Brighten the World: Visible Image

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!

For this weeks Visible Image make, I’ve turned to their gorgeous Butterfly Ink stencil as it’s been a while since I used this little beauty.

I totally forgot to take some photos as I was making this (you know how easy it is to get ‘in the zone’ sometimes!) so I apologise but I’ll talk you through how it was made.

So, firstly, I cut some watercolour card 6.5″ square and adhered it to a glass mat.  Over that I laid the Butterfly Ink stencil and using a palette knife, smoothed modelling paste through.  As I know I wasn’t going to stamp over the image, I left it a little textured on top.

I left the modelling paste to air dry and then I could inky with my Distress Spray Stains.

Usually I go for cool, calm colours but I felt this needed brighter, punchier colours so reached for Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral, Spun Sugar and Spiced Marmalade.

After spraying (which I do into a box so it doesn’t go everywhere) I’ve let the inks drip into each other and then dried using a heat gun and I wish I’d let it air dry as the watercolour card has buckled somewhat but I’m too impatient to wait… and once the inks are dry, I added some Glimmer Mist so give some subtle sparkle.

To give the butterfly some definition around the edges, I used a Derwent Inktense pencil (Outliner) with a watercolour brush to soften the lines.

To add the gold, I’ve used WOW!’s Mixed Media Embossing Brush and swiped some of the goo around the butterfly before adding their amazing Metallic Gold powder.

The sentiment across the middle (and top right) are both from the Wings of Change set and I’ve stamped it using Versafine Clair (Nocturnal) and then heat embossed using the same WOW! Metallic Gold powder as before.

I’ve use WOW!s Opaque Bright White powder for the sentiment and this comes from the brilliant Brighten The World stamp set.  This is a set I use all the time and is perfect.  You can use odd words or combine the sentiments and they’re perfect for my messy journal too.

To finish, I’ve matted the inky card onto black card and then onto a 7×7″ card blank.  Excellent!

What do you think of the new Visible Image fancy-pants packaging?!  Isn’t it GORGEOUS!!!  Mark has done an incredible job and he’s used my new personal favourite Visible Image stencil, Ripple!

As always, keep up to date with all things Visible Image on their Facebook page or follow them on Instagram and while you’re on Insta, follow the hashtag #visibleimage for loads of great makes.

That’s all from me… catch up again soon xx

 

 

Bloom & Grow: Visible Image

Hello again,

I’m back to share another make for Visible Image and today’s card uses the Atomic Flower stencil  alongside the super popular Wings of Change stamps with the sentiment from Bloom and Grow.

I rarely use ‘hot’ colours and so I challenged myself to create something using only warm colours for a change. To create the background, I’ve trimmed water colour card and smooshed Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw and Ripe Persimmon straight onto the card before spritzing with water to create a drippy, watery effect.

Once dry, I’ve used Festive Berries and Spiced Marmalade Distress Crayons around the edge to frame it.

(Excuse the dodgy jumper… it was a freezing cold when I made this!)

Using the Atomic Flower stencil, which I attached using low-tack masking tape, Seedless Preserves and Dusty Concord Distress Oxide Ink Pads have been sponged on.

Over Atomic Flower, I used the circles from the Two Tone stencil to add a few circles down the left of the card.

With a  good spritzing of Glimmer Mist, scripted Streets Streets was added in Picked Raspberry just to break up the colours.

With the background complete, it was time to focus on the beautiful butterflies from Wings of Change.  These have been heat embossed onto water colour card using Wow!’s Fluorescent Tickled Pink powder and painted using the same colour Distress Oxide ink pads as I used on the background with the exception of Festive Berries.

With these trimmed, I added the sentiment using a shadow effect. Firstly, I stamped Bloom and Grow using Tonic’s Nuvo Metro Grey ink pad and, after applying an anti-static bag, used a stamping platform to slightly shift the sentiment before inking with an embossing pad and dusting with the same Tickled Pink powder.

The butterflies were added to the card using foam tape and their wings slightly bent to give a little dimension to them.

Here’s the main Visible Image products I used for this make…

As always, don’t forget to stay in touch with everything Visible Image via their Facebook page and Instagram. New releases coming soon so keep an eye out for those!! Eeeeek!!!

