Moonlight magic for Visible Image

 This week’s theme for our Visible Image design team makes is "Moonlight Magic". I’ve used it as inspiration to get a head start on my Christmas cards and made this card.

Here’s how I created my moonlit festive scene: 

Start by stamping the sentiment from the Christmas Robin set in the bottom right-hand corner of a 5¼-inch square piece of smooth white card. 

Next, onto scrap pieces of white card, stamp the large robin, several single holly leaves, berries, and the branch using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. You can make the branch longer by repeat stamping it. Once stamped, clear heat emboss all the images. This makes colouring much easier. Cut everything out, you don't need the legs of the robin as they will get reinstated later. Whenever I make cards, I like to stamp a few extra images and store them with the stamp set—this is a great time-saver for future projects. 

To create the moon, use the circle mask which come with the Bubbles and Fizz stencil as a guide. Place a piece of masking tape on the back to hold it in position, then place it onto your card where you want the moon to be. 

Select four Distress Inks—I used lost shadow, iced spruce, evergreen bough, and prize ribbon—to blend the night sky background. Using a blending tool and foam, begin blending around the masked circle, starting with lost shadow closest to the moon, then iced spruce, followed by evergreen bough, and finally prize ribbon around the outer edges. Blend from light to dark, working away from the moon for a glowing effect. 

Once the background is blended, remove the circle mask and replace it with the matching stencil. Then overlay the Lava stencil on top.

Using Lost Shadow again, gently blend to create texture and crater-like detail within the moon.

After that, place the circle mask back over the moon to protect it and lightly spritz the background with water. Blot with a paper towel to lift some ink and add soft texture. Dry with a heat tool or allow it to air dry naturally. 

Remove the mask. Now, stamp Santa and his sleigh from the Christmas Eve stamp set, flying across the moon for a magical, festive touch. 

Watercolour the holly leaves, berries, branch, and robin using your Distress Inks (or your choice of colouring medium) . Once dry, stamp the robin directly onto the background in the desired position—this serves as a guide for perfect placement. Then, decoupage your coloured robin over the top to add dimension.

Cut the coloured branch to length and arrange and adhere it with the holly leaves, and berries around the robin to complete the scene. For a touch of festive sparkle, add some shimmer to the holly using a glitter brush pen. 

To finish, mat the design onto black card and then mount it onto a 5¾-inch white square card blank. 

Here it is once more

This design works well in a variety of colour palettes, but for best results, always work from light to dark around the moon. It's also a great design for batch-making—I created several at once and have made a strong start on my 2025 Christmas cards. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

 

Autumn botanicals for Visible Image

Hi blogging friends. The theme for our design team makes for Visible Image this week is

"Autumn Botanicals"

My brief was to create something other than a card. I got out my lovely VI botanical stamps and decided on 2 of my all-time favourites, Totally toadstools and Erika's maple Initially I thought of making a tag and sat in the garden fussy cutting out the stamped leaves in the sunshine . It was there I decided instead that they were perfect to make a seasonal wall hanging with.

These are the products I used

Totally toadstools

and it's co ordinating dies;

and Erika's maple. 

To create a ring frame I used 2 left over circle die cuts (approximately 14cm in diameter) glued together for extra thickness. If you don’t have dies just draw around a using a plate or similar. Don’t worry about the card, even packaging works, as the frame will be fully covered later.

For stamping the leaves I a mix of inky paper leftovers from my stash including book pages. The more variety the better.

I then cut everything out with scissors.

To create the sentiment plaque I stamped the sentiment from Totally Toadstools in red Versafine Clair ink onto white card. Around it I repeat stamped the leaf clusters in green tones to create a leafy surround. This was to create a word plaque for the centre of my wall hanging.

I cut around the greenery as shown below and stuck it in place.

Next I stamped out the toadstools, die cut them using the co ordinating dies and coloured using distress watercolour pencils. 

Once all the botanicals were ready I arranged the leaves around frame. I adhered them in place, overlapping for depth and nestling the toadstools in among them.

Here are some close ups of all the leafy details and textures

Here it is finished once more. 

I hung it outside on my potted Christmas tree for a quick photo

And then placed it in its final spot in my studio, where I can enjoy it daily. It’s a little reminder of those warm, sunny late summer afternoons spent crafting outside in the garden.

These stamps are ideal for creating autumn décor pieces. This project let me capture the warm, earthy tones of autumn and gave me the chance to play with texture, colour blending, and layering to bring the autumn theme to life.

All the Visible Image links are listed below;

Our kind, friendly and supportive customer Facebook Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you join us. You will be warmly welcomed and see lots of inspiration from the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity. I also organize the monthly artist trading card swap in the group. It is open to everyone worldwide. Over 170 members, worldwide, have taken part since it started over 4 years ago. It's been such fun and it's so lovely to receive a unique piece of art from your partner in the post. The details and sign up for each swap are posted in the group on the 23rd of the month. Our next swap is our 52nd. There is no "monthly" commitment, just join in when you have the time and if you live in the UK can you choose to post to the UK only if that suits you best. Do come over and join us, you will be most warmly welcomed.

The main Visible Image Facebook business page is here

Their website is here

Visible Image also has its own You Tube channel here where you can see videos and Lives to give you lots of inspiration and ideas. 

Their Instagram page can be found here 

You will also find lots more of my own Visible Image personal makes over in my Instagram account here; @jane.tyrrell

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

More silhouettes for the August Country View crafts challenge

  Hi everyone this is my second design team make for our current August challenge over in the Country View Crafts challenge Facebook group. The link is Here and if you are not already a member just request to join and we will warmly welcome you. It is also be a place you can be the first to hear about workshops, the latest releases etc etc. We have a happy membership of over 400 crafters and we are growing every day. You can enter the challenges up to 5 times as you like as long as you use products from brands which are stocked on the Country View Website. 

The theme for this month is "Silhouettes" and I made this card. I love working with bold backgrounds and striking silhouettes. This one combines regular and pearl alcohol inks on Yupo for a vibrant shimmering effect.

This is how it came together;

I made this alcohol ink background on Yupo using a mix of regular and pearl inks. 

I die cut a couple of gentleman in black card and chose 1 to use.  This die set is in my Tim Holtz stash but Susan has a huge selection of his dies including the new Halloween Classics here. I also used a sticker from his metallic sticker book

I die cut some stacked hearts in yellow card and added my sticker to the larger one. 

I then die cut a couple of mischievous cats and put my design together. My finishing touch was some die cut hearts in white glitter card. 

here is one more close up

and a final photo of my card. 

I have linked the products I used which are available on the website within my post. If they are not in stock just email Susan, who should be able to order them in for you. 

Remember that you can find me most days over on Instagram Here @jane.tyrrell where I share many, many more makes then I have the time to blog.

I hope I may have inspired you to give our August challenge a go. There are still 6 days left to enter. This fab prize below is up for grabs too, for one randomly selected person. You can enter up to 5 different projects. 

Enjoy the bank holiday..the last one before Christmas. Yes I said the C-word"

Bye for now,

Jane x