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 - Celebrate!

 

It's Christmas Day, and the theme this week at Visible Image is, not surprisingly, Celebrations!  My brief was Clean and Simple - simples!

A bottle of bubbly is great for any celebration, so I stamped the bottle and cork from the Anyone For Bubbles set, and coloured them with markers.

The co-ordinating dies making cutting out so much easier!

I arranged the pieces on my blank card panel so that I knew where to stamp the bubbles, then stamped in Versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder.  I also stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black to balance the black of the bottle.

The gold embossing catches the light beautifully.

I matted the panel onto gold card to pick out the gold embossing, then placed the bottle outside the mat.  Originally I was going to trim the bottle to the bottom corner of the white panel, but changed my mind.

The card base is a two-tone bottle green that also catches the light beautifully.

When I'm stamping and cutting images, I always do a few extra - (a) in case of mistakes and (b) if Im lucky, no mistakes but a little stash for future projects!

Merry Christmas, and I hope Santa brings you everything you wish for!  And if he hasn't, go treat yourself to some Visible Image goodies!

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, 

Seize The Birthday - Masculine

Hey, Seize The Birthday fans!  For our final challenge of the year, Barb has chosen Masculine.

It's always harder to come up with masculine card ideas, but you should get loads of inspiration from the rest of the design team and our surprise party guests.  But if you don't want to make a masculine card you can always play along with our Anything Goes theme.

I actually made this card for the previous challenge, 'Focal One', but then decided to use it for this Masculine challenge instead.  The focal image is from Woodware, the sentiment strip is Taylored Expressions, and the embossing folder is from Apple Blossom.

Pop along to the Seize The Birthday blog and play along with us!

Visible Image - Winter Colours

Hey, Visible Image fans!  Our theme this week is Winter Colours, and I chose to make a couple of tags in snowy blues and white.

I made an A5 master board, starting with smooshed Distress Inks, blotting parts and then drying with a heat tool.

To add sparkle, I spritzed a couple of colours of Distress Spritz.

I wanted to get two tags out of the sheet, both with half a snowflake on, so I stamped the fabulous large snowflake from Let It Snow in the centre with Versamark ink and heat embossed in white.

I love that grunginess!!

Then I cut down the centre of the panel and placed my tag die to get maximum effect for each tag.  Once I'd cut the tags I stamped and embossed some of the smaller snowflakes and flurries, and added a sentiment to each.

I also sponged some Picket Fence Distress ink through the Stardust stencil on one tag.  It's quite subtle but when the light catches it, you can really see it.

Once I'd adhered the tag layers I added some ribbons from my stash and, voilà, two Christmas tags ready for use.

You can find these stamps and stencils, along with the whole Visible Image range, here.

Seize The Birthday - Focal One

Hello, we've got a great challenge for you this week at Seize The Birthday from Ashwini, and it's Focal One.  Here is her explanation:

What this means is, in your card, for the focal image, use only one stamp and stamp it only once. No more stamping is allowed on the focal image. However, you are free to colour it and free to do anything else with the rest of the card.

If you don't want to follow the 'Focal One' theme, you can always play along with our Anything Goes theme.

I used a new to me stamp from Aall & Create, and a sentiment from Avery Elle.  Once I'd watercoloured the image with Distress Inks I splattered the colours across the panel, then I also splattered the colours across the card base.  I mounted the panel onto glitter card, then onto the card base.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration on Focal One from the rest of the design team and our surprise party guests, and join in the party!

Visible Image - Winter Sweater

We've got a winter birthday theme going at Visible Image this week, so I've made a clean and simple masculine birthday card.  It's woolly jumper time!

I stamped the Knitted background stamp using a mix of Distress inks.

Then I die-cut it using the Christmas Jumper Die and softened the edges with a bit of Weathered Wood.

I wanted to wrap a scarf around the neck, so I found some cotton twill tape, frayed the ends and dyed it with re-inkers.

There wasn't enough variation in colour for my liking so I spritzed some Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays on it.  The shimmer didn't stick, but it was the colour that I was after rather than shimmer.

I wrapped the scarf around my fingers and stapled all but the top layer to the top of the jumper, then I used some PVA glue to stick down the top layer at the neck, covering the staple but leaving the ends loose.

Turning to my card, I stencilled some numbers down one side of a blue panel, using the Glitch Numbers stencil using Lost Shadow Distress ink.

I stamped the little starry cluster from Birthday Wishes in Lost Shadow Distress ink, then stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat-embossed in silver, which catches the light beautifully.

Then it was just a case of affixing my jumper to the panel.

Pop on over to the Visible Image website for these and more goodies.  You'll also find plenty of inspiration for using the products.

Happy crafting!