A little fishy zodiac stamping fun

Good morning, here we are in the last week of January. I hope you enjoyed your weekend? We had a lovely one and saw Ovo by Circe du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday. It was amazing and I will share some photos soon.  I took this photo of part of the Albert memorial opposite the Hall..I do love those fishy tails on the mermaids. This also links in nicely to my project today.

It is of course my weekly dose of inspiration for Visible Image stamps. Wow they really did take Creativation in the USA by storm last week and have come back with an order book which is bulging. I was thrilled to see some of my work on display, together with my talented design teamies.  Their stand was truly awesome. Here is a photo shared from their Facebook page. There are so many exciting adventures which lie ahead.

 Now if you look at the left wall of their stand you will spot the Pisces tag which I am sharing today.
Here it is in close up

I made an underwater inky background on my tag using salty ocean and broken china distress inks.I used the Pisces zodiac stamp set which you can now buy here It is one of the brilliant 12 new stamp sets from the Written in the stars zodiac collection. All the new release are currently in stock on the Visible Image website here. They will also be available to buy from your favourite stockist in the UK and internationally.

You will spot that I used another of the new stamps on my tag

I used the crack from How fragile which you can buy here
I stamped and embossed it onto heat resist acetate and had my distress inked fishes swimming out from it. I fussy cut my fish which were also inked with distress.I stamped and cut out 3 of the 5 words which also come with this great set. I linked everything up using the fun star constellations using red Versafine Clair. I die cut and added a snippet of inky mop up card too.
Here are a couple of close ups

and one last shot.

 I would like to enter my tag into the following challenges;

C.R.A.F.T 2/2  distress your project/vintage
The house that stamps built 2/3 anything goes
Creative Moments 3/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday tag it
Penny Black and More 3/3 something new my new are my awesome new stamps!
Fussy and fancy 1/3 fussy and fancy
Allsorts 1/3 use your old favourites mine in this tag are my distress inks..they really are my go to inks when I am creating tags...or backgrounds.

You can also check out Visible Image via these links;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £25 coupon to spend on the website.

The main Visible Image Facebook page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide!

And the shop web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

and

 Instagram

Have a super week ahead, it's turned mild here for a few days and I even dried washing outside yesterday.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Water casting fun

I have been a little AWOL this week as I had a rather special girlie staying. Daisy and I had some magical days and as the weather was horrible we crafted non stop. Today though I am going to share another of my silversmithing projects from last year which got forgotten about with all the excitement of Christmas. 

A couple of weeks ago I showed you my up-cycled Murano pendant. If you missed that project you can see it here

With every project I make there are always little bits of silver left over. As I have been attending classes for over 16 years in all that time those little pieces of silver have turned into a whole bag full of "waste" and our tutor decided that our valuable silver could be turned into something usable using a technique called water casting. 

Boy was that fun...but without proper safety measures could be really dangerous.

We put some of our off cut silver waste into the furnace and melted it. We then carefully took it out using long tongs protected by aprons, gloves and gauntlets. This photo was our tutor showing us how to hold the container.it was cold at this point..when we actually did the technique we were well gloved up. 

 Once the silver came to temperature and was liquid we tossed it into a water bath.

 

 Out came these very cool, rather organic shaped pieces of silver. These pieces below came from 3 separate water casts. I could see leaves, branches...

and a "rose". Can you see it too?

I cut off the spare silver under the "flower."

 I then designed myself a pendant....as I could also see leaves and a stalk in my water-cast pieces.
  I soldered my "leaf" under the bud....looking more floral at this point.

 Then saw a "stalk" which I filed down and soldered this on too. 

I then filed everything and soldered a hanging loop to the back.

After a final polish my "rose" pendant was finished.

Here it is.

My card today is one I recently made having enjoyed a day being able to play with my Lavinina fairies. This one is for my sister in law 's birthday.  I made an oxide background using black soot and antique linen. The sentiment is a Tim Holtz die cut.

I would like to enter her into the following challenges;

C.R.A.F.T 1/2  distress your project/vintage
The house that stamps built 1/3 anything goes
Creative Moments 1/3 anything goes

Let's Craft and Create 3/3 anything goes

Noor UK anything goes
Shopping our stash 1/3 birthdays

How quickly the week is flying by. It is nearly the weekend again. Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. The sun seems to have returned today thank goodness and today was quite mild and sunny. Let's hope it hangs in there for a good weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Bringing some warmth to a cold January day

It's a cold January day and time for my weekly dose of inspiration for Visible Image. The new release stamps shared last week have gone down a storm in the crafting world.  Mark and Helen are now  flying home from Creativation in the USA.  America has fallen in love with their stamps just much as we hoped (and knew!) that they would.  I am so proud and delighted for them. Although all the new release stamps have now been shown I have not yet shared a sample that I made using the awesome new seahorse stamp.

