Stay Strong

Hello there. Today's card may be super-simple but it means an awful lot to me because it helped me to overcome some overwhelm. This is one of those sentiments that works for so many occasions too, like a card to boost someone's spirits, perhaps to help someone recuperating, or even as a sympathy card.  I will be sending a similar card to a friend who is overcoming some medical problems at the moment. That's the thing about Visible Image sentiment stamps - they are awesome and you can always find the right sentiment for every occasion.

Sometimes simplicity is really hard to do, but personally I think it is very powerful. This card is simplicity itself. Simple blend an ombre background with distress oxide, fading out so that there is still some white left at the bottom of the card.

Let the ink completely dry then heat emboss the sentiment with a platinum embossing powder.

Repeat stamp the top of the Deep In The Forest stamp all around the edge to frame the panel, using the same platinum embossing powder.

Add some white highlights to the sentiment with an opaque pen. Mount the panel onto foam, and then onto a card blank. Add some clear gems in two sizes dotted around the edges. 

I was incredibly tempted to add some more stamping in the background, but I am glad I didn't because I think it would have detracted from the awesome sentiment. For me, the simple ombre inking provides the perfect backdrop.

Stamps Used:

(please click on the picture to be taken direct to the stamp set in the online store):
         

Other Supplies:

White Linen card stock, Distress Oxide Inks (tumbled glass, broken china, faded jeans), blending brush, Versamark clear ink, WOW! Metallic Platinum embossing powder, Posca opaque white pen, clear gems, 3dfoam.

Visible Image social media and other links (just click on the words in capital letters):

SHOP where the fantastic stamps are sold
BLOG with all the latest news and posts
FACEBOOK PAGE with info, inspiration and weekly giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us and enter the monthly 'show and tell' challenges
INSTAGRAM
PINterest

That's it from me for now. Thanks for stopping by and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More #408 - That's Torn It!

My goodness, this year has flown by! Here we are at the penultimate challenge for 2019 at Less is More. Yes, just one more challenge after this one. We have a fantastic new sponsor for or last challenges of this year too. And our theme is such an easy one to incorporate into your designs.

Cue Card

Sponsor https://shop.catherinepooler.com/

Head on over to the challenge blog for some fantastic inspiration from the design team

I have 2 cards for you today.

1) Healing Takes Time

Talk about lucky! The perfect stamp for this challenge (which was set ages ago) arrived in the end of October release by Visible Image Stamps! I was really taken with the crack/tear/rip (whatever you wish to call it) that is held together with safety pins stamp, so I had to use that one for this challenge. I think the image suits the sentiment perfectly.

After stamping and heat embossing that stamp onto some kraft card, I coloured the safety pins with a gold pen, then I just tore the opposite edges of the card panel so that it met at the end of that stamp. To tie in with the 'time' message, I gold heat embossed a time swirl on the red card, then simply layered the kraft panel on top. The sentiment was heat embossed onto a small piece of red card and layered with some 3d foam.

STAMPS: Visible Image (Ahead Of Our Time, Don't Judge)
INKS: Versamark Clear
OTHER: WOW! embossing powders (primary ebony, metallic gold rich), Red card, Kraft Card, Gold opaque pen, 3d foam

2) Santa's Sleigh

Christmas is a-coming and I need to get a wriggle on making those Christmas cards, so I made several with this design on it.

I thought I'd do a short photo tutorial on this one to show it is quick and easy to make and replicate (albeit the sky will look different on each one).

First, wet some water colour paper, spritz with the two colours of brushos and leave to dry. As you can see, I made a batch of backgrounds here.

Darken the edges of the sky with a little blended faded jeans and black soot distress oxide inks. Then flick some watered down white acrylic paint for stars. Let this completely dry.

Heat emboss the Santa and reindeers with white embossing powder. Tear up some pearlised paper for hills and layer those across the bottom.

Trim the panel down to the size you like and layer it onto silver card before attaching it to a card blank.

STAMPS: Visible Image (Christmas Eve)
INKS: Versamark clear, Distress Oxides (faded jeans, black soot)
OTHER: Brushos (ost blue, prussian blue), Water colour card, white acrylic paint, WOW! opaque bright white embossing powder, Pearlised vellum, silver card, white card.



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That's it from me for now. I hope you found something you like and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

No Matter How You Feel

Happy Halloween.

I don't have a Halloween card for you today but I do have some no-line colouring of a gorgeous image from the BRAND NEW RELEASE by Visible Image. She is an absolute dream to colour, if you like colouring, and she comes with so many gorgeous words too. The sentiment on this card is from a new set too.

