Marvellous Monday with Visible Image

Hello!

Welcome to my usual Monday spot for Visible Image.

I have been having a look through some of my old stuff and saw this little gem which didn't get published last year.

It is still such a cool technique and it is nice to revisit some of my older projects. It means that new visitors to me and Visible Image don't miss out on something!

I have been busy working on a special project for Breast Cancer awareness so my time has been short but I am sure you don't mind me using this? More about the special event project next time.

So, I started with a nice crisp piece of white card. Using those pots of inky paint from Pinflair called Gentle Blends, I applied colour to the daisy silhouette from the Happy Birthday set in the More Than Words range. I used a sponge to apply the colour directly to the stamps. I stamped the first time onto my base card and then did a second stamping onto a separate piece of white card. This gave me a vibrant first impression and a dull, light second impression.

I then used the seeded flower head silhouette from the Thinking of You set, again from the More Than Words range to overstamp the coloured daisies in black ink.

On the piece of card that I had done the second impression stamping I used black ink to stamp the sentiment. All pieces were layered onto black card and the sentiment was added to the main card using foam pads to raise it up.

    

Click HERE to go to the Facebook group.

Ask to join if you haven't already. 

Click HERE to 'Like' the Visible Image Facebook page

Click HERE to go to the Show & Tell page on the blog. 

It links to the group where you can upload your projects and tell us all about it!

Click HERE to go to the Visible Image blog to see

DT inspiration projects and check out the Gallery. 

Click HERE to subscribe to the Newsletter

Click HERE to go to my KimzKrafts Facebook page

See you next week for another Marvellous Monday and in the mean time enjoy your week, get crafty and show us what you have been up to!

Happy Days!  Kim

Marvellous Monday with Visible Image

Hello! Nice to see you here again.

Also, really nice to see you, yes you, you're new here aren't you? Welcome!

Settle down with a cuppa and take a look at my inspirational piece using the fab 

stamps from Visible Image.

Once again it all started with a big piece of card that I coloured.

I used Pin Flair Gentle Blends in Sunshine and Lavender on plain white card.

I cut the piece of card in half and then added more detail to one piece using the Grunge Polka Dot stamp and purple Brusho paint.

When this was dry, I gave it a quick blast with the heat gun to hurry it along, I brushed a very dry brush with gesso over the whole piece to soften the colour.

When this was dry I used the Polka Dot stamp again this time with gesso to add white spots. Remember to wash the gesso off straight away!!

Next came the stamping. I used black embossing powder for all the images. 

This was a little fiddly as it all needed to line up nicely.

There are a few ways of doing it and this time I used the 'by eye' method!

The stamps are clear and the acrylic blocks are clear so that helped!

I cut the 2 pieces of card, one just the colour the other with the gesso and dots,  to the right size.

I laid the clean stamp on the corner of the plain card and then placed the acrylic block over it lining the block up with the corners of the card.

I then stamped and embossed. I used the patterned piece of card as a guide and stamped some additional branches in the other corner.

After cleaning and drying the stamp thoroughly I placed the patterned piece of card over the first image and lined everything up, moved the first piece out of the way and stamped the second part of the image.

Sentiment stamped and all pieces matted with white card to make them stand out. 

A few faux gems and there we are!

OK, me thinks a photo step-by-step of the positioning is in order.  I will do a new post later this evening for that. I also have another way of doing this technique which I will show you at the same time.

Confession - I know the second impression 'jumped' a bit but it's branches right, so I just left it!

 

Click HERE to go to the Facebook group.

Ask to join if you haven't already. 

Click HERE to 'Like' the Visible Image Facebook page

Click HERE to go to the Show & Tell page on the blog. 

It links to the group where you can upload your projects and tell us all about it!

Click HERE to go to the Visible Image blog to see

DT inspiration projects and check out the Gallery. 

Click HERE to subscribe to the Newsletter

Click HERE to go to my KimzKrafts Facebook page

See you next week for another Marvellous Monday and in the mean time enjoy your week, get crafty and show us what you have been up to!

Happy Days!  Kim 

Marvellous Monday with Visible Image

I have a special blog post for you today on Marvellous Monday!