I for one am missing the heat of the summer sun at the moment so to get you in the mood for my project I thought I would first share some hot sunny photos from previous holidays...

Ahh that's better...now back to seahorses...I have a real "thing" about seahorses (as I do mermaids) and I was thrilled to see that in the new release Mark had designed this totally awesome seahorse...with a little Visible Image grunge of course. He is on pre order here

Isn't he gorgeous! The words and the little ripple stamps in the set are fab too.

I decided to make a wall hanging for my sample and this is what I got up to.
We had just had our son's dog to stay. These dog food boxes are made of very sturdy cardboard and I use them lots in my crafting. I cut my card to size and used 2 pieces glued together to give a sturdy base.

I then covered the base with hessian.

I used lots of sunny alcohol inks to create a seaside background and stamped and coloured my seahorse on tissue paper. I stuck this to card and fussy cut out.

 I then added the sentiment and some waves using the other stamps in the fab seahorse set.

I embossed some "seaweed" over the top of my seahorse using stamps from the Organics stamp set. 

These stamps are perfect for tree, branches, seaweed and anything "organic"

I mounted it onto my hessian hanging and added photo corners and some handmade artisan lampwork glass beads to represent glass sea buoys.

I added a string hanger and my seahorse was ready to wave.

I would like to enter my seahorse wall hanging into the following challenges;

Simon says stamp Wednesday add a sentiment
Let's Craft and Create 2/3 anything goes

Noor UK anything goes

Creative Artiste anything mixed media

Mixed media challenge 1/3 ring in the new mine is my new seahorse stamp

You can also check out Visible Image via these links;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £25 coupon to spend on the website.

The main Visible Image Facebook page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide!

And the shop web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

and

 Instagram

My seahorse has been waving from the side of the Visible Image desk at Creativation..I hope he is enjoyed his trip the the USA! It has been amazing to see my artwork helping to decorate their amazing booth. Do check out their photos on Facebook...it has been a showstopper and their trip a total success. An even greater crafting journey now awaits Visible Image...a vision has come true...through creativity, originality, dedication and sheer hard work by Helen and Mark. It is so well deserved. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Still smiling

Hello it's a real quickie for me today as it was my Hb's birthday yesterday and all the family are coming up to celebrate over lunch today.
Yesterday we went to London. It was a cold wet day and heading up to the museums seemed a great idea...however so did everyone else! We decided not to go into the Natural History Museum as the queue snaked around the corner so we went  into the V+A instead. We were lucky because we managed to enter via the side entrance whereas most peeps were at the front in another huge queue.  Even in the summer holidays I have never seen so many people in the area! The strange thing was that once inside it actually seemed quite quiet! I will share some photos soon but this stained glass window from the 1500s just made us smile...

How hilarious is that...don't you love the sheep asleep on the bed and the slippers at the side!

So on the subject of smiling I am here today with my 2nd Design Team Inspiration post for Country View. If you remember my first I used the brilliant Visible Image Smile, sparkle shine stamp to create a mixed media card. If you missed it you can see that post here

You can enter our challenge as many times as you like and combine with any other challenges. Your make can be anything creative! You may even be the lucky random winner of the £20 CVC voucher.

All the details for the challenge can be found here.

I wanted to show a completely different style of card using the same stamp to help keep us keep smiling during these dark days of January.

This time I went very CAS (clean and simple)

I white embossed the great sentiment. Susan has it in stock on the Country View website here and as always she posts for free within the UK.

I swiped some sunny coloured distress inks onto my craft mat

and dipped in my card. I added a few embellishments and made this card. It has already sold in Dotty Tea House. It must have brought a smile to someone!

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Simon says stamp Wednesday add a sentiment
Let's Craft and Create 2/3 anything goes

Noor UK anything goes
Crafty Catz 2/3 anything goes

Just to show how 1 stamp can be used so differently here are my 2 cards;

Off to the birthday celebrations! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy a restful Sunday. I'm still chuckling over that stained glass window 😂

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

My new friend

It's time for my mid month design team inspiration for STAMPlorations and before I show you my card I would like to introduce my new friend brought for me by Santa aka my Mum and Dad for Christmas.

Meet my Brother!

My old machine was bought for me for Christmas when I was 11 so it had a lot of use. I used it to make clothes when I was younger, my bridesmaids' dresses, fancy dress for Daisy and most recently for card making. The problem with it was the weight. I could barely lift it and it meant that I rarely got it out. My new Brother machine is perfect for me. Nothing fancy but perfectly usable for occasional sewing and for my cards and so much lighter...no more needing a crane to move it!

I decided to christen my new friend when I made this 2nd design team inspiration card for STAMPlorations. To join in with the challenge you can go with the theme or ditch the theme and go with the sketch.
This is the theme

and the awesome sketch.

You are also most welcome to combine them both. All the details are here.

I went with the sketch again and this is what I got up to.
I used the Christmas tree 1 stencil

a sentiment from the
fond expressions 2

and the fab birds from the
trendy birds 2 stamp set.

I used the stencil on its side so that it looked more like arrows (it's an awesome Christmas tree usually)

 Out came my "Brother" and I stitched between the stencilling to make the sketch background. I also stitched around the edges.

 I inked up some card and stitched around that edge too.

I then used my Trendy bird set to finish off my card.

 Here it is

 This has gone down to Dotty's tearooms in Carshalton where my cards are sold.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Simon says stamp Wednesday add a sentiment
Let's Craft and Create 1/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday birds of a feather
Fussy and fancy 3/3 distress it I have used distress oxides and also distressed the edges of the focal.
Fashionable stamping 2/3 anything goes
Noor UK anything goes
Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes

All the details can be found via this link, it would be lovely to see you joining us!

Enjoy the weekend, we have a very exciting one ahead as it is my Hb's birthday tomorrow and all our big and small babies are coming over to celebrate on Sunday.
I also have scheduled a post for Sunday as it is time for my 2nd dose of inspiration for the January County View Challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Beyond the skies

Good morning. I am back to my normal early blogging time for my weekly dose of Visible Image inspiration. Wow did you see all the fab new release stamps? If you have missed them do check out the main Visible Image blog here where you can see all the news stamps and Design Team samples. If you missed my "Baby" sample post you can see it on my blog here  and my" Greek Tragedy" card sample is here . The new stamps are now all available to pre order on the VI web site.

Today I am blogging my sample made with the awesome new "Written in the stars" Aries stamp set.

I am Aries myself so perhaps this is an early birthday card for me?

When I first saw these sets I immediately thought of creating an "out of this world" scene to showcase my set.

I look around me all the time for inspiration from Mother Nature but I do also love gazing up at the skies...so beautiful.

 I also love watching the moon and took these shots last year in Rhodes from our favourite beach restaurant. 

 I also noticed a beautiful sky on my way to Dotty's Tea house with my new cards last week.

There was a great plane trail in the twilight sky.

I noticed I had snapped a plane too which was very apt for today's post too as Visible Image are flying off to Creativation in the States tomorrow to fly the flag for their awesome brand.

Every single star sign has it's very own stamp set with super words which work with any other stamps too. 

Here is my sample card.  Again apologies that I was too busy making my samples to take process photos so I will talk you through it. 

I made an inky background using distress oxides using the wrinkle free technique. 

When it was dry I embossed the moon from the Believe in unicorns stamp set using white and blue embossing powders.

I stamped and embossed the large ram head in gold

and the words in white

 I then linked everything up with the fab constellation star stamps, also in the set. using rose gold ink.

 One last photo

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Craft Stamper take it make it January anything goes

Cute card Thursday 3/3 something new my Aries stamps are brand new!

Allsorts 2/3 No patterned paper
Fussy and fancy 2/3 distress it I have used distress oxides to create my sky.
Crafty Catz 2/3 anything goes
Fashionable stamping 1/3 anything goes

You can also check out Visible Image via these links;

Visible Image group page on Facebook. Our friendly Group can be found here ...it would be lovely to see you. You can add work to the "Show and Tell" album where one randomly chosen winner each month wins a £25 coupon to spend on the website.

The main Visible Image Facebook page is here; there are weekly stamp giveaways...open world wide!

And the shop web site is here; where all these gorgeous stamps and stencils can be purchased. 

You can also follow via:

 Pinterest

Twitter

and

 Instagram

So those descriptions of Aries.... 

Courageous,

Impulsive,

generous,

strong 

and positive...

does it describe me....

...you'd better ask those who know me well! 😁

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me. This new release has already been a huge success and the stamps are selling fast. If you would like to preorder and not miss out on them you can do that now on the Visible Image website here . They are being shipped from 26 January. Also check out your nearest retailer as they will also be getting stock very soon.

  I would like to wish Helen and Mark all the very best for some much deserved recognition at Creativation this week. Go Visible Image...go Team Awesome... I am so very proud to be a part of their amazing adventures.

 Such unique stamps, always. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x