Visible Image Sunday.

Hi Lovely ladies

Hope you are all having a good weekend. I want to Thank you all for being here with me still, I really do appreciate it and You have really helped me beyond words and I have made real and lasting friends that feel like family now too.

That said today I have a nice little card with the gorgeous Visible Image stamps I had just done my inspiration piece for July 1st and which has some really rich colours in it so I wanted to go opposite with this one and went all pastel and shabby chiq colours so here it is see what you think ?

 I started this one with off white card, more like ivory really and I took the polka dot background stamp and the Harlequin background stamp and stamped in opposite corners, I kept it fairly neat for this one but I know These backgrounds look just as amazing if you turn them and stamp randomly off the page and create a frame to pull the eye into the centre etc. I used versamark and clear embossing powder for both these stamps for the background. I then chose some distress colours to work with and thought Id use ones I haven't mixed before so I chose these two.

They mix together nicely with an almost buttery sort of feel, I know what I mean haha. I did give them several coats though to build up a little intensity as they are so pale. I was pleased with the clean and simple kind of finish it gave so I decided to try to do a more simple card as usually you know I am very keen on lots of detail and layering .

 I did draw these two hearts freehand and stamped the polka dots on one and the harlequin on the other, I then added some texture crackle paste and on part of the image , I then stamped the matching stamp into it and dried it with a heat gun to help the cracks appear as It wasn't a really thick coat. I then sprayed it with some inks in a brown and a aqua blue, i then added some gold wax to the edges and onto some of the pattern too and buffed it to a shine.

 This lovely verse I have on its own but I know it does come in the wedding set of stamps called , The wedding day set. I stamped it in brown as I thought black would just be too harsh with these lovely ice cream buttery colours. I cut it out with a simple die and then layered it up onto aqua card to match the hearts and the double mat in the background.
I did add a small strip of seam binding in the middle for decoration and also to cover the gap between the two die sets.

Of course I tied a matching bow but I gave it a little vintage edge by scrunching up the ribbon with a spritz of water to give it the creases then blasted it dry with the heat gun before attaching with a pretty little heart which I added some wax too to bring out the pattern. You can just see the other heart with the texture on poking out here too, you can see the polka dot pattern, the shine and also the cracks where the ink spray seeped into the paste, I love this stuff. ( Well I had to do a little something didn't i)

Here are the stamps I used  on today's project .

                           Harlequin Background.                                 Polka dot Background

Wedding day set.

So there it is today's little card, very simple techniques but I am sure you will agree it came out very pretty in the end.

Would you like to see a couple of tutorials this week on some techniques like the utee one and the above crackles etc rather than full cards on the days I don't have the usual cards, sort of an extra?
let me know in your comments below if you will .

Have a wonderful Sunday and I hope the rain isn't your way and you are ok, I am thinking of those lovely ladies that have a few problems right now and if you ever need an ear please feel you can email me privately anytime, I will always answer you as soon as I can.

Lots of hugs to you all

love

Kim 

xxxx

Creative Expressions Thursday

Hello all.

Hope you are all well. Its Thursday so that can only mean Creative Expressions yayy..

I have been creating a little scene using our lovely DT stamps for June. They are really cool stamps and remind me of when my kids were little.
See what you think?

These stamps are so useful I really did enjoy using them.

 I used one of the Grand sentiments as I thought it went really well.

 Here is a close up on the picture. 

So for this one. I started with coconut white card (as you all know it is one of my favs as a base.)
I stamped out the singles stamps called 'I spy' and 'Beauty and the beach' to start then I took the 'beach flora' and stamped it took look like a little mound in the sane for my little lady to stand on. I used 'Marina bay' for her to point at (seagull) .             
I ripped some paper to help me create the sky , sea and sandy Hills.
I used a combination of inks to help me get depth into the colours here, Distress and adirondak
I also used a water brush to help me pull the inks out and blend etc.
Don't forget the white pen girls for the highlights.

The Bow is tied with champagne coloured crinkle edge ribbon and I used one of the little straw hats for the knot cover and added a ribbon and flower to it to pretty it up a little.

