1st Creative post

Hi all

Today is my first post for Creative Expressions and so I wanted to do a wall hanging with all the goodies given to me to create with.
I had been given this MDF wooden shape in my DT stash so I thought it lends itself to a pretty crackled look. So without further ado here it is.

• I started by painting the plaque with some acrylic paint in grey.
• Then crackle glazed the entire piece.
• I covered this once dry with a contrasting colour usually a lighter shade, I used a beige tone to see the cracks below.
• Sand back the edges and add wax.I used, Cast Bronze,amethyst and Enchanted Gold.
• Stamp out the outline of stamps I am using The Winter flowers set  and I coloured them with Creative expressions Shimmering Iridescent Watercolour Paints.
• I stamped my sentiment onto Coconut white card and layered onto a mat of soft gold card.I added some Burlap string to the top for a hanger and for a bow and some metal embellishments which I used the Enchanted gold wax on to highlight the raised sections.
• I added crackle glaze to the flowers in a thick coat so it will crack nicely.
• lastly I used the pearl glue to dot little dots  all over just for a tiny bit more dimension.

I hope you enjoyed this first project

 

 I know I enjoyed creating it for you.

 Here is a close up of the sentiment.

My day to to blog for  Creative Expressions with be Thursday from now on so please check back each week to see what I create using the products so far. If you have any questions please ask and if you would like to leave a comment I will always reply and appreciate every one left. 

I will be doing a little competition when I get to my first 100 followers too so If you would like to take part tell your friends to stop by and join in.

Also Don't forget anyone in the Essex area I am in Wickford doing my first Demo for Creative on gilding flakes and Waxes so do come to Wickford arts and crafts Saturday 10-4 if you can make it.

Of course last but not least do join up on the Creative Blog too so you can follow along with everything we take part in too.

Some Creative news..

Hi All.

I wanted to share today that I applied to be on the Creative Expressions Design Team a little while ago during the recent call. The first project that we were asked to create was an Autumnal piece so I created an Autumn wreath which I loved I cannot show it as yet as it will be featuring in the project book not this time but next so that is under wraps but we were then asked to create for the semi finalists a piece using The Belle of the Ball set recently featured on Create and Craft.

So I thought I'd add it today as I am being introduced on the official website as part of the team today as I was very lucky to have been chosen and gotten through to be a member for 2013/14.

This is a mini book which has space for photos and journalling etc too and would be lovely for someone going away to uni to keep memories special and close or for a young lady and her prom pictures to always remember that special time.Or a number of other occasions I think.

 

This is The Belle of the Ball.

I am so happy to belong to such a fabulous Companies Design team and am very lucky to be on all the teams I am on now, I feel extremely blessed and look forward to the journey and adventures I will be having over the next few months on my way to making my ambition of working full time in this wonderful industry a reality. 

I have my first demo day to promote now too for Creative Expressions which will be at 

Wickford craft and hobbies ltd ( in2craft) . It is on this Saturday the 2nd November 10-4 and we will have lots of goodies to play with so If you are in the area and fancy saying hello do stop by

 

I am really looking forward to meeting lots of new faces and showing off the fabulous products that I am lucky enough to work with. This demo will be on Gilding flakes and the gorgeous waxes and my Colleague and Rep will be demoing The Polished silk glitters. Here is a project I made to take for the table which features all three items and uses our lovely Sue Wilson's technique of fire and ice with the Mask technique she is well known for on Create & Craft.

 

 

 This box is 6x6inches and features all Creative products.

 A close up.

And here was card created with spellbinder dies .

Well I want to thank Creative expressions for the lovely welcome and if you would like  to pop and have a look you will find it here  if you haven't come from there already.

I hope you have a great day and are not too effected by these crazy storms coming in from the Atlantic. It certainly is crazy windy here and we have had flying wheely bins going by this  morning so take care, keep warm and look after any elderly neighbours.

 

Love 

 

Kim 

xxxx 

 

Visible image Sunday

Hi everyone

Today I have a card made for Visible Image which uses the new stamp which is the gorgeous quirky snowman Jack and he is simply lovely to work with if you are looking for a snowman with some character.

So here he is , Jack.

 Here is a close up of all the glitter

 You can see how I divided the white background card into cubes then glittered the lines for a little interest.

