If it is Friday it must be my Visible Image day!

Phew! What a week! There doesn't seem to have been a minute to spare. Major thing this week was I washed my car!! I have a white car and it was looking pretty grotty so I donned my wellies and set to it. It was quite invigorating but I have to say it was soooo much nicer getting back inside into the warm. 

Of course my favourite place indoors is my craft room and once the car had had its' wash and brush up I got myself settled in and started crafting. What I came up with was the card you see below. And before you ask, no my car doesn't look like this one!! My card this week has a very masculine feel to it but I put that down to the stamps and not the colours! The colours are a daring combination of Aubergine, Denim and Sage. I love the warmth they bring and although they are quite dark I don't think the card looks sombre at all; the black images somehow brighten it up! 

I used the Clock Stamp set - Time after Time together with the Men's Collage and the Live the Life sentiment.

It looks like I used the Bronte Script stamp for the little banner behind the main image but I actually used the wordy bit from the Men's Collage. Of course I could have used the Bronte Script but it didn't seem necessary as the other stamp was already 'dirty'. I attached this little strip with some groovy brads that look like screws. I have no idea where I got them from just that I have had them for years and have been very precious about using them. I thought this card was the perfect place to use a couple.

The car and the clock were stamped again and decoupaged to give some dimension.

To imitate the rough edges of the Men's Collage stamp I cut the edges of the sentiment and the mount behind the car to match. 

I hope you like what you see? 

Click on the images below to be whisked away to the Visible Image web shop where you can buy these and any other stamps you fancy!

There is still time to join in with the January Challenge over on the blog. The theme is Anything Goes. Pop over there now to see the great DT examples and also take a peek at the lovely entries. Then add yours!! You will have to hurry though.

There will be a new Challenge launched on Saturday which will include my first DT example. Gosh has it been a month since I started with Visible Image? Time really does fly when you're having fun. 

There is also the Facebook group which is becoming a very popular place to meet new Visible Image friends, get sneaky  tidbits of information about forthcoming TV shows, enter competitions, get the low down on new stamp releases, see DT projects and showcase your own Visible Image projects. 

So there we are, another week and hopefully another little bit of inspiration for you. Have a great weekend!

KimB xxxxx

Fairy Tales and Happy Endings with VISIBLE IMAGE

It's Friday so it must be Visible Image blog time! I really look forward to sharing with you my crafty exploits with the amazing stamps designed, made, packaged, and posted by the lovely folk over there *points in a westerly direction* in Wales.

Wales....ah my dream cottage is in Wales, by the sea, sandy beach, rain or shine (mostly rain but the beach is always great whatever the weather!), log fire, bread in the oven, and a few cosy cats and sleeping dogs keeping my feet warm...............................................

Oh, sorry, went again, where am I supposed to be? Oh yes, the Friday blog about Visible Image and how they have once again 'forced' me into making a project to show to you. I know, I know, it is a hard job but somebody has to take it on.

My piece this week features the new and very gorgeous Once Upon a Time stamp set along with a couple of 'go to' stamps from the vast selection of stamps in their shop.

If you have been a follower of mine for a while you will know that I am partial to a bit of moon/sun masking. So as not to disappoint I have incorporated (big word, I had Alphabetti Spaghetti for lunch!) a moon/sun in this card. I have a massive collection of circle punches which allows me to make a mask of the right size for the project. For this I wanted a BIG one, I suppose this is more of a moon 'cos if the sun were that big the castle would probably be on fire!!

There are 3 castle images stamped together to form a larger castle, each having been masked off to give the multi-layer look. They have been coloured with ProMarkers using the grey tones. The moon was then masked along with the castles before colouring the background with chalks. The moon was then chalked in a vivid pink moving from the castle towards the centre leaving a nice white area on the moon.

Then came the birds. Now, I am really smitten by this stamp and I have had to control the use for fear of over doing it. Mind you sometimes they are a must. Don't tell my DT boss, but these birds are great for covering up those irritating little marks that seem to get on the card when you are not looking! That one on the far right is hiding a teeny spot of black embossing powder that somehow managed to stick to the sky background. I wasn't even embossing on this card so goodness knows how it got there!! I will tell you a little trick about how to stamp one little area of a larger stamp another time.

The background mount is a piece of scrap book paper that I enhanced by stamping over it with the words only from the Men's Collage stamp. A little bit of paper ribbon behind the sentiment finishes off the card.

Click on the images to take you straight to the Visible Image shop where you will see the stamps I used along with some other fab samples.

Don't forget to check out the other lovely DT samples on their blogs, the links are on the banner on the left. 

If you are on Facebook, then there is the Visible Image Group which is easy to join and allows you to see the most up to date projects as they are made and allows you to upload your own projects made using Visible Image stamps.

There is also the Visible Image blog where you will find details of how to enter the Monthly Challenge and be in with a chance to win a fab prize. What's not to like? 

Remember to come back soon to see more from Visible Image and also I haven't forgotten that I said I would pass on a tip for selective stamping! 

