Love with your Heart

Yesterday, Saturday, Visible Image stamps were at a craft shop local to me, Pink Tulip Crafts of Studley. So Beloved Hubby took me there in the afternoon. Mark and Helen (Visible Image) are both lovely people, I've met them before at the NEC Hobbycrafts show. Mark was running a workshop, and you can see some lovely cards created there on their Facebook page. Hazel Eaton was there creating samples, and proof of my visit is me in one of the photos, happily browsing, lol.
 Anyway, when I got home, I unpacked my purchases- some new VI stamps, a couple of Indigo Blu stamps that were a real bargain at 50% off, and a Sweet Poppy stencil. I clearly unpacked my mojo as well, as after I'd put my new stamps away, I got creative. The two Visible Image stamps I used here, Love with your heart and Grunge Flourish were two stamps I already had.
 I beagn by stamping the larger square of card with the Flourish all around the edge in Versamark, adding White embossing powder and heat setting. Then onto a smaller piece I stamp the word stamp the same way.

Next I added colour, using Distress Inks and a blending tool,using Broken China, Salty Ocean, Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves. I made the edges more prominent by going around them with more Seedless Preserves. Then a piece of kitchen roll took all the ink off the white embossing.

Broken China.

Dusty Concord next,followed by salty Ocean and Seedless Preserves.

With all the inks sponged on. Finally I trimmed the word sheet down to size, then stamped around the edges with the Flourish stamp again, this time in Chipped Sapphire.

The word section was matted onto blue card and fixed to the centre of the Flourish panel, and mounted onto a square white card blank.
 For the final embellishment, I die cut some flowers from purple and blue vellum, using the Spellbinders/Heartfelt creations die set called Delicate Aster. The centres were done with Glossy Accents and seed beads.
Supplies:
 DI in Salty Ocean, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves.
 Visible Image stamps Grunge Flourish and Love with your Heart
Versamark pad
White WOW embossing powder
Flower Die.

WOYWW #135

Well, a Happy New Year to all my fellow WOYWWers-  if you are new to this, pop over to our delightful hostess, Julia Dunnit at The Stamping Ground and join in with the most addictive bit of legal snooping around.
You may remember a few weeks ago I was talking about finding a wooden chest for my  Beloved Husband, who is a fan of fruit teas ( I call it his Hot Squash fetish). I managed to find some, and they have them in all sorts of sizes, from two to a dozen compartments. The supplier was via Amazon, Coins Accessorise, and they have lots of little boxes in their store, perfect for altering. I didn't want one too large, as it was to take to work & keep in his toolbox, so this one seemed perfect.

I inked loads of white tissue with mists, then overstamped with dragons, swirls and so on.  The tissue was torn up, then pasted over the box. A few coats of spray varnish sealed it from the oil where we work.  I stamped a large dragon onto acetate, backed with adhesive film and then covered in gilding flakes, from a selection at Crafty Notions.
This was a lot of fun to do, and I learned quite a bit in the process.
Firstly, colour & stamp a lot  more tissue than you think you will need. When you run out, its very hard to get the same sort of colour blend.

 Second, don't put the main image on first, then do the tissue bit.Definitely the wrong way around.
 But I think the most important lesson I learned, was Never have your mug of coffee and pot of PVA on the same side of the table. Very easy to dunk your brush in the wrong one.
So, I have plans to do some more of these, maybe as Christmas presents this year (See my New Years Resolution post, if nothing else it will give you a good laugh when the epic fail undoubtedly happens), because they had some lovely little drawer units that would make fab jewellery boxes, and for people who don't like teas, the box above could hold candles maybe, or little pots of jam, or bath bombs- what's that phrase about best laid plans of mice and (wo)men? Well, my intentions are good, and yes, I do know there's a saying about that too. Probably the more appropriate one , :)
 So have a great Wednesday, I did really well last week and visited everybody- I even surprised myself,but I was at home all day- back at work this week though, so it will probably take me a few days.