Visible Image - Creative Chaos

Hi, Visible Image fans!  Today for my design team post I'm using the beautiful Creative Chaos stamp set for this anytime card.

I started by stamping out two masks of the flower heads so that I could stamp a cluster of three flowers.  You can just about make out the masks on the two lower flowers.

Then I watercoloured them with Distress Inks.

I sponged some Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink around the edges, and stamped the circle image in Spiced Marmalade, using masks to cover the flowers, and again with Salvaged Patina.

I decided that I wanted a bit more colour in the centre, so I blended some Salvaged Patina behind and around the flowers.

I chose a blue card base, and added some subtle tone-on-tone stencilling in two of the corners using the Frosty stencil.

And for a bit of balance I added a few marks in the opposite corners using black ink and a plastic card.

Here's a view of the finished card with the stamp set and stencil.  

I love using Distress Inks as watercolours and sloshing it on the images!

Pop on over to the Visible Image store where you can find these and other fabulous stamps, stencils and dies.  Don't forget, Visible Image also stock Distress products now.  Happy stamping!

Seize The Birthday - Any Colour Plus Green

Hello Seize The Birthday fans!  It's Nancy's turn to pick the challenge theme, and she's gone for Any Colour Plus Green.

I used a partial image from Altenew's oversized Sketchy Floral stamp on a mop-up piece of Wilted Violet and Mowed Lawn, then fussy cut it.  To prepare my card base, I stamped some marks from Tim Holtz Media Marks and Fireworks Pear Tart spray then adhered the cutout floral to the card.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and from our surprise party guests, and join in the fun.  If the colours aren't your thing, you can still play along with our anything goes theme.

Visible Image - Field of Tulips

Hello peeps!  For my Visible Image design team post today I've created a journal spread using the Sketched Tulips stamp set.  It's been a good while since I created a journal spread, so I started small, using a 5.5" square Arteza watercolour book.

I used a palette knife to add Distress paints to the spread, scraping grass marks into the green as I went along.

Again using a palette knife, I added tulip heads for background,

I thought the sky was a bit too vivid, so I added some pink to knock it back.  I tried a roller but that didn't give me the coverage I wanted so I smudged it on with my finger.  I added stencilling to the corners using the Halftone stencil.

I stamped several tulips in both sizes, together with the leaf sprig and watercoloured with Distress inks, then fussy cut them out.

For balance, I wanted three large tulips and three small tulips, but the spread actually looked unbalanced, so I added a fourth small tulip.  

Once I'd stamped the words, I edged them with black pen and trimmed them, leaving a fine white border.

I added some partial stamping in the gaps using the text stamp from the set.

It's quite freeing to play around in a journal, make mistakes and cover them up, and it doesn't need to be perfect like a card, because nobody sees it except me - oh, and you!

By coincidence, the day after I'd finished this spread, look what I got as part of my Mother's Day present!

Pop on over to the Visible Image blog for the stamps and stencils that I used.  There's a huge selection of stamps, dies and stencils that are perfect for use in journals.  

Seize The Birthday - Spring Florals

Hello, and welcome to a new challenge at Seize The Birthday.  This time Linda is our hostess, and she wants to see spring florals.  Well, there's certainly plenty of inspiration around!

Did you see the toilet roll heart Valentine's cards circulating on the interwebs in February?  I'd already made the card for my valentine, but I still tried the technique, inspired by Tiffany Solario and Rieslingmama's instagram posts.  These were my attempts:

I love the blue version!  But then I thought I would try my hand at creating tulips.  Added a sentiment from The Stamp Market, and some leaves and splatters, and called it done!

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and our surprise party guests, and play along with us.  If spring florals aren't your thing, play along with any birthday-themed project.  See you in the gallery!

 

Birds of a Feather

 

Hello, I'm actually entering a challenge, well a joint one between Time Out Challenges and Just Us Girls where they're having a joint collaboration with the theme Birds of A Feather.

I made this card with some Tim Holt Sizzix dies - Papercut Cafe, Brushstroke Flowers Mini and Feathered Friends.  The background is part of a Stamperia Coffee and Chocolate Plates stencil coloured with Distress Oxide sprays.

I'd actually made the card before I saw the collaboration challenge, but it fits the bill perfectly!

Visible Image Cupcakes

Hello Visible Image fans!  For my design team post today, I'm playing with the Blow Out The Candles stamps, and the coordinating die set and Splash stencil which were part of the new release.

I had a background panel in my stash, which was a combination of Mica Sprays.

I sponged some Saltwater Taffee around the edges and where it needed some extra colour.

I stamped and coloured some cupcakes in Versafine Onyx Back and coloured them with Tombow markers and Jane Davenport sparkly markers.

I couldn't decide what colours to make the cases, but in the end I went for brighter versions of the cupcake colours as I thought that was the most eyecatching.

Cutting out was easy with the new coordinating dies.  I only wanted three cupcakes, so the red velvet cupcake was left on the cutting room floor, for a future project as I thought the other three made a more harmonious trio.

I added the sentiments then assembled the card.

I felt the splodge of Frosted Juniper on the background was a little too prominent and unbalanced, so I stencilled some Evergreen Bough through the Splash stencil to balance it out - after I'd assembled the card! 

Pop on over to the Visible Image store for a look at these and other fabulous goodies!

Seize The Birthday - Coordinating Card and Tag

Hey peeps, we've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday, and this time Jules has given it a bit of a twist - she wants us to create a coordinating tag and card.  It's pretty easy to do because you've already got everything you need all over your desk, ha!

This card was inspired by this journal spread by Vicki Papaioannou.  I loved the Stamperia stencil, so I had to order it immediately, and I love it even more in real life.  The sundae and macarons are from STAMPlorations.  I've used the original stamps but they are only available now as digital stamps.  The sentiments are from MFT.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from our surprise party guests and the Design Team, and join in the fun.  If you really don't want to make a matching tag (but I think you should, it's fun transferring and adapting the design to a different substrate) you can always play along with our Anything Goes, as long as it's birthday-themed.