Seize The Birthday - Use Your Favourite Colour

 Hello, we've got a new challenge at Seize The Birthday - Use Your Favourite Colour, hosted by JoAnn.

It was hard to narrow it down to one colour, but I do always like to see and to use teal/turquoise/aqua - any variation.  I find it a very calming colour.

My card uses a Unity Stamp for the main image and a Gina K stamp for the sentiment.  I actually made the background from scratch to match this theme rather than look through my stash of mop-ups.  I used Salvaged Patina and Peacock Feathers, with a touch of Rusty Hinge for balance, then I ran it through an embossing folder for texture.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday website to see the favourite colours of the rest of the design team and our Surprise Party Guests and join in the fun.  If you don't want to keep to your favourite colour, you can always play along under our Anything Goes theme.

Visible Image - Love of Nature

For my Visible Image DT assignment I wanted to share this multi-layered floral card using the gorgeous Blooming Fabulous stamp set from the new collection Love of Nature.

It goes so well with Colourful Life from the February release that I couldn't pass up using them together.

I started off by stamping all three flowers several times onto white card.

Then I started watercoloring loosely (sloshing) Distress Inks over the flowers.  I deliberately went outside the lines to keep the colour random and loose but kept the colour similar on each of the smaller flowers.

With the large flowers, I painted some pink and some more orange, then cut away some of the petals on the orange flowers so that I could layer them on top of the pink ones.

I stamped the sentiment onto pink white-core card and scuffed the edges for the white to show.

A plain black card base would have been too stark so I spritzed it with Distress Spritz sprays.

The larger droplets give nice colour, but the spritzing also leaves a lovely fine mist over the card too.  Then it was just a case of putting everything together.

I tucked the smaller flowers under the larger ones, and added the sentiment block in the lower left corner.

You can get the Blooming Fabulous set and the rest of the new release from the Visible Image website.

Seize The Birthday - Food and/or Drink

Hello!  It's time for a new challenge at Seize The Birthday, and our host Glenda has chosen Food and/or Drink.

Time for another mop-up panel, this time with spritz and shimmer!  The coffee pot image is from Aall & Create, as are the blue rub-ons.  The sentiment is from Gina K.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for more fabulous food and drink inspiration from the team and our Surprise Party Guests, and play along.  If the theme doesn't float your boat, you can always play along with our Anything Goes theme.

Visible Image - New Collection

Hellooo!  Mark's been busy designing a new release, and you're going to love it!  Some of the stamp sets are in a similar style to the earlier Floral Release and they work beautifully with those stamps, as you will see from the Design Team's creations.

I've used the non-floral stamp set in the release, Soulmates, and one of the new stencils, Atmospheric, to create this anniversary tag.

I started by cutting a tag then sponging it with Distress Inks.

After blasting it with the heat gun I added texture using the Atmospheric stencil and silver paste.

While that was drying I stamped the sentiments onto white card, cut them out then ripped along the edges.

I stamped the large heart with Versamark onto black card and embossed using silver embossing powder and fussy cut the image.  The black background gives a nice contrast against the silver paste and the lighter colours of the tag.

I also stamped the two smaller hearts with Versamark and embossed with Salvaged Patina Distress Glaze for some extra sheen.

Then it was just a case of adding the sentiments, an eyelet and some baker's twine to finish off the tag.

You can see the new release over on the Visible Image blog here.

Seize The Birthday - Add A Silhouette

Hellooo!  We've got a new challenge at Seize The Birthday, hosted by Cathy, and she wants us to Add A Silhouette.

I used an image from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous CMS329 Theories, words from CMS325 Glorious Bouquet, and marks from CMS362 Media Marks.  The background was a Distress Ink mop-up piece.

We've got some more fabulous inspiration for you from the rest of the team and our Surprise Party Guests, so pop over to the Seize The Birthday blog and play along.  If silhouettes aren't your thing, you can still play along with any birthday-themed creation.

