Tracy Easson Visits Country View Crafts

Good morning and happy Monday. It's Sue here sharing a project that I made at a recent Tracy Easson workshop - it's the Little Book of Wishes.

I didn't actually make this at Country View Towers as Tracy was there the day before we flew to Spain. Neil refused to do the 350 miles round trip or change the flights to Luton. I know, selfish or what!

Luckily Tracy was a little (lot) closer to home the week before and I managed to sneak a place, so put the cats in the kitchen and prepare to fall in love with mice.

 I'm not saying how the book was made as it's a class that Tracy is still teaching. I will say that it was great fun and I can't wait to take another of her classes.

This is the front cover. Tracy provided everything including thread and the lovely badge.

I just love Matilda Bottoms, she's so cute!

And Morty is such a handsome chap, always with his head up to the sky.

This is page 3. I really enjoyed working with the fabrics, not something that I had ever done before.

This is the middle where we added some paper pages.

And the other side with some fabric clouds added. This is the very sweet Betsy Bottoms.

Lots of words on this page.

And I've added a Tim Holtz die cut to this one.

The lovely Matilda started the book so it seemed only fair that she should end it too.

And finally the back cover with a fabric badge that I made - I never thought that I would say that! I know that I machine stitch my cards but I've never actually made a garment - I've only just progressed to stitching a hem. It was so relaxing to just sit and sew and I really enjoyed finishing my book (though it did take about 10 days, I just wanted to keep adding bits and bobs)

I do hope that Tracy comes back next year, if she does my name will be the first on the list.
All of her stamps can be found here in the store. Have a lovely week, and thanks so much for looking x

Autumn 2019 Visible Image stamp release

Hello hello I'm sorry this is a little late in writing but my goodness life has been busy, in a good way! It's Jane here from Jane's Journal.

I am finally able to showcase the latest Visible Image stamp release for Country View. I have linked everything in this post to the website and if anything is out of stock just put in your details in the box and Susan will email you when her new stock is in.

There are 6 new image sets and 3 sentiment sets.

First up is the amazing Night owl set and what an awesome owl he is, such a great size. These are all first samples I have made with the sets.

He is easy to colour

and makes a real statement on a project.

I also used the Deep in the forest set in the owl card above for some extra branches and texture.

Next is a bestseller called Erika's maple Do check out via the link the special reason and dedication behind this gorgeous set.

I made an autumnal wreath using lots of media to create the leaves.

Don't judge is such an original set and perfect for journalling as well as for cards when someone is not quite feeling on top of things. 

The zip and safety pins are really cool and I made a piece which included a real zip and safety pins too.

Beautiful soul

is a delight to work with and there are so many design possibilities using her. You can colour in her hair, write in her hair, change her position, the designs are endless. Here is one of several I have made. This one uses distress reinkers and a sentiment form the Believe in me sentiment set. Her "festival hair" was created with Stickles.

The last image set is called The right direction 

and is perfect for male projects and cards.There are no less than 9 individual stamps in this set. I had such fun"driving" the little car around my page.

The skyline in this set is brilliant too and how awesome is the retro Ford Capri...one of my old boyfriend's from 1977 had a silver 2 tone one!!!

The last 2 sentiment sets in this release are

Brighten the world

and
Brave and strong

I made a picture using 2 of these sentiments, Beautiful soul and some autumn leaves from Erika's Maple. All the sets work so well together and with other exiting Visible Image sets. 

All these sentiments are perfect for journaling, scrap booking, tags or cards. You have every occasion covered with these brilliant words.

I have made another card for the next Country View Challenge using the Night Owl, which starts on 1st December.
I will share a little sneak peek here but if you want to see the whole project and a full step by step you will need to join us over at the Challenge site here on 1st December

In the mean time we have a "hand stamped focal" challenge running here which you could join in with and perhaps even win a £20 gift voucher to spend on the website?

One final reminder is that Country View offers FREE UK POSTAGE ON EVERYTHING, with no minimum spend. Win,win in my books!

If you would like to see the whole Visible Image range which is stocked at Country View here is the link . Susan has just had a big restock so many previously out of stock stamps and stencils area now back in.

