Visible Image - Teenage Birthday

Morning!  Now, that's not a greeting that you get to say often to a teenager, but teenagers are our focus this week.  And I've brought you a twofer of teenage birthday cards, albeit accidentally.

I wanted to make a graffiti background, so I started by covering an A5 card panel with Distress Inks, swiping the full-sized pads directly onto the paper, then using the mini pads to fill in the gaps.

Then I placed the Graffiti stencil over the panel, and used a blending tool to fill the spaces with Black Soot Oxide.  I has to be Oxide because the normal Black Soot doesn't give as dense a coverage.

Looks a bit of a mess at this stage, but when you remove the stencil the colours really pop through the black.

Meanwhile I stamped the T-shirt from Nothing to Wear, added a star and the 'smile' from the same set, then die cut it using the coordinating die.

I popped the T-shirt die onto the panel to give me an idea of placement for the white T-shirt, then I realised that if I die-cut the T-shirt out of the panel I could inlay the white T-shirt, and have a graffiti t-shirt for another card - win, win!  

To complete my first card it was just a case of lining up the white T-shirt into the graffiti panel and securing it on the reverse with some washi tape, then mounting it onto my white card base.

Because I'd placed the T-shirt centrally, there wasn't really enough room to add the sentiment on the front, so I added a strip to the inside of the card and stamped 'happy birthday' from the Go To Words set.

Here's a close-up of the smile logo on the T-shirt.

Now to the bonus card!  Once I'd die cut the graffiti T-shirt I placed it into the white negative diecut on the MISTI then lined up the stamp to stamp the outline (pity I hadn't left the stamp on the 'MISTI).  Stamping the outline gives the die-cut shape so much definition.

I chose a vibrant green card base to complement the graffiti colours, then added some marks from the Transmission Glitch set in opposing corners, 

and the 'happy birthday' from Go To Words in the bottom right corner.

I love it when I get two cards for the price of one!

All of these products are available on the Visible Image website, go treat yourself!

Visible Image - The Great Outdoors

Morning, Visible Image fans!  Our theme this week is The Great Outdoors.  As I write this post the Great Outdoors isn't being very kind to us.  After heavy rain and winds, my village is flooded with some access routes blocked.  Somehow the flood defences didn't do the job this time.  Fortunately our house is on slightly higher ground so we're not directly affected.

So naturally I'm thinking of better days and nicer weather, and what is nicer than seeing dragonflies dancing across water, with all the tiny specs and particles dancing with them.

I started by stamping the images and sentiment from Live In The Moment using my MISTI stamping platform, making sure that the card was aligned right into the corner, because I was going to overstamp later.

I used the Curves stencil to create water across the lower section of the panel with Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks.

I added Tim Holtz Distress Spritz in Tumbled Glass and Crushed Olive across the top of the panel, dropped some of the spritz onto my mat and painted in the wings, adding a touch of Antique Linen as well.  

The sheen is gorgeous!

I knew that painting Distress Spritz over the black ink would cover it, which is why I was going to place the panel back in the MISTI and re-stamp.  You can see the before and after here:

All that remained was to mount the panel onto some mirri card, then onto my base card.

Here's a close-up of the wings after re-stamping.

And a close-up of the sentiment with the stencilling.  Love the teeny tiny splatters!

You can find this stamp set, and lots of other wildlife/great outdoors sets, in the Visible Image store here.  You'll also find plenty of stencils to add background and interest to your cards.  Happy stamping!

Visible Image - Thank You

Our theme at Visible Image this week is 'Thank You', so what better than a thank you card?

The background on this card is a monoprint mop-up from when I made this card for a recent release which included the stencil 'Fragments.  

After you've stencilled inks onto a card, there is always a residue of ink on the stencil.  If you spray lightly with water you can then 'print' with the stencil to get the negative image.

I used the daisies from "A Friend Like You' stamp set, and the stem of the rose to create my focal image.

Then I fussy cut the image, including between the flowers.

An easy way to get into that central white area when you're fussy cutting is to cut straight across along a stamp line, then you can add a little tape on the back to secure it after you've cut out the centre for an invisible mend.

I arranged the vase on the background in the stamping platform to help with deciding where to place the sentiment from 'Go To Words', then stamped.

I stamped the 'thank you' after I stamped 'friend', rather than trying to squeeze them both together for one stamping.  Sometimes you can't get stamps close enough to each other for a good single impression.

I added three black gems on the background and two on the flower centres to pick up on the black sentiment and vase outline.

Here's another look at the finished card:

You can find the stamps and stencils used for this card, along with plenty of inspiration from the Design Team, on the Visible Image website, 

Visible Image - Halloween Cats

 

Hi peeps!  Our theme this week at Visible Image is Halloween, of course!  One of the obvious Halloween images that springs to mind, apart from witches and ghouls, is black cats, and the dies in the That Loving' Feeline set were ideal for making my card.

Perfect as they are for die cutting the stamped images, they are just as good for cutting silhouette images - you only need to add green gems for the eyes.  So you're getting extra mileage out of your dies - win, win! They'd also be great for young children's Halloween crafts.

Now for my background.  I sprayed a panel with Distress Mica Stains using Jack o'Lantern, Flickering Candle and Hocus Pocus, then added a strip of washi tape which would help to ground my cats.

I don't have glow-in-the-dark supplies so instead I spread Cosmic Shimmer clear texture paste through the Stardust stencil, then after removing the stencil and while the paste was still wet I sprinkled Tailored Expressions Pea Pod loose glitter onto the texture paste.

As always with loose glitter, the finer particles clung to the panel, even though I'd used an anti-static pad. But once the piece was thoroughly dry, it was easy to brush off the particles and return them to the pot.

The bright green sparkle is incredible, but soooo difficult for the camera to truly pick up.

To finish my card, I stamped the 'Meow!' sentiment from the That Lovin' Feeline stamp set onto a scrap of card, added some mini staples then adhered it to the card.  When you've already got dimension on your base layer, sometimes it's easier than stapling through the layer.

There's loads more inspiration for you on the Visible Image blog - just click here to take a look.

Happy crafting!

Visible Image - Autumn Home Deco Panel

Hi, Visible Image fans!  Our theme this week is autumn colours, and my brief is a non-card creation. So I've gone for a home deco panel for the mantelpiece.

I started off by tearing strips off a cardboard offcut and painting it with black gesso.

Once that was dry I spritzed some Antique Linen Distress Oxide, then a few Distress Mica Stains.

I tilted the panel to get the sprayed colours to run.  The gold reminded me of a bare tree, and I was quite happy with that.

I wasn't sure which leaves or sentiments I would use, so I just loaded everything from Erika's Maple onto my stamping platform and stamped them a couple of times onto watercolour card using Versacolour Onyx Black ink.

Using distress inks, I watercoloured and splattered the leaves and sentiments.

In an attempt to emulate Tim Holtz I dripped some Crooked Broomstick Mica Stain onto the leaves, but then disaster struck!

The drip became a huge blob, but I managed to rescue the leaf by using a black Posca paint pen and dabbing lightly where the black ink once was, so at least I recovered my outline.  I trimmed the leaves then ran a black felt pen around the edges before mounting them in place on my panel.

The sheen from the mica stains is fantastic!  Tilted one way, all the yellows show up, then tilted another the other colours shine.

I curled the leaves upwards slightly before fixing them in place with silicone glue, and ran a gold Krylon pen around my sentiment before adding a couple of tiny staples and fixing it to the panel.

Why not try making your own autumn home decor piece from some of the fabulous Visible Image stamps?  If you do, don't forget to share it on the Visible Image Facebook/Meta page.

Erika's Maple