Visible Image Stamps, Distress Inks, Translucent Embossing Paste, Indigo Blu Unicorn Sparkle Glitter, Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Pens, Versafine Clair Ink Pads.

 Helllloooooo,

It's Fortnightly Fabulous Friday, although you may have noticed that I haven't blogged for four weeks, not two, sorry !!!!

Today's card is very close to my heart, it's made using the gorgeous 'Visible Image', 'Erika's Maple' stamp set, which was designed and made by Helen and Mark at 'Visible Image' as a beautiful tribute to our lovely friend Erika Philpott, who died far too young, earlier this year. She was such a vibrant, exceptionally kind person, who showed great strength and vitality, she absolutely glowed, and brightened up the most gloomy days with her wonderful personality, and zest for life, she is very greatly missed by a lot of people, especially by me.

 I made this card with Erika in mind, and I could hear her telling me to add more purple (her favourite colour) and much more glitter, like me, she loved her sparkles !!!!!

I made the background on Glossy Card, cut to 7" x 7", using ordinary Distress Inks, adding the ink to my mat, spritzing with water, and pulling the card through it, until I had covered most of the card, and it looked good !!!! I then used the smaller stamps out of the 'Creative Chaos' stamp set, to give interest, stamping with Oxide inks. I also blended all the edges of the background card with Wilted Violet Distress Ink. I used the 'Visible Image' Meshing Around stencil, placing it in the middle of the background, and with a palette knife spread some Indigo Blu, super thick Slap it on ( which dries clear), after removing the stencil, I added Unicorn Sparkle Glitter, onto the wet paste, and put aside to dry.

I stamped out loads of the Maple leaves, using the medium leaf and the smaller leaves, using Versafine Clair ink pads, in Red, Orange, yellow and green, the colours of Autumn. I then fussy cut all the leaves, and coloured them with Clean Color pens, and blended them with water and a brush. When they were all dry, I used some Craft Artist Glitter Touch, down the middle of each leaf, which gives a subtle Mica Glitter. 

Using the fussy cut leaves, and some 3D glue Gel, I fashioned a heart wreath, around the sparkle background, I used some of the smaller leaves to make the initials E P  in the middle. I stamped all the words, and the sentiment from Erika's set, onto some white card, fussy cut them, and with a blending tool and some Wilted Violet, I edged the white words and the sentiment, to tie it into the colour scheme, then placed them on top of the leaves.

I hope I've done Erika's memory justice, this card was made with all my love, and the stamp set is a truly beautiful tribute to a very beautiful person.

p.s. we will be using this stamp set at my Warwick Workshop, this Sunday 17th November, I still have some places if anyone is interested, £25 each 10am-4pm. Message me for further details.

Here are all the Visible Image places of interest, for you to check out......

The SHOP, where you can find all the Visible Image Stamp collections.

The BLOG, catch up with all the Visible Image news.

The FACEBOOK GROUP, where you can enter the 'Show and Tell'.

The FACEBOOK PAGE, where there are exiting weekly giveaways.

and the three social media sites......

PINTEREST, TWITTER and INSTAGRAM.

Thank you for visiting, hugs, Pauline xxxxxxx