Here's how I made this DL card.

Take some Strathmore Toned Grey sketch paper and stamp the image onto it using a light grey ink.

I started with the face. Using some polychromos pencils and a very light touch I started to colour, adding white to the areas I wanted a highlight first (because you can't really add a highlight afterwards). Then I added more colour moving from light to dark, adding a little blue to the darker parts.  I wanted to retain the look of hand colouring so the pencil strokes have not been completely blended in. I am still learning how to colour like this so I knew it wouldn't be perfect, but I like the finished result.

Next colour the hair. I used 3 colours for the hair, adding low-lights with the dark colour and highlights with the lighter colour.  Making sure the highlights don't line up over every strand gives it a more natural look.

To finish the card I stamped a sentiment and some of the words along the edge, then doodled a border in between the stamped words with a black pen.

Stamps Used:

(please click on the picture to be taken direct to the stamp set in the online store):

      
      

Other Supplies:

Strathmore toned grey sketch paper, Memento london fog ink, Polychromos (101 white, 102 cream, 126 permanent carmine, 130 dark flesh, 131 medium flesh, 132 light flesh, 151 helio-blue reddish, 183 light yellow ochre, 187 burnt ochre, 283 burnt sienna), Versafine onyx black, stamping platform, black micron pen.

Visible Image social media and other links (just click on the words in capital letters):

SHOP where the fantastic stamps are sold
BLOG with all the latest news and posts
FACEBOOK PAGE with info, inspiration and weekly giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us and enter the monthly 'show and tell' challenges
INSTAGRAM
PINterest

That's it from me for now. Thanks for stopping by and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More #407 - OLC Winter Flora

Hi there. It is one layer week at Less is More and we have a theme of winter flora so think about using flowers, leaves, twigs and trees for this one.

Cue Card

Sponsor https://www.uniko.co.uk/shop/

I've used a general floral image by our sponsor, Uniko, on my card today but I've made it 'wintery' with some icy colours, a little bit of snow and colouring the buds to look like berries.

I love one layer cards but occasionally I like to mix thing up a bit by giving them a cut-away edge so that the inside of the card shows through. This is what I have done with this card, lining the inside of the card with white to make the fancy edge show up a bit more.

Here's how I made it.

Stamp and heat emboss the florals down the side of some blue card. Colour the florals with polychromos pencils, adding a little shadow with the brown pencil as you go.

Add some 'snow' to the tops of the leaves and berries with a white posca pen, then go over that with a quicky glue pen and add some glamour dust for sparkle. Fussy cut around the flowers on one edge to add some interest.

Using silver ink, stamp the same floral onto a piece of white card and trim it down to an A6 size. Use this as a template to score the blue card in the correct place, making sure that there is enough space at the edge with the flowers for the white to show when the card is closed. Stick the white card panel inside the blue card blank, on the side that does not contain the cut away edge, then trim any excess blue card away.

Finally heat emboss the sentiment on the front of the card with silver embossing powder.

STAMPS: Uniko (Originally Organic), Visible Image ( Snowman Jack)
POLYCHROMOS: 101white, 102 cream, 165 juniper green, 178 nougat, 219 deep scarlet red
INKS: Versamark clear, Encore Silver
OTHER: Blue card, White card, Posca opaque white pen, quickie glue pen, glamour dust.

LIM BLOG
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The LIM guest designer this month is the lovely Ankie from Stampinggranny - Ankie blog. She's made a beautiful card which you can see, along with even more fantastic inspiration by the design team on the challenge blog .

That's it from me for today,. I'll be back again on Thursday with more colouring on a BRAND NEW Visible Image stamp. I hope you'll come back to see me then.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Monochrome Christmas

There is something so classy about a monochrome holiday card, isn't there? Well, I think there is. So it was a no-brainer for me to choose to make a monochrome card when the Visible Image Christmas stamps landed on my doorstep last August. I think this is one of my favourite cards that I made with that August release.

Here's how I made it.

I cut a rectangle aperture in some scrap paper using a die, then secured a textured linen card panel to the back and inked through the opening with two shades of grey ink. I set this aside to dry so that the embossing powder didn't stick to the wrong places in the next step.

Once dry, I heat embossed the fir tree with a gorgeous black embossing powder, placing the tree so that it was both partly over the inked part and over the white part of the panel.

Using a stamp positioner, and masking the edges of the inked rectangle I stamped the rooftop stamp in a dark grey ink.