Have a great week… H xx

October Guest Designer Wow! Embossing Powder

Hello everyone… or should that be ‘Cześć’ as I’ve just come back from a little break in Krakow and Lodz.  Absolutely fantastic place and thoroughly recommend to everyone!!

I was asked a while back if I’d like to be the October Guest Designer for Wow! Embossing Powder and of course I said yeeeeess please!!  Wow’s products are always on my craft desk and I honestly don’t think you can buy better quality powders (I’ve tried – always gone back to Wow!).  The sheer range of colours and genres (metallics, sparkles, opaques, pearl, glitter, even glow in the dark and puff!!) is phenomenal and their Slow Drying Embossing Pad is just perfect.  If you haven’t tried them and you’re into your stamping, just buy a couple (they’re only cheap) and try them for yourself.  You will love them and to watch them melt – so mesmerising!!

Anyway… you might have seen my makes and blog posts for Wow! Embossing Powder over the last few weeks but suddenly realised I hadn’t blogged them on my site… shocker.  My first make for them used their gorgeous Thankful stamp set with Metallic Gold Sparkle powder.

‘Merry and Bright’

Heat emboss with the Metallic Gold Sparkle, colour and add extra sparkle with a Tonic Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen

Distress oxide background for a chalky, grungy look with an aperture die-cut. Add more embossing powder to frame.

Finished card with the products used

You can find the full write up for Wow! over on their blog… just press HERE!

My next make for Wow! uses Aall and Create stamps and stencils and looks a little something like this and uses Black Twinkle and Pop from the Confetti Trio (the little polka dots around the edges).

‘Sparkle and Shine’

Heat emboss on watercolour card with Black Twinkle and paint using watercolour paints

Mask the border stamp to add the stencil before adding dimension to the project using glossy/crackle accents and foam dots.  Stamp polka dots around the edge to frame using ‘Pop’ from the ‘Confetti’ trio

Finished card with the products used

Again, the full write up for Wow! can be found HERE!

My next make you make not have seen as it’s part of the inspiration for Wow!’s October Challenge (Christmas) and uses just the one colour – the beautiful Rose Gold.

‘Noel’

Ombre a background, spritz with gold ink and heat emboss using the beautiful Rose Gold powder from Wow!

Tear some corrugated cardboard and swipe the slow drying embossing pad over the ridges before dusting with the Rose Gold powder and heating

Layer the elements over one another before matting onto card

Finished card with products used

So there we are.  That’s the first three of my makes although I do have a couple still to share.  Hope you like them… I’m pretty chuffed with them although to be honest the powders make it so easy!  You can see LOADS of inspiration over on Wow!’s Facebook page or upload your own makes to their Facebook Fan Page and see what everyone else has been up to!

I’ll be back soon with new makes to share.

H xx

Mixed Media Canvas

Hello everyone…

After walking the pupsters this morning I headed into the craft room to have a play.  I was meant to be tidying it up but pffffft!  Why tidy when you can get messy!  I decided to make a canvas for Craft Stamper’s May Challenge and here it is…

There are so many layers to it and it took me quite a few hours, mainly because I procrastinate way too much! The canvas already had a pinky/purple wash on it so I gave it a quick coat of Gesso, added some strips of tissue paper with text on before adding fresh colour.

I used a brayer to add a soft orange and a mid-tone pink and then added some white in the middle to lighten it slightly before splattering on some white Gesso for texture.

To contrast with the warm hues, I’ve heat embossed on Wow’s! gorgeous Primary Bluetiful Embossing Powder after just wiping a Versamark Watermark stamp pad on the top left corner and the bottom. I heat embossed it twice and rubbed away the areas I didn’t want the colour. Then, while it was still warm, I used a pointy tool to scratch away some of the colour to reveal the pink/orange below the surface.

After rummaging in my various (rather large) boxes of stamps I found an old Kaisercraft stamp with a butterfly and the numbers ’36’ on which I stamped in various areas.  I particularly love the little swirl on the end of the stamp as it echos the butterfly antenna which I have to admit was a happy coincidence!

