June release Visible Image stamps

Hi it's Jane here today with a review of the awesome June release Visible Image stamps. Susan has the whole of this release on the website and you will find the VI stamp section here.

As I am sure you are aware, as well as being on the design team for Country View Crafts I am also on the Visible Image DT, so I am able to share some makes I have made with both these hats on.

The links on here are live and will take you to the CVC website and remember that Susan offers FREE postage and packing for ALL UK orders with no minimum and also posts world wide at very competitive rates. Check out the website for full details. 

So grab a cuppa, take a seat and I will take you through the whole release. 

First up is my favourite (I know I am not supposed to have one but I do!).  Mark Alexander who designs all the stamps knows I adore all things mermaid and he finally gave in to me "asking" for years (some call it nagging) for a mermaid set.

Here she is and the set is called Mythical mermaid. I just love everything about this set from the very confident, strong mermaid to all the little extra stamps..the shells, starfish, crabs, bubbles, waves and the delightful 2 dolphins. Plus the 2 awesome sentiments too. There are no less than 11 stamps in this set! 

This is the first card I made using alcohol inks, there is a lot of depth which is so hard to show in the photo.

This was my recent CVC  challenge inspiration make for July and you can see a step by step here.

 The accessory stamps in this set also make great ATCs and coins and are perfect for tags or in art journalling.
Just look how cute the dolphins looks on ATCs!

Next up is Faerie magic a very sassy fairy indeed

What is great about this fairy is that the wings are separate stamps so she can be stamped just as an enchantress as I did with these ATCs

or with her wings, which look fab with Glossy or Crackle accents. Her sentiment is so lovely.

The guardian angel is up next

He can be made dark, think Halloween, or as in my project below he can be very positive and uplifting. Again the wings are separate so he can work both ways and the birds are brilliant to stamp.

There are 3 new sentiments set, from the quirky to loving.

Stay weird

Have I told you

and look forward with hope

 and these work perfectly not just on cards but in art journalling and on tags 

Next up is the Tree of Life, again this works so well with mixed media.

My penultimate share is 

Just breathe This set is something really different and so original. 

I went with a medical twist for this make but just wait for Halloween...I can see all sorts of ghoulish twists with this one. 

So here we are at the final set which is called

 Mindful moments 

and is perfect for this time of the year when we are all thinking about spending some time in our gardens or on holiday relaxing.

I combined this make with one of the sentiments and the sun stamp from the look forward with hope set.

and to give a heads up; On 1st August, when our new challenge starts over at Country View, I will also be using the Mindful Moments set again ...here is a small sneak peek! 

I will also have a step by step to share so do pop over on  to our challenge blog on 1st August when the challenge goes live. 

If you got all the way to the end of this long post, thank you very much and I hope that I might have given you a little taster of how these new stamps can be used. There really is something for everyone in this release. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Rhubarb Bag

I knew that title would grab your attention but it does have a meaning to those that recently attended one of our workshops with Tracy Scott where we gave out some of our rhubarb crop and a 12x12 paper bag to put it in. They are gorgeous bags and a few people took extra bags as they were so pretty. We've not got another workshop until 15th August where we are having a Crafting Play Day with Stix2 who will be doing a beautiful Make & Take and then some demos of Stix2 products. We have a bounty of plums, tomatoes, cucumbers & plenty more bags so if you fancy a fun day crafting there are still some places available.

Here is the bag before. There is no rhubarb picture as we have now cut up the remaining crop and are making some Pink Gin ;0)

Clare Hyett was one of our attendees and she chose to use her bag to make a journal page and I have to say it is rather lovely

For my rhubarb journal page, I worked in my Pink Pig journal (made in Yorkshire!) and covered a page with black acrylic first.
Then using techniques learned from your workshop by Tracy Scott, I painted messy circles in Decoarts Titanium white mixed with Paperartsy Bouganvillia to make pale pink, then neat Bouganvillia on top in swirls.
I squiggled over the top in black Uniball pen & doodled some fake writing.
Next I stamped flowers in Versamark and embossed with the Cosmic shimmer Raspberry Violet embossing powder.
Then I cut out elements from your rhubarb bag & stuck them on top.
I masked part of the cut out flower and splattered some watery Bouganvillia paint across the page.
After this, I went to doodle town with black, white and glittery pink pens on top of the paper cut outs and also around the page.
Finally I smudged some Cosmic shimmer Amethyst gilding wax randomly around the edges of the page.