 My idea was to make it look like he had sent his photo in a frame signed maybe to a snow pal with love haha

This card was easy to create but is just as effective I think..

• Firstly I took my white card and scored it at every centimetre , then turned it round 45 degrees and scored again giving you 1cm cubes I then ran a glue pen down each and added clear very sparkly glitter snow.I matted that onto black and set aside.
• I cut a spellbinder from black card and stamped Jack out onto it in white and any parts not showing up i went over with white pen.I coloured his hat and some of scarf in sparkly gold gel pen and then used glossy accents on the hat and buttons and scarf.
• I took a glitter pen and put lines and dots at the top of the card and bottom too then used more glitter. 
• lots of glitter .
• I added a little shadow under where he is standing to ground him and more glitter. 
• I used some foam to raise up this piece onto the earlier matted piece we did and lastly signed his frame.

 I hope you enjoyed this little card and it certainly is a fun one if you like to use characters in your Christmas crafting.
Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and lots of crafting.

love to all 

Kim 

xxxx

Heartfelt Creations Memories.

Hello all thee Bloglanders..

I may be late ish with my Heartfelt Creations Wednesday post but it is here none the less.
I used the truly lovely Sweet Juliet Collection which I just adore. It is one of my favourites so far.
I think my card for this week could easily be used for a number of occasions as I kept it very generic but just by added a few touches you could easily make it a remembrance card or a sweet memory of a day out with a special friend. Anyway without further ado.

 Lots of close ups of my champagne bow to tie in the elements and look at that fabulous die and tiny leaves.

I used the lovely Sue Wilson technique of adding micro beads over a piece of the gorgeous Antiquity paper here and did lots of matting and layering. A double bow and four gorgeous flowers and leaves with black brads for centres complete the card, with the raised section in the middle to highlight the memories also in the paper pack. yumminess and the paper is sooo strokeable folks.

If you are out and about this week and wants to buy a craft mag to have a little peruse I have a feature that  I was asked to do for Craftwork Cards  so I have 6 of my Christmas cards using their Christmas post collection which  is very vintage inspired, and even a little piccy on the front cover.(top right) in the circle.

Check it out. 

Hope you have chance to see it , have a great week everyone. Don't forget to let me know what you think too.

Best wishes

Kim 

xxx

Visible Image Sunday 'Love'.

Good Morning Everyone in Blog world.

I have actually as yet no been to sleep after having a rotten head all day , it finally went around 12 midnight and the crafty mojo came flooding back so I thought I would just do something and now its gone 7 a.m , gosh us creative types do keep the strangest hours... haha well I used the simply gorgeous Immortal love stamp set from Visible Image of course for this card and wow is all I can say.

• I started with an A5 piece of white stamping card which is super smooth and the inks just blend together really seamlessly. I used Dried Marigold ,Worn Lipstick , , a touch of Ripe persimmon and rusty hinge. 
• I stamped the small rose all over the card turning the stamp and stamping off the page also, I used a raspberry Adirondack Ink pad to stamp the rose on the background, I used a water brush to then add water in each rose , wait a couple of seconds and blot the water off with Kitchen paper, as the Distress ink reacts with water it leaves the card almost white again and creates an interesting effect.
• I then stamped the barbed wire randomly on the background too with versamark and then used a copper cosmic shimmer embossing powder, I stamped the damask element in black and the words from the set, Immortal, forever and love all embossed in white. 
• I took a white pen and highlighted the items to make them stand out from the page.
•  I used the embossing ink around the background edges and sprinkled on an iridescent powder with glitter in it to match the colours in the ink. I covered each Rose in glossy accents and set aside to dry.
• Next I took the large rose and used glue on the stamp and stamped the image again onto white card I used gilding flakes this time and took a line of sticky tape and gilded that also. I added a piece of decorative trim , which has mini pom poms hanging on it. I added it behind the strip of gilding and mounted it to the bottom of the card. I painted in the large rose and cut it out of the card. I used matching distress inks to add the colour then I dried it with a heat gun. I covered the rose in double sided adhesive and sprinkled it with Glitter I then recoloured it again and the glitter takes on the Distress really well.
• I die cut some leaves for the rose and added both on top of the decorative element at the bottom of the card.
• Lastly I stamped out the Love in black on white card, which I matted onto Red card. I added the same iridescent embossing powder around the edges and heat set then added this to the top of the card. I matted the card onto red card , then white and last layer of red. The finishing touch  was to add some red flat back jewels to complete the look.