While rummaging, I also found (another Kaisercraft stamp I think?!) which was teeny tiny polka dots which I’ve added using a gorgeous teal colour acrylic paint.  Using a dry brush, I’ve then added DecoArt’s Rose Gold acrylic from their Dazzling metallics range and this gives a beautiful warm sheen.

The white dots come courtesy of Visible Image’s Two Tone stencil and I lightly marked where the  the MDF butterfly would sit so I could stencil the dots around the butterfly.

The MDF butterfly was painted in a teal colour acrylic and once dry I added DecoArt’s Crackle Paste.  I had intended to leave it white but it looked bare so I’ve wiped on Prima’s Metallique was in White Gold for warmth.

For the butterfly wings, I’ve used Wow’s strawberry Sundae embossing powder with Visible Image’s Count Me In stencil on Crafter’s Companion Vellem (fabulously thick!) and added white Posca pen to grunge up the numbers.  This was then glued to the back of the butterfly.  I’ve twisted some copper wire to make the antenna and adhered them in place before securing the butterfly over some cheesecloth which I spritzed using Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide spray.

I kept the text simple and used the wording from Visible Image’s Wings of Change.  ‘Transform’ is heat embossed onto acetate before adhering to Vellum and gluing in place.

‘Metamorphosis’ was stamped onto tissue paper before being secured to the canvas using matt gel medium.  To finish the canvas, I used a palette knife to add some crackle glaze just for some extra texture and a slight gloss.

And there you have it!  I rather love this canvas and might actually pop this one up in my craft room.

Catch you again soon… H x

Butterfly Ink: Visible Image

Hello everyone…

A quick blog post from me today using the gorgeous Butterfly Ink stencil from Visible Image.

I’ve made a smooshed background using Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, and Spun Sugar Distress Oxide ink pads and spritzed it slightly with water to oxidise the ink and create a speckled pattern.

With the background made, I’ve then taped the stencil in place and using Oxide Ink Pads again to create a wonderful, bright warm spicy colour to which I’ve stamped the ‘stem’ detail from Random Art of Kindness using an Archival Distress ink pad in Barn Door

What I’ve done then is sprayed Distress Resist Spray over the butterfly before applying the text stamp from Scripted Streets.  The resist spray stops me getting more ink on the butterfly but it also gives it a lovely sheen once dry.

The sentiment, from Imperfection is Beauty, has been stamped in black ink and then, using a stamping platform, been heat embossed in a gorgeous silver colour.  The design has then been finished by matting it onto silver card and then onto a 6×6″ card blank.

And that’s it today.  A simple one from me for this week’s DT inspiration and here’s the Visible Image products I’ve used for this card…

That’s all from me this week… catch you again soon.
H x

Wings of Change: Visible Image

Hello there everyone…

I’m back today with, what has to be, one of favourite makes lately and I’ve been itching to share this one.  I’ve used the beautiful new Wings of Change stamp set from the fabulous Visible Image.  I am absolutely loving these new mixed media stamps and I know a lot of  you are too.

I wanted to make a textured-layered-mixed media type card so to start I grabbed a sheet of vellum and using a brayer, roughly added some white acrylic.  I definitely wasn’t careful about this as I wanted a rough look.

Over this I’ve used Archival’s Watering Can ink pad to stamp some background interest using stamps from Creative Chaos and See Everything.  When this was dry, I’ve pulled out my old and trusty sewing machine to stitch around the edges.

To create the butterflies, I’ve first made a background using alcohol inks on yup paper.  I’ve used Tim Holtz’s colours for Ranger and the colours are so intense and just beautiful.  I stuck with blues, purples and pinks but they would work in any colourway you fancied.

With the background 100% dry, I’ve given it a quick swipe with an anti-static cloth and stamped all the butterflies from the set over and over.  They’ve then been stamped again onto vellum using VersaFine’s Onyx Black ink pad and then heat embossed them using Wow’s Black Twinkle powder.  For the final layer, they’ve been stamped onto acetate using Archival ink before all being fussy-cut out, ready for layering.  The words are from the ‘metamorphosis’ stamp (with the Wings of Change set) where I’ve trimmed them to make more of a statement.

The butterflies are layered with the vellum at the bottom then the coloured, alcohol ink for the middle layer and finally the acetate layer on top (I’ve glued them down their middles only so I can bend their wings so they stand out more ).  The little strips of words have then been glued over the acetate in the middle of the butterflies.

I then had the magic idea of sewing the butterflies onto the background vellum so it would match the border I’d sewn previously.  So, I lightly glued them in place and gave my little sewing machine a  total heart attack by asking it to do what I shouldn’t but bless it, it came through for me (thank you little machine!)

Then all that was needed was for me matt it onto some black card before adhering it to a white card blank before finally folding the butterflies wings to give them some lovely dimension!

Gorgeous even if I do say so myself!

Here are the gorgeous, amazing, beautiful Visible Image stamps I’ve used for this card…

Wings of Change

 

See Everything

 

Creative Chaos

As always, head on over to the Visible Image Facebook page for daily inspiration and to see what everyone has been sharing… there are some absolutely cracking makes from everyone.  The Visible Image blog also has all our DT makes uploaded and shared, so that’s always interesting to read as it can spark an idea (well, it does with me!)

And if that wasn’t enough… keep your eyes peeled for Visible Image on Create and Craft TV (hands up who caught the awesome Wizard of Oz shows last week?!)  Mark (and Helen!) will be on there every month now, demo-ing new ideas and all their stamps and stencils!  Excellent news!!

Catch up soon folks… thanks for popping by!

H xx

 

Beautiful Butterfly Ink

Hello everyone…

I’m watching the footie while I type this so if the odd ‘Goooooaaaaal’ seeps in I apologise! Haha!

My DT card for Visible Image today uses the utterly gorgeous Butterfly Ink stencil but I’ve used just the one wing, adding lots of texture and interest along the way.

The background has been made using the Stop Meshing Around stencil with distress oxide inks and Infusions… (and there has been a goal but we won’t talk about that one!! GRRRRR!!)

The main butterfly wing has Elemental just peeping through the texture with the Fibres stencil adding some sparkle and to add extra definition, I’ve used Derwent Inktense pencils around the outline.

The sentiment come from the Own Kind of Beautiful set, which is where I got the idea for the card from to begin with as I love these beautiful butterflies!

The cute little heart is from the same set and just adds a finishing touch!

 

The Visible Image products used for this make are…

Count Me In

 

Fibres

 

Stop Meshing Around

 

Elemental

 

Own Kind of Beautiful

Don’t forget to pop on into the Visible Image blog for more DT inspiration!

See you again soon (it’s still 1-1 btw!)

H xx

Butterfly Ink

Hello everyone and thank you for joining me here today!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock of late, you will have seen that Visible Image has released six new stamps and eight new stencils.  They have absolutely done it again and produced the most fabulous images and sentiments that I know everyone is going to love/want/need!

As someone who loves to add texture to their makes, I have a huge love of stencils.  I absolutely love all of them if I’m honest as they’re all so versatile and you can pick certain elements out of all of them to use in different ways but the Butterfly Ink stencil really caught my eye.

Butterfly Ink Stencil and the sentiment is from the Voices In Your Head set

I wanted to use the stencil is a really simple way to show how fabulous it is and so I made a card using just the stencil, a sentiment and some crackle paint.  All Visible Images stencil’s are fabulous quality, so lovely and thick so that they holds mediums really well and they’re pretty tough (my stencils go through a bit of a bashing and have all survived!)

Having secured the stencil to some watercolour card, I’ve applied crackle paint quite thickly in places as I wanted a some lovely thick cracks.  Once dried (air drying is best) I’ve dripped different coloured inks along the cracks that the ink spreads.

I love the subtle colour that the ink gives

Around the edge of the butterfly, I’ve used a watercolour pencil to give a watery outline and I’ve also given him a coat of matt varnish to protect the crackle and stop it flaking off over time.

Visible Images sentiment stamps are always so perfect!

The sentiment is from the new Voices In Your Head set and comes with four sentiments that you can easily mix up and use the words to form your own sentiments.  I have been known to cut sentiment stamps into individual words (if they aren’t already) as I like to mix things up a bit and this makes it easier.