Thanks so much for stopping by...I wonder how many of these fab new stamps will find their way into your Christmas stockings..ho ho ho!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Strata Paste

Hi there,

It’s Celia here and today I’m trying out Andy Skinner’s Strata Paste by Creative Expressions. It has pieces of mica in it which give it a kind of crunchy, lumpy consistency. I applied some to the edges of a tag with a spatula, making it quite thick in some places. I also applied some Stamperia crackle paste, leaving a space in the middle.

When it was dry I coated it in Paperartsy Fresco Finish in Glacier Ice. I then stippled in some darker colours round the edge (Midnight & Turquoise). I stamped a graffiti stamp in the middle, then dry brushed the texture pastes with the Glacier Ice.

The Strata paste gives a very unique and interesting texture, quite different from sand paste, and it contrasts well with the crackle paste. I think it will make a great addition to my arsenal of texture pastes!

Thanks for stopping by!

Celia x

Maria Kantzali

Last weekend Country View Crafts had the pleasure of the company of Maria Kantzali. For those of you who don't know her, she is a crazy Greek lady who loves to create magical pictures in air dry clay . We first met her at Ministry of Mixology and fell in love with her quirky style and incredible energy.

She brought us three projects for the workshops. On Sunday we made the gorgeous quirky houses picture. We used Das air dry clay and coloured it with various acrylic paints, including Decoart Americana and Stamperia paint.

Maria guided us through the whole process and I was thrilled with my final result!

Obviously, I can't give away too much of the techniques used, but if you're hungry for clay workshops, keep an eye on your friendly neighbourhood craft shop! You can catch up with Maria on Facebook and Instagram. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Celia  x

Eileen Hull Journal

Hi there!

To coincide with the Eileen Hull Paper Trail, we have been playing with some of Eileen's die's at CVC headquarters. It was my first time trying out these dies and I love them already! It's so easy and quick to make a professional looking book. 

The first one I used was the Journal die. Although this die is no longer available, there are so many others that would look great with this treatment (see the Eileen Hull Sizzix page.) I stuck some of the Stix2 cork on the front and back, but avoided the spine as I thought it might crack on the creases. I stuck the cork on afterwards, but in hindsight it would be better to stick it onto the card first and die cut it all together.  I stamped it with a script stamp using black Archival and painted the spine with Decoart Burnt Umber acrylic paint. 

I covered the label with some of Andy Skinner's Super Nova embossing powder. I think it gives a fabulous contrast to the cork. I finished the label off with a Prima Mechanicals embellishment. I stuck some Tim Holtz paper on the inside of the cover and used some copy paper inside, and bound it using 2mm black hat elastic.

I'm looking forward to trying out the new Pocket Notebook die, if there are any left after the workshops!

Thanks for stopping by!

Celia  x

Visible Image Christmas 2019 stamp release

Hello it's Jane here today to showcase the new Visible Image Christmas stamps release. There are 6 new sets and they vary from mixed media to cute so there is something for everyone.

First up is Christmas Eve and shhhh...it's also my favourite.

  What is there not to love about this set as you can create town

 or country versions or both!

Also some gorgeous Christmas sentiments in the sentimental Christmas set. The sentiment I have used on both my cards above is taken from this.

Next is the brilliant Santa Claus

who has lots of fun accessory stamps including a brilliant pair of boot footprints.

There is a lovely background set called Christmas backgrounds

The words background stamp also works really well when repeat stamped and embossed as a textured background. I used an old Tim Holtz die set for the focal.

Snowman Jack is another fun set

 and in this sample I used the Christmas background words to make the mixed media background.

Finally, and very unique in my opinion, is the awesome Christmas Chaos mixed media set.

I made a pair of grungy tags with this set called Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

There are also 6 existing Visible Image Christmas sets which Susan also has in stock on the website plus lots of other sets and stencils.

Thanks for stopping by.  Remember that UK postage is FREE too...and... there are only 113 days til Christmas 😄⛄☃HO HO HO! Time to get those Christmas cards made.

Bye for now,

Jane x