I have once again been lucky enough to have an article published in CRAFT STAMPER magazine.

The guys at Visible Image have designed the free cover stamp for the May issue of the magazine and I was lucky enough to be asked to create a project using the free stamp.

Obviously I had the stamp a few months ago and got to play with it way before anyone else. My fellow DT member Pauline also did some samples for the magazine and I am sure she will show you hers on her blog in due course.

So, what did I make? Well, I made a pocket book which I have suggested could be used to put your favourite photos in or you could use it to write some special words in.

I started by colouring some pieces of A3 card with Gentle Blends and then using the free stamp I stamped all over them using Gentle Blends as the ink. Really you could use any medium you are comfortable with. 

For this step I deliberately avoided the pixel-edge part of the stamp so that the background was kept fairly light. You can see from the picture on the left how I coloured the card.

Once I had coloured and stamped about 4 sheets of card I made the pockets. These pockets can be made to almost any size to suit. These particular pockets are 11cm x 15cm, so the starting piece of card is 22cm x 15cm. 

The card is glued around 3 sides leaving one of the short sides open for the tag The corners were rounded off. I then stamped around the edges using the dotty edge of the stamp. 

The covers for the book were made using mount board cut slightly larger than the pockets and covered with the stamped and coloured card. 

I also used the larger Visible Image flourish stamp and a sentiment, which I stamped in black and embossed.

I made some tags to fit in each pocket which I also stamped with the free stamp in both the Gentle Blends colours and black for contrast.

    

As an extra bonus in this months issue there is the opportunity to get some of the latest Visible Image stamps FREE as part of the regular First Impressions giveaway.

Hope you like the project and that you have a go at making something like this yourself.

Happy Days!

Kim xx

ATC365 #23 - TRIANGLE

Right Mr Generator left me in a bit of a quandary this morning. Did he mean TRIANGLE as in musical instrument? Or as in Bermuda? Or as in the shape? Or as in that very old TV show featuring the late Kate O'Mara? Or a lurve TRIANGLE even! So many ways to go with this one but of course I don't have any Bermudan stamps, or a stamp of Channel Ferries so I decided to go with the shape.

As you can see I have used the triangles as the roofs, and yep, that is the correct plural of 'roof' not 'rooves'. You would have thought that as a horses hoof becomes hooves when they multiply! Where was I? Oh yes, as the roofs of these towers. Now the stamp needed a bit of cutting to fit the castle on, and one of the towers actually had a round roof to start with.

The background card was leftover from a very old project where I lined a box with this card. It was coloured with Gentle Blends. There you are, I do have other colouring media. I added some highlights with white pen. Another simple make but it fits the bill.

Back again tomorrow with another ATC.

Happy days! Kim xx

ATC365 #15 - CASTLE

There we are! Another chance to use a Visible Image stamp as the main feature on one my ATCs. Thank you Mr Generator for being kind to me today!

The scrap of card had been coloured with Gentle Blends, which I must use more often. I started by stamping the castle, which is from the Once Upon a Time set from Visible Image (HERE), with black ink. Using a mask over the castle and a circle to leave an unstamped area for the moon, I stamped the Bronte Script, again from Visible Image, over the background, again just in black ink. No embossing today! I then coloured things up a bit with Brusho paint. The moon was then bleached to remove the background colour. I got a little too adventurous and added some shading using the wrong shade of Promarker but this just goes to show that mistakes happen! I wanted the castle to look inhabited so I added some white to the windows and under the door arch.

How about coming back tomorrow to see me again? I would love to hear what you think of my adventure, maybe you would leave me a comment?

Happy Days! Kim

Marvellous Monday with Visible Image

Marvellous Monday again and it is good to see you here. Welcome to my new followers. As you know Monday is my day to inspire you with a project made using the amazing stamps from Visible Image.

It never ceases to amaze me just how great these stamps are. They are made from top quality polymer, are deeply etched and produce superb images time after time.

