Visible Image - Gratitude/Reflection

 

Our theme at Visible Image this week is Gratitude/Reflection and my brief is for Clean and Simple. I've been reflecting on the gorgeous summer we've had, and the multitude of butterflies that are still around, so I went with a butterfly-themed card using Butterfly Effect and Butterfly Ink stencil.

Although it's clean and simple, I wanted to add detail in the circles of the large stamp, so I needed to do some masking.  Firstly, I stamped the circles stamp onto my base card.

Using masking paper to cover that image I stamped again, then cut out the circles, keeping all pieces of the stamped image.  I left the large left-hand circle uncovered and stamped the grungy butterfly stamp.

The next step was to cover that circle and uncover the other two, but also keeping the outer areas covered.  I stamped the small butterfly and 'change' word.

Once they'd been stamped, I could remove all of the masking and do some selective colouring of the images using a limited palette.

Then all the circles had to be masked again so that I could stencil the large butterfly over the top.

I used Broken China for the stencilling, fading it towards the centre.

Here's a pic before the reveal,

and after.

 I added Stickles to highlight some areas on the tips of the butterfly wings and some of the small circles,

and added a sentiment to balance the design.

You can find plenty of inspiration an supplies on the Visible Image site here.

Seize The Birthday - Embossing

Hello!  Our new challenge at Seize The Birthday is Embossing, chosen by Jenny.  You can heat emboss, dry emboss or use embossing paste, it's up to you.

Or if you'd rather do your own birthday thing, you can play along with our Anything Goes theme.

I've used a new-to-me gift bag die from Waffle Flower, and dry-embossed the smooshed background.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog to see what the rest of the design team and our Surprise Party Guest Johanna have created, and join in the fun.

Visible Image - End of Summer

It's September and we're heading towards autumn, so this week's Design Team brief is, appropriately, End of Summer.

Every day on our dog walks the dragonflies are dancing past so I thought I'd showcase one of my makes for the July Release, Love of Nature, using the dragonflies from the Brighter Days stamp set.  

I stamped the dragonflies on acetate using Staz-On, and once they were dry I covered the reverse of the images with Crystal Stickles and left them overnight.

For the card background I stamped images using the Particle stamp set from the February release in Brilliance pigment ink.

I wanted to use the Framed Fibres die to represent ripples on the water, so first I had to create a background.  I used the teal and blue from the Large Metallic watercolour set to create my water.

Then I painted black card with the small iridescent paints, which are interference colours designed to work on dark card.

Here's a pic just after I'd run it through the Big Shot and before knocking the pieces out.

Once I'd adhered the diecut panel to the water panel and trimmed it, that went onto the background, which was in turn mounted onto seafoam card.

I added the sentiments from the Brighter Days set in Versafine Onyx Black.

Lots of lovely shimmer and shine whichever way you angle it.

The stamps and die set are available at the Visible Image store here.

Seize The Birthday - Black and White

 

Hello! Linda is our host at Seize The Birthday, and she's chosen Black and White.

It was an easy choice for me with this NBUS stamp from Honey Doo called Cherry On Top (which is going to get coloured in bright red after this challenge ;)

We've got some fab Black and White inspiration for you over at Seize The Birthday from our surprise party guests and the Design Team, so take a look and join in.

If you don't want to restrict yourself to black and white, you can always play along in colour under our Anything Goes theme.

Visible Image - Album Covers

 

Hello!  We've got a brilliant theme for you this week - Album Covers!  The Design Team were challenged to recreate an album cover using Visible Image products.  I knew immediately which album I was going for - Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones, one of my all-time favourites.  Unfortunately I no longer have the vinyl (much to the disgust of my vinyl-collecting son), as it seemed pointless hanging on to our old records when we didn't have a record player any more.  But a quick Google will bring up the original images for you if you're not familiar with the album.

I started off by stamping the whole of the cake from Blow Out The Candles, and again onto masking paper.  

I trimmed the lower portion of the mask away so that I could stamp another couple of layers without the dripping icing.  I used a pen to infill the missing lines.

For the vinyl, I stamped the large image from Particle in Versmark onto black card and embossed with clear embossing powder, die-cut it, then cut a red circle and white ring for the label.

I added more stamping to the centre of the label,

then added a strip of semi-metallic card for the spindle.

I used candles to represent the figurines, colouring with Tombow markers.

Once I'd assembled the cake layers I coloured the buttercream to represent the tyre.

Before adding anything to my card base, I stencilled Antique Linen through the Halftones stencil, then it was just a case of adding a stylus arm fashioned from gold card,

and some gems for the glacé fruits.

The sentiment is also from Blow Out The Candles, done in black and red to match the album cover.

You can see the Visible Image products I used in this photo. 

I had great fun making this card, and when hubby saw it he said he would have that for his birthday card, so that's what he got!

Fun fact:  Delia Smith made the the cake for the album cover shoot.

I hope it's inspired you to look at your stamps differently, and to get inspiration from the most unlikely places!

Seize The Birthday - No Flowers

 

Hello!  We've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday - No Flowers, hosted by Jules.

I've used a stamp from a new set, Balloon Gift, from Honey Doo Crafts and watercoloured it with a range of blues and Tea Dye distress inks.  The sentiment is a combination of two sets, and I can't remember either of them at the moment!

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and from our surprise party guests, Karen and Cassandra, then play along with us.

If you'd rather, you can play along with our Anything Goes theme.  Happy stamping!

Visible Image - The New And The Not-So Old

Hello! For my Visible Image DT project today, I've combined the Fly High stamp set and Wildflowers stencil from the new Love of Nature release along with the Precious Life stamp set from the February 2025 release.  

 

The two releases work really well together, and I'm sure I'll be coming up with more combinations in the future.

I started off with the foreground, stamping two Precious Life images, then masking the petals and leaves.

Then I secured the stencil over the top and sponged with Milled Lavender and Bundled Sage distress inks.

The masking protected the flowers and leaves from the distress inks.

Once I removed the masks I could then colour in the details.

I stamped a butterfly from Fly High.  It didn't matter that it was across the stencilled area because I was going to layer another cut image over the top of it for dimension.

I coloured both versions of the butterfly yellow, fussy cut one and layered them up, bending the top butterfly's wings up.

To finish off, I stamped a sentiment on white card in Versafine Onyx Black and matted it onto black card, adhering it in the lower left area of the card.

And there you have it, a dreamy summerscape card.  Check out the Visible Image shop for these and other goodies.