Then I added some falling snow in the sky, and some snow on the rooftops with an opaque white pen. Next the reindeer were stamped in grey, again using a stamp positioner and this time masking the upper edge of the card. Then the sentiment was stamped into place using black ink.

Mat the panel onto a piece of silver grey card, and then mount it all onto a white card blank.

Stamps Used:

(please click on the picture to be taken direct to the stamp set in the online store):
            

Other Supplies:

Distress Inks ( Iced Spruce, Hickory Smoke), Prism Ink (slate grey), Versafine onyx black ink, Versamark clear ink, WOW! Primary ebony embossing powder, White posca pen, MFT inside out stitched rectangles die, white linen card, silver grey card.

Visible Image social media and other links (just click on the words in capital letters):

SHOP where the fantastic stamps are sold
BLOG with all the latest news and posts
FACEBOOK PAGE with info, inspiration and weekly giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us and enter the monthly 'show and tell' challenges
INSTAGRAM
PINterest

That's it from me for now. I hope you liked this card and thanks for stopping by.
Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More #406 - Rainbow

Hi there! Well, I'm still in the UK at the moment and I am probably suffering from a bit of a hangover at the precise moment this post goes live. It was my 60th birthday on Thursday, but I actually celebrated it last night with family and some friends. Hmmm...knowing me, I think copious amounts of the old falling-over-water may have been drunk! Hey-ho! You are only 60 once, eh?

As we had such a busy August and September, I only had time to make one card for the latest Less is More challenge before I left home. That is such a shame because rainbow coloured cards are my absolute favourite type of card to make.

Cue Card

Sponsor

The challenge is generously sponsored by Uniko again this month so I used some Uniko stamps on this card.

It's another card that was super fast to make. Just stamp the border and the sentiment in black ink and colour with zig pens. Add the panel with the border directly onto a card blank, then raise the sentiment up on fun foam. Quick and easy.

STAMPS: Uniko (background builders squared, all occasions sentiments 6)
INKS: Versafine onyx black
ZIGS: 029 geranium red, 070 orange, 051 lemon yellow, 041 light green, 032 persian blue, 080 violet
OTHER: white card, fun foam

Why not head on over to the challenge blog for some fantastic inspiration from the design team

LIM BLOG
LIM FACEBOOK PAGE
LIM INSTAGRAM

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Colourful Christmas

Hi! Well, today I am jetting off back to the UK to visit family for a couple of weeks so finger's crossed that blogger behaves itself and posts this when it is supposed to. I'm really looking forward to staying with my Mum and then travelling down to spend my birthday (eeek! 1 week today! A super-big birthday) with my girls and grandchildren. I've packed my jumpers because even if it is sunny while I am over there it will still be a LOT colder than it is in Portugal!

Anyway, it's my Visible Image DT make day today and I just couldn't resist playing with some of the Christmas stamps and making a non-traditional coloured, sparkly holiday card.

As always, this is super-simple to make and only uses a few supplies too.

First, cut a panel of water colour paper, sprinkle on some brushos and spritz with water to move the colours around. Let it dry completely (ideally leave it overnight). In the photo below I made 2 backgrounds, one where I wet the water colour paper first (on the left - that one was used on a different card) and the other made with a dry background and spritzed after adding the brusos (on the right) that I used on this card.

Once it is completely dry, heat emboss the main 'image' i.e. the sentiment panel with a sparkly silver embossing powder. Next rub some clear versamark ink around the outside edges of the panel, sprinkle on the same embossing powder, but before heat embossing, rough up the internal edges with your finger for a more natural distressed look.

Stamp and heat emboss the holly leaf from the Sentimental Christmas set, and fussy cut it out. Attach the water colour panel to a card blank and then add the holly leaf to the bottom right of the sentiments, making sure to curl the holly leaves.

On the inside of the card stamp the sentiment and stamp the holly leaf too, to tie it in with the front of the card.

This would be so easy to batch make too. I love that from a batch of brusho backgrounds, none of the cards would look identical, and if you changed the embossing powder too that would add even more variety.

Stamps Used:

(please click on the picture to be taken direct to the stamp set in the online store):
            

Other Supplies:

Watercolour card, Brushos (purple and emerald green), Versamark clear ink pad, Heat It Up! silver tinsel embossing powder white card.

Visible Image social media and other links (just click on the words in capital letters):

SHOP where the fantastic stamps are sold
BLOG with all the latest news and posts
FACEBOOK PAGE with info, inspiration and weekly giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us and enter the monthly 'show and tell' challenges
INSTAGRAM
PINterest

Well, I hope you liked this card. It was fab to see you here today, and I do hope you'll come back for a visit soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx