Celebrating the Queen's platinum jubilee with Visible Image

 Good morning it's time for my fortnightly blogged design team make for Visible Image. It is also nearly time for the bank holiday to celebrate the Queen's Platinum jubilee so I thought I would make something very British! Of course I had to use their awesome

Grungy union Jack stencil

and with it I used their Anyone for bubbles stamp set

and what could be more British than their Afternoon tea stamp set

I also used a sentiment from Lost for words

This is what I got up to;

I decided to make my card very patriotic so I went with the classic red, white and blue colour scheme. To make my stenciled background I used  candied apple and prize ribbon distress inks as to me they are the best colours to use with the flag stencil, (But of course you can use any blue or red ink you have in your stash). I have made this background many times before but never shared the process, so today I am sharing my method.  

I use low tack masking tape to tape down the sides of the stencil to the card. The T on my stencil is so that I have it the correct way round and up!

I then use cheap masking tape to  mask off all the "blue" parts of the flag.

and then apply the red ink with my ink blending tool. 

I then remove the tape and tape over the "red" areas and then blend through the blue ink. 

The reveal is always such fun!

Because masking up takes a little time I tend to make a little batch of these backgrounds as I often use them for cards for my Tearooms.

I then stamped the sentiment in the centre using one of the sentiments from  Lost for words

I made my champagne and afternoon tea elements by stamping onto different colours of card and paper piecing them together. Here are a few. I added the bubbles to the glasses using the stamp in the set. 

Adding glossy accents to the glasses makes them look so realistic. 

I added some pen highlights too using white and gold glitter pen.

Then it was time to assemble my design. I added a few of my sequins as a finishing touch. 

Here it is;

with a couple of close ups to show the details;

and one last shot.

My design team card was made as a sample for the new release and sent to Visible Image so I decided to make another version for me

 to sit on my window sill, ready for the Jubilee celebrations next week.

 I hope you enjoy your long bank holiday next week. We are planning on treating ourselves to an afternoon tea delivered to our home. The Bubbles is already in the fridge. Cheers! 

All the Visible Image links are listed below;

The Visible Image Group page is over on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you. You will see lots of gorgeous makes by the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity. 

 I organize a monthly artist trading card swap there.  We are celebrating a whole year of swapping in May. Whether you are a new stamper or a seasoned one you are most welcome to join us. Over 90 people, worldwide, have taken part since it started. 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 for each swap are  put up in the group on 23rd of the month. There is no "monthly" commitment, just join in when you have the time! 

The main Visible Image Facebook business page 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 

Pinterest here

and their website is here. 

 You will also find me on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell where I share many more samples than I have the time to blog.

Back soon,

Bye for now. 

Jane x

More cats for Country View challenges

  Hello I am here with my 2nd design team inspiration make for our May challenge over at County View Challenges. The theme for the month is "Cats and/or dogs". You can make anything you like using any products. You can enter a maximum of  5 times and into a maximum of 10 challenges including ours. As always there is a fab £20 voucher up for grabs for one lucky randomly selected winner to spend on the website.  You can find all the details of the challenge and more examples made by my talented teamies here.

I have added clickable links within this post to the CVC website. If anything is out of stock just add your name in the email notification and Susan will email you when she has them back in stock. 

As I am very much a "cat" girl (plus I don't own any dog stamps!!) my make today is another cat card. My own sweet cat Billy has always been my blog avatar too. Here he is caught lying in a sunbeam cheekily on the bed in the spare room. He sends a warm purr to you all. 

For this make I used another of my favourite cat stamps..the Visible Image Cheshire cat

with the Tea party stencil

and the birthday sentiment from the uber useful Lost for words stamp set.

This is what I got up to; I coloured the cheshire cat with watercolours and cut out a tea cup and saucer using an old die from my stash.

I stamped the birthday sentiment onto my card front and then using the mermaid lagoon and mustard seed oxides blended them through the stencil.

I stamped and die cut the fish bones in the  Visible Image Cheshire cat set, there are also dies for this set, just email CVC and they can get them for you. I also used the Visible Image mesh layering  die which you can see in the finished photos. 

I then put everything together. Below is my finished card. 

with a couple of close ups

and one final shot.

 I hope I may have inspired you to join in with current challenge. You can use any stamps/products, the choice is yours. 

 Once again all the details for the challenge are  Remember that when you buy from the Country View Crafts website UK postage is FREE on orders over £20.00 Here is a link the the website.

Once again here you can find all the details for our challenge  here.

I would love to see you over on Instagram where I share new creative makes nearly every day. This is my link/profile @jane.tyrrell

Sadly these days I just don't have the time to blog everything! 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Footprints in the sand

  Good morning it's time for my fortnightly design team make for Visible Image. Today I am sharing a make using another of the fab summer release stamp sets.

 Today I am showcasing the

Sandy feet stencil and the

At the beach stamp set.

Plus die cuts using the fab layering dies;

Broken Mesh

and torn fishnet

I love sea themed mixed media pieces as they just smell of the sea to me so that is what I decided to make.

This is what I got up to; I took a piece of roughly A4 size corrugated packaging and pulled off some of the paper and also dug some rips into the surface using a dome headed tool (from my cake decorating stash!)

Using grit paste I smeared it around the edges

and whilst wet added a mixture of distress glitter and old embossing powders from my stash. I did NOT heat any of these. 

These gave a nice sandy/beach feel.

I die cut some mesh and fishnets using the Broken Mesh and torn fishnet layering dies with white card.

I cut the die cuts into pieces and stuck them around the edge of the canvas, adding a little Vintage photo distress ink to the edges.

For the central panel I used grit paste through the large footprints and sentiment on the Sandy feet stencil onto an offcut of Brushos inky card from my inky stash. The colours on this scrap are violet and aquamarine.

The sentiment shows up so well.

I then added a little watered down mustard seed distress paint to the footprints and the surrounding area.

Using my distress tool I roughened up the edges.

I stamped lots of the shells from At the beach stamp set. using acorn Versafine Clair ink onto inky mop up card from my stash and cut them out.

It was then time to assemble my canvas. I stuck the panel in the centre and then arranged the shells. I added some bakers twine too. Some of the twine I threaded through the die cuts. Once I was happy with the placement I adhered the twine and shells in place using my glue gun.

So here is my finished seaside canvas which will be eventually hanging on my little granddaughter's bedroom wall. She lives by the sea and like me loves everything sea themed. 

With a close up of the brilliant sentiment, which was designed to looks as though it was drawn in the sand ( and you can also see more of the twine I threaded though the die cuts).

and one final shot;

These sea themed products really are must haves for your stash and a little heads up about the sandy feet stencil...it also allows you to make cute baby cards. Such versatility! 

All the Visible Image links are listed below;

The Visible Image Group page is over on Facebook. Our friendly Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you. You will see lots of gorgeous makes by the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity. 

 I organize a monthly artist trading card swap there.  We are celebrating a whole year of swapping in May. Whether you are a new stamper or a seasoned one you are most welcome to join us. Over 90 people, worldwide, have taken part since it started. 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 for each swap are  put up in the group on 23rd of the month. There is no "monthly" commitment, just join in when you have the time! 

The main Visible Image Facebook business page 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 

Pinterest here

and their website is here. 

 You will also find me on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell where I share many more samples than I have the time to blog.

Back soon,

Bye for now. 

Jane x