power of a heat tool.

Colour Blast products used for this project include...

Colour Blast Colour Paste - Bling

Colour Blast Colour Shimmer Dust - Candy

Colour Blast Colour Shimmer Spray - Lipstick

Colour Blast Colour Shimmer Spray - Dusty Charcoal

Colour Blast Embossing Powder - Lipstick

This next layout that I have to share with you all today is titled 'Precious Moments Together'. This pretty layout was created using lots of gorgeous products from the Maggie Holmes Bloom Collection alongside some fabulous Colour Blast products.

The background on this layout has been created in a very similar way as the background on the Simply the best layout above. To get started for this layout, I have mixed some white gesso with water and painted it onto the background patterned paper in a diamond type design. 

When I was painting on the watered down gesso, I have sprinkled and splattered the watery gesso around as well to add the subtle opaque splatters that you can see here. 

Once the watered down gesso was dry, I have sprayed some Colour Shimmer Spray in Sunshine colour over the top of the entire gessoed area. 

The Colour Shimmer Spray is very subtle in colour so you might need to spray a good size puddle of colour if you are hoping to get a really bright look. For this layout the subtleness of the shimmer spray was perfect.

Once the Sunshine yellow colour had dried, I have again added some stencilling detail over the top using some Colour Paste this time in Deep Water colour and through a Crafters Workshop stencil. Again, don't forget to simply scrape on and scrape off quickly when using any texture paste through a stencil to ensure quick and efficient movements and to avoid leakage and ruined details.

Colour Blast Products used for this project include...

Colour Blast Colour Paste - Deep Water

Colour Blast Colour Shimmer Spray - Sunshine 

Well that is it from me this week, be sure to check back regularly to see what the rest of our amazing Design Team has been up to and until next time, happy scrapping!

Amy Prior xx