The guys at Visible Image, Mark and Helen, do an awesome job with Mark doing the design work and stamp making and Helen running the media and office side. Helen also writes the beautiful verses. They both work really hard to bring us these wonderful stamps. Have you met them at one of the shows? They always have a great stand displaying lots of samples the DT have made including some of mine! They always thank us for our work but they also need to be thanked for producing such wonderful stamps. It is a bit like the chicken and the egg, without one you couldn't have the other! 

My project today is a tag made using the butterfly and one of the floral silhouette More than Words sets, Thinking of You. 

I recently did a card and tag for Craft Stamper magazine which is where the idea for this tag came from. I started by cutting a tag which was large enough to accommodate three flower heads. Odd numbers always work best for some reason.  If you look closely you will see that this isn't a blue tag over a white tag, it is in fact just one tag. I used masking tape to keep the top, left and bottom of the tag white. I used Gentle Blends in Denim to add heavy colouration to the left side of the tag and blending out to nothing towards the right side. Once the base was completely dry I carefully removed the masking tape and used a jet black archival ink to stamp the images. The steams are separate so you can bend them to give them a more natural look. I stamped the main sentiment down the right hand side.

I coloured a small piece of white card with the Denim Gentle Blends. Once dry I stamped the butterfly again in black and cut it out. I took a white paint pen by Posca to add highlights to the flowers and to the butterfly. A piece of white paper ribbon finished off the tag.

 

Click HERE to find out how to enter the challenge

The theme for October is Get Spooky! 

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

Hear all about new releases, enter competitions and chat with other Visible Image fans and DT Members

Click HERE to subscribe to the Newsletter

Click HERE to go to the Visible image blog to see all the other 

DT inspiration projects for this month. 

Click HERE to go to my KimzKrafts Facebook page

Right, I must away! I have a heap of things to do, mostly domestic chores but once they are out of the way I shall retreat to my cave and get crafty! Not long till the new Challenge is announced!

Happy Days!! Kim

Marvellous Monday with Visible Image

Hello! How was your weekend? I hope you managed to get some crafting done? Another busy weekend here for me decorating. I am currently tiling my kitchen. It is going well. I have always done my own tiling I find the whole process really satisfying. I have a fantastic electric tile cutter which sails through the tiles. I used to use a 'stick' cutter, it had a diamond tip and you would score the tile and crack it over two match sticks. It was a nightmare as it would go something like 'cut two, break one, cut two, break one' and don't even think about cutting a piece out of the tile to go around a socket!!! Now it is a breeze with the fancy electric cutter. Enough DIY, I am beginning to sound like an advert for B&Q!!

My card today features the amazing castle stamp from the Once Upon a Time set. I have used this stamp for all types of scenes from dark to light, from realistic to fantasy. I have combined it here with the cracked glass stamp from the Time after Time set and the birds from the Free your Imagination set.

I started by stamping and heat embossing the cracked glass stamp with white embossing powder onto white card. I then coloured over this with a couple of blue tones of Gentle Blends, Denim and Teal. I then took a piece of white card, masked the edges and coloured this with the same two colours. After taking the masking tape off I stamped the castle in the corner and coloured it in with Gentle Blends in Denim using a paint brush. I stamped the Once Upon a Time words and cut them out before mounting onto the castle panel. 

I did one of my bead 'things' for the side. I have a bit of an aversion to bows! I can't seem to make bows wrapped around cards work for me so I came up with this beady-string-knot thing instead. 

I hope you have enjoyed this project? It was fun to make and I hope it has inspired you to have a go!

Click HERE to find out how to enter the challenge

This month the theme is Get Spooky!!

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 Visible Image blog

to see DT inspiration projects and check out the Gallery. 

Click HERE to go to my KimzKrafts Facebook page

See you next week for another Marvellous Monday and in the mean time enjoy your week, get crafty and show us what you have been up to!

Happy Days!  Kim J

Man Oh Man! Visible Image June Challenge

HELLO EVERYONE!

Well, here I am, sat in my usual spot blogging! I had hoped to be sitting in my new craft space by now but a few minor hold ups on the moving front means that I am still 'here'.

Have you seen what has been going on over at Visible Image these past few weeks?

First came the Magick launch, with wizards and maps and swords and all things Hobbit-like and just yesterday the totally amazing Revolution set!! Words cannot describe how amazing this set is.

