Visible Image Wednesday & Express Yourself.

Hi Folks

Today I have a card created with the Amazing Visible Image stamps some old and some very very new, In fact so new it was only launched at the weekend and pre orders coming in very fast. This new launch has a set of six sets of Inspirational sentiments from the Visible Image family of Mark and Helen. Here is there promo pic that you may have seen on Facebook if you have it featuring all the sets.

 I know you can't see it very closely but no fear more photos will follow of the sets as I use them and the link above will take you straight to all six sets to have a look at, so whether you are a card maker or an avid scrapbooker there will definitely be a phrase or sentiment here you are sure to need in your stash.

Here is today's card using The Make me Smile set. Created in rich purple/pink and Orangey warmth for Autumn with touches of natural fabric in hessian and a burlap bow I hope you all enjoy how I put this one together.
I have a full tutorial with lots of pictures for this one so please get yourself a nice cuppa and enjoy putting this one together with me.

 Ok, to start this one I ran my Anti static pad over the card,  I took my "You make me smile" stamp and Perfect medium Ink with clear embossing powder and stamped somewhat randomly over the piece of white card I had chosen as my base colour. I heat set the embossing of course and then moved on to choosing the ink colours for today's card look.

 The first colour I chose was Dried Marigold distress and I used my usual method to apply the ink, cut and dry foam and added the ink in my usual side side middle way. Of course the first layer of ink as I have said on several cards now is just a blending layer and so just throw it on there , to wet the card fibres a little and if it is patchy as mine is above , don't worry. You know me now ladies and you can here me saying it just doesn't matter can't you.

My next colour is the gorgeous and vibrant Seedless preserves, I just love this colour with the orange palette its so gorgeous. So this is coat one complete and just look how patchy and swirly the colour is, at this stage people give up but don't. While that ink is still tacky ladies ( and gents) go back in with your second coat to smooth the colours out.

 So, coat two. Much richer and deep but still a little blending needed but not too much as I have not finished with layering on this background yet.

 Deepen the edges with darker shades or another coat of colour on the edges. I used Rusty Hinge on the Marigold to deepen and the same Seedless preserve with a little vintage photo all over the edges to really bring out the dark edge and mix of colour here.

So here I started to introduce some of the other stamps Visible Image retail. Here I started tone on tone with the Ink splat set in the same rich colours and didn't mix them much at all. So keep within the purple with purple splats and so on. Quick blast with the heat gun here.

 Next, I wanted to have some lighter splodges for want of a better word but you could wet a stamp and lay that image down too and it will have the same effect as I used here , so the lighter drops are water spritzed into my hand and dripped onto the card and ink and left a few seconds then dabbed off with kitchen paper. Dry again here pretty well this time.

 The next background I added was the Crackled Background and I used Black archival and held the stamp in my hand and added random and small amounts just around the edge of the card and again blasted to heat set this one, or the ink would have smudged. I also used my anti static pad very well here to make sure all was dry or the ink would pick up the embossing powder in the next stage.

My last background here I again held off a block in my hand and this was the grunge polka dot and I used  white embossing ink for this one in several areas  and once all was done and heat set I used a micro fibre cloth to buff up all the clear and white embossing to remove any ink that had tinted the whites. I then added that piece to a piece of black card with just a very small border. I then set aside.

I had this little chippie frame so I coated it with perfect medium and gold embossing powder and heat set , I cut it the frame in half and set aside too.

I stamped out the main Sentiment I wanted to use from my set first of all and I stamped it in black archival and then simply used a very thin and pretty shimmery gold stardust gelly roll pen from sakura to add a slight halo effect on the words which you can only just see here, I then mounted that white piece onto some black also and added the two halves of the gold frame to the back with a gap in the middle.

 I added a second double mat under the over all card with foam in between for some elegance and cut a piece of hessian which I then frayed and added on an angle to the front of the card, I then added my sentiment and frame concoction on the other angle to create a sort of 'X' at this point on all I needed to do was build it and add the two small flower displays.

This is the bottom right flower in rich plums and orangey/peaches and white to match, I also took a couple of the little orange leaves I stamped out from the Poinsettia set and used those to go under the flowers on the card.

