Birthday Card using Visible Image - Music on World Off Stamp Set

My son needed a last minute birthday card as he had forgotten to get one whilst in town. Well, the snow came and he asked me if I could rustle up something in time for his friends birthday celebrations that evening.

It just so happened I had received my bundle of Visible Image stamps from the black Friday sales and thought they would be perfect for the task in hand.   I decided to use the Visible Image Music on World off stamp set.

Instead of an insert, I used the same headphone image and some word stamps from another stamp set  I had.

On watercolour card, I stamped the main image using black Versafine ink and then very quickly covered it with Stamps Away clear embossing powder before the ink dried. This is a good alternative to using the black embossing powder (as long as you work quickly using this technique). Sometimes when using dark embossing powders you can get stray flecks of powder on the image when heat embossing it and can end up with a speckled image.  Tip the powder off as normal and heat emboss and you will still end up with an embossed image.  Visible Image stamps are deeply etched and pick up so much detail.

Another good tip when inking a background with distress inks/waterbased inks is to use a little glycerine with your ink applicator but do not add it to your ink pad. I kept a misting bottle I had and decanted a little glycerine that I purchased from the chemist into it. You only need a few drops mixed with your ink to help it glide across the paper when creating an inky background.

 I first inked my mat then dabbed by dauber into the glycerine (which you can just see above by dauber on the mat) then gently stroked it across the card starting from the corner working in. It gives you a streak free finish.   As you can see I started with Tim Holtz spiced marmalade, broken china and evergreen bough (mini ink pad) distress ink.

I also used Tim Holtz scattered straw distress ink in the centre of the card. Once the inked card was dry I used various stamps from the Visible Image Music on World Off stamp set and heat embossed them onto the card, with the exception of the keyboard which was from the Visible Image Jazz It Up stamp set. This has been heat embossed onto white card.

I then thought it needed to be grunged up a little, so splattered a little distress ink mixed with water on my craft mat and randomly splattered it onto my card, dabbing it with a piece of kitchen towel to absorb the excess ink.

My son was delighted with the outcome and I was happy with it too.

https://visibleimage.co.uk/

Happy Crafting