Marvellous Monday with Visible Image

Hello and a very warm welcome to Marvellous Monday! I have a busy week ahead of me. To be honest they have all been busy weeks here at the new house. I have a question, how long does my 'new' house remain my 'new' house? I suppose one day I will refer to it as 'home' without thinking, or maybe it will be 'home' when everything is settled. As I was saying, another busy week week here as I am finally having my kitchen installed. It has been rather like camping just recently as I am having to prepare my meals on the dining room table as there are no units in the kitchen. Being a cooking enthusiast it has been a big struggle not being able to cook properly. Not long now though.

Today I am showcasing a little card I made using the very lovely Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz stamps by Visible Image. He has become affectionately known as Tinny within the group, but my Tinny today is anything other than tin coloured or even remotely metal-like.

I had a piece of rainbow card left over from my Wizard of Oz diorama (see below) and it was just too nice to waste. It was coloured with Brushos. I also still had all my Oz stamps on the acrylic blocks so I wondered what Tinny would look like in a rainbow 'suit of armour'.  I stamped him with Black Archival ink and used bleach to add highlights. Well, I think he looks wonderful but even after stamping him there was still a bit of coloured card left. As I have often said, it is always best to colour more background than you need for a project and this is a prime example of what you can do with your left over bits!  I turned the piece upside down so that when Tinny was placed on the background he didn't disappear into it, Using bleach again I created a little scene for him to stand in. The red upper area was turned into a blazing sky and the blue/green band through the middle became the hedge, finishing off with a purple path!  I mounted the portrait of Tinny onto a piece of black card and then onto some rainbow coloured corrugated card, again selecting a piece that was in direct contrast to the background image.

All-in-all I am really pleased with the result. Hope you like it? Here is the set I used, click to link directly to the Visible Image web site. 

Click HERE to find out how to enter the challenge

Only a few days left, the theme is Make it Sparkle

Click HERE to go to the Facebook group. Ask to join if you haven't already. 

Click HERE to subscribe to the Newsletter

Click HERE to go to the blog to see the other DT inspiration projects for this month. 

Click HERE to go to my KimzKrafts Facebook page

So I hope you come back next time for another bit of Visible Image inspiration. If you have made it this far I would love it if you could spare a few more minutes to leave a comment.

Kim 

Monday Make with Creative Expressions

When I knew I needed to write this particular blog post I struggled to come up with a suitable opening sentence. OK, I have already written the opening sentence! So you might be wondering what I am talking about.

Today is my last blog post for Creative Expressions. When I joined the team back in Spring 2013 I was a late-comer having narrowly missed out on a place during the main selection a few months earlier. One of the members of the selection team had remembered my 'interview' piece and I was invited to join the team due to an unexpected vacancy. I knew at the time it was for a set period, the last Monday of September was always meant to be my last day.  So when an extension of the term on the DT was offered a few weeks ago I initially jumped at the chance. And why not? 

Over the course of my membership of the DT the products I had been given to work with were always top quality. The team and office staff are amazing. The 'work' itself creating and writing is what I love to do so I thought it would all work out. Unfortunately my life in the real world now needs to be my priority. For those that follow me, you already know I moved house to live by the coast. What some of you don't know is that I am going to be running a guest house.  I need this to be ready for Spring 2015. There is a lot to do between now and then. 

My blog today is a reflection on some of my favorite pieces, a few that didn't get published due to me making more than required for that month and a new one continuing with the required theme for this month. As I bring these pieces onto the blog I am reminded of just how much I have enjoyed my time with Creative Expressions. It is quite a sad task writing this final blog. 

This card to the left is actually a matching card I made for the first project I did, the verdigris box. I forgot to publish it at the time because I got carried away with the picture tutorial for the box!

The lime green card didn't get published either. As sometimes happens in a DT 2 people have the same idea and my zesty lime card was so similar to one that had been published a few days before I felt that you would rather see something different.

I loved making the purple and blue Thank You and Get well Soon cards. Mind you, it was difficult for me! Being a messy crafter I found it really hard to keep that lovely white card finger-print free! Lots of the comments I received about these cards said how sophisticated they were. I have to agree.

Around the time of my move I was given the seaside stamps which was a lovely co-incidence. The weather was lovely for weeks on end and I had to tear myself away from the beach but I kept the seaside flame alight at home by making cards with the seaside kit I had been sent to work with. This 3D shadow box has, as far as I am aware, never been seen before, I certainly didn't blog about it!

I have this piece on the wall in my craft room as a reminder of those lovely sunny days. 

