Vintage Santa cards - Brenda

Hi it's Brenda with you today and I have been using the fabulous Yuletide stamps by Tim Holtz which are available in the shop.

I made a set of 7 cards in different colours and I'm sharing the green ones with you today. The original set which are blue can be found over at Bumblebees and Butterflies here and I will be posting a pink and grey set on my blog as well on Wednesday.

These don't take too long to make and I'v kept them flat so they can easily be posted.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

October Visible Image stamps release

Hello it's Jane from Jane's Journal here today to showcase the fabulous brand new Visible Image stamp release.  This new release has something for everyone.  There are 6 new stamp sets and 3 new stencils. Grab a cuppa and take a seat and I'll walk you through them all. I am on the DT for Visible Image so I will first share some samples I made, which have been shared on social media.

First up is "One kind word ".

 This fab set features a vintage typewriter, 4 sets of words that fit the paper plus 2 sentiments.
(If you would like to see a step by step for any of these projects you can find them on my blog.)

There are 2 dance sets, which are perfect for those always difficult teenage projects.
The street dance boys

 And the hip hop girls.

The 3 new stencils are
1983

 Grate-ful

and Two tone

In the sample below I used 1983 and Grate-ful to make a funky background for the hip hop girls to dance on. 

The Daydreamer is a set has an almost comic strip feel .

I added glossy accents to her glasses and the "what if" sentiment.

 There is one new background set

Set the tone

and last but not least is the awesome "You are not alone". 

This is such a versatile set..my first design was a galaxy card..using distress oxides on black card.

Finally I wanted to show how well the new and existing Visible Image sets work together.
First up is a very Hammer Horror Halloween tag using
Mr Bone Jangles

and the skull stencil

which I shared on my blog this week.

As we are approaching Halloween I thought for a new project for today's post I would share a step by step for a different tag using Mr Bone Jangles but this time using the
Dark heart's stencil to make the spooky background.

 and one of the sentiments from the Queen of Hearts 

 I blended Carved pumpkin and Cracked pistachio distress inks onto a tag then blended black soot through the stencil. I also added the moon from the Believe in unicorns set.

This was the background for my tag.

I flicked on some water and organic leaf stamping and glued on a die cut spider's web

I added brown paint and texture to some die cut branches and stamped and matted the sentiment. "Treat me" works so well for Halloween treat bags. I make a whole serious of treat bags for my big and small kids every year and each has a handmade tag attached.

I stamped out one of the skulls and stamped and gold embossed the hands from You are Not alone. These were fussy cut out. I blended some Vintage photo distress ink onto the hands to darken them up (you can see this in the final photos).

It was then time to put my design together.
Here is my finished tag.

and one last shot.

Thanks so much for reading to the end of this very long post. This is such a great new release and works so well with the existing catalogue of  Visible Image stamps and stencils. The ones Susan stocks are all on the Country View Crafts website here. If any are out of stock just add your email and Susan will contact you when she has them back in. Also remember that there is FREE UK postage on everything you buy.

Have a creative and inky weekend ahead, the sun is still shining here and it's due to reach 22c today...crazy October (but lovely) weather.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Stamperia patterned papers

Hi Brenda here today with a quick and easy card that lies flat for posting. I don't use my papers enough so I really enjoyed putting this together.

Using the Stamperia 'Time is an Illusion' collection ....

...... I cut two pieces to fit a 5 x 7 card.

I also took out my scrap box of papers and pulled out some that complemented and contrasted with the stamperia ones and cut and punched elements to layer up. I also found a piece of ephemera that fitted the bill too. I used several of the Tim Holtz punches which helps in putting a quick design together.

I always ink the edges of my pieces with a dark brown distress ink to frame them and to make them stand out from each other when layering them up.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Eileen Hull Wrapped Journal and Tim Holtz Collage Paper

I have been playing with Eileen Hull's new Wrapped Journal and fallen totally in love with the size and shape of it.

I have also used the Tim Holtz Collage Paper and his Baseboard Frames and Botanical Ephemera.

All the elements fitted together beautifully and all I needed to do was add some magnets and string to secure it.

I haven't added any pages yet but it is easy to cut some to fit under the elastic or to buy some ready made booklets - passport size.

 If you'd like to see the process steps you are very welcome to visit my blog at Bumblebees and Butterflies.