 This view shows the layers better and the highlights I think.

So what do you think blogglies?

Would you like to create this one? give it a go.
Thanks to everyone leaving comments as always and I will be back with more to show you very soon. Don't forget there is always the creative expressions blog to visit too and you can keep up with news and competitions etc that way aswell.

Have a great day ladies and gents.

Hugs

Kim 

xxxx

Refreshingly Monday.

Hi Blogglies

Hope you are all well and enjoying the sunshine . Happy Monday morning and today sees my day to post for Craftwork cards on their blog  so please if you have time pop on over and leave me a little comment as it is always appreciated as you know.

I have to say another huge thank you to you all for leaving me such amazing comments here on my little blog it is always a pleasure to read them all and to answer and interact with everyone of you so huge thank you to all for that.

I also want to say a very special thank you to a lovely lady I have had the pleasure to get to know through my blog etc and emails and this week she send me a wonderful gift that she had made for me which was a beautiful bracelet, Thank you Carol Clarke I will treasure this gift forever and I love it so much. It is precious as are you to me. I am really not used to receiving gifts like this but I must say what a wonderful feeling it was to open. I also loved the little notebook which is in full use already next to my laptop collecting any websites where we can get a little bargain and of course I will share them with you  all as I find them. Bless you Carol my lovely.

Ok back to the  two items I made for Craftwork for today which were a heart wall hanging and a little card. They are all featuring the Refreshers paper and bows and a tag from the base tag pad.

 Here is my 6x6 card which of course is on gorgeous smooth Craftwork Cards Base card in scallops.They come prepack in 50's which is so handy and are a perfect weight too.Nice and sturdy lol (like me) well when my leg is not like this lol...

 Here is the inside of the card , as we make full cards for Craftwork cards and I love to decorate the inside to match, the sentiment tag comes on sheets of several different sentiments which are so very handy and on a 300gsm pearlised white card with either gold,black  or silver writing.

 Here is one of the die cut blooms in the paper pad so you do not have to have a die cutting machine when you purchase any of the paper pads from Craftwork cards. I have doubled up the amount in this flower for a nice thick full bloom,sitting on top of one of the tags which I distressed with scissors and added some Spun sugar distress ink for a really pretty summery feel.

 Next is the matching little heart wall hanging in the same refreshers paper and this time I used a rose which I popped out and shaped them made up the layers and then shaped al the tiny flowers and added a glass pearl to match from my stash.

 This close up shows the border I used on an angle, and a little paper bow from the matching bow pad and of course another sentiment which I cut a little fork at the end to look like ribbon. I also made a hanger from seam binding cut in half to fray and bead trim and a thin pink ribbon , I also backed the heart which measures 6inch wide by 5 tall with a ribbon I had in my stash that had a gorgeous trim to it so I cut it in half and created a ruffle and added it all around, I added another heart to the back of all this to keep it nice and clean and neat on the back too.

Here is a close up on the side so You can see all the elements ... Now hands up who thinks these colours are like refreshers and who thinks they remind them of sugared almonds lol?

As always leave your comments below and come back to read my reply as I always try to get back to you if I can and I love to read every single comment which I appreciate immensely as you all know.
I think you are all fab and I look forward to being with you more as the year goes on.

Huge crafty hugs to you all

love

Kim 

XXXX

Show cards for Creative Expressions Thursday.

Hi my lovely Blogglies.

I hope you are all having a good week so far and enjoying the sunshine still.
My garden looks like a jungle nowadays , I really believe the grass is over three feet. I can't remember it ever being so overgrown out the back.
Thank you all for your lovely kind wishes regarding my hospital visit, The surgeon said he thinks that my ankle is healing well and is in a very good position but I need to elevate it as much as possible but that all the swelling where my foot actually looks like I have a nasty case of elephantitus and the pain will actually continue for 6-8 months minimum as there is a lot to heal and I mustn't under estimate the severity of the op I endured. I guess deflated was a little how i felt as I really just thought i would have this huge op and be in plaster then it would all be better after so many years in pain but although I can see the light at the end of the tunnel it seems I have a little bit of a hill to climb just yet. I am always over whelmed by all your wonderful kind messages so a huge thank you to you all for that.