I wanted to add a little close up as I added some white gel pen to the roses and also some glossy accents very finely with some iridescent glitter added to them too for a little sparkle. You can also see the layering of the stamping we did on this image, which I love and feel it gives such depth the a background this way.

And here is the sentiment in place on the card and you can just pick up the tin sparkle on the letters here too.
So there we have it guys the way to layer inks and embossing to give a look that can be subtle if needed but easily taken to the grungy stage with real dark inks to blend and over layer.

I used some stunning stamps for this one and here I will add them and the links.

                                      Ink splats.                                        Crackled Background.

                     Grunge Polka dot Background.                           You Make me Smile.

                                                                   Poinsettia set.

So lots of stamps used for this one to create a inky beautiful well framed background to use to push forward our sentiment from the beautiful new Express Yourself Launch from Visible Image.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial on how to and that you can see colours that you really think sometimes no way will they go actually do and you can make them anyway by adding in all the layers of stamping and embossing to diffuse the concentration of the colours. Have a go and see how surprised you are to get these results just with a little ink .

** So by way of a little update. My mum is now clear of ICU and on a ward in the hospital, she still isn't walking yet but they have twice now had her sat in a chair and she is eating without tubes feeding her now so although she is a very ill lady her condition, now the infections are leaving her is improving for her and she has had to have a barrage of scans to see if anything else is going on as she is very confused at times and has very little short term memory too but at least she is on the mend, her illnesses are such that she is unlikely to have too long but the hospital remain hopeful she can be well enough to manage again for a while. Thank you for all your kind wishes and patience regarding posting at this time and i really do appreciate all your kind words on here and fbook etc. **

Huge hugs 

Love

Kim 

XXXX

Creative Expression Christmas Post.

Hi folks

I have some show cards on the Christmas theme for the Dt this month as you all know so I have been adding a couple each week so that they all get seen a little more up close.

Here is card 1.

 This first one and the only real stamping it has on it is the sentiments so of course there will be another and a twofer always helps hey... I used several of the different new Couture creations dies from the Christmas lace collection and The Merry little Christmas selection of dies too.

 Here you can see the sentiment from the Just Rite Christmas post series of stamps and the backing is the  Border lace die cut and the trio of trees die cut with the negative areas that popped out used as trees with some glitter just along the edges.

 I also cut the top off the lace border ( another strip of it anyway) and used just the top section along the top of the card just so the patterns all matched up.

Here is the finished card with its gorgeously symmetrical feel to it.

Next is another little number that I love.

 This is a tall thinner card and again I used the ribbons of holly Background in Hydrangea blue ink I then stamped out my sentiment from the Christmas post set from Just rite , It also had that dinky tree flourish that I used on the sentiment tag too and I cut it out using the Vintage labels seven die.

 A close up shows you the two little holly piece I stamped too on the tag and the new white flowers and die cuts underneath the flower also Couture creations.

I used the green crinkle edge ribbon in sheer organza to add to the finished look.

So please leave your comments below as You know how i love to read them all and I will see you all very soon.


Huge Thankyu's for all your kind comments re my mum etc yesterday, I really do appreciate them all and last night very late they moved her from ICU to a ward so that means definite progress, I know they can only get her to a certain point but at least she is now responsive and sitting up. She is still very confused and you have to repeat everything several times and she doesnt really know why shes in there or how ill she has been again but maybe thats a good thing in one way.

Thank you again with lots of love

Huge crafty hugs 

Kim 

XXXX

Visible Image Wednesday

Hi Lovelies

Today as you can tell by the title is of course Visible Image Wednesday and I have a lovely little clean and simple card tutorial for you which utilises some masking with the stamping using the fabulous Visible Image stamps of course and some colouring in with Promarkers and a little glittering too. This one is very clean and simple so should be great for beginners to intermediate levels although could easily be taken to the next level with extra wings or lace used to give another layer of wing, You could add more dimension with decoupage on the heart or even splitting the heart and adding some cogs emerging from the tear. You could add a zip to act like a body to the butterfly looking wings and have the sentiment poking out, you are limited only by your own imaginations and thought process so without further ado let me show you today's card.

 Very clean images for me, I am taking things back a little so we can start the series of techniques we were all talking about a few posts back so today is a simple masking technique.

