Creative Expressions Thursday

Hi Folks

Huge thanks for all your kind words on yesterdays post , It is always nerve racking creating something with lots of layers and texture as to whether your audience is going to like it too as sometimes they can be very different and I am very thankful you are all here and that you like my pieces like that too. I love writing it all out for you too in case there are even small parts you would like to have a go at after all I started exactly that way too.

 So today I am using the Vintage rose garden Paper pad from Couture Creations for the last time this month next week we start a new month on the DT and will have new items to work with. So here is my last card for March with CE.

The Vintage rose garden Pad as you know from the last few weeks has paper in these gorgeous muted coral/pinks and green papers and some fawn type beige too and I chose some pieces of paper to match each other in the coral tones again for this week. I cut out a few sections to add together and add pieces in separate places to use for edges etc.

 I like to gather most of my pieces that I may use together as best as I can to have them to hand as we build the card. I cut out four of the die from Intiricutz by Couture Creations  cut in black card.

I saw these fab little flowers and butterflies on this piece of paper so I simply fussy cut a few flowers and butterflies for today's embellishments.

 I like to lay out the pieces I like and choose to add to get a feel for how I could start  as you can see I did end up changing how it turned out but I always do that  as I move things around until I feel like it will all fit together in the best and prettiest way as it were.

The Paper pad has several pages of sentiments and I chose this one for today's card and mounted it onto a piece of Black Foundation card from the natural pack sold on Create and Craft TV or any black or dark card you love to work with.

I distressed the edges of the papers I decided I would definitely use and inked the edges of all in Aged Mahogany distress ink to match, I chose two papers and added them together wrapping a piece of the Ribbon we were also sent for March Dt work but I also added a strip of crochet ribbon made by May arts too as I like the vintage feel mixed with textures like this crochet ribbon.

Here is another view so You can see the mats and layers I used to create the base the foundation of the card as it were. At this point I decided I wanted to have the card landscape as up til now it could still could have been landscape or portrait view still.

 I darkened the edges of the next piece I had previously distressed,  By the way I use the little Tim Holtz gadget to distress the edges of the paper before inking them with Aged Mahogany again.
I also decided to have something coming out of a rather large tear in the paper so I chose one of the Postcards again from the paper pad  I laid the top piece where I was going to have it and placed the little postcard in place I then moved the top piece and glued the postcard into position before adding the top piece back raised up on foam with the tear open by spritzing slightly with water and rolling the paper back round my pokey tool to make sure it stayed in this position.

 Here is a close up which also shows the edges and inking better  The mats and layers I used were blossom pink card and black foundation card to keep it all matching with the theme.

This next stage is where I brought in the embellishments I cut using the Intricutz Daffodil spray die and the items I fussy cut earlier the flowers and the butterflies I decided to keep the butterflies as they were and not add any bling etc  just let the beautiful paper speak for itself, I did however add some iridescent white pearls to the flower centres.
I also added a strip of the paper used in the back under the sentiment section to tie in the patterns from the back and keep the whole thing grounded and not so it just looks like a hodge podge of papers. I also added a couple of the pearls to this section too.

Here is a close up of the sentiment on another distressed section made earlier.

 I added one whole section of die cut under the bow and a half piece too which I cut into sections to add randomly as needed. The centre is the Bronze button embellishments from CE as part of the Finishing touches range.

This picture is a close up on the bottom left corner and the little flowers I fussy cut out with the pearl centres, I snipped in between each petal and shaped them a little with a ball tool before turning back the edges of the petal to just make them look pretty.

I decided against glitter and sparkle on this one I just wanted it to look classic a little vintage and nicely elegant. 

Here is a couple more angles of the finished piece.

 You can see I added a tiny piece of one of the die cut pieces behind the butterfly.

So I hope you like the finished card. I love this colour and especially mixed with the Aged Mahogany edges it really makes it so pretty and just a hint of sparkle in the 5mm pearls brings that tiny twinkle that keeps it elegant.

                           Thank you so much for being here with me and I will see you all very soon.

Lots of love

Kim 

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Visible Image Wednesday

Hi folks

Hope you are having a good week , I cannot believe how fast weeks pass by.

A while ago we were challenged as you all know  By Visible Image to create something with  a stamp thought of as a backing stamp I was sent the stamp set called Edgy and I used one of the Verses from The Make me Smile set to create this shimmery card below.
It has lots and lots of texture and glitter too.