Today I have a couple more of the show cards  and then next Thursday I will have a twofer on my DT pieces for June.

So here is card number 1

 You may have seen this one as a sneaky peak on C&C the week before the last show, This one features the gorgeous Sew Jo pad that I took on , I think this paper pad is simply adorable and I love every sheet in it. It is also amazing for men's cards as there are so many double sided sheets that are generic and do not have the sewing theme on. Of course I have used lots of Vintage Photo Distress ink and the are real wooden buttons with the paper attached on with cosmic shimmer glue of course.

 Here is a close up on the Little tag which i pushed under the edge of the paper which I rolled back wards and added the matching paper underneath, You can see the buttons a little closer here too.

 I also made a bow just from Jute string twisted into a figure of eight and a Beige gorgeous zipper rose sitting on top. I hope you managed to get yours as it was a huge pack.

Here is card number two.

 You can just see the shine on the top of this card but when it is in front of you the whole of the frame is covered in adhesive sheet and very fine glitter so the sparkle is just beautiful. The frame was actually the waste from cutting the larger Couture die from the show again using the gorgeous Sew Jo pad again. I also cut several of the die cuts from the little Mannequin die also couture creations. I stamped my lovely set of scissors and fussy cut them out by hand. i filled a little of the vials with dolls house doll buttons and stuck it to the inside of the frame also.

 Here is a close up of those Creative expressions scissor s and how easy they are to cut out by hand.
Oh and you can just catch a bit more of the tiny sparkles on the frame too.

 On the show I also had the Crochet ribbon which I just love so I thought I would make a couple of flowers and today I am showing a couple of them too. Here is the white one with its little frayed burlap and button centre,

And the black one with a tiny baby's breath flower and 5 tiny 10 mm rose buds and lots of seam binding and ribbon to dangle below.

More of these tomorrow as I still have a few bits to photo from the show.

I also have to say a huge thank you for all of you that had a little fun playing along with the blog hop, I had a wonderful time reading all your comments, I don't answer those ones just simply because it would make it hard to use random.org to pick the winner of the prizes if i left lots of replies too.

The full post is up on the Creative expressions Blog here

And the winner chosen with Random.org is Maxine Jones on my blog and you win lots of goodies so go along and claim your prize on the main site as soon as possible Maxine and a huge congratulations from me. 

I would also like to say if anyone knows anyone who would like to join my blog I would very much appreciate you telling them about how we are a little community here and how much I appreciate my lovely Blogglies as I really need to raise my profile this year if possible.

Have a great Thursday everyone and I will see you very soon

Hugs

Kim 

xxxx

Show cards.

Hi Everyone

Welcome to the new followers or blogglies as we are now calling us all lol (cross between bloggers and lovelies haha) a word that dropped onto my tongue last week haha. ( bit like dribble ) lol

I thought Id show a card from the recent show or 2  as I know you don't get much of a look on air.
I am off to hospital today to have the ankle checked so I though you may enjoy these. Both these cards on today's twofer were the demo's from the show too.

 This one had a coating of clear embossing powder on the scissors and thimble  etc. The one on the show I left Matt.

 A little close up on the fab scissors with the tiny little flowers etc., You can also see the texture on the paper etc which is lovely.

 The lovely sentiments to fit with the sewing theme went so well too.

 And of course the ribbon rose made from the crochet Ribbon in white.

The 2nd card I demo'd.

 I love this (my fav colour mix at the moment of course.

 This was the one I cut the die to make a square from a rectangle and you can see the gorgeous Sewing machine die cut.

In this picture you can see the lovely sentiment a couple of homemade stick pins and the rest of the die cuts.

I hope you liked them both, I haven't done full tutorials for these two as you saw me do them on the show but of course if you would like a break down let me know.

Have a great Tuesday and I will see you soon.

Hugs

Kim 

xxxx

Visible Image Sunday. man o man...

Good Sunday Morning  my lovely Blogglies

I think I have the loveliest kindest blogglies on any blog in the land of blogdom.. Thank you lovely ladies for being so caring, I have made some wonderful friends , gained a Nana which is wonderful cos I didn't have any so I feel honoured.

My favourite time of the day is when I get a minute to digest the lovely comments and see whether you liked the card or not that day and what you are all up too, I promise I read every single word and I feel very close to you all cos of it.

I haven't commented on the blog hop just in case you are wondering because when it comes to picking the winner with the random number picker It makes it easier to count but of course I was itching to answer all the wonderful messages as always.

Now This month the challenge at Visible Image was 'Man oh Man', well it is fathers day so it is so extremely appropriate. At the beginning of the month the team was a little larger so we split our inspiration makes into two and some of the team posted on the first and some of us are for today so here is my male them card of course using the wonderful new Revolution Set.

 

I love this effect I think it is very mainly and definitely in colours easily carried off for a guy.

So I took a piece of white card , not too thick so we can crumple it and make it have some creases later on .I stamped the writing from the Revolution set and wow The pattern repeats so easily and you cannot even tell where it starts and stops. Brilliant. I used a black archival ink and blasted it dry for a few seconds with my heat tool.

I then choose Peacock feathers, Vintage Photo and Walnut stain distress inks and coloured in my usual way ( you all know it now don't you). 

First coat goes on very patchy and you can see the lines etc, ignore it and do another coat it will all come together, these colours all blend well into each other so over lap them this time and get rid of any white of the card this time. Run some Walnut stain around all the edges including the Peacock feather colour do darken and pull the eye into the main focus.

 I crumpled the card up but not screwed it up, just made some obvious grooves and dips, a few creases too  so I can get some Gilding waxes onto it a bit later . I added the entire piece onto a piece of brown crinkled paper , It is very thin  so you have to be careful not to tear it but it suits a male card I think. I then cut myself a strip of Hessian ( ahh my lovely hessian, I missed you). I frayed all the edges and stuck it down on the back of the crinkle paper I also added a dollop (techy term lol) of glue to the front of the card under the hessian just so it didn't lift up or move etc.
I then matted that entire piece onto cream then a piece of soft gold card which i raised up onto foam and added that to a turquoise layer and lastly a thick Kraft layer for the back. So this was our base completed. Now the FUN....

 I took a mixture of UTEE and normal embossing powder and opened them ready on the table, I took my stamps (yes my clear, deeply etched wonderful Visible Image stamps )and I coated them in versamark which will help the release.
The fleur de lis is done with 2 layers of normal gold detail embossing powder and 2 layers of utee, reason being , I am going to push the stamp into the Utee and through the layers down into the detail powder melted under those top coats so I will pick up all the wonderful marks and distress shapes in the designs still where you can sometimes miss some with Utee.
Once it begins to cool remove your stamp, slowly but deliberately and there it is a perfect little  Fleur de lis, I took some gilding paste and a paint brush and added lots just inside the the shape then I took a cloth and buffed it to a high shine and added it on foam and to the card. ( I also Inked the white edges of the card to keep it neat)

 Then I wanted to use the full horse Image in the same way but I wanted the colours to mingle and run and mottle , This had the same amount of layers but slightly thicker each time, while the powder was still molten move quickly and again push your stamp covered  in versamark straight into the liquid metal. Again let it cool slightly and peel out the stamp, I was really happy with the cleanness under the image and again I used my gilding wax to cover the inside parts of the stamped area and buffed to a shine with a soft cloth.  I tore the edges and inked them with the two browns again and again used a little gilding wax on the edges to finish and pull everything together.
 I decided I wanted the liberte word the same way so I went ahead the same way and did that and added it top left, I also decided i wanted a flourish In Ivory in the bottom right to balance the card and I just had enough room if I didn't use a block yayy.
Lastly I went treasure hunting in my stash  and I found a little metal crown to represent the King and a little gold (acrylic) fleur de lis which had to hit the card too. My last few moments were spent adding a few flat back gems

 

Well I love doing all these technique type things, it so good to get in there an play and see what comes of it isn't it.
What do you think then?
Now don't forget this set just launched yesterday and is selling like hot cakes , poor Mark and Helen were back and forth to the Post office getting them sent out as soon as the orders were in, can you believe that. Now that is customer service hey folks.

Anyway its just a quarter to three a.m as I am finishing the post so I am going to get some sleep and I look forward to reading your comments and chatting with you all again tomorrow, don't forget if you are lucky enough to have some visible Image stamps , why not make something manly and enter the challenge , you may win and you can choose more lovely stamps from the shop too.

Here again is the fabulous set I used to create the above card.

Revolution

Have a lovely Sunday everyone and I will speak to you throughout the day.

Huge Hugs

Love

Kim 

xxxx

Visible Image, New launch..Revolution.

Hi Everyone

Happy Happy Saturday

Hope you all are enjoying the sunshine and getting your crafty hats on cos today I have some new stamps from Visible Image to show to you all. I am amazed by the Visible Image team and the amount of samples they were making one after the other, I couldn't keep up with them unfortunately not this time, sitting too long is almost as bad as standing with the swelling in my ankle just yet but I am on the mend guys, I am going to show you a couple that I created and give you all the links to go and see what the fabby team has come up with so far and I am back again tomorrow of course with my usual day.
So to start I think I should Thank Mark and our lovely Helen for the fantastic stamps and give you the link to the blog to see more Here.

Here are the stamps in the original form so you can see what gorgeousness arrived through my door.

I loved love love these as soon as I saw them, If you like to get all inky from time to time then this is perfect for you , they also stamp like a dream, perfect first time as they are so extremely deeply etched with the polymer.
Even the ink splat writing stamp is so perfect for all aged backgrounds and any over stamping onto shabby chiq paper with all your vintage shades, Amazing.. did I mention Amazing...lol
Ok I Know I know, show you the cards you say, well they are more pictures than cards so here is the first ... Yes another Twofer folks...

I had an image in mind while I was working on this one but I made it night time instead so My first Idea actually is on my second card (typical me hey).
So I started this one bu taking a piece of bright white card which is very very smooth and wiped it over with my anti static pad. So the powder will not stick to any finger prints etc.
I then Stamped out the half horse 3 times using Versamark sticky ink. I embossed with clear Powder. I repeated that process for the swirl and masked of areas on the stamp and only used the sections I wanted for the waves.
Next I took several blues and purples and after adding a mask for the moon I began to blend the blues at the lower edge I kept the dark blue just around the horse's and in between the waves , moving up the picture I used milled lavender to do the area below the moon then dusty concord with chipped sapphire Distress in the top of the sky.

Next I flicked water onto the distress ink in places some large and some small drops , I left it just a coupe of seconds and then blotted with a paper towel this left little dots which I would later turn into these bubbles.
I rubbed a little more versamark all around the edge and used a copper embossing powder to draw your eye inward. I also used an embossing pen and dabbed some dots over the horses and waves and used the copper again.
I stamped my fleur de lis and embossed in white powder top left and revealed my moon, I took a dry baby wipe and dipped it in my dusty concord ink and wiped just lightly a few stripes over the moon I also added a little grey to that.
Next I took my trusty white pen that I am always talking about for highlights, white drawing ink also works or white pastel pencil for a more subtle look too. I took my light source from the moon and drew some highlights on my bubbles , remember they are see through so they have a reflection on the opposite side of the bubble too. I also did lots of reflections in the water with white some I added the white and smeared with my finger downward as this indicates reflection then I highlighted again with the next layer.

I then took out my quickie glue pen and dotted around the bubbles and the lines on the moon , the stars etc which I covered in iridescent glitter. I also added a few more highlights to the copper colour in the sea and did a bit of matting and layering with an Aubergine coloured card and a layer of white to bring the white out in the embossing.
So that was picture number one and next was a very similar format but daytime see what you think.