 I took an A4 piece of white card and stamped my sentiment on the bottom of the page and heat set. At this point I really was not sure if I was going to stamp all my images and cut them out to use separately on a card or to stamp it whole but as You will see I decided to stamp it all and colour it and keep as is, as I hardly ever do this.

I stamped the heart first once on this card and heat set it. Then again on a scrap piece of card which I also set to stop it smudging all over while I cut it out. I took some small scissors and cut out my heart including the winding key and any of the lines that were raised etc., After I did this I took my first wing and placed my heart mask over the heart on the page and then inked and stamped the wing on the page, I left the heart in place and stamped wing number two which left me this beautiful image of the heart with the wings behind to colour.

I used three blues to give depth, I used shale brown to build some brown/purple in the shading on the wings along with white for highlights. I used grey around the image to make it stand from the page and I used 3 greys in the heart and 3 browns on the cogs on the heart too.

I also stamped the little oil can from the OZ tin man set and drew in a drip over "the" in the sentiment I also drew a very loose puddle under the sentiment and coloured , shaded and highlighted the items.

 Here is another view and you can see the mats and layers I then added under the first image along with a ribbon and bow with a sparkly stone to finish the card off but just before the end I thought this card needed some sparkle. Whats the point in having gorgeous wings like that if they don't sparkle so I set about with some Vintage white opalescent glitter and my quickie glue pen, all over the wings and the oil and drip on the sentiments etc, plus a few shadows.

Here is the long view I always show so you can see the layers properly with dimension and my last pictures I tried to show some of the sparkle, but as you know glitter is extremely hard to catch on camera unfortunately but hope you can see it.

Just a tiny bit on the left hand side maybe

 A close up and you can see some glitter through the sentiment and under the puddle here too.

So here are the three stamp sets I used to create this one for today.

                           Live the life.                                                    Fae hope set.

OZ Tin man stamp set.

Aren't they gorgeous, I feel very lucky to have them all as part of my collection for sure.

Rumour has it there is an amazing new launch of gorgeous and amazing stamps coming very soon from our lovely Helen and Mark the brilliant team behind Visible Image too so keep your eyes open won't you as they sell so amazingly quick once they launch. Congrats to them also for a fabulous show at the NEC  unfortunately I wasn't there in the end with my mum taking bad etc that weekend either but Mark and Helen did get to meet some of you and had a fabulous  and very busy show. Yayyy.

Update.

Some of you have been emailing me re my mum which is very lovely of you all but this last two weeks I have struggled to answer any messages , blog posts  etc so I am so sorry for this as I hate to miss your letters etc, You are all very special to me and I would hate you to think I wasn't going to reply but with mum on ICU this time I have been at the hospital from early until late everyday and have missed everything including shops etc so I am so very sorry about that. You will be pleased she has opened her eyes again now and is starting to have some tubes removed day by day but is still very poorly of course so it s really a case of making her as comfy as possible for as long as we can and hope she can go home again for a while ( they did warn us when she was in last time that she would have spells in and out of hospital and that she had 6 to18months at most when she left hospital last time, although when she went in they told us she would not make it last time, shes a fighter for sure but is very confused now too. We nearly lost her several times last week but today they took her feeding tube out and she had a mouthful of real food so that's progress hey guys.

NOW TO GROVEL LOVELIES

I have a huge mahoooosive apology to make to all my winners from the last giveaway to especially the ladies who have emailed as I really did just glance at my mail today and saw Id missed Pat and Mrs B's emails asking if there prezzies had been lost on royal mail , NOooooooo I am hugely enormously grovel grovel sorry but I hadn't got time in the last weeks as promised to actually get to the post office to queue to get the parcels weighed to post as I have around 8 to go off to you all. I have been picking my brother up each day and driving to Barnet (40 mins away) to sit with my mum everyday including the weekend and I have also had meetings with work about returning now my foot is settling a little more so its been crazy this past 3 weeks but you will all be glad to hear I am actually not at the hospital until today around 2 so I will be queueing at said post office and getting the parcels to you before the end of this week, I only hope when you see your gorgeousness arrive you can forgive me for the delays.
I truly am sorry Lovely blogglies its just it is only me who does it all here I don't have anyone posting for me or anything so am thankfully I was ahead with the actual blog posts. I hope you all understand and I'm sorry for any worry or concern caused , two of the nights we were called to hospital too so am pretty zonked just now but at least this time she is pulling through again. Sorry again guys for the delay.