You need to check out the website or the Facebook page to see the amazing samples my fellow teamies made. WOW is all I can say!

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And so on to my reason for being here today, it is Father's Day and rather fittingly the theme for the challenge this month is Man Oh Man! 

As I said before, I have not got any craft space at the moment and despite my inner need to unpack a few things I resisted. Because I can't create something totally new to inspire you what I decided to do was to show you how a card I blogged about many moons ago provided inspiration for a dear friend of mine. She wanted a card to give to her partner on his birthday and when she saw this one she asked if I could make one for him. 

The Original

The Doppelganger

Obviously I have used a different sentiment but the family resemblance is there! He was delighted with the card and that is what counts. I was thrilled that I remembered how I did the colouring!!

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

Create with your Soul 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. 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. 

To enter the Visible Image challenge for this month simply click HERE. Read the rules, there aren't many, and pop your creation either on the blog or on the Facebook page. You need to upload before 8pm on the last day of the month. You stand a chance of winning a selection of stamps of your choice to the value of £20. You could get the Revolution set for starters!!

Wishing you all a peaceful Sunday, and to all you dads out there 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

See you soon! Kim xx

Teamies Challenge - Friday Feature with Visible Image

So if you have been following the Visible Image blog or been reading the Facebook group page you will know that this week the DT have been tasked with creating a project using colours and stamps chosen for them. I have been amazed at what they have come up with given the randomness of the choices made. Helen, one half of the magical duo that are Visible Image the company, did a draw of names from hats and as it turned out I was selected to choose for Kay and Kay was selected to choose for me! It seems that Kay, like most of the other DT members, responded well to bribery by cake!

Kay gave me a really nice colour palette, turquoise, pink and purple and the stamps were Bronte Border, Once Upon a Time and Butterfly. On reading this my first thought was "great the butterfly AND Bronte Border, how lucky am I"? Then with the colours I was a bit "Hmm, bright colours" and I started to think.................

     

  

Instead of using black as my stamping colour I thought that white would look good. What do you think? I wanted to keep the feel soft and elegant rather than bold an punchy. Does the white work?

I started by making my background using the Gentle Blend colours Teal (sorry Kay that is like turquoise isn't it?) Hot Magenta and Lavender. The moon is where the pink comes in as well as the mounting card. I stamped the castle images several times masking to give a BIG castle. I stamped and embossed all the images using white embossing powder. I thought it would be fun to use the Bronte Script as the words to the story. To finish I stamped and cut out both the large and the standard sized butterfly.

Here is what Kay did in response to my colour palette of grey, lemon and black and the Harlequin, Winter Tree and Rose stamps. Brilliant work don't you think? Check out her blog, click the picture to link straight there.

Don't forget to visit the ALL NEW VISIBLE IMAGE web site. Same address, different look!

The blog can be accessed from there but HERE is the quick link for you. 

The Facebook Group is another great place to access all things Visible Image. See current and historical DT inspiration, chat with the Team, show off your own Visible Image projects and get to hear about things first!

Have you entered the challenge yet this month? The theme is Anything Goes so what are you waiting for? Check out the details on how to enter HERE. 

OK, that is where I need to leave it today, busy times. See you next week.

Kim x

May Challenge with Visible Image - Anything Goes!

Hello followers and a warm welcome to all you new readers! So this month sees a broad theme for the Visible Image challenge. I love it when any challenge I am part of has the theme Anything Goes! It is what it says and thus makes designing inspirational projects very easy as we do what we are comfortable with. Having said that, I also love a challenge with a very specific theme and in the next few days you will see the results of a very interesting challenge the Visible Image DT did. But back to today, my path was diverted as usual! Pretend I didn't mention it! Shhhh!

For this months challenge I decided to run with a set of colours which are a little bit more vibrant than my usual choices. I started by colouring my background in the usual way with Gentle Blends in Sunshine Yellow, Teal and Lavender. I masked off an area with a circle before starting. Sometimes my colour scheme doesn't suggest this circle is either a sun or a moon, but in this project I would say it is definitely a sun! I left the mask on while I stamped the Bronte Script over this blended background. I kept changing the ink colour to match (roughly) the base colour. After removing the mask I then stamped the feature images, the lovely silhouette flowers from Thinking of You, in black archival ink. This set is one of 6 designs in the More Than Words range. 

