Time for a tipple with Visible Image

Good morning everyone. It's time for my next blogged design team make for Visible Image. The theme for this week is "Time for a tipple" Most people know that my occasional tipple is gin so I had to use the awesome "Keep  your gin up "  stamp set to make this card

 I also used the distressed brick stencil in the background. 

This is how I made it; I used these 3 distress oxide inks to blend through the stencil onto a square piece of white card.

I stamped the glass onto a scrap of white card and used the co ordinating die to cut it out. I prefer to use the die on the glass as it gives the stem extra strength you can't get when fussy cutting. 

Using distress watercolour pencils I added a little colour. 

I stamped the bottle twice, once on a scrap of inky mop up card and then white card. I fussy cut the bottle and then a white label.  

I also stamped some lemon slices onto white card and added a little yellow details using the watercolour pencils. 

I stamped some of the fun words and added some of the "splodge" stamp plus an ice cube. 

I then assembled my card, gluing everything into place.  

Here it is once more.

Cheers to you all and enjoy your tipple. And if gin is not your favourite tipple there are many others in the Visible Image drinks cabinet to choose from. Check them out here .

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 150 members, worldwide, have taken part since it started over 3 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. The May sign up opened  today and will remain open until Monday 28th April. The fun theme is "red, white and blue". 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

Gin makes me smile in May over at Country View challenges

Happy May everyone...we are firmly into late spring now and I am loving all this daylight and warmth.  It's time for my second blogged design team make for our May Country View crafts challenge hosted over on Facebook. You don't need a blog or an Instagram account, just head over to the group and join in with the fun! 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 320 crafters already and we are growing every day. You can enter the challenges up to 5 times as you like as long as you use products or brands which are stocked on the Country View Website. 

I try to link up the products I use in my posts but obviously stock on the CVC website sells out quickly . Some may be out of stock when you click on the links. If they are just fill in the email notification and you will be emailed when they are back in stock. This is the link to the website   Remember that postage is FREE on all UK orders over £20. 

For May the theme is "Make me smile" so we would like to see you sharing something that gives us a giggle.  The prize this month is no less than 3 of the brand new Versafine Clair ink pads! More details at the end of this post. 

I immediately thought of one of my favourite stamps sets with some very amusing sentiments; the brilliant Visible Image Keep your gin up set and made this card

 The stamp set is on the website here.

and if you want them there are co ordinating dies too (these are currently out of stock but just email CVC and Susan can order them for you)

I used the  Squared stencil in the background

and a sentiment from the brilliant "Best birthday ever" set available here 

This is how it came together; I chose a distress re inker shaving foam marbled background from my stash. 

Using kitsch flamingo and picked raspberry distress inks I blended some colour through the Squared stencil.

I stamped the sentiment using Versafine claire nocturne. 

I stamped out the gin bottle onto inky mop up card and the glass and ice cube I coloured with distress watercolour pencils. I fussy cut everything out. 

I stamped the "splash stamps" around the card too using hickory smoke distress archival ink.

Here is my finished card.

with a close up

and1 final shot

I really hope that I may have inspired you to join in with the "Make me smile" fun. Do head over to the challenge on Facebook here.  Remember that this fab Versafine Claire ink pad prize up is up for grabs for one randomly selected winner. You will win 3 of the brand new colours...I wonder which ones they will be? The only downside of the challenge is that I can't enter! I can't wait to get my hands on them.

 Our challenge is open worldwide.

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

You still have 4 more days to enter,  before our  new June challenge starts. Don't miss out!

Bye for now,

Jane x

A festive gin tag for Country View Crafts

 Good morning I am back with my 2nd design team post for our penultimate challenge of 2022 over at Country View Challenges where the theme for the month is "Tags". So for this month we would like to see tags only for your entries.

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.

  Remember that when you buy from the Country View Crafts website UK postage is FREE on orders over £20.00 I have added some live links within my post to take you to some of the products I used.

For this make I decided to go festive as it is only 1 month tomorrow until Christmas Eve. Are you ready? I also wanted to make something using the awesome new Visible Image co ordinating dies which are in stock over on the CVC website and the new distress pencils. 

I used the Keep your gin up stamps set available  here

 and it's co ordinating dies set  available here 

with the beautiful VI Christmas Eve set and a sentiment from Sentimental Christmas (currently out of stock but if you email CVC they can get them in for you).

This is what I got up to;

I coloured the stamped and die cut images with pencils from the #3 distress pencil set I LOVE these pencils.

I have done a lot of colouring with the pencils check these out. 

On a white tag I stamped the trees from the Christmas Eve set in green ink and clear empbossed them. 

I then stamped the sentiment. 

I added some spritzes of distress mica spray

and stamped the stars in silver pigment ink.

Then it was time to put everything together . 

Here is my finished tag.

with a close up

and one final shot;

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! 

I hope I may have inspired you to join in with the challenge this month. Once again here you can find all the details for our November challenge here

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Mermaids and gin

No I'm not being sent mad by our scorching heatwave (well not yet). My son recently bought my Hb a bottle of gin (yes we are gin lovers in this family) and I was thrilled to see that it was called Mermaid Gin and was made on the good old Isle of Wight. And no I have affiliate links this this company at all, I wish I did! The gin was great but the bottle was even better...take a look at this

the label has a cut out and the mermaid is viewed through the bottle, which is why my image is a little blurred

It's not only a gorgeous bottle but delicious gin too!

So of course I had to make something mermaid related and I dug out an old Stampendous stamp which I took to Majorca with Daisy on our recent holiday. These are a couple of the lovely pages she made in her holiday journal..not bad for a 4 1/2 year old!

