Summer Sunshine

Hi everyone and welcome! Following a recent hotel visit I was inspired to make the background to this canvas with my IndigoBlu paints and Mega Flakes; the colour combination reminds me of a painting of red boats by Claude Monet (Argenteuil). As I pondered where to go next with this piece the latest Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Summer Garden - was launched and that became the catalist to complete it. For all my friends in based across the Atlantic it's exciting to see that the IndigoBlu stamps and flake I've used for this are stocked by Simon Says Stamp (in case you're wondering, that's the A5 Floral Fantasy set, A6 Colour Me Anenome and Copper Kettle Mega Flakes)!

The base of the canvas was covered in layers of texture paste, Gee-Sso Good gesso and Pantry White Acrylic Paint (you can find all the IndigoBlu matte Acrylic Paints HERE and the Metallic ones HERE). A combination of brayering and painting rough layers of Peppermint Tea, Lime Marmalade, Townhouse Teal, Kingfisher Blue, Postbox Red and Burning Bonfire was interspursed with stencilling using the new Weird Science stencil. I handpainted lines of Kingfisher Blue and applied the Copper Kettle Mega Flakes over red line tape as an accent.

If you've seen some of my previous projects you'll know I love to use the Colour Me Anenome stamp with my Tattered Florals die cuts a they fit perfectly to create a stamen filled centre to these flowers. For this canvas I used white embossing powder as a resist to the diluted paints and added some Glossy Accents to the centre of each bloom.The butterflies from the Floral Fantasy set were given the same treatment and to add a little age to the edges of them all it's easy to apply a little Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink with the Mini Blending Tool. Those wonderful words also come from the Floral Fantasy set and are particularly pertinent for those of us who have to endure all that the Summer weather throws at us here in the UK!

I'm also entering the final Our Creative Corner challenge for a while - A Beautiful Mess - with fond memories of my time on the Design Team and recognition of the fun I had making a controlled 'mess' with the paints on the background of this canvas.

And I'm also entering the current challenges at;

 Stamps and Stencils - Floral Frenzy!

Creative Artiste Challenge - Anything Goes

Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Goes

That craft room of mine is calling loudly with lots of deadlines to hit before an upcoming trip and my next IndigoBlu shows on Hochanda next Tuesday June 14th to prepare for - hope you can join me for those.

Thank you for joining me today. I hope the sun is shining on you wherever you are, and whatever you're up to take care of yourselves! Jenny xxx