I then created a backing piece by stamping the flower heads in the 3 colours onto a piece of whit card. Being the thrifty person that I am I only stamped the very edges of this piece of card, why waste ink and time stamping an area that isn't going to be seen? 

The verse was stamped onto a piece a card coloured only with the teal and lavender colours. Some mounting onto black card and then teal coloured card came next. I do love how a thin line of black makes the layers 'pop'. I used some corrugated card and brads to attach the verse plate.

  

As always I highly recommend you check out the Visible Image blog HERE where you will see more work from the Design Team. There is also the Facebook group HERE, where you can chat to all of the Team and each other about Visible Image related stuff. The monthly challenge can be accessed either via the blog or by the Facebook group. On the Visible Image blog you get to see the other DT projects which will hopefully inspire you to enter your own project with a chance of winning a fab prize.

You don't have long to wait for my Friday Feature, 24 hours to be exact, so I hope to see you again tomorrow! Your comments are always great to read and if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Busy with the house move still, my dining room is now a packing station with rolls of bubble wrap, boxes and parcel tape everywhere, but there is always time to craft!! My Visible Image stamps will be the last thing packed...........

Kim xx

The Friday Feature with Visible Image - TIME

TIME - A reminder of just how busy I am!

Don't get me wrong, this is the kind of 'busy' that I enjoy. I have a multitude of things going on at the moment and not all of them are crafty. If you visited me last week you will know that I am slap bang in the middle of buying/selling houses. All this 'getting ready to move' is giving a great opportunity to sort through my craft stuff and decide if it is essential. Of course ALL craft stuff is essential on one level or another but do I really need to keep those off cuts of card just because I could, at some point in the future, run them through the die cutting machine and create flowers with them? Who know, answers on a postcard please!!

Writing the blog today is forcing me to sit down and relax a little, take my mind off trying to put things in the bin...................so I better get on with telling you about my project for this week.

It was part of a little test I made myself do. Last week I used only stamps from the Free Your Imagination set and this week I have chosen to use only stamps from the Time after Time set.

What do you think? I did my background first using Gentle Blends, but you could use chalks, water colours, distress inks, anything that will give that blended look. I then stamped the cracked stamp pretty much all over. It is a very good stamp to use for an all-over pattern. I never worry about any overlapping as it just adds to the design unlike some other stamps that you have to mask so you don't get any double images.

I did a fun thing with the faces of the watches, I used some Diamond Glaze (that is what happens when you tidy drawers you haven't been in for ages!!) but you could use clear embossing powder or whatever the modern equivalent of Diamond Glaze is! Sadly, the close up I took doesn't really show the gloss off very well and I didn't have time to take another picture but trust me, they look like glass!

Don't forget to join the Facebook Group to see what we all do, and go to the Visible Image blog to get first hand info about challenges where you can win a great prize each month! This month has the theme of TAGS, so get your Visible Image stamps out and make some tags! 

If you need something to do at the weekend, then pop along to the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show at Alexandra Palace, Visible Image will be there! Details are in the link 'up there' top right. 

Right, I am off to do some more sorting, and maybe some throwing away! My son is laughing at me because he knows I will keep everything!! 

Have a great weekend, see you on the other side.............

Kim xx

Friday Feature with Visible Image

Hello all, hope your Friday has started well? Today on the Visible Image Friday Feature I am showcasing the stamp set Free your Imagination. Quite apt really as my life is in total chaos at the moment, but in a nice way! I am heading off in a completely new direction having been made redundant at the start of the week!! Fear not, it has made me think about where I want to go and what I want to do. About 3 weeks ago I mentioned to my OH how I think now would be a good time to look seriously at doing the whole seaside B&B thing. We had spoken about it ever since we met but always referred to it as 'in the future'. Well, our house is sold and we go to view our hopeful B&B place tomorrow! Phew it has been a whirlwind of activity. Wish me luck!