 This is a close up of the small roses and the glossy accents on the background.

 You can see here the gilding flakes showing through the glitter which picked up the colour of the inks really well.

The set I used 

Immortal Love By Visible Image. 

I hope you enjoyed My post for this weeks Visible Image Sunday.

While you are here I want to take the opportunity to Thank everyone who leaves me lovely comments on here and facebook/twitter etc , It is always such a huge validation of your work and the thing you love to do so much so Thank you to each and every one of you for stopping by and taking the time to leave some love for me. 

I also would like to mention that Craftwork cards asked me if I would like to do some cards for Simply cards and Papercraft for them with their lovely Vintage Christmas post collection which is now in shops  should you wish to purchase and have a look at it , it was a feature about Craftwork and I was so lucky as it features 6 of my cards this time, The lovely Sue who owns Craftwork cards sent me a copy of the magazine just Friday so I got to see it as soon as it came out and it really is a great article so well done to Sue,Andrew and Julie. Hugs xxx

Ok Have a lovely Sunday (avoid the rain)

bye for now guys

Kim 

xxxx

Heartfelt Creations Sweet Juliet Collection.

Hello everyone.

Well I got up today and who , I repeat who had nicked the warm weather, I mean I know it hasn't been summer for a while now and I know the nights are getting miserably darker much sooner etc but ... Oh my goodness. I thought I was going to have icicle drips from the corners of my eyes and nose by time I had walked from the car park into work... what is going on... Winter you say... Oh no I will not be robbed of Autumn with its rich golds and oranges, with its cascading leaves and children kicking them as they walk by and the steady sound of the leaves gently brushing the windows as they fall from the trees. So I refuse to have these cold and frosty morns until another month of glorious early mornings with pink tinged Sky's and trees shaking off their coats and letting me photograph them in the noddy silhouetted against the pinky orangy sky, the last remaining stubborn leaves clinging hard to be the only one connected to the boughs. ( ooo look at me all writeresque today, I feel all inspired to pen a novel (well a blog page at least haha)
I am a bit late but I want to share with you my gorgeous cards using the wonderful Sweet Juliet Collection from the Wonderful Heartfelt Creations.

First in true Autumn shades is My postcard in bloom.

 The Postcard precut set

Here you can see the lovely little Sweet Juliet flowers made by die cutting and threading the centre hole onto a brad and then threading each loop on to the Brad and then opening the legs to set it. You can see the gleam on the flower and this was ultra tick embossing added over an embossing pen, there is a couple of layers to create the thick random effect in the picture , I used soft gold card for the flower also.

Next I have a beautiful Spring/Summer looking Sweet Juliet.

 I wish you could see all the sparkle all over the flowers here on this card.

 A bit closer, you can see the lovely little white velvet bows on each stem of the flowers too.

One of the flowers on a matching lilac brad, sooo pretty, over the lace, 2 shades here.

I coloured both these cards with distress Ink on a tile using a water colour brush and blended them , I also used cut and dry foam with the colours to blend into each other and over the edge.

 

 

I thought I would add The lovely Emma lou Beechy The creative director for Heartfelt Creations     video link here to the You tube for the Sweet Juliet Collection as I really do find these video inspiring and give you ideas sometimes you may not have thought of and if you subscribe you will automatically receive all the new links and Design team calls etc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBGfsd_6SKQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBGfsd_6SKQ

I hope you like this Collection, I feel truly inspired when I look through the galleries on Heartfelt Creations web site or on the blog , I have been working with some truly wonderful artists over the last 6 months, so don't forget to vote and keep the artists you feel have entertained and inspired you the most and also vote in the new ladies we certainly have some amazingly talented ladies apply this time. Thanks to each of those for entering and good luck to my team mates and potential team mates should we all stay.

Have a truly great day and take care 

happy crafting

Kim 

xxxxx

Visible Image Sunday

Hi Folks

Well what a fabulous weekend  I have had, not only did I receive a fabulous new stamp from the superb Visible Image , and wow Ripped Fishnet.. Oooo Er mrssssssssssssss.
However.. I went a different route with it.
What do you think ?

