A Touch

Hello there. I'm here today to share a card I made with some Visible Image stamps.

I wanted to make a subtle coloured and clean CAS look card with the gorgeous 'You Are Not Alone'  hands. These are available for pre-order at the moment in the Visible Image Shop

 

How to make this:

On a 14.5cm square piece of white card, stamp the dots pattern from  Set The Tone rotating and masking the card so that you get an even pattern. Stamp the word 'touch' several times randomly over the dotty area too, then doodle a border. Attach the panel to a pale blue card blank.

Stamp the hands in black ink using a stamping platform and leave the stamps in place on the stamp platform door. Colour the hands. Replace the coloured hands in the stamping platform and re-stamp with black ink and then heat emboss with black embossing powder. Stamp the sentiment too.

Take a postage stamp die and cut around the parts of the hands that you want to use, and around the sentiment too. Cut 10 more postage stamps out of the same blue card as the card blank. Layer up 4 of the blue die cuts underneath each of the hands and 2 blue die cuts under the sentiment, then fix them to the front of the card.

Stamps Used:

These stamps are available for pre-order until their release on 5th October.
(please click on the picture to be taken direct to the stamp set in the online store):
        

Other Supplies:

Hunkydory Prism Ink (artcic mist), Versafine Onyx Black Ink, Promarker (cool aqua),  Polychromos Pencils (132 light flesh, 131 medium flesh, 130 dark flesh), Heat It Up! black embossing powder, Happy Little Stampers stitched postage stamps dies, white and blue 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. Thanks for stopping by and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More #380 - OLC Florals

Hello there! It's time for the dreaded one layer challenge at Less is More this week and the theme is florals. That's a nice easy one to do. I thought I'd make a card for my Mum....just because she is the best mother.


I simply got out  my Altenew layering stamps and stamped the image in Prism inks.

To add a look of layers I die cut a deckle edged rectangle, adhered it to the card with low tack tape (underneath) and blended tumbled glass distress ink out over the edges of the shape. The die cut was removed and the sentiment stamped in place. the final touch was some sparkle from Nuvo crystal drops in the centres of the flowers and dotted around them.

Easy Peasy.

STAMPS: Altenew Extra Special
DIES: Spellbinders Deckle Edge Rectangles
INKS: Hunkydory Prism Inks (midnight black, artic mist, blue lagoon, apple green, evergreen). Versafine onyx black (on the sentiment)
OTHER: White card, masking tape, Nuvo crystal drops

Here is our cue card:

 

our fab September sponsor is         
and they are offering this prize - plus LIM entrants get a 20% discount off their orders. Pop over to the challenge blog for the code and while you are there, feast your eyes on the glorious creations of the rest of the design team.

LIM BLOG
LIM FACEBOOK PAGE
LIM INSTAGRAM

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

Hugs,
Sharon xx 

Seeing Through The Mask

Hello there. Today I am sharing a card that I haven't blogged yet, but I made it back in January of this year for Visible Image stamps and Creative Stamping magazine. It appeared in Issue 55 of the Magazine.

I love making these octagonal shaped cards and many of the fantastic images and words by Visible Image suit this shape so well.

It seems rare that we see lots of bright colours on masculine cards so as the magazine provided us with a bright colour palette to use, I wanted to try to use every colour and keep a masculine look to the card too.  The geometry symbols in the Elemental stamp were something I thought would appeal to men.

The Maskerade sentiment is apt too because men often hid their pain and worry from everyone around them (this is very poignant for me at the moment as my father is terminally ill with only days left, and he has been hiding his pain) and the masks also represent that we don't always see what is under the surface. However, I wanted this card to be a happy card, so both of the masks are the smiling image from the set.

Here is how I made this card:

1. Using plain white card on the ScanNcut, weld two 145mm octagons together to make the card blank, then cut another 135mm octagon. Cut two more octagons from watercolour paper, one measuring 145mm and another measuring 130mm.

2. Working on the 130mm octagon of watercolour paper:
a) Heat emboss the two bubble shapes from the Create Your Calm set in a random pattern with clear ink and white embossing powder. TIPS: For a natural look, make sure some of the stamps overlap the edge. Work quickly and ‘chase’ the powder with the heat gun so that the powder doesn’t disappear into the paper.
b) TIP: As these colours make green when mixed, working with, and drying, the yellow and orange shades before adding the blues can help to minimise the mixing. Wet the paper where you want the colour to be. Add yellow and orange distress stains and dry with a heat gun. Spritz with a water spray when they are almost dry to create some water droplet marks. Re-wet the paper in the blank areas where you want colour and add blue distress inks. Dry with a heat gun and spritz with water when almost dry.
c) Stamp the Elemental design onto the inked area with faded jeans distress oxide. Add a little faded

jeans ink to the outside edges of the panel by wiping the edge along a blending tool.
d) Stamp the Maskerade sentiment into place as follows: On the stamp, mask off the words that you want to be in black, ink the sentiment in faded jeans distress oxide, remove the masking and stamp onto the panel. Clean the stamp. Mask off the blue words on the stamp, ink the sentiment in black ink, remove the masking and stamp onto the panel. TIP: It is best to use a stamping platform for this stage.
e) Using the Stars and Stripes stencil and pearlescent stencil paste, randomly add stars onto the inked area with a palette knife, making sure some overlap the edges. Smear a few extra pieces of the dimension paste very thinly in random areas to add to the shimmer. Leave this to dry for at least an hour, or overnight if possible. TIP: Wash your stencil in water immediately to avoid the paste sticking to it and ruining it.
f) When the panel is dry, mat it onto the 135mm white octagon.

3. Repeat step b. on the 145mm watercolour paper octagon to make the outside mat. Adhere this to the card blank.
4. Blend tumbled glass distress ink onto white card and stamp the smiling mask from the Maskerade set in faded jeans distress oxide.  Cut the mask out, then heat emboss it with ultra thick embossing crystals. Stamp the same mask in clear ink onto vellum and heat emboss with white embossing powder. Cut the mask out as close to the embossed line as possible.
5. Adhere the stamped panel to the outside mat with 3d foam. Adhere the vellum mask to the blue mask using red liner tape behind the white embossing. Adhere the blue mask to the card with 3d foam

Stamps Used:

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

             

Other Supplies:

 300gsm Watercolour Paper, White Card, Versamark Watermark Stamp Pad,  Distress Stains: broken china, faded jeans, spiced marmalade, mustard seed,  Distress Oxide ink: faded Jeans and broken china,  Distress Ink: tumbled glass,  Blending Tool and Blending Foam, Distress Sprayer, Wow! Opaque Bright White Super Fine Embossing Powder, Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Thick Embossing Crystals Clear, Sweet Poppy Stencil Dimensions Pearlescent Paste, Brother ScanNcut CM900, Misti Stamping Platform

I'd like to enter this card into:
Creative Moments #152 - Anything Goes
Crafting From The Heart #219 - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Pop It Up
Through The Craft Room Door 11 September - Anything Goes
Through The Purple Haze September - Use Bright Colours
The Male Room #94 - Geometric (the shapes in the background and the card shape - I hope that qualifies)
The Paper Shelter #353 - Embossing of any kind (heat embossing on vellum)
The Corrosive Challenge #9 - Anything Goes

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

Treat Me

Hi! I'm back today with another quickie/CAS card made with some  Visible Image stamps.

To make the backing paper, repeat stamp the teapot from the Mad Hatter set onto white card. Colour the teapots with alcohol markers and add some random dots between the teapots too. Add glossy accents to the tiny skulls. Add this to a black card blank leaving a border at both sides.

Stamp, colour and fussy cut the cake from the Alice in Wonderland set and glitter the icing. Then stamp the 'treat me' sentiment from the Queen of Hearts set in white onto black card. Cut a wonky stitched panel for the top part of the card and add it to the card blank.  Attach the sentiment and cake with 3d foam, then add a few matching sequins.

Stamps Used:

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

 
 

Other Supplies:

Sugar Pea Designs build a card front, Memento Tuxedo Black ink, Versamark Clear ink, Promarkers (ivory, blush, dusky pink, cool grey 1,3 & 5, carmine and cerise), WOW! Opaque bright white embossing powder, sequins, black card, white card, glossy accents, 3dfoam pad.

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 #379 - Black White plus one

Hello to you!  We have a new challenge over at Less is More and it is all about black, white and one other colour.

I chose to use gold-ish shades with my black and white and I used a couple of older stamp sets that haven't been inked up in a while.

The techniques I used were some ombre ink blending and emboss resist on the main panel. Everything is popped up on 3d foam for dimension and a little nuvo drops adds some textural interest. A nice and simple card to make.

This photo is taken in my light box so the colours look a little brighter. However, I've added another photo below to show the dimension and as that was taken in natural daylight, the colours in that one are more true to life.

STAMPS: Impression Obsession Flourishes, Clearly Besotted Dandelion Dreams
DIES: Tim Holtz Stitched Rectangles, Sugar Pea Designs build a card front
INKS: Versamark clear, Distress Inks (Mustard seed, fossilised amber)
OTHER: WOW! Opaque Bright White embossing powder, STAMPendous detail clear embossing powder, Nuvo crystal drops gloss ebony black, black and white card, 3d foam.



It's a new month today so we have a brand new sponsor for our September challenges

https://cas-ualfridaysstamps.com/products

As well as a prize, CAS-ual Fridays Stamps are also offering a 20% discount on orders for LIM participants - hop over to the challenge blog to find out the code to use.

While you are there, don't forget to take a peek at the fantastic inspiration from the rest of the design team.

And here is our LIM cue card

 

LIM BLOG
LIM FACEBOOK PAGE
LIM INSTAGRAM

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
 

You do make me laugh!

Hello there. I'm here today to share a card I made with some gorgeous Visible Image stamps.

As soon as I saw the 'HA HA HA' stamp in the Wonderland Mad Hatter set I thought it was a perfect match for this sentiment. They really are made for each other, aren't they.

Here I cut a square panel and added some bright pink water colour to it. Once that dried I splattered the panel with more pink and some silver water colour. Then I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed it.

For the frame, I simply stamped the HA HA HA stamp in alternating pink distress oxides, making sure to vary the parts of the stamp across the top and bottom for a more natural look. The frame was backed onto a wider black frame, and this was stuck to the card with 3d foam.

A very quick and easy card to make.

Stamps Used:

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

Other Supplies:

Distress Oxide (picked raspberry, worn lipstick), Versafine Onyx Black ink, Stampendous clear embossing powder, Gansai Tambi Watercolours (No 34 Dark Pink, No 95 Silver), paintbrush, splatterbrush, water, water colour paper, white and black card, heat gun, 3dfoam pad.

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

Thank you so much for stopping by and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

50th Shaker

Hi! I'm sharing a card today that I made in honour of the 50th birthday of Mark Alexander. our Creative Director at Visible Image stamps.  His birthday was on Monday this week.

My card is a CAS little shaker and it can be adapted for so many 'big' or even little birthdays.

I've been dying to try out the solid circle stamps from the amazing set called The Ripple effect as I thought they are perfect for the bokeh technique. They worked like a treat and the resulting panel has been used as the backdrop for the numbers.

I made this card by cutting the numbers into an A5 (UK size) panel on my ScanNcut. I backed the numbers with acetate and glued the middle of the zero onto the acetate too.

The bokeh panel was created by cutting a piece of card large enough to cover the cut-out numbers with room for 3d foam tape around the edge. It was coloured all over with shaded lilac distress stain, then repeatedly and randomly stamped with the solid circles in 1) shaded lilac distress ink, 2) shaded lilac distress oxide 3) wilted violet distress oxide 4) picket fence distress ink and finally 5) versacolor opaque white inks.


The caterpillar image was coloured with promarkers in greens, purples and golds and then it was fussy cut and just laid onto the front panel so that the tiny bubbles from the Dare To Swim set could be positioned and stamped. The bubbles were coloured in with promarkers to match the bokeh background.

Shaker tape was added to the outside edge of the bokeh panel, and then some green, gold and white sequins were laid into the centre. The acetate was treated with an anti-static pad to stop the sequins from sticking to it, and then the front panel was stuck to the bokeh panel. The whole of the front was adhered to a card blank and the caterpillar image was added with more 3d foam pads.

Stamps Used:

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

     

Other Supplies:

Distress stain, shaded lilac, Distress Ink (shaded lilac, picket fence) Distress Oxide (shaded lilac, wilted violet). Versacolor opaque white, Memento tuxedo black ink, promarkers, acetate, shaker tape, foam pads, white card.


I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Colour Crazy Challenge #33 - Coloured image anything goes
Crafty Calendar Challenge August - Dots and/or Stripes
Creates and Makes Challenge #23 - Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenge #184 - Animals
Everybody Art Challenge #430 - Stamp
HeARTful Stamping Challenge 19-26 August - Anything Goes + a stamp
Passion for Promarkers #458 - Happy Birthday
The Corrosive Challenge August - Anything Goes
Through The Craft Room Door 21st August - Anything Goes
Whoopsie Daisy Challenge August - Anything Goes Option of Clean and Simple

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