 Wow Clare it is lovely and certainly has that Tracy Scott POP!!!!

Eileen Hull House Ornament Die Bunting

Hi Everyone, just wanted to share the versatility of Eileen's new Ornament House Die. If you've been to Country View Crafts HQ before, you will know how much I love bunting and fairy lights and as soon as I saw this die I knew it would be one for me and to top it all, today my sample made it's way on to Hochanda thanks to the lovely Katie Skilton

 A really simple project. I used A4 Vellum sheets.

 Each sheet cuts enough for one house. Before cutting I decided that the vellum needed a little something and used the Andy Skinner Distressed Wallpaper Stamp (if you've not already got this, it's a must have and very versatile)

I cut each sheet into A5 and this fits nicely onto the BigShot with the die

As this a matboard die and I was using vellum, I replaced the top cutting pad with a crease pad so it did not cut through the fold areas on the die.

This is my little pile of stamped die cuts - ready to be folded and stuck together.

I used some spare ribbon and cut short lengths for each house. Thread through one of the holes, poke the fairy light in and then pass the other end of the ribbon through the other hole and tie. This secures the fairy light in place and that is it. It is really effective in the evenings but could not get a good enough picture but hopefully you saw them on the telly when they turned down the studio lights

Susan x

Altered book pages for journalling

A friend had some books in her car ready for the charity shop the other day and one was A Country Diary birthday book, certainly not old at all but the illustrations are all of flowers and are hand painted prints so I decided to take it off her hands and have a play at using some of the gorgeous flower designs in some journal pages.

This is the first one stuck into my nature journal.

       

To age the illustration I stamped with some text and gave it a light coat of watery gesso and distressed the torn edges.

I painted some of the Tim Holtz wildflower stems .....

.... and drew round one of Tim's transparent butterflies on watercolour paper, dipped it in some pinky paint washes, glued them together then covered the surface with glue to make it matte. I also added a Tim Holtz crochet die border and a quote.

Altering book pages is a great way to get an initial start to a journal page and then add your embellishments to add more interest and finish it off with a good quote.

I hope you enjoy trying your own pages like this.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xx

Supplies from Country View Crafts

Tim Holtz wildflowers die and crochet die

Tim Holtz stamps Nature's Wonder

Tim Holtz Transparent acetate wings

Seth Apter Stamp Storage Box

An upcycled storage box 

To celebrate the launch of the new Seth Apter stamps from Paperartsy, I have upcycled a fruit box. We had this mdf cherry box lying around at Country View Crafts headquarters, and it was calling out for a bit of Seth treatment. 

I started off by priming it in DecoArt black chalk paint. You could also use the black gesso or any black acrylic paint. The box had a plasticy finish so the chalk paint was ideal to cover this. Then I dry brushed a couple of Paperartsy Fresco chalk paints in Double Denim and Chalk

….and printed a few more layers with textured wallpaper. (Glacier Ice, Butternut and Double Denim). As with most of Seth’s style, it’s all about the layers!

Then came a bit of stencilling with some brighter colours to add even more texture. (Butternut, Magic Moss and Blue Lagoon)

So...here are the new stamps! They’re all mini’s, so ideal for layering up and adding little bits of interest. (From here) I used black, orange, turquoise and white ink to stamp in some more details.

I then painted a layer of mat medium, to protect all the layers and also so that if I smudged the stamping with Versafine, it's easy to wipe off without damaging the layers underneath. Lastly, I used EM44 and EM45 to add some focal points with embossing powder, using Emerald Creek Baked Texture Patina Oxide and Rustic Indigo. Also Ranger fine copper and black detail.

And here's the finished box - 

As we needed somewhere to keep all the new stock, the fruit crate makes a perfect container!

I hope you feel inspired to do a bit of upcycling! Thanks for visiting,

Celia  x