Tag with Visible Image stamps: Inspire! Imagine! Dream!

Hi and happy Wednesday,
Last weekend I had the great pleasure to host an international mixed media event in Finland, called 'Creative Journey III'. During the intensive weekend we participated in four amazing workshops held by my favourite teachers Aida Domisiewicz and Olga Heldwein, and I returned home with so many fun memories and lots of inspiration and new ideas. I will tell you more about our creative weekend soon, so stay tuned!

After the workshops we had time to work on our own projects, so I took out my Visible Image stamps and made this tag that reflected my happy feelings:







The base for my project was a standard size 8 manilla tag. I inked it with orange and yellow Distress inks, splashed water on the inked surface, and dried with my heat gun.


I stamped the yellow sun rays on the tag with yellow Archival ink, and continued with stamping the butterflies and the words on white cardstock.  I guess that this butterfly is my most used Visible Image stamp- the size is just perfect for various types of projects, and the image with lovely details is so beautiful!

Before gluing down the butterflies and words I added little pieces of a chipboard grid on the background to give the tag some texture. For colouring the chipboard I used the same Distress ink colours I had used for the background. Done!





For more information on the Visible Image stamps I used please click on the pictures below:

     
  

Wishing you a lovely day. Thank you for stopping by!

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Card for Craft Stamper September TIMI: Dancer

Hi!
Weekend is here, woohoo! I'm planning to do some garden work, but will also try to allocate time for crafting. And not just because it's so much fun, but also the perfect way to unwind after a busy week at the office.

I wanted to share with you my latest card creation I made for the Craft Stamper September Take It Make It challenge. 'Anything goes', so I'm hoping I'll see your stamped project among the linked challenge entries! Our September prize is really worth playing for- I'm sure you would love to win this gorgeous stamp set trio by Visible Image:


Here's my take on the challenge:


And here's how the card was made:

First I decorated with die-cutting the upper left and lower right corners of a white square card front (the lovely die I used was *this one* from a mixed media Thinlits die set by Sizzix/Tim Holtz). Then I inked the die-cut card front with blue distress ink, and misted it with water to create some light patterns on the inked surface.

Then I covered a white square cardstock piece entirely with two-sided tape, and attached my inked card front on the white base. The two-sided tape would act as the sticky background for the next heat embossing step.
Thin two-sided tape works very well with embossing powders. The only difference is that you will need to heat the powder bit longer than usual, but otherwise there's not too much difference to using embossing ink.
The end result looks bit different- the embossed areas look almost like leather. You really should try it for yourself, and I'm sure you will love the finish, too!

For this project the embossed areas were bit too dark, and for highlighting the stamped and coloured dancer image I dry-brushed the card front with white gesso.


Before gluing down the main image I cut and tore some strips of blue and black paper. Placed the quote text on the upper right corner and the card was finished!


For more stamping inspiration I suggest you head over to Craft Stamper blog (follow this link)- there are amazing projects by the Design Team put up just for your inspiration!

Wishing you a wonderful and inspirational weekend.
Hugs,
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Tag with Visible Image stamps: Life is a Journey

Hi and happy Wednesday!
Today I'm sharing with you a tag with warm earth tone colours and stamped and die-cut embellishments:


I started the project with inking the size #8 manila tag with green, orange and yellow Distress Inks. Then I splashed the inked surface with water and dried with a heat gun. Once dry I inked the edges with black Distress.

Then I taped the back of a yellow cardstock with thin two-sided tape, and run the piece through my Big Shot, using *this* texture die. Two-sided tape is such an easy way to glue down thin die-cut pieces! Before adding any other elements I splashed little spots of black paint on the background.



I continued with die-cutting two brances from green cardstock (using *this* die), and glued them on the background. Then it was time to do some stamping! 


Both the butterflies and the quote text are heat embossed on a piece of cream cardstock. For colouring I used the same Distress inks than for the background. Done!


For more information on the Visible Image Visometry stamp sets I used please click on the pictures below:





Wishing you a wonderful day. Thank you for stopping by!

Hugs,
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Scrapbooking layout: Sunset



Hi!
The moodboard of this month's Jehkotar Craft Challenge made me browse through my pictures of sunsets.


I also loved the sketch in which the image spreads out over the entire page. Should I try expanding the picture image over the full page?
So I took my sunset picture, a blue 12" cardstock sheet and acrylic paints and started experimenting. It worked out so nicely! 

The lovely quote is by Paulo Coelho. I thought it was just perfect for this page.


On the bottom of the page I heat embossed black treetops. Simple stamping would have been ok, too, but I wanted to ensure the colour to be deep black.

This was a fun experiment and a painting exercise, and I'm very happy of how the page turned out.

Wishing you a sunny Sunday, thanks for stopping by!
Hugs,

Playing with Cocoa Daisy June Scrapbooking kit!

Hi!
I've been a subscriber of the Cocoa Daisy scrapbooking kits for quite many years. The content of the kits match my personal style and taste, and the patterned papers are always very beautiful and trendy. Opening the kit and going through the supplies is always an exciting and inspiring moment. But too often I end up putting the kit aside and decide to wait for the perfectly matching photo and layout theme that would showcase the beauty of the papers. Yes, that's the dilemma of too beautiful scrapbooking supplies!
However, that will now change. The supplies are ment to be used and enjoyed and not saved for later inspiration. So my June kit has been in heavy use, and two layouts are already completed. And I'm moving on to the July and August kits now!

The June kit contained a fun double sided paper by Pink Paislee ('Fancy Free paper 03') with circles on both sides. I decided to cut out all of them as I wanted to embellish my layouts with the cool words on the front page circles.
Photo: Scrapbook.com
I cut the paper in half, and cut the circles with die from Sizzix Framelits Die Set, using my 9" wide Big Shot Plus. The larger machine is just perfect for cutting tasks like this!



Following the painted pattern theme on the background paper I added some more white paint with a wide brush, and little pink dots with a smaller one:
 

The contrasting colour black was stamped on the background, using two different stamp designs:



And here's my finished page:


I finished it just in time for the Craft Stamper Magazine September Take It Make It challenge, where 'Anything Goes' as long as there's stamping somewhere on the project.


Our lovely sponsor this month is Visible Image, my favourite stamp manufacturer!

 One lucky winner will get all these gorgeous stamp sets:


So read the challenge guidelines here, follow this link to see all the gorgeous DT entries, get inspired and play along!

Wishing you a great weekend,
Hugs,
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Card for September MMCC: Hello Autumn!

Hi!
September Mixed Media Card Challenge kicked off today. Hope you will decide to play along! Our September theme is all about beautiful, rich autumn colours and the delicacy of the harvest season:



And here's my take:


I started with creating the main image using masking stamping technique: The images on the top layer i.e. the pumpkins on the left were stamped first, then covered with a mask created from a post-it note. Then the image appearing behind the pumpkings (=girl) was stamped, and covered again with post-it note before stamping the pumpkins in the background. This all may sound somewhat tricky, but the technique is actually quite simple. This great photo tutorial by Craftsy will explain it in more detail.

Before inking the background with various Distress inks I protected the image with liquid masking fluid. There was no need to cover the entire image but only the edges:


Before removing the masking fluid I splashed the background with water, dried with my heat gun, and stamped some text patterns on the background. The texts are actually from wine bottle labels which I thought matched the wine grape harvesting theme nicely.

Then I coloured the image with ProMarkers, and stencilled some texture elements on both sides of the main element. The media I used was gold coloured Art Extravagance cracle paste by Prima/Finnabair. Love that stuff!


For more harvest basket mixed media inspiration I suggest you follow this link to the Mixed Media Card Challenge blog- the design team has put up a wonderful collection just for you!

Wishing you a wonderful day. So happy you stopped by!

Hugs,
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