Have a great weekend!

Kim xxxxx

VISIBLE IMAGE - Friday comes round quick!

Hi Followers! Well who would have believed it? It is Friday again already and it is time for another Visible Image project.

The hard part is remembering to do the blog, creating the projects is simple. No, I am not claiming to be brilliant, I am just acknowledging that given the right tools to work with how can you fail to create something wonderful? Go take a look at the Visible Image shop to see just what fantastic stamps they have and you will see what I mean.

For me, still being new to the DT, I am keen to experiment with all the stamps, in all colours and with all different products. In contrast to my project last Friday, muted rainbow tones with jet black stamping, I have gone for a more vibrant set of colours this week and added some dimension in the form of paper flowers. I say paper, they are actually parchment.

I started with a base of hand coloured water colour card. Last week I told you how I make a huge sheet of card ready for use at some time in the future. This piece was made using inks in a mister. There was a bit of discussion about what colours of ink they were which meant me hunting them out. It had been a while since I made this background and I went 'Missing in Action' for a few hours looking for them!! They are Ranger inks, known as Posh Inks for some reason. Trust me, you ain't gonna look POSH once you have managed to get the pink on your fingers 'cause it stains for days! 

Anyway, back to the task in hand, (you will have to get used to me wandering off topic I'm afraid!) I then got my Impress ink pads in roughly the same colours, and stamped the three dictionary word stamps, Imagine Dream Inspire, randomly on the card. I had no idea where I was going with this and thought I was making a background. I was so pleased with the result that I didn't have the heart to cover most of it up and I decided that what was intended to be the background pattern was going to be the main feature of the card.

I took one of the sentiments, Live the Life, for the focal point of the card. I stamped this in black to make it stand out. To balance the whole thing I decided that some flowers were needed. I stamped onto some parchment which gave a 'light' look to the flowers but also as it was parchment it meant that the colour would be visible on both sides of the petals without having to colour both sides. Frugal crafting is my middle name! I wanted to sew the panel onto the card but access to the sewing machine was rather limited as I seem to have piled up rather a lot of stuff in front of the cupboard it is stored in! So in an attempt to make it look like I stitched it to the main body of the card, I used one of those spiked wheels to make little holes all the way round the panel. If you click on the picture you should be able to get a closer look. You can swoon and admire the tiny little holes I made! A little bit of corrugated card and there we have it! 

The stamps I used. 

Don't forget to go to the Visible Image Facebook Group page to see more samples of the DT.

Check out the Visible Image blog where you will see work from the other members of the DT and why not have a go at the monthly Visible Image Challenge while you are there? You could win a fabby prize!!

Have a lovely weekend, be safe and if the weather is too bad to let you out, do what I do and CRAFT!!!!

KimB xxxx

Visible Image - Friday Blogging

Hello and Welcome! Here we are then, my first blog for Visible Image! The project I have for you today is a card. Not just any card but a bright, bold, colourful, crisp card, a card to inspire!

I started by making the colour background using some basic water based inks which I sprayed directly onto water colour card. I made sure the card was quite wet before applying the sprays of colour. They melted into one another. I coloured a whole sheet of A3 water colour card as I find that anything smaller doesn't give enough finished product to work with. There will always be a part which doesn't quite turn out right, maybe it is too dark, too light or simply just not ‘nice’. It is also really difficult to replicate anything random as there are so many things that can vary even though you are doing the same thing. Too much ink in the sprayer, paper too dry, too wet, even your angle of spraying!! Making such a large piece means you will have plenty of matching product ready for matting and layering.

This was left to dry completely before any stamping took place. You need to be really patient with this. There is nothing worse than jumping the gun and stamping onto a damp surface, trust me I have been there!

I cut a piece of the background card for the first layer to fit a piece of folded A4 black card and stamped onto it using the small butterfly stamp using a good quality jet black ink. Although it looks random, I was careful to keep the butterflies mostly flying upwards.

I then took another piece of the card, smaller than the first piece and stamped the lower edge with the tall grass stamp.

The butterfly was stamped onto a piece of the card, cut out and then glazed with a cold glazing medium. I used Diamond Glaze but you could equally heat emboss it with clear powder to get a similar effect. The Diamond glaze I used has been in my stash for years and I don’t know if it is still available anymore.

A bit of careful cutting, matting and layering with black card, a banner with the sentiment on and the careful placement of the single butterfly and it was done.

My dilemma was ‘Should I add another butterfly?’

NO NO NO and again NO!!  Less in this case really is more.

I chose the Inspire sentiment from the set as this is what I wanted this project to do. Hopefully you like it?

Here is the selection of stamps that I used, with links directly to the shop page, just click on the title of the stamp to be whisked away to their place in the shop!

Imagine Dream Inspire

Tall Grass

Butterfly

I plan to bring you more inspiration next week, in the meantime pop along to the Visible Image Facebook group to see more fantastic examples of the DT work. You could also visit the other DT members by following the links over on the left there. And don’t forget about the monthly challenge at Visible Image over on the blog. This month it is Anything Goes! How great is that? As long as your project is made using the wonderful stamps from Visible Image you can enter. You never know, you could win £20 to spend in the Visible Image shop.

I’m off to see what the other DT members have been up to today and check out the new entries in the challenge. See you later!

Happy crafting! KimB xxx

VISIBLE IMAGE - Simple Card

Well, to get me on the road to blogging again following the lull due to the festivities at the end of 2013, I have decided to show you a simple card I first made about 15 years ago but only finished just recently with one of the massively versatile Visible Image stamps.

 WHAT? 

BEFORE

No word of a lie, I made this card in my early card making days, when mulberry paper was the most exotic thing out there! To be honest I made quite a few in this style as I tended to make cards on a production line. They sold well to my friends and work colleagues but there were a few left which ended up in my box called 'Re-Workers' partly because the glues etc had started to misbehave but the main problem with them for me was the C6 format, so obviously 'home-made' that I was now embarrassed about them. Made to fit the only coloured envelopes you could get your hands on.

Anyway, during a day of purging (I had reached that point known as 'SABLE') I came across these cards and decided to try and give them a second chance. The design was not a problem, I still liked the rustic, ethnic nature of them, it was just their shape!

The first thing I did was to give them a decent card base. Still keeping to the brown craft card colour but square. It was easy to dismantle the 'topper' as it was tied onto the card with raffia. I re-cut the edges of the coffee stained mount (yep, it is real coffee!!!) and used distress ink on the edges. I then used the Visible Image stamps from the Ink Splats set to enhance the coffee stained mount. I salvaged some more beaded wires from another card to beef up the decorative element and added a word. Hey presto! A second chance for an old friend!

AFTER - THANKS VISIBLE IMAGE!

Hope you like it? Hope you are inspired by it. Just because something is old doesn't mean it has to be forgotten! 

And while I have your attention, have you visited Visible Image on their blog? Did you know they run a monthly challenge with PRIZES? You could win a voucher to spend in their online shop! If you want to see more of the fantastic things you could make using their stamps pop over to their Facebook group to be inspired!

Looks like you will have plenty to do today following all those links! I'm sure you will think it is worth it!

Take care. And if you are wondering what SABLE is I would imagine most of us are at this point, some of you will reach it soon and others need to know it happens all too easily!

                                                               S = stash

                                                               A = amassed

                                                               B = beyond

                                                               L = life

                                                               E = expectancy

Kim xxxx

It's a New Dawn........

Feeling Good

Birds flying high

You know how I feel

Sun in the sky

You know how I feel

Breeze driftin' by

You know how I feel

It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life

For me

And I'm feeling good!

 Anthony Newley, Leslie Bricusse 1964

So friends today sees the start of a new chapter in my life and I am really excited to tell you that I am now a Design Team member with the fabulous

Most of you will already know this but today is the first day I have been able to get some time at my desk to be able to update my blog. (There was also a rumour that blogger was being a bit 'naughty' over the weekend so I was probably lucky not to have been able to log-on!)

So for those that don't know who VISIBLE IMAGE are I suggest you head on over to the various places where you can check them out!

The Visible Image blog

The Facebook Group

The Visible Image Shop

Then of course there are the blogs for the other DT members which I have listed below, and are linked permanently on my HOME page.

Kay Dalton - http://pixxiwitchdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

Sue Ashcroft -  http://sooziekoo.blogspot.co.uk/

Cathy Wallington - http://ellieskeeperscreations.blogspot.co.uk/

Pauline Butcher - http://paulinescraftyhaven.blogspot.co.uk/
Kim Robertson - http://inkykimcraft.blogspot.co.uk/

Cathi O'Neill - http://celticknotted.blogspot.co.uk/

Tracy Freeman - http://inkyfingersandribbon.blogspot.co.uk/

Suzi McKenzie - http://www.suzannebakermckenzie.blogspot.co.uk/

Amber Kroening - http://www.bellarosecards.com/

Susan Moffatt - http://mixamatoasties.blogspot.co.uk/

I am reliably informed that my 'starter pack' is on its way as I type and I can't wait to get started. It has been a quiet few weeks on the crafting from what with Christmas and the New Year but I am now chomping at the bit to get going in the craft room again. Just need to clear the last few reminders of Christmas off the desk........my goodness, those crumbs get everywhere!!!

One of things I am looking forward to most is checking out all the lovely challenge entries that come in. There is a new challenge every month and to kick off the New Year the January challenge is ANYTHING GOES. Go see, get inspired and post your entry. You have until January 31st at 8pm to enter with winner being announced following day. Yep, WINNER, enter for your chance to win £20 to spend in the Visible Image shop!

As you can imagine there is quite a bit to catch up on, not just to do with my new role but I have a house to run and my son is going back to school tomorrow and he probably needs new shoes. Why do they always tell you at the last minute?????

Wishing you all a belated but not embarrassingly late HAPPY NEW YEAR and I look forward, as I hope you do, to all that this year brings.

Kim xxx