Love to all

Look after each other

See you tomorrow

Hugs

Kim 

xxxx

Creative Expressions Xmas Thursday.

Morning all.

Here we go with some more Christmas goodies taken from the recent showing on C&C TV.
I hope you enjoy them , I know I thoroughly enjoyed making them for you as always.

This first one is one of the demo's I did on air with the negative space from the die cuts of the peace doves by Couture creations and our Mallow and clover misting inks, I used the sentiment stamps from the Just Rite Christmas post set of stamps.

 I used the vintage label seven to cut out the sentiment and I flipped over the die and drew around it and cut It with scissors to create a faux nestie mat with black card. I created the backing by simply dabbing the ink through the negative space from the dove die cut onto a piece of card then covering it in sticky adhesive tape and covering that in the glitter jewels I then took the same sprays and used them with a paint brush to add to the edges of the wings and to frame the image before matting and layering in the same white card stock and adding some ribbon and spritzing one of the white flowers in mallow to bring in the colours through out the card.

 A close up of the clean crisp die cutting on the doves and I used them at a slight over lap with the back ground to create a shadow behind them in the pink.

Here is the bow I made using the gorgeous and very elegant ribbon on the show in a real vintage gold colour.  I loved this one.

Ok next is a complete contrast in terms of colour so here it is.

 I used clear embossing on Plum card stock for this one and I just love that tone on tone look it is totally amazing and very shiny. I also used the mixed Christmas blessings from Just Rite for the sentiment.

 Here is a close up on the Couture Creations central die cut element and my little ribbon tag for the centre with the die cut on it. Also that gorgeous ribbon again.

I thought I would do a long shot with the lights on so you could really see the shine on the embossing powder which was also from Creative Expressions. I had no problem matching up and repeating the pattern from the background stamp for the backing image on the card too.

Ok that is all for today, I hope you enjoyed this Christmas twofer and I will see you very soon.

Hugs for now 

Love

Kim 

XXXX

P.s.   I wrote this post before and scheduled it so I just wanted to add A huge thank you to everyone for your kind words and thoughts and wishes I really do appreciate every single one of them and as update my mum is now back in hospital, The rapid response team sent her it hospital yesterday and she is now in the best place for them to get her as well as all the conditions she has allows, she was starting to look a little more rested before we left the hospital yesterday and hopefully had a comfortable night. Thank you again for all your kindness my lovely blogglies , I know I have the best subscribers to the blog anywhere , I really truly feel you are all part of a huge Internet family and I am blessed to have you all here with me. It is funny if one of you regular commenter's don't appear on here I always wonder if you are ok too so this family works both ways my friends. Huge thanks to each of you from the bottom of my heart for all your thoughts, wishes and heartfelt kindness. I am humbled when I read them all and will answer everything as soon as I can. bless you all. xxxxxxxxxxx

Visible Image Wednesday.

Hi Folks

Well, hasn't it got coldddddd, my fingers and nose actually are bright red as I am typing this they are soooo cold, Think I may invest in some fingerless gloves this year. It is also, Just for variety Raining again in Welwyn garden city tonight. Yawn fest....

So today before I share my little card for the fab Visible Image I wanted to let you all know that my mum has been doing quite well considering all the illnesses and the doctors prognosis being poor for her  up until this weekend and she seems to have taken a downward spiral I am afraid. I was due to go to CE towers yesterday for the start of the new year team but I got called to her house as the rapid response team and doctors were very concerned. They are trying to keep her from going back in hospital as coming out may not be an option as they said she wouldn't make it last time. Anyway I wanted you all to know as a number of you always ask me how she is now doing. Thank you lovelies.

Ok back to the matter at hand. I have used the fabulous Poinsettia stamp From Visible image as the background and also as the main feature on this card, I kept in with the Autumnal theme but also added some Christmas snowflakes in to the mix too. See what you think ?