I wish the cameras showed the cards in the true gorgeousness, I always add so much texture to my cards and yet they always look a little flat on here but hey I loved creating with these beautiful stamps and this was just a little idea because all the ladies on the team were creating crazy amounts of loveliness and all the ideas were going fast haha so I thought well I will be different and have a little surfer in mine ( of course he isn't one of the stamps he was just a scribble lol)
This card was created just exactly the same as the last one except I kept a space for my surfer blank and my moon became a sun I also used the swirl slightly differently but with the same techniques.
So I won't write out the tutorial again I just used lighter colours , Tumbled glass, broken china, mustard seed , squeezed lemonade etc.
I am loving my bubbles they go perfectly with these gorgeous Masterpieces from Marks brain to the polymer and all the hard work Our Helen puts in to get them out looking gorgeous and marketing them, Thanks Guys (wish I could do loads more, but I will get there).

Here is another view.

Well my Blogglies (ha new word, cross between bloggers and lovlies)
I hope you enjoyed this and don't forget there is a Facebook Group to join for Visible Image too and you can see all the sneak peaks for new stamps and competitions and the monthly challenges of course too. Here.

Congrats to the guys for today's fantastic launch and thank you for believing in me.

Here's another look at the stamps of gorgeousness.

                                                                      Revolution

Have a wonderful Saturday and Meet me here tomorrow for some more gorgeousness if you can.

Huge crafty Hugs 

Love

Kim 

xxxx

Creative Expressions Thursday.

Hello folks.

I know we are having a blog hop at the moment so please, if you haven't done so yet go play along but I also wanted to show one of the items from my show last Saturday as my usually weekly blog and although it isn't using this months DT pack its nice to show the items from the show in more detail then you get to see them on the TV.

So as everyone loved the little cupboard I made I thought I would show that off today so here it is.

Of course those of you that watched the show know it was sewing themed with the gorgeous Sew jo paper pad and CE stamp sets and the deal with the zipper roses was phenomenal.

Anyway I started by giving the whole of this little wooden unit a coat of gesso, once dried I added the shallow sea colour of chalk paint and again dried. I then added the crackle glaze and dried too. I then painted a fine warm white coat over the top and allowed it to crackle through and dry.
once totally dry I sanded some corners and added some stain to the corners to darken then just a bit, lastly I added some wax to any ridges etc.

I took the Sew jo pad and used the zip paper to cover the back of the unit and stamped out some little tape measures for the bottom of the back too.

I also used some of the cream crochet ribbon with some bead trim to run around the top too.
So I then took off three of the little drawer pulls and replaced them with black zipper roses.

 I then took one of the sewing masks and added some texture paste to the sides and coloured that in and highlighted with waxes.

I added some of the large metal corners to the unit also and started to build up the items on the top.

I also added a little word sign to the top draw in the middle saying to Embrace Imperfection.

 As you can see I added lots of goodies, I made somr rolled roses from Calico and added some little bottles with crystals, glitter , mini buttons etc. mini hangers and mini spools halves and whole ones witn Bakers twine added.

There was also little pegs and I made some mini balls of wool an used pins as knitting needles, i took one of the large flower cameos in black and white and painted it to match the unit and added it to the bow made from crochet ribbon and seam binding. Plus more mini vials and spools, and mini pegs etc.

I hope you liked it and as a special thank you for all the help my friend Tracey gave me prepping for the show and meeting me there to help me with my equipment carrying I gifted this to her as I knew she liked it lots.
So thank you again Tracey and I hope you really enjoy this little piece.

Well now if you haven't played along with the blog hop yet definitely do its on the post before this one for me but of course you will need to start at the beginning so go read up and get going.
Welcome to all the new guys  popping on to the blog don't forget to join up so you can get hints and tips regularly and also you can keep up with my Create and craft dates, and get to know a brilliant lot of lovely people who are already here on this crafty journey with me.

Thanks for stopping by

big hugs

Kim 

xxxx