Well, I think that will have to be all for now, I am so proud to have been on the Creative Expressions DT, it has been a wonderful part of 2014. I would like to thank the team in Kettering for their support and I would like to wish the current and new DT members all the best. It has been great working with you all.

Before I go, here is the 'official' piece I need to show you, the piece made using the products I was given for September to showcase.  I used the really lovely Filigree Poinsettia die and the A4 Swiss Dots embossing folder. I smeared the de-bossed side of the navy card with Icicle Blue Cosmic Shimmer Texture paste so that the glitter paste filled the hollows. I applied a selection of flowers made from blue and white die-cuts over a ribbon. I added a single pearl from the Self Adhesive Swirls to the centre of each bloom.  Understated by full of glitz and visual interest I think you will agree. 

So there we have it. My last post for Creative Expressions. Thank you for being with me on this journey. 

Kim x

I have some Moo Mania news for you!

Hi Followers, thanks for dropping by today. As the title of the post says, I have some news for you. As you know I am a BIG fan of Moos. Lost you already?

#34 Insects

Well, a Moo is a piece of card 2.8 cm x 7 cm that's approx 1.1" x 2.8" if you like imperial measurements. I read somewhere that it is half a standard sized business card. Anyway these little pieces of card spawned a whole new genre of art and I love making Moos!

#59 Triptych

I stumbled across the Moo Mania blog last year and have been participating ever since! At first my Moos where very simple, one dimensional and quite naive but since then I have embraced the Moo and made some really complex pieces. They can be created with a portrait or landscape orientation, they can be stand alone or part of a collection, they can be a small part of a larger piece, in fact they can be whatever you want them to be!

The most important thing for me is the amount of fun I have designing each Moo. I am continuously surprised at just how much visual information can be added to such a tiny piece of card!. 

#39 Landscape

#44 Sewing

 As I said, I started a while back with my first piece for the #34 challenge where the theme was Insects. It is always such a thrill seeing the new theme. This is when the brain starts working! Sometimes it is the best bit thinking through the design in my head. Waiting in queues or sitting in waiting rooms is no longer boring as I use this time as thinking time!

When I was too busy to craft during the house move earlier in the year, I kept a list of the Moos which I couldn't make. Sad days. But once I had settled into my new home I set about catching up and boy! was that a fun time! I made 13 different themed Moos. Of course the challenge dates had closed but I still let the guys at Moo Mania know I had done them.

#37 A Moo in its' own Surroundings

Where some people make a design 'fit' multiple challenges I will only create a Moo for the specific Moo Mania challenge. There is nothing wrong with entering your Moo into as many different challenges as you want but I like to keep my Moo purely for Moo Mania. I also only make the standard sized Moos even though the challenge blog does allow you to make any kind of project now. Again, nothing wrong with that, I am just a Moo purist. 

Oh, so what is the news you  are all asking! Well, I have been asked to make regular pieces for the blog, I am now officially on the Moo Mania Design Team! Whoo Whoo!! 

#70 Music is in the Air
The current theme

This is such an honour and a privilege. I also now know what the next 10 or so themes are! The element of surprise has gone but trust me the thrill of making the Moos is still there.

The theme this time is Autumn Colours 

and here is the Moo I created for this.

#71 Autumn Colours

I hope that you enjoy the journey with me and my Moos, there should be some great times ahead!

This is going to be a wonderful ride, hop on, take a seat, take in the view!

Kim xx

Monday Make with Creative Expressions

Hello! Welcome to my Monday Make with Creative Expressions. Did you have a good weekend? It was clear blue skies all day on Sunday here on the Welsh coast and I made the most of it by taking my lunch to the beach and eating 'al fresco'. It was a truly glorious day, look.......

OK, so the tide was out but this shot looking back towards the village where I live sums up the whole reason why I moved here! The sea and the estuary are right on my doorstep and I can go for a walk along a beautiful coastline anytime I want, rain or shine but I have been very luck with the weather so far as it has been mostly sunny!

Right, on with the main reason for being here, my project. Once again I have used the brilliant Poinsettia dies. I have used the plain die to cut the flowers (well, they are technically leaves on a Poinsettia) and then used the filigree die to just emboss onto the die cuts. 

I started by colouring a piece of white card with the Cosmic Shimmer Pastel Aqua and Pastel Lilac water colours. I was quite random with the painting as I wanted a noticeable variation of colour on the finished flowers.

Once this was dry I cut out 3 of each of the poinsettia flowers from the Festive Collection Classic Poinsettia die set. I only used the ones with the 5 petals. 