See what you think?

A little different hey I kinda think it has that Girly Grunge vibe to it hence why I think the Edgy stamps were perfect for this one.
You can see the backing as created in layers of inks and embossing then glitter before adding its central section.

Here is a couple of shots showing the background and how I coloured it with the inks and then some copper embossing and some turquoise embossing, I flicked paint in Sepia colours and white ink also  to add to the images but the Edgy stamps give that random but uniform dotty pattern that looks so great stamped in so many different ways here from ink to water bleaching on ink to paints and embossing.

Once this was complete I added some black and white mat and layers to finish it off nicely and set aside to start on the centre piece.

For the central section  I stamped out the Perfect sentiment in  Versamark ink with clear embossing and used my Tumbled glass Distress ink to filter the blue from the writing out onto the white card , Usually when we cut a die cut or something like that we bring in the colour from the edge  inwards so the darkest is at the very edge then gets lighter toward the centre well If I did that I would or could have used a different colour embossing like the copper or a Gold to match but sometimes that isn't as punchy as white and I knew I didn't want to use a plain one colour piece of card so I worked very lightly and brought in the ink from behind the writing and filtered it outwards and then added more  layers until it had the saturation I was looking for behind the white.
I then added some more edgy stamping in Rusty Hinge Distress ink around the edge and filter in a little Vintage Photo ink and heat set all. I then added some more versamark ink and some WOW embossing powder in clear with turquoise glitter to give it its sparkle. again more mats and this centre was complete.
I added some small card pieces I inked and embossed to the top and bottom of this too before mounting onto the background finished earlier.

 The finishing touches once assembled was the tiny Turquoise stones on the decals top and bottom to keep with the colour. I know I have said this many times and I am sure Mark and Helen from the fabby Visible Image Team that make these lovely stamps for us would agree this is so so sparkly when you have it in your hands , probably one of my sparkliest cards actually and yet without the wonders of technology my little camera just does not seem to pick up how encrusted with sparkle and shine it truly is.
But believe me this is like a party in a glitter ball explosion haha or something like that haha...

So the stamp sets I used to create my little Glitteratti Girly Grunge affair was.....

Make me smile set.                                               Edgy Set.

I really enjoyed creating this and I hope you  all try something simple with stamps you think is only a backing stamp because just by using a tiny part of the stamp randomly you can build patterns and depth with tone on tone inks and embossing and so many different mediums including simply water spritzed onto a stamp to remove colour too. Try it by just limiting the stamps you used on one small piece of left over card first and maybe two or three ink colours you love together and see what happens.... I would love to see it too...

Have a Wonderful Wednesday my friends

Love

Kim 

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Creative Expressions Thursday

Hi Folks

Today of course is my day to have a little something made for Creative Expressions using the wonderful Vintage pad I have been showing you the last few weeks.

This time I thought I would go with a more green theme with a few of the pages matching then I cut out two hearts with the gorgeous Heart Bouquet Intricutz die made by Couture Creations and added them onto some left over pink paper and covered them in glitter which I them let a little pink chalk paint colour on some of the flowers, which gave a really pretty effect.
I turned both the hearts to one side overlapping to make it look a little like a butterfly with the sentiment also from the page of green sentiments in the book just sat so it could be the body, depending how you look at the card.

So here it is, what do you think?

The little stamps were also left over from one of the pages I used last week so I cut each stamp out individually and inked the edges and then mounted them onto cream card which I also inked, I laid them at a jaunty angle on the card rather than as it was in a straight border I think it looked so much more pretty this way.

 Here is the Heart bouquet die I used to create the delicate wings on the faux butterfly.

I took a close up so you could see how the paper underneath the dies is more pink , It didn't pick up the sparkle as usual but in person it is so pretty.

 This view picks up the shape slightly better along with more sparkle.

This long view shows the whole card sits on a mat of Milk card which then had a layer of soft gold cardstock, The next layer is more milk card with a layer of green paper from the pad. I then created a distressed layer on gold card before starting the butterfly shape  with the stamps which are added simply with Cosmic shimmer glue. The last item to add was the sentiment which also had a gold and milk layer each with inked edges.This view shows the card before the last few remaining touches of pearls to finish off.

 This picture shows the layers and sparkle much more I think.

 And here is the final image again with the pearl touches in the corners etc. 

Well I hope you like today's card , it was something a little different, the pad is so pretty and you can do anything with it, the main colours are pink and green of course but you could add any number of ribbons or natural fibres for a very rustic feel you all know how I love some hessian etc but you could also go extremely clean and simple with these fab patterns too, I think Couture creations really have created a very clever pad here with this paper ad I truly love this one.

Well done Couture I think. 

Ok guys and dolls I will see you all very soon . Thank you again for your continuing comments and support I truly appreciate so very much.

Lots of Love to all.

Hugs

Kim

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Visible Image Wednesday

Hi Lovelies

Today of course is Visible Image Wednesday and I have another card to show you made for the recent Trade show at the NEC.
Is spring here ? or not can anyone tell me, this is today's posable question folks lol, Last week it was so warm the heating went off the duvets got changed etc etc... the last few days the heating went back on and it feels like we have gotten cold again lol Is it just me or is anyone else hoping that the recent warm spell was spring starting to smile upon us... and and and my neighbour has finally cut the top of their trees after 5 years with absolutely no light in the garden hardly at all so this summer there will be sunshine..... we hope haha.

Anyway enough of this silliness hehe.

So here is today's card 

 It is certainly a little different isn't it? 

We were kinda challenged into stepping out of our comfort zone in a way by using a whats considered to be a backing stamp and  a sentiment to make up a card. 

Well I immediately thought this was a fabulous idea these stamps are such such such good value and I know we all have a budget to follow so why not take a stamp, thought of in one way and turn it on its head. This of course is the card that I started with and the circle stamp is called Orbital , there are two different ones in the pack and I think I showed the other recently which has several circles rather than this one. 

I thought this one would be absolutely perfect for those of us who enjoy mixed media and Journalling also as this kinda circle is so popular also I don't know if any of you use the Gelli plate but stamps like this are fab to mark out on your base of acrylic paint before picking up a print so you could have the first print as patterns of circles and build up til you were say stamping an undersea image and the circle became a coral reef etc. Just thoughts. 

 Back to today's card, This was the sentiment I chose from the last launch sentimentally yours and the Be happy set which is stamped in of course white ink and then I went over and highlight in a white gelli pen and added highlights on the shadows too to ground it.

Another full image so I can give you a quick guide how I made this one. So to start I took a piece of white card and wiped over with an anti static pad. I then stamped the first layer of circles in Versamark ink and used clear embossing powder which I heat set.
I then took some Black soot Distress Ink and also some Barn door Ink and a little of the dusty concord to give a hint of purple and lighten the black just a little.
I coloured in my usual way with two layers of ink in the usual position that I find optimal to shading which I am sure you all know by now. lol
I then took those same inks and tone on tone stamped with the same stamp in the coloured area so red on red , black on black and dried this off with the heat gun.  I then took my water spray and flicked water and spritzed it some big splodges some small and dabbed the ink away with a paper towel.
As we were not to use more stamps I still wanted some depth to come in so I also took an old white chalk pen and flicked it at the card and added random splodges so in person there are still many layers to look at in this one. I then mounted that onto a piece of black card the same width and wrapped a little grey ribbon around the join.
I also added a double white mat with foam in between to give it its finished platform as it were.
I added a bow and a little charm to its centre.

 Here is the finished bow and a little rose charm with a red stone in the little bale at the top , I used some pinflair glue here to hold it to the bow as that stuff dries and you will never get it off which is what you want especially when these cards are on display a lot.
So I finished it with little squares of gems in red in each corner just for something different.

The stamps used for this one from the fabby Visible Image was.

                                       ' Orbital '                                                 ' Be Happy

So I have a little bonus card for this week also as It was a fairly quick one and used just a couple of stamps and a little tim Holtz paper and inks too.
This one features a brilliant stamp set also from the recent launches called  'Play it Loud' and also 'Soul Music'

I took a smallish piece of off white beigy card and stamped with Brown momento ink the music notes stampset called Soul Music in just a couple of places top and bottom of the card. 

I also stamped the sentiment from the set top left and the gentleman with his Trumpet bottom right, 

I used some vintage Photo distress ink and went round the edges of the paper and used a brown spritz to splatter the paper and some sepia ink and white ink to dot it too. I also filled in the pattern on the player with my white gelli pen to make him stand out.

Since I stamped in Momento I took an alcohol marker from Promarker in a very light grey and went round the main image and the music notes  I added shadows and also to a few main splodges etc  to lift things off the page , I grounded the main image also with a shadow by his feet and added some sparkle to the hat, shoes and trumpet in gold.