Having trimmed the image down, I’ve inked the edged using a matching ink pad and then matted it onto black card.  The sentiment has then been stamped over a watery inky background and secured to the bottom of the card using foam tape.

The new stamps and stencils are going to be flying out of Visible Image HQ and if you need any encouragement, head on over to their blog where you’ll find plenty of inspiration from the other DT members.  Here’s what I used for this make:

Butterfly Ink Stencil

 

Voices In Your Head stamp set

Thanks for looking, see you all soon!

H x

 

Visible Image and Gelli Printing

Hello, hello everyone…

I’m back again sharing not just one but three makes I made for the Visible Image DT!

I had a Gelli plate for my birthday last year but I’ve not really spent much time playing with it. After seeing some gorgeous makes on FB, I felt inspired to dig it out and see what I could come up with.  Have you ever Gelli-plated?!  Just gather your acrylics in your chosen colours and a multitude of mark making tools.  In the past I’ve used bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard and anything I can get my hands on but for this make I used elements of the following stamp sets: Live in the Moment, Elemental, Scripted Streets and Mesh-ellaneous.

The first ‘pull’ has the majority of the colour and images

The 2nd print, or ghost print, is fainter and has much more white space

Once the prints have dried, you can select areas to use for making your cards.  The first print, I cut an area 8×8″ and matted it onto black card stock.

After heat embossing the three butterfly silhouettes in black, I added a hint of sparkle using Ink Splats to add areas of silver and to highlight the main sentiment, which I embossed over the coffee stain stamp.

To add extra dimension to the project, I heat embossed the butterfly detail in copper onto Vellum, which is such a lovey, soft paper to use.  Once fussy cut, I adhered them to their silhouette with their wings slightly aloft.

I love the contrast between the background and the softness of the Butterflies

 

I almost prefer the ‘ghost’ print as I’m not good at putting white space into my makes.

Fabulous textures on the ‘ghost’ print

I love the delicate wings on the dragon fly from the Live in the Moment set and his wings look incredible over the background splatter from Somewhere in Time. 

The second card also used the background splatter from Somewhere in Time but this time has the fabulous eye from Where Dreams Take You .

The silver embossed circles are from the Live in the Moment stamp set

I’m rather chuffed with these makes and I def want to explore what my Gelli Plate can do as the textures and layers you can create are very much my style.  Why not hop on over to the Visible Image Blog page to see what everyone on the DT has been making lately!

That’s all from me… have a great week and I’ll see you soon.

H x

 

 

 

 

Distress Oxide Ink Pads… the new colours!

Well hello everyone!

Wow… been so ridiculously busy as always but was super excited to receive my set of the new oxide ink pads last Friday!!  I’d already sort-of planned what I wanted to make with them (well the colours anyway) and I couldn’t get in the craft room quick enough!

The backgrounds are so easy to make and they’re so quick to make.   It’s a great excuse to get inky… so you can make them quickly and then leave them to dry while you’re catching up with something else!

The chalky finish to the inks gives a fabulous matt finish to the backgrounds, perfect for stamping on

The first card used Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and Fossilized Amber ink pads, all dabbed onto a craft sheet and spritzed with water to make the colours come alive.  I love watching the colours ‘pop’ off the sheet!

The stamped images are all Craftwork Cards, including the textures stamped in Vintage Photo oxide

You can add extra texture to the stamps by drawing into them in gel pens. Here I’ve used white and gold pens to add some detail

The second card I’m still not sure about but I’ve had some lovely comments off people on the Craftwork Cards pages over on Facebook and I do trust their judgement!

I love the grungy background but not sure the white is the right colour for the stamps

My last share for today is probably my favourite. I love the moody darkness of the background and the PaperArsty stamps just work so well.  I’ve clearly harnessed my inner Goth for this card and I’m loving it!

The main stamps are embossed using Wow! heat embossing powders in Vintage Amethyst, Earthtone Grape and Metallic Platinum whereas the large bird is black Stazon

The stamps are fabulous aren’t they?  I do love the PaperArtsy stamps.   You can really treat them badly and they’ll still stamp and give you amazing results!

So there you have it!  Three simple-isa makes using the utterly scrumptious oxide ink pads from his royal highness Sir Tim Holtz… haha!

See you all soon, H xx