I then ran these die cuts through my die cutting machine with the corresponding Festive Collection Filigree die but ONLY to emboss, so using the embossing plate and tan mat. It is important that you line up the die cut correctly, the petals are not all the same shape. 

Before assembling the flowers I went over each one with a little Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste in Lilac Blush and Aurora Sparkle. I used the lilac on the largest and smallest and the aurora on the medium sized flower.

When they were dry I gave each petal a gentle bend downwards before assembling using Cosmic Shimmer glue.

While these were drying I made the background paper. I used the Foundations Dark Navy which I ran through the embossing machine with the Spellbinders M-Bossabilities Valor folder on the cross side. I then smeared the side with the hollows with some Texture paste. I scraped the excess off just to leave the glitz in the hollows. The 'liquid' part of the texture paste actually made the paper surface a little shiny in the process so hidden bonus there! This was left to dry and cut to fit the card blank.

I used some remnants of the coloured card to cut out and emboss the Joy and Peace sentiments from the Festive Collection Sentiment dies and again filled the hollows with the texture paste.

Finally when everything was completely dry and ready to handle I got to the assembly stage. I used some of the Creative Expressions Self adhesive Pearl swirls to add extra interest.

Hope you found this project an inspiration. As always it is great to get your comments and I look forward to seeing you again next Monday.

Kim 

Marvellous Monday with Visible Image

It felt a little strange not blogging for you on Friday but I know that Pauline was there looking after Friday for me! 

So what do we have for you today on this totally Marvellous Monday? A little number made with the fantastic INKognito butterfly stamp, one of the sentiments from Imagine  Dream Inspire and a few grunge polka dots. On the face of it that sounds fairly 'plain' but oh my goodness just LOOK at those colours!

I received a parcel a few weeks ago containing the wonderful Brusho paints. They quickly became my #1 best friends. I played for hours just painting A3 pieces of white card. I now have a hefty pile of deliciously coloured card just waiting to be adorned.

Some of you may say it is similar to the one I showcased a few weeks ago but to be fair there is no way anything you do with Brushos is ever going to be 'the same'. 

I started by picking a point on the piece of coloured card I had chosen to use where the butterfly image would stand out. I used jet black archival ink. It was a new pad so it gave a really good image. Of course the stamps from Visible Image are deeply etched and give a fantastic impression every time, but there is something satisfying about the intense blackness of a new ink pad. 

I trimmed the background card to the size of my card blank and used just the splodge bits of the butterfly stamp in a few places around the edges of the card. I fancied using some dots so I added 2 areas of dots in opposing corners. Using a bit of the off cut of coloured card I stamped the Dream sentiment.

To give the piece a little more visual texture I used a fine white ink to highlight some areas and a fine black marker to add depth to the dots. I did a squiggly line around the edge of the card and did some freehand 'straight' lines around the sentiment.

     

Click on an image to be whisked off to the online shop. 

Hope you like my Monday inspiration? Has it made you want to dash off to your craft table and create? I hope so.

Below are all the details about how to get to know more about Visible Image, click the links and away you go!

 Have a great week and I will see you again next Monday!   Kim  

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Click HERE to find out how to enter the September challenge

The theme this month is Make it Sparkle!

Click HERE to go to the Facebook group. 

Ask to join if you haven't already. 

Click HERE to subscribe to the Newsletter

Click HERE to go to the blog to see more DT inspiration projects 

Click HERE to go to my KimzKrafts Facebook page

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Monday Make with Creative Expressions - Blue Sparkle Flowers

And so begins another week! I really like my new life here in Wales as it really doesn't matter what day of the week it is anymore! I am not tied by a clock. I am however incredibly busy getting my house sorted (yes, still !!) and preparing for my first season as a seaside landlady! All very exciting but hard work.

So it is nice to sit down in the quiet of the evening and do some crafting. Mind you sometimes that evening has become early hours of the morning! 

Today I am show-casing a card I made using the highly detailed Filigree Poinsettia die and coordinating stamps. As I said last time, these dies are a joy to work with and they give such stunning results.

I knew when I got these dies a few weeks ago that they were just screaming out to be made into 3D objects and this week I am still doing 3D but this time on a card. 

I started by cutting one of each of the 5 petal filigree flowers using Kraft card.  It was during this cutting that I pondered the idea about running the die through the embossing machine using just the tan mat to create a similar effect to an embossing folder. Now, I might have been doing something that you all have been doing for ages but to me there was a Eureka! moment when I saw what I had created. I had made a completely coordinating embossed background without the use of a classic plastic embossing folder. I pushed the cutting to one side for a moment and went about covering a whole sheet of A4 with these embossed-but-not-cut die patterns. The sandwich is the same as for embossing after cutting. So base plate, die with cutting edge upwards, card, tan matt, embossing plate. I used the same Faded Jeans distress ink to add highlights to the embossed background card. The raised areas picked up the colour nicely.