Visible Image - Christmas In June

It's Christmas in June at Visible Image, and for my non-card Design Team make I've created a home decor piece using the Christmas Robin stamp set along with the Ye Olde Christmas stencil.

I started off by priming a canvas board with gesso, then stencilled with gold paste.  The stencil flipped up a little on the lower part, smudging it slightly, but I decided to embrace my mistakes ;)

Once all that had dried, I spritzed the canvas with Distress Mica Stains.

On some kraft card I stamped out the large robin and branch,

and some holly leaves (I knew I would need that strip of card one day!)

I used a Tombow pen to add shade to the leaves, and a Zig Clean Colour pen for the red berries.

I cut my images with the coordinating Christmas Robin die set, then arranged them on my deco piece.  I had to cut some extra leaves to camouflage the worst of the stencil booboo.

The Robin word was stamped onto red card,

and the red splashes were created by dropping some Peppermint Stick Distress Mica stain onto the canvas.

You can pick up the stamps, dies and stencil here at Visible Image.  Have fun creating!

Seize The Birthday - Fancy Fold

Hi guys, we've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday - Fancy Fold, hosted by Barbara.

I've cased a design I saw on the Unity Stamps website using one of the Angie Girls stamps, seeing as I was using Aria Girl.  The background is made with Tim Holtz Flower Field, the foreground 'flowers' are done with Dottarific pens and the sentiment is from Stamps Away.

Pop along to the Seize The Birthday blog for some fabulous fancy fold inspiration from the team and our surprise party guests, and join in the fun.  If you don't want to make a fancy fold you can still play along with our Anything Goes theme.

Visible Image - Picnics/Summer

 

Hello!  Our theme at Visible Image this week is Picnics/Summer, and my brief is Clean and Simple.  I took my inspiration from this vibrant summery meadow filled with creeping buttercups, and from an earlier card I made, which you will see below.

I started by stencilling Fossilised Amber distress ink through the Sixty Four stencil, fading it out as I got further down the card.

I used the Precious Life flower for my buttercups.  After stamping one off the bottom of the card, I masked the flower head and leaves, then stamped another, masked that as well then stamped the third, where I had to bend the stem in order for the door to close.  

Then I added the sentiment in the central white space, along with a flick of colour to the petals and leaves.

I resisted the urge to add splatters :)

The trimmed panel was adhered to a buttery yellow card.

And here's a pic with the other card that I never shared when the stamp set was first released, which was also my inspiration, but there wasn't enough 'white' space for it to be CAS, hence my new card.

You can get the stamps and stencil, and many more, from the Visible Image store here.  Happy stamping!

Visible Image - Father's Day

Hi, VI fans!  Our theme at Visible Image this week is Father's Day.  My dad was a keen gardener so I went with that as my starting point.

This mop-up piece was in my stash and it reminded me of sky and a meadow, and the splotches of brown made me think of impressionist paintings.

I wanted to add textured loose flower shapes in the foreground, so I mixed some Cosmic Shimmer paste with Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed re-inkers.  The paste is quite old and drying slightly but that suited my needs perfectly because (a) I wanted texture and (b) the re-inker would moisten the paste a little.

I taped the Orbs stencil to the front of my panel and dotted the two colours of paste through, overlapping a bit, then mixed the pastes together for a last dab.

I removed and cleaned the stencil - it was drying so quickly that I could just scrape the excess off.  While the paste was drying I stamped the camera from Capture Every Moment onto white card, then cut it out and coloured it with grey for the metal parts, and blue and green upside down for the lens reflection.

I added the sentiment from Best Birthday Ever.  Finished card, you'd think?

Nope - I remebered that I'd wanted to use the Transmission Glitch stamps for a little background interest, but everything was now assembled.  Copy paper to the rescue.  I slid some under the camera and taped it down so that I could partially stamp the numbers on the right,

and the blocky image top right.

Then I moved the paper round and stamped the grid on the left.

Card complete!  Here's a close-up of the 'flowers'.

and the camera a lens with the reversed colours,

and the Visible Image products I used, which are available in the store here.