The background I put together using random small pieces of paper I thought was a little manly and musicy (new words , sorry guys lol) and piece them together on a black mat and added a ivory ribbon in satin to the first layer too

I gave the bottom layer a couple of mats in dark colours and added a bow to the left with a tiny trumpet I had in my stash to the centre which i thought fitted very well.

I drew some faux stitching by hand in black pen round the paper and a few gems in the corners and on the ribbon finished off this little I'd say intermediate level to make card.

A close up on the shadow placement around the main features I wanted to come forward.

 

And the main image again , I like to think it looks like it was back in the era of American Jazz and a little Vintage inspired for this guy.

 

The two stamp sets I used on this one were.

 

                              'Play it Loud '                                                     'Soul Music'

 So this was a great card for a guy or anyone who isn't into flowers and girly stuff , also maybe someone in a production or play, My son did Bugsy Malone when he was at school and this would have been a great card to wish him luck I think.
 I just added it as a bonus to today's post rather than a full write up with lots of tutorial pics so I hope you like it.

I hope you enjoyed today's post thank you so much for all your last comments I really enjoyed reading them and am beginning to get back into the swing of answering them as soon as I can too.
I hope everyone had a wonderful mothers day over the weekend or had wonderful thoughts of the ones we love who are sadly now passed .
I had a lovely Saturday with my daughter in London and a nice long chat with my boy on the phone Sunday and so those moments are the ones I treasure so very much.

Huge hugs to you all

with thanks

Kim 

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Creative Expressions Thursday

Hi all

Thank you for all stopping by and leaving me your comments as always. It is great to see you all are enjoying the onset of spring from the first butterflies to the gorgeous sunshine flooding the gardens while we all start to get our grass cut again etc My neighbour finally had someone in to cut down her over hanging trees in the back garden so this year I will have some sunshine in the house wish is a lovely thought.. ( now all we need is that sunshine to last haha). Cant wait.
Well Mothers day is almost upon us again and I am certainly looking forward to seeing my two very special children. This year certainly has been an extremely tough one for my own mother as you all know but she seems to be a fighter and although she has now had the dementia diagnosis along with heart issues, lung issues, extreme weight issues  and lots more she is still with us after we have been told she wont make it til the next month many many times now so for all of you that are mums or are celebrating their mums or are reflecting on the good times you had with yours I want to wish you a very special Mothering Sunday for the weekend ahead and dedicate this card to mums everywhere near or far.

I used again the lovely Vintage Rose garden paper pad from Couture Creations to create today's card.

I really enjoyed creating this one and all the mats and layers , I also used the Bold Bouquet die from Couture creations and some Milk, black and blossom foundations card stock.

To start I created my background and all its layers.

 This piece of paper I used in rich Pinks and greens with its cascading flowers also has some white writing on it which I know is hard to see but looks stunning .

 Here is the pad I was sent this month I love it so much. 

These are all my mats and layers blossom pink to match the paper , Milk to create some nice creamy elegant height and black to accent each layer and finish it in style.

Here is the die I used called Bold Bouquet and I just cut one piece which initially I used as a stencil so I could add the butterfly from it to my background

So here is the background now with 6 stencilled butterflies added, I used two colours of pink to give them a little dimension.

This pad as you know from last week also has some small sentiments ready for you in Pink and green so I cut out the main one and some little words too Inked the edges as I always do and mounted them onto black to make them stand out from the background, I then tool the piece I cut out with the die and used as a stencil and I added a little more colour , I cut out the flower you see above and added it using Cosmic shimmer glue to the card just above the main sentiment.

I also cut out these four words and mounted them on black and used more of the die cut piece behind the words , the colours I coloured it with really compliment the background . 

I also used the ribbon we received and made a tiny little bow with a pearl over the knot to finish the word 'LOVE'.

All that left is some pearls in the corners and I added some glitter into the flowers openings on the die cut and I used the diamond sprinkles which are so very sparkly in person.

 

So This was today's dedicated Mothers card , However it could be used for anything as you can see, this pad is very versatile in that the sentiments are inspiring but not for any particular occasion so will work  for almost anything. The patterns on the paper are stunning and not too fussy .

I hope you all have a great weekend what ever you are doing and I will be thinking of you all 

Lots of love and crafty hugs as always

Kim 

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