 I love this combination of colours rustic oranges, and browns with wintery blues with lots of sparkle.

 So to start I took a piece of white cardstock and my Poinsettia stamp which I am so lucky to have boy that thing has flown out of stock through Aly Paly and the Nec shows recently wow! well done Helen and Mark who have worked so hard at the shows and making all the gorgeous stamps to sell at them too, I can't tell you how manic they have been on the build up to NEC week.
I randomly stamped it in Cornflower archival ink then I used potting shed archival and stamped the small leaf from the set randomly too. Next I took Mr Holtz's Rusty Hinge distress and stamped some leaves first and 2nd generation stamping. Then with some perfect medium I stamped out a few leaves ad embossed them with detail clear embossing powder.

 In this photo you can see I have Inked the edges of the card with weathered wood distress ink then covered the entire piece with a sheet of double sided adhesive and then sprinkled some fine glitter jewels all over , burnished it on and dusted off the excess.
Who can resist that sparkle.

Next I took Chipped Sapphire Distress ink and a bit of cut and dry and inked the edges again on top of the glitter, I have shown the technique of inking glitter on several of my shows on C&C and with these really fine glitter they take the colour really well as you can see above.

 I wrapped a small piece of white crinkle edge ribbon vertically on the left hand side (face on  on the card) then mounted it onto black, white then again black card to get some nice border interest going.

 In my stash I have some little chippie frames, fronts and backs but here I just used a front as I wanted the stamping and the sparkle to show through the frame, I spritzed it to start with a couple of layers, drying in between of Acrylic spray inks. If you want more sparkle you can always use a spray with some Mica in or make one from your perfect pearls or equivalent.

 Once dry I took the smallest poinsettia stamp and stamped it tone on tone on the frame to add some texture to it and rubbed a little rusty hinge and Chipped Sapphire around the edges too I also took a white paint marker and shook it up so the colour is loose in the nib, I then shook it at the frame to get a few splats, of course you could always use the Ink splat stamp from Visible image if you didn't want to spill the paint on the frame as above. I also added a few planned dots to highlight a few curves on the frame too.

Once I completed my frame I used a wet glue to adhere it well to the glittered background. I stamped out my Merry Christmas and a happy new year stamp on white card and cut out just merry Christmas and cut the ends into a little pointy end I also inked the edged again with Chipped sapphire ink, I added it with a bowed centre to the top of the frame which I placed at a jaunty angle earlier.

Here you can see a cose up of the frame and also the sentiment you can also see all the glitter making this piece so very sparkly.

So next I stamped and cut out by hand some leaves with the larger of the two in the Poinsettia set. I also stamped out several of the Poinsettias and cut them out too. Run some ink of your choice round the white edges and some sparkle or gold gilding. You can assemble your Poinsettia any way you like it but traditionally if you roll the petal around a paintbrush longways with the veins around the handle of the paintbrush then offset the petals in diminishing size of Poinsettia petal section you will get an elegant pointy Poinsettia haha.
I added one of those to my frame with a couple of leaves, then tied a bow with some of the matching white crinkle edge ribbon. Now usually I take two lengths of ribbon and tie a bunny ear bow and  make it into a typical  'chocolate box bow' as it were but today i took the ribbon and layered it into a nice bow looking shape then wrapped a piece of the wire the three little flowers I used were attached too to hold it securely. then attached it to the card and added my flowers to the knot area to cover the wire.

I think it looks really pretty with two of the leaves cut in half and added under the flowers , I also used a tiny acrylic orange flower with a pearl in the centre to finish off this arrangement and used one in the centre of the main flower too.
Here again is the finished card.

I love that you can see the background stamping and colours through the ribbon and the glitter so you get lovely different textures throughout the card. It certainly is very tactile this one.

Some different views.

Ok so the gorgeous stamps I used on this one were.

                             Christmas and  New Year                   Poinsettia Set.

Enchanting snowflakes.

Well I hope you enjoyed this post. I will be back tomorrow with CE Thursday and there will be the first of the How to series we discussed about techniques over the weekend so keep an eye out for that won't you my lovely blogglies.

Have a lovely Wednesday and Be sure to give someone a nice hug today even if only from me to you.

Best wishes

Love 

Kim 

xxxx