 I liked this stamp as soon as we were told it was coming and this was the idea that popped in, Unfortunately you can't see all the glitter embossing too well in this photo but it is sooo shiny.

Here is the best |I can get of the glitter ,its all over the butterflies and in the corners and edges.
boy does it shine.

•  I started by stamping my Ripped Fishnet stamp in black archival ink all over the page as closely as i could match it up.
• I then took my Peacock feathers DI and Shabby shutters Ink and I blended it together all over the page , I spritzed with water.and dabbed with kitchen paper.
• I stamped my bronte border with brown to start off with which I then blasted with heat and rubbed with my anti-static pad, til it was really dry. If it isn't dry it will pick up the embossing where it isn't needed. I then used the bronte border again with Versamark ink and embossed with True white embossing powder, again all random.
• I then used the Large tall grass stamp and gold embossing power along the bottom edge. I set this aside after again blasting with heat and making sure it all dry.
• I stamped lots of black butterflies large and small and,  The hang in there, Sentiment from the Chandelier set. I coloured the butterflies with the matching Inks and a water brush. then covered them in Versamark ink and added iridescent embossing powder and tipped in glitter too. and heated ... wow the bling is amazing in my craft light.(shame about the camera).
• I took the background and did the same as above by rubbing the Versamark over the edges and corners of the card and covered in the same embossing and glitter and heated. This you can see in the close up pic above.
• I cut a rounded square from a Spellbinder Die in white card which had self adhesive double sided paper attached to it , peeled off one side and dipped it into micro beads, I used a very thin amount of versamark on the edges and dipped it into gold embossing powder and heat set. I then cut out my 'Hang in there' sentiment with a smaller rounded square Spellbinder Die and added foam to the back and sat on top of the micro beads.
• Lastly I layered the butterflies and added to the base.
• I mounted the whole thing onto cream card with a tiny border and then onto a double mat of black card.

The next project I did was completely random but I love this style of blending the colours on the backgrounds.

So Basically this started exactly the same as the other one but I used , rusty hinge ink on the fishnet stamp and in the blending  also dried marigold , Honey , fired brick on the edges and through the Circle template. I used the Bronte border the same way with white embossing powder.

• I mounted it onto black and then cream added a red velvet ribbon and then mounted again onto black. 
• I stamped the Hearts entwined verse and blended some rusty hinge and a little dried marigold on the edge and mounted on cream and black added some bling and raised up on foam and added to the base. 
• I used some pink jute and made two figure of eights for opposite corners of the sentiments and added a rose on top of that. with two leaves on each.
• I had some velvet that looked like vines in a dark bluey /green and added them underneath both the flower ensembles.
• Lastly I added a sparkly gem to the bow and I cut a piece of the vine (odd looking stuff but hey it worked with the theme., it looked like lots of hearts so I cut one out and added a red gem to it and added this then to the edge of the sentiment.

Soo I was saying Not only did I receive a lovely new stamp Friday to create all this inky goodness but I also Got asked to do a project for a magazine so I then received yet another gorgeous stamp set to create with and it is gorgeous. It is the Immortal Love set from Visible Image.

And Today I was at a brilliant demo day with a some lovely ladies and I got to play with one of them's Melt pot and create a couple of goodies , Tracey thanks so much for the lovely day.

I also have some brilliant news to share but can't yet .hufffle Ive got pegs on my fingers so I don't tell just yet lol
I want to thank all the new people who have joined the blog recently , as everyone knows I will be running a little comp when I get my first 100 and I want to say all your comments are always extremely valued and I appreciate and answer every one so thanks for coming to the blog.

All the stamps that I used for both these cards are of course  Visible Image and are below this post so why not head over and take a look for yourself.

Have a brilliant Sunday guys.. erkkk Monday is looming and I am back to work after 2 weeks off so I am already dreading it especially as I can't play with my Inks at my work desk. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Crafty Hugs..

Kim 

xxxx

Visible Image October Challenge

Hi folks..

Over on The fabulous Visible Image blog today a new Challenge has started so that means we had a winner for The sentiment challenge in August who was Wendy McCarthy, congratulations Wendy , what a lovely  Tag you made and beautiful colours. Well done £20 worth of stamps too whatever will you choose, I want everything so I am guessing it will be a struggle to decide.