Thanks for popping in.

Tim Holtz 3D Embossing Folders & Antonis Tzanidakis

During our Workshops with Antonis Tzanidakis back in May he had a little play with the Tim Holtz 3D Embossing Folders

He used DAS air dry clay and pressed this into one side of the embossing folder

 You can see the depth in the grains

He then painted using DecoArt Americana Acrylic Paints

These embossing folders are really great and are only £5.99 each. They are available from the shop website now here

The wonderful Visible Image world of Wonderland

Good morning, it's Jane from Jane's Journal here today and I am delighted to be showcasing the brand new Alice in Wonderland Visible Image release. It is being released today and is available on the Country View Crafts website here. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the stamp sets a few weeks ago, being on their design team. 

There are 7 stamp sets and 2 brand new stencils

If you have followed Visible Image for some years you may recognise 6 of the characters, as these were available a few years back. However every character now has brand new extra stamps with them and the words have been re designed ..making them perfect for mixed media work too. The characters are a really good size, easy to colour in and also to cut out. The stamp quality is second to none, they are really thick clear stamps which stamp perfectly on every inking.

Today I am showcasing a few of the new sets with samples I have made. You may have seen some of them already on Facebook and on my own blog, promoting the new release. I have put the shop links to the products within this post, just click on them to be taken to the Country View Crafts website. If anything is out of stock just add your email address and Susan will email you as soon as she has new stock in. Remember too that postage in the UK, for anything on the website is absolutely free.

Have you spotted the newbie set...

Meet The Caterpillar

Isn't he amazing...he is so laid back that he is nearly sliding off his toadstool. The toadstool and caterpillar are separate stamps too. I can see myself also using the toadstool alone in my autumn crafting.

Here is my version which I coloured with Promarkers, but any inks, pencils or paints work perfectly.

This is the sample I made with him...with a distress spray background

I added glossy accents to his glasses and spots for more effect.

Next up is my sample for the lovely Alice set.

I even shrank her using shrink plastic..she must have drunk that potion! 

I also used the distorted chess stencil (which I know is out of stock at the mo but if you add you email Susan will let you know when she has restocked) as the background. I used black soot distress oxide

Next up is the brilliantly Bonkers Mad Hatter

My sample uses the  distorted chess stencil again but in the reverse colourway using white ink

I love the little teapot with skull...full of magical potion obviously!

Next up is the White Rabbit..always in a hurry

This set has all the larger number as separate stamps..perfect for ages etc.
I used the time tunnel stencil too.

This is my sample with an Infusions and Brushos background.

All the number have been individually stamped and embossed. I also added glossy accents to his fob watch.

Finally here is the sassy Queen of hearts 

I made a mixed media wall hanging for this sample.

The playing card stamp is such fun to create with. I added a ribbon to her dress and glossy accents to the hearts.

Today I am sharing a step by step here for my very first play with the awesome Dark Hearts stencil. 

I masked the stencil into sections and added candied apple and  black soot distress oxide

I worked on the centre first in red and then moved the tapes over to add the black. 

To make this cool background

I then added red Christmas red stickles to the eyes for a very dramatic effect...

 such fun!

I decided to use this background for a Queen of hearts card but I can see this being used at Halloween...I have so many ideas for this fab stencil.

This is what I got up to with my card. I coloured the Queen and 2 cards with Promarkers, adding some shadows and highlights with pencils. I then fussy cut everything out.

I stamped and embossed some slices of cake and keys from the Alice set, the teapot from the Mad Hatter set and some fish from the Cheshire cat set. I used red and white embossing powders

and gold ink for the keys.

I also stamped out the just the words "treat me or else" from the Queen of hearts set.

It was then time to put my design together....here is my card.

You can see that she means business...you had better offer her a treat or she might feed you a slice of that cake laced with the magical potion..or is it poison?

She has those keys jangling too...ready to lock you up perhaps..if the treat you offer is not up to her royal standards!

If you think this is just an idle threat take a look at what happened to the poor fish 😂

And if you look closely those skulls are keeping an eye out too....from under her arm!

Here is one more photo

Thanks so much for reading to the end.  I hope you might be inspired by some of my ideas to make your own Wonderland projects. This new release is such fun. 

 I will be back to share some more Visible Image samples soon. 

Bye for now,

Jane x