My base card complete I carried on cutting out the filigree flowers. I then cut out some solid flowers to go behind these pieces.

The flowers were distressed using Faded Jeans Distress ink. This does need to be done carefully as the filigree is delicate but I am sure you realised that. 

The solid flower dies were also given a brushing of the distress ink before sticking behind the corresponding filigree petals with  Cosmic Shimmer glue.. When dry I took each flower and gently curved the petals downwards before sticking them all together again with CS glue.

I cut some of the smaller filigree petals and coloured them with distress ink. I did not use any solid flowers with these as I wanted to maintain the openness of the flowers. 

I then added some of the very lovely Cosmic Shimmer Twinkles Aurora to all the flowers before sticking them to the main card. A little spot in the centre of each flower added that final touch of bling!

Because I am a great fan of colour co-ordination I used the Faded Jeans ink pad to colour up a 1 cm border around some more Kraft card before using it as the matting. Where I had used plain Kraft card I distressed the edges by running my scissors down the edge to fluff them up. 

I created a further mount layer by using the Elegant Poinsettia stamp and the Faded Jeans distress ink on Kraft card.

There were some off cuts of the Faded Jeans coloured Kraft card which I also added CS Twinkles to and used them as decorative ribbons.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this card but more importantly I hope it has inspired you to make your own? 

Kim

Marvellous Monday with Visible Image

So here we are on Marvellous Monday! Poor old Monday gets such a raw deal being the start of the 'normal' working week. I say 'normal' because I remember not so long ago when I worked in the NHS how there really wasn't any difference between weekends and week days, how Monday was much like Friday. It didn't matter what day it was, people were poorly every day of the week!

But that was then and this is NOW! No more clock watching or weekend working for little old me but a big Thank You to those that still work when others are at play.

My play time has seen me making another card using the fabulous heart from the Tin Man set from the latest release of stamps from Visible Image. It was the 75th Anniversary of the release of the film The Wizard of Oz and so what better way to celebrate than by designing some stamps! Hats off to you Mark, they are wonderful images!

As the stamp is so industrial looking, I wanted to get a rusty look to it so I started by randomly painting some card in shades of burnt orange and brown. I then stamped and heat embossed the images with WHITE embossing powder. Why white? Well, I had tried silver and it didn't stand out enough. I had a trick up my sleeve which I will tell you about later! I made quite a few of the hearts as well as a sentiment making sure I used areas of card with different colours. Once they were all cut out, (and yes I even cut carefully around the tiny cogs! ) I set about distressing them some more.

This is where the little trick comes in! I used some silver gilding wax to carefully highlight the raised embossing powder. I didn't use too much at a time. This is one of those times when you use less to add more because you can add but you can't take away. For those of you that remember using Brasso, I think the white embossing powder gives that look of the dried Brasso left behind.

The base card was a piece of card which I pressure embossed with a cog pattern and treated in the same way. 

Click me to whizz off to the Visible Image web site

Hope you like the card. Don't forget I don't do Friday anymore, I am here now every Monday.

I love reading your comments so now that you are here it would be great if you could let me know you've visited.

Kim


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Click HERE to find out how to enter the Monthly challenge

This month the theme is Make it Sparkle

Click HERE to go to the Facebook group. Ask to join if you haven't already. 

Click HERE to subscribe to the Newsletter

Click HERE to go to the blog to see the other DT inspiration projects for this month. 

Click HERE to go to my KimzKrafts Facebook page

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Moo Mania - An Early Entry - Music is in the Air

What has happened? I have MOO'd already and the challenge has only been open 24 hours! It must be all this sea air!

This time the challenge is 'Music is in the Air'. I have a few music related stamps in my collection, most of them violins as I have a passion for the very lovely folk singer Seth Lakeman. 

Anyway, on to the Moo I made for this challenge. Guess what? It features a violin!!

I did a bit of dimensional work on it, and glazed the violin with good old Diamond Glaze. I have a few bottles in my cupboard which I bough a few years ago in a sale. What I will do when this runs out is going to be a problem. I love it! 

Hope you like the Moo?

Kim

The Friday Feature with Visible Image

I have news! Today is my last Friday Feature. Oh, but don't look glum. I am now in charge of Marvellous Monday so I will be back in a couple of days with another blog post!! 

MARVELLOUS - I ran this through my spell-checker and it seems there are 2 ways to spell it. Well, technically there are lots of ways to spell it if you count all the wrong ways! I am going with the double L version - MARVELLOUS.

For my last Friday Feature I've got a card to show you made using the heart from the Tin Man set which is one of the latest characters from Visible Image.

When Mark was designing the Wizard of Oz stamps I had it in my head that there would be something steam punk, something clockwork, something industrial to compliment Tin Man himself. And I wasn't wrong was I? Just look at the detail on the heart, those cogs, the rivets on the 'metal' plates. I really love this stamp.

I first made my background. I used Dylusions Ink Sprays in Tangerine Dream, Pomegranate seed and Fresh Lime. On top of that I stamped the cogs from the Time after Time set. I used Peeled Paint distress ink for this. It gave a very subtle hint of a pattern which is what I wanted.

I used a hematite black heat embossing powder for the hearts, sentiment and wings, which are also from the Time after Time set. I used the same coloured card for these pieces. Remember I always make more background card for just this reason! 

To make the pieces all gel, I added some little dots at the corners of the card and the sentiment with my embossing ink pen and heat embossed with the hematite powder to echo the rivets on the hearts. 

    

Hope you have enjoyed the last Friday Feature? Don't forget to come back on Monday, or rather on Marvellous Monday for more crafting with Visible Image stamps. 

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Fancy being on the Design Team at Visible Image? Check out the call details on the blog.

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Click HERE to find out how to enter the monthly challenge

this month is Make It Sparkle

Click HERE to go to the Facebook group. Ask to join if you haven't already. 

Click HERE to subscribe to the Newsletter

Click HERE to go to the blog to see the other DT inspiration projects for this month. 

Click HERE to go to my KimzKrafts Facebook page

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Adios for now, see you Monday bright and early!

MOO Mania - Recycle Something

Hello! Time for my Moo Mania challenge entry. Yes, only just hitting the deadline again. I like to think about the theme for a while before making my project hence I am nearly always last to enter!

My first task was to rummage through my bin. I know I am a bit mad sometimes but as the challenge is Recycle Something I thought the bin would be the best place to start.

Recycle Something #69

I found some bits of knotted string, an off-cut of purple card and a few spare washers from a drawer unit I had assembled for my craft room. Well, I think they are spare as the drawers all work fine without them! And then I went off to the recycling bin in the garden to pick up a ring pull.

So here we have it, my Moo for this challenge. I dressed it up a bit with some silver embossing using a lovely stylised leaf stamp and a silver edge to echo the aluminium ring pull.

Hope you like? Comments are always wonderful to read so if you have time let me know you visited. Thanks.

Kim

Monday Make with Creative Expressions - Yellow Baubles

Hello Followers! How was the last week for you? Mine was good, got lots done and I am feeling very accomplished!

Today I am going to show you how you can make some lovely Christmas decorations using the latest Festive Collection of  Stamps and Dies from Creative Expressions. 

When I saw these lovely stamps and corresponding dies I immediately had the idea to make a 3D decoration. Now whether you choose to use them in a 3D way or not, I know you are going to thrilled at how perfectly they work together. As with my make last week, the wreath, I was blown away with the quality of the cut and the detail in the stamped images. But then what else would you expect from a Creative Expressions product? Only the best will do!!

So, onto the making of the Yellow Baubles.

I chose to colour my own card, but there is no reason why you couldn't use any coloured card you liked. What about metallic card, or maybe a light embossing powder on a dark card? Anyway, I like to be a bit different with my colour schemes at Christmas and this year I quite fancy yellow and black. It has a slightly oriental or even a Victorian look to it don't you think?

Because I am a frugal crafter I only painted the card in the areas I was going to stamp on! I used the die to draw around. I then embossed with black powder before cutting it out using the corresponding die.

Each bauble comprises 4 stamped images. I made 2 small baubles and one large one. Each piece was scored down the middle and glued together with a looped thread to hang it from down the middle.

I added a beaded pin at the bottom, being careful not to poke myself in the finger!

Snowy Brook Bauble stamp

Mosaic Bauble stamp 

Festive Sentimental Bauble Die 

Foundation card coconut white 

Cosmic Shimmer Tropic Yellow water colour from Brights 

Cosmic Shimmer Black embossing powder 

Perfect Medium Embossing ink 

Cosmic Shimmer glue

Black crystal Pins  

Hope you have been inspired to make your own? I will certainly be making some more of these myself for my tree this year.

See you next week for another inspirational project.

Kim