Back to the matter in hand, my Visible Image project! Let's kick off by showing you the card I made. Bit of a funny angle, must have been wearing my heels when I took the picture!

It is rare for me to use ONLY the stamps from the set but I wanted to challenge myself. Wasn't much of a challenge to be fair, those guys at Visible Image had it covered! All the elements work really well together as you would expect. 

I started by doing my usual background colouring using Gentle Blends. For this I took Lavender, Sunshine Yellow, and a touch of Rose Red. I then stamped and embossed in black that lovely swooping eagle, some feathers and splats followed by some stamping using the Lavender Gentle Blend. Some careful mounting onto black card and a bit of fussy cutting and the project was finished. Or so I had thought........

Due to a happy accident along the way; I had cut and mounted the middle layer too wide, I needed to fill the space. I didn't have time to make the middle layer again! A ribbon didn't seem quite right, and it was while looking at some of the other stamps in the Visible Image range that I saw the Dreamcatcher. This reminded me of the beads and cord I use to bind my mini books. Before you could say 'Eureka' I was threading and knotting!! Anybody would think it was planned but trust me it wasn't.

Don't forget the April Challenge with Visible Image has started, the theme this month is tags. Check out the blog for more details. Enter there or if you are not a blogger then you can always enter via the Visible Image Facebook group page.

April DT Inspiration - Visible Image

Right my lovelies, I need to get going as I have a lot to do! Rest assured I will not be packing my crafting stuff until the very last minute. If I do go missing for a wee while it will more than likely be down to not being internet ready when I move. So much to organise!!

Have a great weekend and I will see you next week for another Visible Image project. 

Kim xxxxxx

Visible Image - April Challenge Starts!

Think TAG!

This month on the Visible Image challenge we are looking for your creations around the theme of TAGS.

Big ones, small ones, singles, multiples, one off, collections, and anything else you can think of! 

I liked the idea of a set of tags that I could put on a card but having made a few small tags I didn't feel that they were doing justice to the stamps so I ditched the card idea and went for a set of large 'stand alone' tags.

What do you think? I haven't done anything with a moon for a while so I seized the chance with the tags. I also haven't done anything grungy for a while so I went with that too. 

First I made the tags by checking out the size of the flowers that come in the More than Words range. I used a cream coloured card as the base and then masked off the moon with some circles of paper cut from sticky notes using a punch. You will know if you have read my past posts that I like using sticky notes because if you cut them carefully they have a bit of built-in adhesive to hold the shape down. Then using my favourite Gentle Blend inks in Sage and Lavender, I coloured the tags. Gentle Blends can be purchased from a fab little shop in Rugby called DRAGON'S PAPER CRAFT  They also stock Visible Image stamps and regularly hold demos days and workshops.

Next came the jet black flower silhouettes. I had already got the Bronte Script and the Music Background  stamps out as they are brilliant for adding interest and I used them as supporting players.

Some sentiments, a bit of bling and ribbon and there we are! Once again I have used a whole host of Visible Image stamps! This is easily done as they all work so well together. (Just got to list them all now!)

   

  

  

Just for a bit of fun I also made a few tags using some of the little bits and pieces I had leftover from other projects and experiments. I love how speedy tag making can be if you do this. If you are like me and you have a stash of pieces that are too good to put in the bin then maybe you could do the same? I keep all my Visible Image leftovers in a box so that I can use them as part of my DT projects knowing they are all just made using Visible Image pieces. When you have plenty of bits 'n' bobs it can be an idea to group them into colours. It makes the tags, or whatever your project is, look totally deliberate and co-ordinated!

So, get making your tags! All you need to do is use some Visible Image stamps to qualify for entry into the challenge. All the details can be found over on the Visible Image blog. If you are a user of Facebook, then you can upload your entry into the group photo album. You will need to join the group which is really easy, just follow this link and request to join.

You won't have long to wait for my usual Friday Feature, only a few days, and I promise you it won't be a tag. At this moment in time I have no idea WHAT you will be seeing but trust me my cogs are whirring! 

Have a fab week, craft loads, and come back soon for more adventures with KimzKrafts!!

Kim xxxx