Now not only is it a new challenge starting as today is October 1st, which is The colours of Autumn but the postage is free for this month too for UK and Overseas, how cool is that.... wow! Helen and Mark are being amazingly generous as not only all of the above but there is some huge discounts on already brilliant prices on a number of sets too.. they include , Ink splats, Free your Imagination,Immortal love, The Tree Trio and Sleigh Silhouette. I think there will definitely be a queue while stocks of these brilliantly deep etched and fabby stamps last.

So my inspiration to go up on the blog today for The colours of Autumn is a small canvas that I created , I hope you like it.

It measures around 5x3 inches and I just love the colours and all the movement I have captured into it. I used several techniques which I will share with you below.

• First I took my canvas which was already primed so no need to gesso this time and I gave it a coat of deep red almost Burgundy acrylic and blasted with Mr Hotty the heat gun.
• I then covered it in crackle medium and left to dry out.
• I then used my Fresco acrylics , in Haystack and hey pesto and worked it over the canvas I used another orange too but can I remember the name... nope .. getting old me thinks or lack of sleep. I Also used a tiny bit of London bus which is a red. I blended them all well then took a honeycomb stencil and randomly added it in some of the corners with Hey pesto then moved the mask slightly as I saw on The Paperartsy You Tube a technique Leandra called her Bumping Technique where you move the mask slightly and use a lighter colour over the top and it creates a shadow below.
• Next, I used some tissue and stamped with Archival Ink in Black The grasses stamp. I pushed it to one side to dry thoroughly. I will blast it to heat set also.
• I took The Bronte border that I love and Added first Brown shed paint and stamped  again Randomly and then again same thing but with White paint. Don't forget the sides.
• I took some watered down PVA and coated the bottom of the canvas, I took my piece of tissue and heat set it with the grasses on it, Then I tore the edges any old how and added it to the PVA which was nice and tacky, do not worry bout little wrinkles they go flat as it dries. Cover it all in a coat of the same Pva to make sure it sealed and let this layer dry.
• while you do this take your skeleton leaves and cover them in an embossing ink, I used Versamark* but Perfect medium is also very good and then cover in clear embossing powder and heat til melted. I used three colours of Mica powder to drop onto the leaves with a soft brush, I then heat again and what happens is the powder sinks into the melted  embossing and so does no longer wipe off and all that shimmery Mica is encased. 
• I also took a piece of white card and stamped in Brown the new Create with your soul sentiment which I absolutely love love love. I used my Distrezz it all tool and distressed the edges really well and used vintage photo Distress ink all around and even a little walnut stain in areas to darken.I added some glue all way around and dipped in Creative Expression snow glitter. , I added foam to the back and set aside. 
• Next technique, I took a mask with what looks a bit like a foxglove flower with leaves and put it on the bottom of the now dry PVA tissue on the canvas and scraped through some Grunge paste, I also let it go up the left hand side and a small butterfly on the top of the left too.I dried it and dabbed random Nougat and haystack paint again with a sponge this time , then added more of the glitter and stuck the sentiment down too.
• I looked for some flowers to match the colours and added them to two corners of the sentiment with the skeleton leaves and some jute which I some how managed to make it look a bit like a butterfly , top right corner.
• finishing touches then were a few tiny little gold nail heads , I plaited some ribbon and took two brads made 2 small holes in the top and used a hammer to bang in the brads like nails to hold the ribbon a a hanger to hang up this little canvas. Lastly was lots of gilding wax in ruby and enchanted Gold and a brass one I had too, which I polished on all the corners to a high shine.

 Wow sorry guys are you still with me or dozed off, I did say I used a lot of techniques ha ha.. Its great to just let your imagination play out while you play.
More pics..

 you can see The Bronte border through the tissue paper and the Highlights on the grass I added in white too.

                           My Butterfly  (Kinda)                                  And a close up.

Look at the sparkly Mica in the leaves.

The stamp sets I used were.

 Grasses. Bronte border and Create with your soul.

Well I hope you will give some or all of this a go and try to create your own wall art canvas or a box or something you'd like to Alter and turn into something of beauty. I will see you all really soon but please leave me your comment and let me know what you think of this one and recreate your Autumn Item and enter the challenge to win all them lovely stamps and no postage too... double whammy.

Have a great Tuesday

Hugs 

 Kim 

xxxx