I decided that for my card today I would make a distress inky background and then paint mermaid with my lovely Stardust paints. I kept it quite CAS as I wanted the mermaid to look translucent, so that the distress inks flowed through her,  just like the one on the Mermaid Gin bottle.
This is the card I made;

It's hard to see the sparkle from paints, this shows it a little better.

She is up for sale now at Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton, SM5 2AE

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

A bit more time to craft 1/3 anything goes
Studio 75 2/3 summertime
Crafteezee summer
Crafty calendar 2/3 totally girlie
Simon says stamp Wednesday use a die and/or a punch my seashells are dies by Marianne
Simon says stamp Monday add a little sparkle


Today we have some cloud, which is a good respite from the heatwave, but no sign of any rain and next week again is getting even hotter. This is now a repeat of the summer of 1976...I wonder if we will beat any records?

I am back on Monday with such a exciting card..... Visible Image are launching their Alice In Wonderland  collection on pre release and I will be sharing the first of my samples...here is a very sneaky peek

but there is a Facebook Live tonight where you can see him in all his glory. Just click the link here

 Have a lovely weekend, keep cool and carry on enjoying the summer. 

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Bombay Sapphire experience

For my Hb's birthday in January our daughter sent a gift voucher for the Bombay Sapphire Experience at Laverstoke Mill in Whitchurch, Hampshire. As keen gin drinkers Bombay Sapphire is one of our favourite brands and I love their iconic blue bottle.
We decided to wait until the spring to visit and booked tickets on their web site for a tour last Wednesday.

We could not have picked a better day as the sun shone and the sky was a clear blue. The drive from our house took an hour and a half and we arrived in the car park in plenty of time for our 10.45am tour. We were delighted by the sight of the restored mill buildings which are now the home for Bombay Sapphire and where it is distilled.

We  had time to sit by the river and have a coffee in the sunshine.

We knew nothing about the history of Laverstoke Mill and were very pleased that we had booked on the heritage tour. Our guide was so knowledgeable and we were surprised to find out that this beautiful mill is recorded in the Domesday book. In a previous life it was used and for the production of paper for none other that the Bank of England for bank notes. The Portal family continued to manufacture at Laverstoke for over 200 years. However in 1995 De La Rue bought out the company and the mill fell silent.

We were able to handle some beautiful artifacts (wearing white cotton gloves) from the days of paper making.

The Bombay Spirits company only bought the Mill in 2010 and saved the site from being demolished for housing. This is where all their gin is distilled. It is then transported to Warrington where it is bottled. The buildings have been so beautifully restored and there is still some buildings undergoing renovation. They opened the distillery to the public in 2014.

The river Test runs through the mill and has some of the clearest water I have ever seen.

We were shown some of the botanicals used in the making of the gin...the smells were delicious.

 I chose my favourites to find out what my ideal cocktail would be............

I went for The Laverstoke
Their design award winning glasshouses showcase those botanicals which I used in the gin production.

We also toured the actual distillery (no photos allowed of this for security reasons) and marvelled at the copper stills. We saw a display of the various bottles used over the years. The Bombay Sapphire gin heritage goes back to 1761 when the Dakin family started making gin in Warrington, Cheshire. The iconic blue bottle did not appear on the shop shelves until it was re branded in the 90s.

And at the end of our brilliant 3 hour tour we were served a complementary gin cocktail (well my Hb drove so he had an alcohol free one and was given a take home miniature) and sat looking out to the river as we relaxed and reflected on our visit. Yes that's me sitting upstairs reading the cocktail menu

and here is my delicious cocktail bought upstairs by the waiter.

It was delicious.

There is a small gift shop and of course we had to take something home didn't we.....a bottle of Bombay East, a gin stirrer and 2 lovely tumblers fell into our basket. When we got home you can guess what we finished off our day with ;0)

It really was the most wonderful day and when I got home I knew I had to make a mixed media "Moment" of our time there.

To represent the history of paper making at the mill I used a sheet of my very special Fabriano paper I bought in Sicily last year. If you missed that post this is a link to it.

My moment just had to be blue so I got out several shades of blue distress inks.
I blended and spritzed my Tim Holtz blue inks on my paper until I was happy with the background.

Then I added some simple floral stamping.

To represent the gorgeous restored brickwork of the mill I added some Decoart crackle paste through my Wendy Vecchi brick stencil.

I needed a way to make my own " gin bottles" so I die cut bottles which I stamped and stencilled. I found the perfect "Bombay Sapphire" blue shade of ink was TH's  Broken China.

To remember the clock outside the mill I die cut a weathered clock.

For the botanicals I die cut lots of TH sizzix wild flowers.

I stamped and embossed a very apt Visible Image sentiment and also embossed a Visible Image dragonfly whose wings I glittered and then added glossy accents for even more dimension.

It was then time to put on my creative hat and put my Moment together...

Here it is

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

More than words Moment and clocks

Anything but cute Earth day I was inspired by the gorgeous blues and the whole feel of Mother Nature especially the flowers.
Crafty Boots monochrome
Penny Black and More 1/3 anything goes with stamping
WOW use heat embossing my dragonfly and sentiment are both heat embossed.
The Artistic Stamper 1/3 collage
Pile it on garden creatures
Rhedd's creative challenge altered art/mixed media
Pixie's snippets playground #227
Noor spring flowers
We love to Create 1/2 anything mixed media

We really did have such a great day and when I drink my G+T now I can transport myself back to the beautiful Laverstock Mill and memories of that delightful sunny April day.

Thanks for visiting today and for taking the time to leave your kind comments.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x