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Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Visible Image - Cosy Comforts

Hi, Visible Image fans! Our theme this week is Cosy Comforts, and my brief is CAS (Clean and Simple).

There’s nothing as cosy as lovely cuppa after a walk in autumn weather, so I chose the Afternoon Tea stamp set, and made a couple of cards using different techniques.


For the first card, I stamped the teapot and teacup onto white card using InkOn3 Fade Out ink. This allows no-line colouring of the images. The image is a faint outline which disappears once you add colour.


I used Distress Inks as watercolours to paint the images, starting with Scattered Straw all over, then mixing in Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany for a bit of shading.


I stamped the second image in Versafine Onyx Black and watercoloured using the same colours.


On each panel I masked the images then stencilled the Colour Blind stencil to imply a lacy tablecloth, alternating the direction - not sure which version I prefer.


On the card base I stencilled more dots using Fossilised Amber Distress Ink to add a bit of interest. 


Then I matted the panel onto gold card. I stamped the sentiment onto spare white card and matted that onto a scrap of Tomorrow’s Memories card and placed it overlapping the panel.


For the second card I coloured two strips of Destination Anywhere Continuous PET tape with alcohol inks.


Where it got a little dark I added a few drops of blending solution to break the colour up.


I added these strips to the top and bottom of a kraft card. The tape is really easy to work with and cuts easily with scissors or a craft knife. 


I placed the stamped panel onto the card. Because this version is stamped in black, it lent itself to having the sentiment stamped directly onto the panel.


Here’s a close-up of the detail on the second card:


And on the first card:


Because CAS cards may have fewer elements and treatments, you can spend time thinking about the design, and different alternatives, so why not make two cards to try out your ideas?

Thursday, October 09, 2025

Seize The Birthday - Splish Splash

Hello! It's my turn to host the challenge at Seize The Birthday, and I've gone for Splish Splash. You can interpret it how you like - rain, puddles, swimming, bath time, splashy drinks, or just getting all splishy splashy with your inks on the card. Or any other way you can think of - just let us know if it's not obvious.

I chose this theme with absolutely no forethought as to what I might make, and it took me ages to settle on an idea.  But of course it ended up with splashing lots of ink around and, erm, an alcohol theme ;)

I stamped the two glasses (Stamps By Me) in InkOn3 Fadeout ink on watercolour paper, then used Distress Inks to splash and splash onto the card.  I did use a few Pinterest images for inspiration, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I matted the panel onto hot pink and purple linen textured card.  The sentiment is from the same Stamps By Me set, and the Happy Birthday is by Gummiapan.com.

Pop along to the Seize The Birthday blog to see how the Design Team and our surprise party guests have interpreted this theme.

If you don't feel like splishing and splashing, you can still play along with our Anything Goes birthday theme.  Hope to see you in the gallery!


Wednesday, October 01, 2025

Visible Image - Tomorrow's Memories

 

This week is all about the launch of the new collection, Tomorrow's Memories, and for my Design Team make I wanted to share this card with you.  It uses the Counting Moments stamp set, Destination Anywhere Continuous PET tape, papers from the 8x8 Tomorrow's Memories paper pad, and cardstock from Arden Creative.

To create my background panel, I smooshed Distress Inks onto an acrylic block and picked up the colours onto the Arctic Blue card from Arden Creative, then stamped the numbers in Versafine Onyx Black and heat-embossed with clear embossing powder.

I stamped and clear-embossed the clock and butterfly onto the Tomorrow's Memories paper - there are eight double-sided designs so it's hard to pick which side to use ;)

I cut out the yellow butterfly, and the whole image from the blue sheet, then layered the butterfly on top, then adhered it all, including the fragments, to my background panel.

The PET tape is a self-adhesive continuous printed roll.  I trimmed a strip to go down the left side of the base card, which is Bright White from Arden Creative's collection.

On spare Bright White card I stamped the sentiments in Versafine Onyx Black and trimmed them closely.

I adhered everything onto the base card, then curled back the corner of the background panel, and turned up the butterfly wings slightly.

Here's a final look at the completed card.


There are three stamp sets in the collection, along with a fab stencil, the PET tape, the paper pack and a pack of tags - great for kickstarting your creating!  Check them out in the Visible Image store.

Here are the products I used: